Q&A: Providence over the individual
Providence over the individual
Question
Good morning Rabbi Abraham
Yesterday I was exposed to your approach regarding individual providence in our time, and I want to know whether I understood correctly.
1. In your opinion, will individual providence return one day?
2. Does the Holy One, blessed be He, have no concern for what happens in the world? Or does He have concern, but simply rely on humanity to “do the job”?
3. Doesn’t the continued existence of the Jewish people indicate individual providence? To me, the story of the Jewish people seems very strange—some would say astonishing—especially the return of the Jewish people to its land. Is there also no special providence over the Jewish people as a whole, or only no providence over each and every individual?
Thank you very much, and may you be sealed for a good year.
Answer
1. I have no idea. But it is certainly possible that it will not, because after we matured there is no need for it. But as I said, at least for now none of us has prophecy, so I am not in a position to predict what will be.
2. He does care, and He does not necessarily rely on humanity. There is a mistake in your question. You assume that God’s concern is with some outcome, meaning some particular bottom line. But that is not so. His goal is to create beings who act of their own free choice in the right direction. That of course involves the risk that they will choose to do something wrong, but that is worth it to Him compared to a world without choice, which there would be no point in creating, since God would just do everything Himself. All this is of course my own speculation and my own conclusions, but there are several assumptions here about the Creator’s purposes and nature, and so on. Therefore, take this as an alternative suggestion to the conventional approach. It is certainly no less logical, and since my assumption is that the conventional approach is unfounded and does not seem correct in reality, there is no reason to adopt it.
3. With regard to probabilistic “wonders,” one must be very careful. See, for example, here: https://mikyab.net/%D7%97%D7%95%D7%A7-%D7%94%D7%9E%D7%A1%D7%A4%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%94%D7%A7%D7%98%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%9E%D7%94-%D7%9C%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%A9%D7%AA%D7%99%D7%A7%D7%94-%D7%95/
May you be sealed for a good year.
Discussion on Answer
I no longer even remember what we were talking about. In any case, your questions have been answered on the site ad nauseam.
I have no idea what the meaning of life is. I don’t even understand the question.
First of all, more power to you for the attention. I understand that this is your way—to answer everyone who contacts you by email. Second, I look at Torah study as a kind of dialogue with the Holy One, blessed be He. Does that seem right to you?
The question is not defined. You can see it that way, and you can also not.
Does the Holy One, blessed be He, want something from me? Does He expect me to do something specific? To refrain from other actions? I assume—perhaps mistakenly—that your answer is yes. Based on that, the next stage is that the Holy One, blessed be He, tells me this somewhere. I thought that Torah study is the place where that encounter happens: on one side my understandings, and on the other side His understandings, and learning is the attempt to mediate between them. I hope that now I’m being more precise.
Jewish law determines what He wants you to do and not do. What is the question?
Obviously Jewish law, but even in Jewish law I think there is a lot of room for personal interpretation.
And therefore? I didn’t understand your question.
I’ll relate briefly only to the last part. A person stands in front of an amazing view and gets excited. You can come and tell him that the mountain with snow is just an ordinary mountain and ordinary snow, and it’s simply the current situation that makes them appear as they do—it’s not really more beautiful. And those cows with the bells are just like the cows back in his kibbutz, not some special cows; all in all they’re maybe just a bit cleaner. Who’s right? I’m not a statistician (I don’t think the honorable rabbi is either), but statistically speaking, situations are happening all the time, and the question of whether to see in this individual providence or not is the question of whether the situation has a special meaning for me. Statistically speaking, the probability of human life arising is very low, but what is the probability that out of all the possibilities open to me right now, I would happen to sit and write? Also very low, since I could now be standing or sleeping or walking or talking to someone, or sitting and not writing, or writing and not sitting. So why is it that life excites me? Because I understand that life has meaning, whereas the fact that I’m doing an action which may indeed be important, but in terms of its meaning for the whole of my life is not all that significant—so I’m not excited. You got some crazy ride from Jatt to Hadera, and you’re trying to say that it’s exactly like any other car that was there?
There’s something nasty about statistics. It tells us all the situations that happened, only without their melodies. I hope I made myself understood, but in any case I’ll ask one question, changing the subject while staying on the same subject: in the rabbi’s opinion, what is the meaning of life?