[Avodah] Bereishit

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Nov 13, 2018 at 08:07:16PM -0500, Zvi Lampel wrote:
:> While the Rambam treats nature as a hypostatis,
...
:> the Ramban famously says there is no "it" to nature.

: Famously, but phantomly. Ramban (see, for example, on Shmos 25:24) no less
: than Rambam, holds that olom kiminhago noheig. Ramban repeats a number of
: times that each "Va-yehi  khein" in Breishis means that Hashem made that
: minhag permanent.

Actually, it's real, but I think you misunderstood what I meant. (As I
said in the previous email.)

Relevant is this excerpt from a recent shiur from Gush's Vitual Beis
Medrash. Rav Bednarsh gives 2 chiluqim that are orthogonal to the one I
mentioned (whether there is an "it" behind teva, or if nature is "merely"
a pattern of Divine Action):

1- According to the Rambam, hashgachah is Divine Assistance; according
to the Ramban it includes oneshim.

2- According to the Rambam, there is a mechanism that causes the
relationship between the person's da'as and their recieving HP or not.
The Rambam describes it more directly as Divine Response.

About fn #4... I spoke to RDBerger about his paper. I can ask a parallel
question on RAB's article to introduce the same answer, so I will do so
here. RAB writes (below):

> It was often understood that the Ramban stands in fierce opposition to
> the stance of the Rambam. In two places (commentary on Shemot 13:16 and
> his Torat Hashem Temima sermon), the Ramban writes that a believing
> Jew must believe that everything that happens is a miracle. The only
> rule of causation is that if we do mitzvot, we can expect a reward,
> and if we transgress the Torah we can expect to be punished by God. The
> Ramban makes it sound like there is no natural order, but rather only
> the principle of hashgacha pratit.

> Some understand the Ramban's view solely based on what he says in these
> two places. However, the general approach of the Ramban is much more
> nuanced.

> In his commentary on the tokhecha (Vayikra 26:11), the Torah's promise
> of rewards and punishments, the Ramban encourages us to turn to God
> and not to doctors for healing....
...
>         For example, the Ramban writes (commentary on Bereishit 18:19)
> that God exercises constant Divine Providence on Avraham because he is on
> a very high spiritual level.[3] But the rest of us are left to chance,
> to the natural order, until the time comes when God visits reward or
> punishment upon us. Ramban similarly explains (Bereishit 32:4) that in
> the encounter between Esav and Yaakov, God exercised Divine Providence
> and saved Yaakov because of his righteousness...

> In his commentary on Iyov (36:7), the Ramban writes explicitly that
> his understanding of Divine Providence is that of the Rambam in Moreh
> Nevukhim. He directly quotes the language of the Rambam cited above and
> tells us that God exercises His Providence on the righteous, but not fully
> on the average person, and certainly not on the wicked. Therefore, the
> Ramban tells us, the Torah expects us to live via the natural order...

Okay, so it's much more nuanced, but then what does he mean in the two
places we started with?

What I pointed out, that the Ramban is denying teva as an it -- that
even teva is through the same direct Influence as neis -- adds the same
nuance without ignoring those two more famous comments of the Ramban.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

Yeshivat Har Etzion
PHILOSOPHY > Topics in Hashkafa >
Shiur #06: Divine Providence and the Natural Order 1
Rav Assaf Bednarsh
Adapted by Leora Bednarsh

Should one attempt to provide for one's needs in this world by working
through the natural order, or should one do so by keeping mitzvot and
trusting in God to provide? Are the events of this world caused by direct
Divine Providence or by the natural scientific order? This question
has tremendous practical significance and is the subject of much debate
in the contemporary Jewish community. This topic is often portrayed as
"hishtadlut (effort) vs. bitachon (trust)."
...

The Position of the Rambam

No Jewish philosopher can entirely deny the doctrine of hashgacha
pratit. There are many examples in Tanakh that very clearly indicate
that God miraculously takes care of the righteous in this world in
accordance with His Divine plan.[1] However, almost all the cases in
Tanakh deal with exceptionally righteous and spiritual individuals.
That may be because most of Tanakh deals with these great individuals;
these are the people we need to learn about in order to learn to be
good Jews. The Rambam, however, maintains that this is not coincidence.
It is not simply that these happen to be the main characters in Tanakh.

According to the Rambam (Moreh Nevukhim III:18), hashgacha pratit is
not something that God automatically utilizes in running the world. God
relates to us when we relate to Him. When we open the channel, God's
bounty flows through that channel. If we don't bother to create those
lines of communication, then He does not communicate with us either.
Those who have achieved philosophical sophistication, who have studied
what the Rambam understands to be the Jewish mystical philosophical
tradition and focus their thoughts on God, enjoy the benefits of Divine
Providence.

According to the Rambam, not all people enjoy equal Divine Providence.
Those who are pious and good and religious enjoy more Divine Providence
because of their understanding of God, which fuels their piety and
goodness. Those who are prophets enjoy a higher level because of their
deep understanding of God. Those who are on a very rarified level of
philosophical spiritual achievement can be assured that God looks out for
them in this world. The wicked and the religiously ignorant, however,
have no such promise of Divine Providence. Even regular people who may
be reasonably religious and try to think about God quite often still
have not achieved that level of understanding at which they can assume
that they are beneficiaries of constant direct Divine Providence.

For the Rambam, then, most people do not enjoy the benefit of direct
Divine Providence all the time. Accordingly, it makes perfect sense that
we are expected to work through the natural order. The natural order
is the default. When we change the rules by achieving philosophical
knowledge of God, our lives begin to be run by the principles of Divine
Providence. But much of the time the world is run by the natural order
and God does not involve Himself. Thus, we should be expected to provide
for ourselves and to achieve whatever goals we feel the need to achieve
by means of the natural order. The natural order is the one thing that is
guaranteed. God created the world and created the scientific order as the
way in which the world will run until God decides to get involved because
someone let Him in to his life.[2] And even then, God is only involved
partially, to the extent that someone partially perfects themselves and
meditates upon God.

Of course, this does not mean that God has no part in our lives when
we do not enjoy Providence. There is still hashgacha klalit, general
Providence. God still arranges the world generally in such a way
that our needs are provided for. We say blessings, thanking God, for
example, for creating fruits of the tree, but not because He created
this particular fruit for me to eat today, rather because He created
a wonderful world that provides for much of our needs. It is our job
to appreciate that. But when I stub my toe or win the lottery, is that
God's direct intervention? According to the Rambam, most of the time it
is not. Rather, it is the natural order.

The Position of the Ramban

It was often understood that the Ramban stands in fierce opposition to
the stance of the Rambam. In two places (commentary on Shemot 13:16 and
his Torat Hashem Temima sermon), the Ramban writes that a believing
Jew must believe that everything that happens is a miracle. The only
rule of causation is that if we do mitzvot, we can expect a reward,
and if we transgress the Torah we can expect to be punished by God. The
Ramban makes it sound like there is no natural order, but rather only
the principle of hashgacha pratit.

Some understand the Ramban's view solely based on what he says in these
two places. However, the general approach of the Ramban is much more
nuanced.

In his commentary on the tokhecha (Vayikra 26:11), the Torah's promise
of rewards and punishments, the Ramban encourages us to turn to God
and not to doctors for healing. He states that when the masses of the
Jews are perfect, their lives will not be run by the natural order, but
rather directly by God; He will be their doctor. According to Ramban,
that is what the righteous did in the days of Tanakh, during the era
of prophecy. Anyone with access to prophecy does not need a doctor,
and in case of illness should turn instead to a prophet, who will tell
him which of his actions needs to be improved; he will then repent and
repair those actions so that God will heal his disease. "What business do
doctors have in the house of someone who fulfills the will of God?" asks
the Ramban. Although the Rabbis interpreted the verse "ve-rapo yerapeh"
(Shemot 21:19) as evidence that the doctor has permission to heal, the
Ramban restricts the significance of this inference. If someone asks for
help, the doctor should heal the patient - but Chazal never said that the
patient should seek medical care, only that the doctor should provide
it. The patient should ideally put all his trust in God and not in the
natural order. However, if the patient has already put his trust in the
natural order, the doctor has no choice but to heal him, because that is
the only option left. When someone puts his faith in the natural order,
his live is unfortunately run by the natural order. But when someone
puts his faith in God, his life is controlled by direct Divine Providence.

Similarities Between the Ramban and the Rambam

The Ramban here seems to take an anti-Maimonidean stance, focusing on
Divine Providence. However, on closer analysis, he does not deny the
existence of the natural order. He acknowledges the existence of teva.
Of course, he believes that it is far preferable to live by faith in
God and not by teva, but once our spiritual level fell and we became
accustomed to using medicine and working within the scientific order,
God "abandoned us to the happenstance of teva."

If we read the Ramban very carefully, we notice that the examples he uses
of those who should not seek medical help but rather turn directly to
God are limited to a time when the masses of Jews are righteous, during
the time of prophecy. The Ramban is referring to people on a very high
spiritual level. They enjoyed the benefit of constant Divine Providence
and therefore had no business working through the natural order. The
implication is that the situation is quite different for regular people
in regular times. Even righteous Jew nowadays, when, unfortunately,
the masses of Jews are far from perfect and when prophecy has not been
restored to us, are not on the same high spiritual level. Therefore,
they cannot have a reasonable expectation of constant Divine Providence
in their lives, and perhaps they should visit doctors. Although everything
that happens in the world is subject to Divine Providence, God has decided
to abandon us - regular people in the contemporary era - to the workings
of the natural order. We no longer merit constant Divine Providence.

This is, in fact, explicitly the opinion of the Ramban in several
places. For example, the Ramban writes (commentary on Bereishit 18:19)
that God exercises constant Divine Providence on Avraham because he is on
a very high spiritual level.[3] But the rest of us are left to chance,
to the natural order, until the time comes when God visits reward or
punishment upon us. Ramban similarly explains (Bereishit 32:4) that in
the encounter between Esav and Yaakov, God exercised Divine Providence
and saved Yaakov because of his righteousness. But Yaakov himself was not
sure that he was righteous enough to enjoy Divine Providence, which is
why he prepared using natural means to make peace, or if need be, war,
with Esav. He made various preparations using the natural order because
in his humility, he was not certain that he was on the level to expect
Divine Providence. If Yaakov Avinu questioned whether he deserved Divine
Providence, the clear implication is that we can certainly not rely on it!

In his commentary on Iyov (36:7), the Ramban writes explicitly that
his understanding of Divine Providence is that of the Rambam in Moreh
Nevukhim. He directly quotes the language of the Rambam cited above and
tells us that God exercises His Providence on the righteous, but not fully
on the average person, and certainly not on the wicked. Therefore, the
Ramban tells us, the Torah expects us to live via the natural order. We
are instructed to conscript an army and go out and fight in the event
of war, not just to sit and pray and wait for God to fight for us. We
cannot always expect to be on such a high spiritual level that we enjoy
constant Divine Providence. Rather, we must work under the assumption
that we may not always be experiencing Divine Providence, and we must
therefore work under the natural order. The Ramban tells us that if God
wants us to win a war, we will win without an army, and if, God forbid,
He wants us to lose a war, no matter how strong our military is, we
will lose. But sometimes, when we are neither completely righteous nor
completely wicked, God does not want any particular result, because He
is not exercising Divine Providence at that point. That is why it is so
important that we work through the natural order.

The Ramban in this commentary seems to be in line with mainstream
religious Zionist ideology. We work through the natural order because
not everything always is decreed by God.[4]

Differences Between the Ramban and the Rambam

As much as the Ramban claims to agree with the Rambam, there is still
a significant difference between their philosophies. The Ramban in
a number of places, including his commentary to Iyov, tells us that
Divine Providence can be either positive or negative. If someone is truly
righteous, then God watches and guards him all the time. If someone is
evil, God will intervene in the world to punish him. Those in the middle,
neither wicked nor righteous, are left to the natural order. The Rambam,
on the other hand, holds that Divine Providence can only be positive, not
negative. It is purely a function of one's connection to God. Therefore,
the more connected one is to God, the more Divine Providence; the more
disconnected one is, the less Divine Providence. Punishment only occurs
in this world because when God removes His Providence, one is exposed to
the many perils of the dangerous world that we inhabit. While the Ramban
has a volitional model of Divine Providence, in which God decides to
exercise Providence when a person deserves reward or punishment, the
Rambam has a more mechanistic model, under which Divine Providence is
an automatic result of spiritual achievement.

What the Rambam and the Ramban have in common, however, is their belief
that while Divine Providence is an ideal to strive for, it is not the
default, automatic way in which the world works. God sometimes involves
Himself through the principle of hashgacha pratit, but often does not.
The natural order is the authentic way in which God created the world
to run when He doesn't decide to get involved and change things.

For the Ramban and the Rambam, then, the answer to the question of faith
(bitachon) versus effort (hishtadlut) is clear. We are expected to take
care of providing our needs in this world the best we can using the
natural order. None of us are arrogant enough to assume that we are so
holy and righteous that we have constant Divine Providence. Of course,
we strive to be more holy, spiritual, and righteous. We strive to enjoy
more Divine Providence. And, at least according to the Ramban, perhaps our
ultimate goal is to reach the highest spiritual levels and abandon the
natural order. Nonetheless, in regular life, the Rambam and the Ramban
would have us work in the natural order because we can never be certain
that anything that happens to us in our lives is the result of God's
direct intervention. Our success or lack thereof may be purely a function
of the natural order. Therefore, we must take care of ourselves. God is
not always taking care of us, as we may not be sufficiently righteous.


_______________________

[1] For example, the Exodus and figures such as the Patriarchs, Daniel,
and Chananya, Mishael and Azarya.

[2] Even in this case, Rambam nowhere states that one who enjoys Divine
Providence should not work within the natural order. In the next two
shiurim, we will present various explanations of why even one who enjoys
Divine Providence might be required to work within the natural order.

[3] The Ramban understands God's "knowledge" of Avraham as constant
Divine Providence

[4] Many attempts have been made to resolve the apparent contradiction
between the Ramban's statement in his commentary to Shemot 13 and his
sermon Torat Hashem Temima and his formulations in his commentaries
to Bereishit 18 and 32 and Iyov 36. It seems likely that the Ramban
intended to claim not that everything that happens is a miracle, but that
miraculous Providence ultimately controls everything. Since even nature
was created by God, Providential intervention can override the laws of
nature, but the laws of nature do not restrict Divine Providence. When
Providence chooses not to intervene, however, nature still follows its
course. For further reading, see the original texts, as well as David
Berger, "Miracles and the Natural Order in Nahmanides," in Isadore Twersky
(ed.), Rabbi Moses Nahmanides (Ramban): Explorations in His Religious
and Literary Virtuosity (Harvard University Press, 1983), available at
https://www.biblicalnaturalhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/MiraclesNahmanides.pdf.