צַדִּיק ה' בְּכָל־דְּרָכָיו וחָסִיד בְּכָל־מַֽעֲשָֽׂיו: HaShem is righteous in all His ways, all His actions are kind
Says the Radak: HaShem provides food to all living being with righteousness and integrity. And even though some animals are predatory, such as the cat that eats the mouse; and the lion, bear, leopard and other predators that eat other animals. And birds of prey eat other birds and small animals. Yet all is done with precision. Each animal has an allotted time to live, when it is time for them to die, sometimes their death is accomplished by feeding another animal, sometimes for other reasons.
You know what they say: third time's the charm.
Let's drill in on this. According to this Radak, each and every lamb has its life planned out. Each has a time to die. This by lion, this by old age. This by wolf, this to be a korban Pesach. Doesn't that sound like lambs are subject to the same level of supervision as we are? Is the moving and dramatic narration in our Yom Kippur mussaf just a poetic way of expressing the condition of every living being? Chas v'Shalom?
Chas v'Shalom! Of course not. The Days of Awe, beginning with Rosh HaShannah and culminating with n'ila on Yom Kippur is an expression of the most profound level of HaShem's direct involvement in the life of every single Jew. Not lambs and lions, not goyim experience anything like those days of judgement. Jews, by virtue of us having accepted HaShem's Torah have also merited HaShem's direct involvement in our lives. We are judged as part of Klal Yisrael and also as individuals in our avodas HaShem and each one of us receives a personalized, HaShem made, plan for our lives, years, and days.
So what do we do with this Radak that seems to indicate that HaShem is just as involved with each lamb and lion? R' Chaim Freidlander, z"tzl, explains that there is no doubt that even the path of a falling leaf from the branch to the ground is 100%, absolutely, and precisely guided by HaShem. Even so, we have the concept of both השגחה כללית/general supervision and also השגחה פרטית -- often translated as Divine Providence. The problem with that phrase, "divine providence" is that is doesn't not allow us to distinguish between the השגחה/supervision that we experience and Jews and the השגחה/supervision that the rest of the world experience. I prefer, therefore, the term "personalized supervision."
In discussing this with close and long time friend, we came to this exemplum: Think of the way a director on a movie set manages the star versus how he manages the extras. He will tell each one exactly what he wants done. He will tell which extra to kick in the door, or walk the dog, or casually bump into the star. There is no difference in how much interest he takes in each actor doing their job. However, there is a world of difference in why he is telling each actor to do their part. The scene calls for someone to kick a door, walk a dog, or casually bump into the star. It doesn't really matter who does it, it just has to be done. The director chooses someone simply to keep order and get the right number of jobs done in the right order.
The direction of the star, though, is because he is the focus. The story is being told through him. He needs those things to happen so his performance can have the intended meaning. The extras are providing the context for the star. The performance of the star is all that really matters.
Each and every Jew is of personal interest to HaShem. HaShem ensures that all the nations -- the extras -- play their part for each Jew in particular and Klal Yisrael in general to have the context they need to forge an eternal and meaningful relationship with HaShem.
Yeshayahu (10:5) refers to Ashur as "the staff of My anger"; Ashur is nothing more then the tool HaShem uses to bring his beloved Klal Yisrael back to Him. HaShem tells us this explicitly (10:15): "Does the ax (referring again to Ashur) take pride that he was just to chop?" Ashur then, Hamas now... nothing more than tools under HaShem's control. Of course He controls them -- down to the finest level of precision. Just as of course, He does it all of the star of His creation, Klal Yisrael
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