[Avodah] [Areivim] earthquakes

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Jul 16, 2012 at 07:36:01AM -0400, Joseph Kaplan replied to me on
Areivim:
[I quoted:]
:>> In fact [some famous Xian preacher] never said that God brought
:>> the bad thing; he said that when
:>> we sin Hashem *removes His protection* and then we're exposed to whatever
:>> nature or evildoers might bring.  In other words he believes "mipi Elyon
:>> lo tetzei hara`ot vehatov" benichuta, not bitmiha...

[Me:]
:> Appears to be shitas haRambam you're describing.

[RJK's reply:]
: Not quite sure I understand.  When, exactly, aren't we sinning?

I meant, the Rambam holds that HP is earned rather than guaranteed to all
homo sapiens. That when Chazal say that all people get HP (Morah 3:17)
the concept of person is what we'd call today a fuzzy set and proportional
to yediah (3:18). Therefore, according to the Rambam, the primary form
of onesh is to be subject to nature, chance and the whims of others.

This is less extreme than the last sentence I quoted. "Mipi Elyon lo
seitzei hara'os vehatov" is bimiha, but "hara'os" often means being left
subject to the laws on entropy, not the actual ra that ensues from such
wilfull neglect.

Shitas haRambam doesn't mean that we're only subject to HP when the
person isn't sinning at all. Rather, different levels of yedi'ah, which
according to the Rambam is both the cause and consequence of mitzvos
and maasim tovim, mean different amounts of HP.

This might even be the Rambam's peshat in the very difficult pasuq,
"Na'ar hayisi vegam zaqanti..." Difficult, because it's easy to find
tzadiqim who don't have enough money for food for all their children
and therefore they are mevaqeish lakhem. But according to the Rambam,
perhaps he would say that a tzadiq who suffers such deprivation does
so behashgachah; it's what is best for him and his children according
to Hashem's Plan for them. He wasn't ne'ezav. As opposed to a rasha,
whose success or failure has nothing to do with the Divine Plan, HQBH
doesn't bother intervening. (And so on for most people who are various
places in between.)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             The thought of happiness that comes from outside
micha at aishdas.org        the person, brings him sadness. But realizing
http://www.aishdas.org   the value of one's will and the freedom brought
Fax: (270) 514-1507      by uplifting its, brings great joy. - R' Kook