[Avodah] Feedback, causality & G-d

[Micha Berger]

From: Micha Berger <micha at aishdas.org>
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Subject: Re: [Avodah] Feedback, causality & G-d
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On Thu, Aug 04, 2011 at 11:53:04AM +0300, harchinam wrote:
: IIRC, the Rambam [and probably many others] holds that even though Hashem
: CAN just do anything in the blink of an eye and without any assistance, He
: created a system that we call teva in order that things should generally go
: according to the system [and nisim are those things that occur outside of
: this system] that would obscure His constant involvement...

More than that... According to the Rambam, teva is a nivra, a "thing",
not just a pattern or rule of behavior. Hashgachah means involvement
at levels higher than teva, and a neis nigla is when that involvement
can't be fitted to the patterns that teva follows.

A person who in a given situation doesn't merit HP is described in MN 3:18
as not being protected from nature.

: hishtadlut of whatever form -- planting a field, sending out a resume, etc.
: -- we are merely providing the tzinor for the bracha to flow down through.
: So it is not really that we are providing merit, but instead the actual kli
: for the bracha to flow through in a figurative manner in order that things
: work according to the system of teva that Hashem set up.

This isn't the Rambam. The Rambam's metaphysics is based on the notion
that HQBH had Thought which itself thought a Thought down to the Active
Intellect, the spheres, man and physical reality. Teva is one of those
planes of abstraction.

(In Yesodei haTorah 2:5 this is presented in conjuction with the different
levels of tzurah beli chomer that we call "mal'akhim". Add to that the
maamar Chazal about the mal'akh who stands over each blade of grass
ordering it to grow, and I personally get the sense that the laws of
nature are a consequence of teva being composed of the intellects of
mal'akhim or the sefiros that lack free will. The laws of nature is the
software of their deterministic minds. But making the full argument would
take us too far efield, and buying into this notion isn't necessary to
accept my previous conclusion -- the Rambam holds that teva is a "thing"
between HQBH and man, and not merely a pattern behind which He hides
His involvement.)


On Thu, Aug 04, 2011 at 05:34:38PM -0400, Daniel Eidensohn wrote:
:> Even moreso am I bothered by the idea that only a "completely perfect"
:> person would escape such a fate. Even Moshe Rabenu wasn't "completely
:> perfect."...

: Seforno[1] (Vayikra 13:47): When a person sins because he follows his
: lusts and thus turns away from G-d's will or he simply rebels against G-d,
: he will be punished justly according to G-d's justice. When a person
: sins accidentally, he will typically be punished either financial or
: physically according to G-d's wisdom in order to arouse him repent. In
: contrast those who are as insensitive as one asleep and thus have no
: realization of what is happening and are not motivated to know - this
: includes all the nations as well as the majority of Jews except for a
: few exceptions - they are without doubt under the direction of nature
: or mazel. They do not receive hashgocha protis but rather a general form
: of Providence which is for the species rather than the individual. Thus
: they are like the animals and other forms of life which do not have
: individual Providence. They thus fulfill G-d's will only on the level
: of the group not as individuals.

Notice the Seforno himself shifts from speaking about a given person
receiving different amounts of hashgachah depending on where he is
then, to speaking of "those who are insensitive" vs the spiritually
righteous.

I think the problem is one of language. In classical literature through
the middle ages, it was assumed that the writer was describing archetypes.
That he would discuss the fate of the hypothetical perfectly righteous
person and the perpetually spiritually insensitive person, and the
reader would naturally understand that real people were a mix of these
typologies. (Otherwise, isn't the Seforno subtly contradicting himself?)

The Rambam makes this kind of argument when he shifts between his
presentation of Chazal's position on HP, at the end of MN 3:17, and his
own interpretation of that position in 3:18. First he says that all
people receive HP, but then as you progress to his own position you learn
that the word "people" denotes a fuzzy set, and the more you fit the
description, the more HP you get:

    Species and other classes are merely ideas formed in our minds,
    whilst everything in real existence is an individual object, or
    an aggregate of individual objects. This being granted, it must
    further be admitted that the result of the existing Divine influence,
    that reaches mankind through the human intellect, is identical with
    individual intellects really in existence, with which, e.g., Zeid,
    Amr, Kaled and Bekr, are endowed. Hence it follows, in accordance
    with what I have mentioned in the preceding chapter, that the greater
    the share is which a person has obtained of this Divine influence,
    on account of both his physical predisposition and his training,
    the greater must also be the effect of Divine Providence upon him,
    for the action of Divine Providence is proportional to the endowment
    of intellect, as has been mentioned above. The relation of Divine
    Providence is therefore not the same to all men; the greater the
    human perfection a person has attained, the greater the benefit he
    derives from Divine Providence....

Again, an assumption that Chazal spoke in archetypes, and therefor
real individuals are somewhere in between or in combination of those
described.

And similarly, I don't know if we can take it as a given that just
because the Ramban spoke in black-and-white terms, he too didn't intend
to be describing the ends of a range of possibilities.


Sidepoints:

1- HP and sekhar are different things. Providence includes oneshim,
constructive punishment, learning experiences. I'm not sure the Rambam
would agree, but the Seforno must (see #2).

2- Note also the Seforno distinguishes between the sinner who can
take a spiritual lesson, who therefore still gets HP in the form of
onesh, and the person who is unalert to all that, and therefore onesh
wouldn't help. It's only the person who blinded himself from being able
to gain from HP who is subject to nature of mazal.

3- If you think about the astrological origins of the word mazal, and
the fact that the coin was termed by people who knew stars followed
predetermined paths, "mazal" might be better translated "fate" than
"luck". And is very much a brother of teva.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             It is harder to eat the day before Yom Kippur
micha at aishdas.org        with the proper intent than to fast on Yom
http://www.aishdas.org   Kippur with that intent.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                       - Rav Yisrael Salanter