[Avodah] Feedback, causality & G-d

[Daniel Eidensohn]

I am working on the issue of feedback. I can not find any Jewish sources
regarding feedback - to pick a reference and modify behavior or processes or
efforts to maximize the referent. This is a fundamental Western idea - but
not Jewish. It seems that the official Jewish view is that human effort does
not cause success but only provides merit which justifies G-d making you
successful. This issue  cuts across a wide range of issues from child abuse,
education, parnossa etc etc.

I also can't find where and when this idea developed in the Western World.

Any and all help in this area would be appreciated. I also don't see that
there is any difference between chareidi, Modern Orthodox and Hirschian
theology regarding this issue.

*Chovas HaLevavos (4:4)* Even when you are fully aware that effort is
worthless without G-d's decree, nevertheless you must act like the farmer
who plows, removes the thorns, seeds and waters his field if there is no
rain. At the same time he trusts that G-d will make it fertile, guard it
from calamity, make a bountiful crop and bless it. In other words he knows
that it is wrong to leave the field unworked and unsown even though he has
full faith that G-d could decree that the land produce a crop even without
planting beforehand. Similarly workers, merchants and laborers are commanded
to earn a living in their occupation even though they have full trust in G-d
to provide them with sustenance. They make this effort despite the fact they
accept that everything is totally in His hands and according to His wishes
and that in fact He has promised them a livelihood. They understand that He
will provide this sustenance anyway He wants. Since everything is in G-d's
hands you shouldn't think that one profession is more likely to provide a
livelihood than another. Similarly you shouldn't take pride in what seems to
be professional success or even to make special efforts to achieve success.
Total involvement in a job serves merely to weaken trust in G-d because the
effort is in fact not the cause of success. Instead of depending totally on
your efforts you should be grateful to G-d for providing sustenance for you
after your efforts and that your efforts were not in vain


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