Question

With God's help,
Hello Rabbi,
I wanted to ask what you think about the words of Pele Yoetz regarding divine providence. To me it sounds very, very logical.
He divides decrees into three parts: either you are above nature for the good, or you are subject to a bad decree beyond nature, God forbid. And there is also a concept that a person is left within the ways of nature, and according to his view this is because of his sins, so he is left to be dealt with according to nature. As I understand it, one could say that this is the situation of the average person.

Now the inquiry finds a place to rest: since God puts to death and gives life, what can the doctor add or contribute? After all, if it has been decreed that he will die, then even if all the doctors in the world stand by him they will not be able to save him from death. About this they said: “The doctor’s mistake is the Creator’s will.” And none can save from His hand. And if it has been decreed that he will live without a doctor, the Holy One, blessed be He, brings things about and brings him his cure, for the Omnipresent has many ways, and with Him is abundant redemption, and He will send His word and heal them. But the answer to this, and to many such inquiries, is that there are three kinds of decrees. If he is a person whose merit suspends judgment, and his merit is strong and his fortune is sound, then even if he has no doctor and does things harmful to his illness, he will not die, but will surely live. And there are those for whom death has been decreed, Heaven have mercy; even if he guards himself with every protection in the world, the watcher has watched in vain, and the doctors will neither help nor save. But there are those who, because of their sins, are left under nature: if they are careful and conduct themselves medically according to nature, they will live; and if not, they will die. About such a case it is said: “There are those swept away without justice” (Proverbs 13:23).
Therefore every person needs to be concerned and must seek medical treatment when necessary, for if he does not do so and is swept away without justice, he is liable for his own life. And rightly so, since he transgresses what is written in the Torah, “You shall greatly guard your lives” (Deuteronomy 4:15). And a person who is not careful and does not conduct himself according to nature to seek healing for his illness when it is within his means—besides the fact that he will surely be punished for violating what is written in the Torah—also turns out to be relying on a miracle, and if a miracle is performed for him, his merits are deducted from him (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 32). (And perhaps one can infer from here that once his merits are deducted because he relied on a miracle, he goes back to being subject to nature… unless he is completely righteous.)
A person must be very careful not to become ill, and if he does become ill he must pursue remedies and expert doctors and not worry about the expense, for a person will give all he has for his life. And it says in the holy Zohar that one who is destined to be punished through his property falls ill and is not healed until he has spent the amount of property decreed against him. Therefore it is good to spend it quickly; and even better to increase charity, for it is a commandment in his hand and its special power is to nullify the decree. But always, before he engages in medical treatment, he should believe with complete faith that his healing is in the hand of the Holy One, blessed be He, the compassionate and faithful healer, healer of the sick of His people Israel, and he should first offer his prayer before Him (and I, poor as I am, have already arranged a prayer for the sick person and included it in my prayer book, with heavenly assistance): (Here it seems unclear, because he is once again bringing providence in; perhaps this is talking about the side where a bad decree has been issued, God forbid, or perhaps this is simply the nature of illness?)

 
I also found a source for this approach in the book of Ezra. When Ezra went up with his people to the Land of Israel, carrying much property, he prayed that highway robbers would not seize them. At that time he did not ask the king for help, to provide him with protection and horsemen to guard them on the road, so that there would not be a desecration of God's name after he had spoken to the king about providence from the Holy One, blessed be He. But through his prayer he was saved from the natural danger of the robbers and reached the Land of Israel in peace.
“Then I proclaimed a fast there, by the Ahava River, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him a straight path for us, for our children, and for all our possessions. For I was ashamed to ask the king for troops and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the road, because we had said to the king: ‘The hand of our God is for good upon all who seek Him, but His power and His wrath are against all who forsake Him.’ So we fasted and sought this from our God, and He answered our prayer.” (chapter 8)