Beyond Randomness

Hashem's commitment to free will may determine an outcome for one person in order to preserve the free will of another, and that outcome may seem not to be a benefit

When the Rambam tells us that all pains are due to past transgressions, I am suggesting we make this rule conditional on the pain not having future, good consequences. So, we now understand the Rambam as saying that all pain that does not benefit the person who is suffering must be due to past transgression

There was a black fellow a black fellow at the funeral of The Bobover Rebbe, Reb Shlomo Halberstam. "I headed over and asked, 'Did you know the Rebbe?" said R' Czapnik. "Let me tell you how I knew the Rebbe. Years ago, I was just starting out in business. I advertised myself in the Jewish weekly and hoped that someone would read the ad and decide that now was the time to paint. The Rebbe called and told me that he was interested in having someone paint his house, and I arranged to meet with him the following morning. I got there on time, and the Rebbe immediately sat me down at the breakfast table. He said, 'It's early; you probably didn't have time to eat breakfast. Please have some.' The food wasn't exactly my style, but I helped myself to some herring and a bagel, and we finally got to talk. I looked at the rooms, set a price, the Rebbe agreed, and we decided that I could come the day after to start. The next morning, I was there, I had eaten well before, because-no offense-the Rebbe's food just wasn't what I like, I was about to start scraping down the walls, when the Rebbe stopped me and said, 'There's something I need you to know before you start.' 'Oh no,' I thought, 'here it goes. Now that I came with all my stuff, he's going to try to get me to drop the price.' Before I could get the words 'no way' out of my mouth, he was talking. 'I want you to know that it doesn't have to be perfect,' he said. I thought it was a new strategy. 'I may be just starting out, but I'm a great painter!' 'I am sure you are,' he replied. "That's why I hired you. I just want you to know that in this world, nothing is perfect. Not you, not me, nothing." I was shocked. I'd never given the idea much thought. "Just do your best," he ended.

When something happens, there is a temptation to jump to the most obvious interpretation. Usually with patient reconsideration, many other possible interpretations arise, and we realize we have no way to decide which (if any) are correct. This can create considerable frustration and worry. The Creator is sending a message to guide me, and I am missing the message! If all events in our lives are the workings of individual Divine providence, how are we to interpret them correctly? How do we know what “message” Hashem is sending us? The short answer to this dilemma is that yes, every event is the operation of individual providence. And yes, it therefore has a meaning. But no, we are not supposed to always be able to decipher the meaning of an event, as not all are intended as a message. The Creator wants us to live and make our decisions in ignorance of the meaning of the event. We do not require that input to make our decisions.

The Rambam holds that the reference to new heavens and new earth in the verse in Yeshayah refers to a new political order.

In addition, Rambam says in his commentary on that Mishnah that the cases mentioned there are only examples of a general rule that every miraculous event in later history was planted" into the creation at that time. Nevertheless, here he calls them all "miracles." This verifies our remark that if something is created during the six days of Creation, that does not mean it is natural. The fact that it is not part of the consistent repetition of events renders it miraculous even if it is created during the six days of Creation.