Q&A: Providence Outside the Laws
Providence Outside the Laws.
Question
Hello Rabbi Michi,
Several times you’ve argued that there’s no such thing as a miracle within a thing itself. From what I understood from your words, everything that happens in the world operates on the basis of laws of nature that push one another along, and nothing escapes them. Therefore, within nature there is no such thing as providence or hidden miracles. Even so, can one say that the entire course of events, with all the laws of nature, is a divine plan that was written out in advance?
There is no contradiction here to free choice, since only the will itself is free from the laws of nature and does not occur by force of a cause.
Answer
What I said is that there is no miracle within the framework of nature itself (timing, etc.). If there is a miracle, it is a deviation from the laws of nature. Beyond that, I argued that in our time miracles (and therefore interventions as well) are very rare, if they exist at all.
One can say that this is a divine plan, but human choices also affect the inanimate and living nature around us, and therefore the plan is at most a set of general outlines, if that. The details can be very different. I assume that if such laws of nature were established, that is what the Holy One, blessed be He, wanted; that is, there is some realization here of His will (a plan in broad outline).