Q&A: On Divine Providence
On Divine Providence
Question
A comment regarding your conception of the idea of divine providence,
Divine providence does not contradict the idea that everything proceeds according to natural law — Maimonides, in the name of the Sages [“Ten things were created at twilight”], writes that the Holy One, blessed be He, does not need to intervene at every moment in order for there to be divine providence: it is enough that He created the world in a specific configuration so that from that point on, everything that happens in it — down to the finest details — occurs exactly as the Holy One, blessed be He, planned. It is like a device that you built and then switch on.
Answer
I didn’t understand the claim. If He created the world in a given state and from then on it runs according to laws without divine involvement, that is not providence. Otherwise you have emptied the distinction between providence and law-governed natural process of all content.
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Questioner:
Teleology is not something we learn a posteriori; rather, we approach observations with it a priori.
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Rabbi:
And therefore?
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Questioner:
And therefore, “This requires much elaboration, and this is not the place. I will only say that the Holy One, blessed be He’s, mode of governance has changed from biblical times to our own day. Just as prophecy ceased and miracles stopped, so too God’s intervention no longer exists (except perhaps in very exceptional cases, if at all).”
That’s problematic.
If each and every event that occurs, in all its details, occurred specifically that way because God wanted it to occur, isn’t that divine providence?
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Rabbi:
No. Divine providence means a response by the Holy One, blessed be He, according to what happens in the world. Planning is not divine providence. But regarding the matter itself, planning in advance is not really possible in my opinion, because there are points at which a person chooses, and the laws of nature cannot respond accordingly. If you are talking about miracles planned in advance (as Maharal writes in the introduction to Gevurot Hashem), that is something else, but it does not seem that this really exists, because when we examine things, everything reacts as expected from the laws.
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Questioner:
A. Completely free choice is, in my view, a doubtful idea; B. if the Holy One, blessed be He, knows what you will choose in a given situation, then there is no obstacle to His planning everything so that your choices will fit into His plan.
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Rabbi:
A. I do not know what completely free choice or not completely free choice means. Either there is or there isn’t. When there is, that does not mean one always chooses, only that one can choose.
B. Indeed there is no obstacle, but that is not providence. Rather, they are coordinated laws of nature.