Rabbi Shapiro. So the class tonight is on the subject of hashgacha pratis, which is divine providence. To try to explain a little bit the meaning of divine providence and what it really means, what's behind it. Just to start, we know divine providence means that everything happens by Hashem. That means Hashem, God, takes care of everything. Anything that happens in the world is because Hashem wants it to happen, makes it happen that way. This is the shittah, the opinion of the Baal Shem Tov. That's known that the shittah, the the the opinion of hashgacha pratis, and the word פרטית means individual, individual taking care of is the shittah of the Baal Shem Tov. The Baal Shem Tov said that everything in the world, anything that happens in the world, the smallest thing that might happen in the world is all done by Hashem. Hashem Himself takes care, makes it happen. And the example he gives, even when there is a leaf that falls off a tree, falls on the floor, and then the wind comes and blows it from one side to the other and makes it turn over, Hashem Himself took care of that and made that happen. That's what the Baal Shem Tov says. Everything is b'hashgacha, hashgacha means Hashem takes care of it, פרטית, the word פרטית means individual, every individual thing is taken care of by Hashem. And then he adds another point, that not only is everything b'hashgacha pratis, and therefore anything that happens is because Hashem wanted it to happen, this thing should happen to this object, but it's also all part of the greater picture. Hashem has something in mind and the greater level, and all the details that happen to every individual thing which Hashem takes care of is all part of one big plan that Hashem has. He has this master plan what He wants with everything together. So not only is every individual thing important on its own, but it's all important specifically as part of the bigger plan, the major plan that Hashem has in mind. And the mashal that is given, the parable that is given, is from a very successful balabusta. That's the mashal that's given in Chassidus. A balabusta, a woman who takes care of her kitchen or takes care of her breakfront in the dining room, and she has different tchatchkelech, let's call it, different things that she keeps there, and she has her order the way she wants it to be. So if she is successful and she's a real, real good balabusta, she has a cheshbon, everything that she does. Every little piece is in its place, and when she puts something in one place, it's because she wanted to put it. Nothing there just happens by chance, it just happens to be there. A woman who is not successful, a woman who doesn't really care, not a real balabusta, says, \"Eh, she just puts it in somehow, who cares?\" But if she really, really has a, really a successful balabusta, someone who is really with a cheshbon, so everything has its place. So when one thing is put here, it's because it belongs here. This object was meant to be here. And then when it's changed, because this object is meant to change. And here you have two points. Number one, she cares about each object, where it belongs. Then, in truth, she has a major plan of the way she wants the whole thing to look. And every individual thing that she takes care of is not only in itself for a certain reason, but it's also part of the major plan that she has, and all this, every individual thing is all part of this one big plan. And the same thing certainly with Hashem. Beside that Hashem takes care of every specific object in the world and makes it happen, whatever happens to it is because Hashem wants it to happen to this object, and it doesn't happen, God, chas v'shalom, by chance, besides that, it's all part of the big scheme, of the big plan Hashem has. And everything, every move Hashem makes with any little thing, is all that is because it's all part of that big cheshbon Hashem has. That's what the Baal Shem Tov says. The truth is that before the Baal Shem Tov, not everyone accepted this concept. And let me go back a little bit. There are some people, and obviously these are not part of the Jewish philosophy, but there are some people who don't believe that God created the world at all. So, to begin with, the world came some other way. Well, obviously, those are apikorsim, those we're not talking about. Then there are some people who went a step further and said that God did create the world, true, but He created the world 5,764 years ago, and then it continues by itself. Now it's on its own. That is also אפיקורסות. That is also false. And they even had a proof to show that this is possible, and they gave an example of a craftsman who takes a piece of silver, let's say, and he works on it and turns it into a silver cup, into a becher. It doesn't mean that he constantly has to, again and again, keep on making it. He makes it once, and then it stays. Now it's a becher. Now it's there. But we know this is not true, and I'll get into it a little bit later, but Hashem re-creates the world every single second. So, all Jews really believe and know this, that Hashem re-creates everything every second. But still, even though Hashem re-creates everything every second, there were some people, in other words here we're talking already about גדולי ישראל who believed that not everything that happens in the world, not every individual thing that happens in the world is b'hashgacha pratis, is with Divine Providence. What they said is that there is השגחה כללית, there is a general caring that Hashem has. Only the Jews are under hashgacha pratis. Only concerning the Jews there is an individual caring that Hashem cares of what happens to every individual Jew in every individual thing that happens to him. But otherwise, for דומם, צומח, חי, מדבר, all four species, דומם are the unmovable objects, צומח the plant life, חי is the animal life, and even the human beings besides the Jews, are all under השגחה כללית. It's a general hashgacha. And they said even Jews, if a Jew is in the category of a רשע, of an evil person, there is no hashgacha pratis on this person. There is no individual caring that Hashem has on this person. Generally speaking, Hashem takes care of everything. For instance, they said Hashem takes care of the world and therefore He decides whether there will be a war between these two countries or there will not be a war. He decides how many people will die in this war and how many people will not. But He doesn't take care to say, well, this individual person, he is going to die and this individual person will live, or this individual person is going to get sick, be injured, or not get injured. That's hashgacha pratis, which only concerning the Jews it happens, but not concerning anything else in the world. That's what they said. And the people who followed this opinion were great people. The first one that's known, I don't know if he's the first, but I mean the one that we always think of, is the Rambam. The Rambam writes that hashgacha pratis is only on Jews, not on anything else. And the Sefer HaChinuch, which is also written by one of the ראשונים, he also writes he actually even makes it even stronger, he says that there are some people who don't believe that Hashem takes care of the world at all, he says these are אפיקורסים. He says there are some people who believe that Hashem takes care of every little individual thing, and the way he expresses himself says these people are fools. The right way to believe is that there is השגחה כללית, there is a general hashgacha, Hashem takes care of the general things, but not of the individual things, except for the Jews. That was their opinion. Till the Baal Shem Tov came, and the Baal Shem Tov said that it's not so, and the Baal Shem Tov said that that Hashem takes care of every little thing, the smallest, minutest thing, and the smallest detail of the smallest thing is taken care by Hashem. And this is one of the things that there was an opposition against the Baal Shem Tov. We know at the time of the Baal Shem Tov, this whole fight, Chassidim and the Misnagdim, and it was based on a lot of philosophical differences. One of the differences was this: they claimed, how could you say that everything is b'hashgacha pratis? But as time passed, I must say, it's probably accepted by most people now that everything is b'hashgacha pratis. You hear people who are not from chassidishe circles at all and they talk, \"Everything is b'hashgacha pratis, everything with Divine Providence, everything meaning anything that happens in the world is with hashgacha pratis.\" The term is on everyone's lips: hashgacha pratit. But in the beginning this was not so accepted by everybody. As a matter of fact, the Alter Rebbe once had a discussion with one of the people who questioned it, and he said, \"How could you say it's hashgacha pratit? And even if you're going to tell me that this fits according to Kabbalah, we cannot follow Kabbalah, we have to follow halachah and Gemara. Where do we find a source for this?\" The Alter Rebbe said there is a source in the Gemara for this. And he quoted a Gemara where the Gemara says in Chullin דף ס\"ג, the Gemara says, the Gemara quotes a pasuk, the pasuk says, משפטיך תהום רבה, which means משפטיך, your judgment, is תהום רבה, it reaches all the way to the תהום, the The underground, the depth of the sea. So the Gemara says, what does that mean that the judgment is in the depth of the sea? So the Gemara says, אמר רבי יוחנן, and Rabbi Yochanan said, what it means is that when a שלך, a seagull, flies over the sea and looks down to see, to catch a fish, there is a mishpat, there is a judgment in שמים which fish should be caught by this seagull. So here we see clearly that the Gemara says that everything is b'hashgacha pratit, everything is Divine Providence in an individual way. And this was basically accepted, and I probably could say that כל ישראל now accepts that everything is b'hashgacha pratit. As I will explain later, it's not only from this Gemara, but if you start thinking about the creation of the world, etc. etc., we come to a conclusion that everything has to be b'hashgacha pratit. And as I'll explain soon. But before that, I just want to give a little introduction, a question that might come up is: How is it possible that such great people like the Rambam and others like that did not accept it, if it's so simple to understand or it's something that must be that way, how is it that the Rambam did not accept that, or the Chinuch? So first of all, we do find something similar to this, and that is in the Rambam himself. The Rambam writes in Hilchot Teshuvah that any person who claims that Hashem has a body is a min, is an apikores. Comes the Raavad, who is one of the commentators on the Rambam, and the Raavad says, not that he agrees with it, he also says that Hashem has no body, but you can't call a person that believes that to be a מין, he calls him an אפיקורס. Why? Because the way he expresses himself: גדולים וטובים ממנו הלכו בזה הדרך. Greater people than you, the Rambam, he says, followed that opinion, that Hashem has a body. What does that mean? There are ways to explain what they meant, but I'm trying to bring out a different point here. I'm trying to bring a point that we see that in the understanding of the truth of Hashem or the unity of Hashem, it basically went through a process, so to speak, that as the world is progressing, and I mean the Jewish world, getting closer to Mashiach, and when Mashiach will come, that's when the world will recognize the true unity of Hashem, we will see כי פי השם דיבר, like many Pesukim quoted of many times. So as the time passes, Hashem makes it so that the world, the Yidden and the world in general, should have a better understanding in what the truth of Hashem is. And therefore, things that before the Rambam were not so clear, and it was possible for people to think maybe Hashem has a body, at the time of the Rambam, the Rambam said that a person who says that is an Apikorus. Imagine now if someone will come and say, \"I believe that God has a body.\" Everyone will say that this person is an Apikorus. And before the Rambam there were people who held that way, and they were religious Jews and great people, too. But after it was revealed, so to speak, and understood and explained through the Rambam, it is accepted already, and that is what we know as the truth. The same is with this. Before the Baal Shem Tov, the concept of השגחה פרטית was not so widespread, so to speak, and even great people did not accept it. But after the Baal Shem Tov came and revealed it and explained it, now it's so accepted that now it became part of, we call it the inheritance of Klal Yisrael, and this is what a Yid is supposed to believe. Now I don't know what I would say if someone says, \"I don't believe in השגחה פרטית.\" I don't know what title I would give him, but nevertheless it's definitely not not positive. Besides that, Chassidus explains that the Rambam agrees with the Baal Shem Tov. Even though the Rambam and the Chinuch and others write that there is no השגחה פרטית, they're talking in a different level. They're talking in a level that's higher, that's not felt, and not to go into the details of what Kabbalah explains, Chassidus explains, it's explained by the Mitteler Rebbe in the ספר Derech Chaim, and therefore, he's talking about one level, the Baal Shem Tov talking about another level, and he didn't talk about the level the Baal Shem Tov was talking about because the Rambam did not write anything that is according to Kabbalah and Chassidus in his Sefer. See, there is a dispute generally whether the Rambam learned Kabbalah or not. Accepted by many people is that he didn't. But we know, we have tradition by Chassidim, in Chabad, going back all the way to the Baal Shem Tov, that the Rambam did learn Kabbalah. He just tried to hide it, it shouldn't be revealed in his sefer. And therefore, he did not put into his sefer the hashgacha pratis that the Baal Shem Tov was talking about, because that is more the way it's understood according to Chassidus and Kabbalah, and he didn't put it in. That's why he was talking about a different level. But in truth, he explains that the Rambam also agrees that there is hashgacha pratis. Which answers the question what your brother and I said before. The question was, how is it possible that the Rambam and people like that should not believe in hashgacha pratis when it's so obvious, as we will see soon? And the Gemara says it. So I'm saying, first of all, well, it developed. Besides that, the Rambam really knew that. He just was talking on a different level, and this is not our discussion today. What we will discuss now is, what is this hashgacha pratis? Why must we say that there is hashgacha pratis, that there is Divine Providence, and that Hashem takes care of every individual thing separately, in an individual basis? So I just want to start by something that

the Rebbe told to a friend of mine on יחידות. I had a friend who went into יחידות, a bachur in yeshivah, time when I was in yeshivah, and he took the opportunity going into the Rebbe, we used to go in once a year to get a blessing for your birthday, for your יום הולדת. So he took the opportunity and wrote in the צעטל that he gave to the Rebbe that people did that always on יחידות, write and tell the Rebbe your problems. So some people have problems, medical problems, God forbid, some have financial problems, and that's what they write to the Rebbe about. And a bachur in yeshivah doesn't have these problems, so he has spiritual problems. So if something was bothering him spiritually, he would ask the Rebbe. So he wrote to the Rebbe that he has a hard time accepting the concept of hashgacha pratis. He doesn't understand hashgacha pratis and the fact that Hashem takes care of every individual thing. So he came out of יחידות, and told me what the Rebbe said to him. I was standing actually out the door, outside the door, when he came out, and he told me what the Rebbe said. And then, later, he wrote it up and sent it back into the Rebbe. The Rebbe should check it over whether it was right, whether he wrote down right, and the Rebbe checked it over. And this is what the Rebbe said. The Rebbe said to him like this: \"You write that you don't understand how it's possible there should be hashgacha pratis. I don't understand how it's possible there shouldn't be hashgacha pratis.\" That's what the Rebbe said to him. And the Rebbe just said a few words, the Rebbe didn't spend much time on this. He just said: \"Well, I'll tell you. If all these things in the world were important enough for Hashem to create it, why is it not important enough for Hashem to take care of it?\" These are the words he used to him. If every little thing in the world was created by Hashem, no one says that the creation was only כללי, see, there's no such thing, no one says that in creation there was general concept of creation, the world was created, there were people, but not every individual thing was created by Hashem, that happened by itself. No one says that. So if we're sure that every individual little thing, the most smallest thing that's there was is was created and is created by Hashem, if it was important for Hashem to create it, why is it not important enough for Him to take care of it, that He should make things happen? This is what the Rebbe said to him. And let me explain it. Elaborate a little on this. I'll go back to what I said in the beginning, that we know that we know, I don't like to use the word we believe, we know that Hashem did not only create the world once, 5,764 years ago, but Hashem creates the world every second. This is brought down in the second perek of Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah in Tanya, and he says there's a pasuk that says, no, the first perek, the pasuk says: לעולם ה׳ דברך נצב בשמים. To translate it, it means: forever, Hashem, your words are standing in the heavens. So the Alter Rebbe says, ופירש Baal Shem Tov, the Baal Shem Tov explained it, what it means is that the words that Hashem said in the ten statements when He created the world, and one of them was יהי רקיע, let there be a שמים, let there be a heaven, those words are constantly there. That means constantly as if Hashem is saying over again, יהי רקיע, יהי רקיע, יהי רקיע, which means He keeps on recreating everything constantly. Actually, in davenen we mention it, we say המחדש בטובו בכל יום תמיד מעשה בראשית, ה׳ renews every day constantly the creation, and we say every day, but then we add the word תמיד, constantly Hashem recreates it. And it's not only that one statement of יהי רקיע, let there be a heaven, but this is just an example. All ten statements which created everything constantly keeps on going. And the truth is, even though the Alter Rebbe quotes it, this pshat in the pasuk in the name of the Baal Shem Tov, if you look in the Midrash on Tehillim, the Midrash on Tehillim says this pshat. And the Rebbe once explained, so why does the Alter Rebbe say ופירש Baal Shem Tov, that the Baal Shem Tov explained it? And the Rebbe says the word piresh has another meaning. פירש means explained, but פירש also means spread out. The Baal Shem Tov spread it out. Baal Shem Tov brought it out to the masses, this concept of knowing, believing, and understanding that Hashem recreates the world constantly every second. And why does He have to do it? And as I said before, there are some people who claimed it's not true. And the example they gave is: you see a person who has a piece of silver, and makes it into a becher, doesn't have to stand constantly and keep on doing it again and doing it again. He makes it once, and it's there. So why would Hashem have to constantly renew the world again? Why doesn't He make, didn't He make the world once and it stays? So the Alter Rebbe says, these these people are making a big mistake. There's a big difference between the two. The one that makes the cup didn't create anything yesh me'ayin, didn't create anything out of nothing. The חומר, the material, was there before. The shape is what he made. No one ever created the material. The shape is what he made. And that shape is there potentially in a piece of silver. Potentially it could be round, it could be square, it could be anything. So all you're doing is taking that piece of material that's there from before, and bringing out a certain shape that's there from before. So therefore, you are not fighting the nature. You are not doing something against its nature. There's nothing that you're doing against the piece of material that's there, and therefore you don't have to constantly keep on recreating it. But if you're going to be doing something that's fighting the nature of the thing, then you have to constantly do it. For instance, he gives an example. It says by Keriat Yam Suf, when they crossed the sea and Hashem split the sea, so it says in pasuk, how did it happen? Well Hashem did it, but how did Hashem do it? Not what trick He used, in which form did He do it? So the pasuk says he made a very, very strong wind come, and the wind pushed the water—there's a strong wind, you have the waves, and then sometimes very strong—it pushed the water and held the water up from both sides. And it says in Chumash that the wind held up the water all night. So you had to have that wind constantly holding up the water. The wind didn't blow the water up and then go away and let the water stand by itself. Why not? Because the nature of water is to fall. And since you're fighting the nature—see, Hashem could have changed the nature of water and made the water stand, but for some reason didn't want—as long as the nature of water is to fall, and you want it to stand, you have to keep it up. If you let go, it's going to fall down, because the nature is to fall. So you have to constantly hold it up, you can't take it away. The nature of existence is there shouldn't be a world. It's not that the world essentially has to be. Essentially, there's only Hashem. The fact that there is a world, we call is a chiddush, is something that's new, something that's against the true nature, in quotations, of existence. Existence doesn't need a world. So therefore, in order for a world to exist, you have to constantly keep it up. The truth is, the Alter Rebbe really didn't have to bring an example of Keriat Yam Suf. He could have brought this example. See, this cup? That's what he could have said. See this cup? This cup has water in it. Why is the water standing up when the nature of water is to fall? It's because there are walls holding it up in the cup. And you have to have the walls of the cup constantly. The moment you crack the wall, it'll automatically fall, because naturally this should fall, and you're holding it up. So you have to constantly hold it up. You can't say, well, put water in a glass, and then take the glass away and let the water stand. Say, you put it up, now let it stand! Can't, because naturally it shouldn't stand. The same thing here. Naturally there is no no no world, no creation. So when Hashem created the world yesh me'ayin, a new thing against the nature of what the world is existence is in itself, in its essence, so you constantly have to do it. Anyway, so Hashem constantly recreates the world. When we say He recreates the world, it's the same way as He did it in the beginning of creation. It's just we don't see Him create it again. We call that in חסידות חידוש הישנות. He renews the old, because if He wouldn't, then we wouldn't get older. Everything would be every second would be new. We do get older, time passes, because He is renewing the old. But He is doing it the same way He did it in the beginning. Just like in the beginning, we don't say that He just created it generally, but the details were not created by Hashem. He created every single detail, every little piece of grass, every leaf, every was created by Hashem. Nothing happened by itself. And if a person said it happened by itself, is an apikores! What do you mean that created by it happened by itself without Hashem creating it? Now, since Hashem keeps on creating the world every second, so every second He is creating that little piece of sand, He's creating that little leaf or that little piece of grass. If He is now standing and creating it, so He is taking care of it. So how can I say that this is something that happens by itself, He just takes care of it in a general sense, but not individually, that this is something that's happening, so to speak, by itself? How is it possible to say? There is a deeper explanation of this, but I'm just sticking to this level. In other words, the fact that we know that Hashem is מחדש בטובו בכל יום תמיד מעשה בראשית, renews the creation every second of every little thing, therefore, it is obvious that He takes care of every individual thing, and whatever happens to it, it's Him doing it. When that leaf turns over, at this second that it's turning over, Hashem is creating it, and creating in which way? The second before He created it being down, a second later He creates it on the other side. Who recreated it to be on the other side? Hashem. So obviously, He took care of it, so He is taking care of every little bit, of every little object. So therefore, how can we say that there is no hashgachah peratit, that there is no caring of Hashem to the individual things? Then there's another point here:

what would be a reason to say that Jews He takes care individually, but everything else only generally, not individually? The reason would be very pashut. Why would Hashem really care or lower Himself to take care of a little ant that's crawling on the floor? Jewish people, they're very important, so He takes care of every individual Jew. But here, to take care of whether this ant goes here or this leaf turns around here is beyond, so to speak, Hashem to take care to lower Himself to that, which makes sense. But the question that could be asked is, and to take care of everything generally is not beyond His dignity, so to speak, is not beyond something that He would do? The whole creation of the world is something that's beyond Him. The Zohar uses the term when it talks about the creation of the world that Hashem lowered Himself במילי דהדיוטא, into ordinary things, and it says normally, לאו אורחא דמלכא לאשתעויי במילי דהדיוטא, it's not the normal behavior of a king to get involved in ordinary matters, or certainly low matters. Imagine a king would go off his throne and take a broom and go down the street and sweep the floor. Would the king do that? King wouldn't do it. For Hashem to lower Himself to create the world is worse, less, than the king coming down from his throne and sweeping the floor. So, even when we talk about the world in general and the different things that happen in general beside the individual, whether there's a war here in this country against this country, that is something Hashem does care about. But we say obviously He does, because He created the world. So why would we think that general caring is important, and individual not? They're both not in His level, and they're both equal to Him, so why would He be caring about one, not about the other? And therefore, it makes no sense to divide it. It's similar, not exactly the same, but similar to something else which we spoke about more than once. There's a pasuk in Tehillim, which is in Hallel, and the pasuk in the beginning of Hallel, there's a pasuk that Chassidus has an interesting peshat. The pasuk says like this: רם על כל גוים השם, השם is elevated beyond all nations, על השמים כבודו. Where is His kavod, where is His glory? In Shamayim. מי כהשם אלקינו המגביהי לשבת, who's like Hashem, our God, who picks Himself up to sit down? Then the next pasuk says, המשפילי לראות, He lowers Himself to look בשמים ובארץ, heaven and earth. So Chassidus has a peshat in this is like this, this is a discussion between the goyim and the Yidden. The goyim, who believe in Hashem, and there are many goyim who believe in Hashem, they claim Hashem is very great, and they're right. And they say Hashem is so great that they say, רם על כל גוים השם, השם is so elevated beyond the world, beyond all nations, על השמים כבודו, where is His kavod, where is Hashem's glory? On Shamayim, someplace up there. Why do they say someplace up there? Because up there, in the higher world, is much higher than this low world. So where would Hashem be, this great Hashem, in this low world? Obviously, he's someplace up all the way in, as we would call it, the seventh heaven, all the way up there. We come to them and we say, \"You are wrong.\" Which way are they wrong? They're right! Hashem is so great! \"You're mistaken,\" we tell them. We say, \"המשפילי לראות בשמים ובארץ.\" Hashem lowers himself to look into heaven and earth. What we're telling him is like this: Just like you claim that the earth down here is too low for Hashem, we're telling you that the heavens are also too low for Him. They're both equal! Even to be in the heavens, it's mashpili. It's a hashpalah, he has to lower himself. But for some reason he lowered himself, so why can't he lower himself to this world? You see, their understanding in Hashem is he's so great, but still in a way that other things have some kind of comparison to Him. And therefore, something that's closer that's great is closer to Him, something that's not so great is further away from Him. We know that whatever existence there is is be'ein aruch to Hashem. Be'ein aruch means it has no comparison whatsoever to Hashem. And therefore, when it's be'ein aruch, it makes no difference whether it's low or high. Like to use an example: A thousand dollars is closer to a million than a dollar. True? But if we would be talking about infinity, a million and one are equal to infinity. So, a million is made up of a million ones, but infinity is not made up of infinite ones. The best proof is if you have infinity, it's all theoretical because we don't have it physically, but I'm just using as a mashal, and you would take off one, you wouldn't have with one less. If you take off one from a million, you have a million minus one. But if you have infinity, take So if we look at that way, one and a million are equal to infinity. Hashem is infinite, and everything else, whether it's Shamayim or aretz, are the same to him. And that's why we tell the goyim, you have no understanding in Hashem. You think Hashem is like a million, let's say, for instance, it's like a million. And therefore they say, \"Well, if it's a million, well, what's closer to Him? Heavens, which is like 10,000. But the earth, which is like like five, that's far away.\" We're telling him, \"True, heavens is like a million, the earth is like five, but they're both equal to Him. And they're both mashpili, He comes down to both equally. They're both to lower Himself.\" Which is, by the way, the basis of the difference lehavdil lehavdil between our religion and lehavdil the goyim's religion. Their religion is spiritual. They don't have physical mitzvot to do. And if you say it makes no sense, Hashem cares if you take your strap and you do it this way or you don't put on this strap? Hashem cares if you take these crackers on Pesach night and you bite into them? Hashem is so great! Spiritual things make is the way to serve Hashem. You serve Hashem by meditation, by thinking, but serving God, who is so great and so spiritual, by doing a physical act, they don't believe in that. Why? Because their understanding in God is that He is closer to spirituality than He is to physicality. But we know they're equal He's equal to both. There's a pasuk that says, \"כולם בחכמה עשית.\" You made all with chochmah. Now we know chochmah is chochmah. עשית is asiyah, is doing. They're very far apart, even in a human being. The highest level that a person has is the intellect, and in the intellect, out of all three parts, חכמה בינה דעת, חכמה is the highest. And then you have the emotions, then you have the three levushim we call it, מחשבה דיבור ומעשה, thought, speech, and act, and action. So action is the lowest, chochmah is the highest. And here we're putting it together: כולם בחכמה עשית, You made them all with chochmah. It should have said, \"כולם בחכמה חכמת,\" with chochmah you understood it, or \"כולם במעשה עשית,\" with action you did. \"כולם בחכמה עשית,\" with chochmah you did asiyah you did, doesn't fit. What we're trying to say, it says in Tanya, is we're saying that in comparison to Hashem, chochmah, which is the highest, and asiyah, which is the lowest, are the same. We know that chochmah is much higher than asiyah, but that's all when it's all in comparison to something that was in that category. Certain things which is not in the category, it's all the same. Just to use again an example of something that's not in the category, again in Tanya he says this example: For instance, if someone would come after he heard a great shiur with great thought, comes home and he says, \"You know, I heard such a deep shiur, such a deep thought, that it's so deep you can't even touch it. Would that make sense? It's true what he says, you can't touch it. But it's not in the category of touching or not. Something that's touchable, that's tangible, you could say, well, this you could touch, this you can't touch. But sechel, which is in a different level altogether, so you can't say you can't touch it. Alter Rebbe uses this expression: כל השומע יצחק לי, everyone will laugh when they hear that. It's a joke. But it's true, but it's not in that category at all because that's a different category. Hashem is a different category from שמים and from ארץ. And it's all the same. It's like we say in a vort, Rav Isaac Hamalier was a chassid of the Alter Rebbe, one of the biggest chassidim. His mind was gevaldig. His teacher was Rav Zalman Zezmer. Rav Zalman Zezmer was one of the chassidim of the Alter Rebbe whose mind was unbelievable. The Rebbe Rashab, in one of his maamarim, says there is a concept of a person who has the title חכם בעצם כח חכמתו, a scholar with the essence of the כח of his chochmah. And he says, כמו רב זלמן זעזמער, gives an example of Rav Zalman Zezmer. So, Rav Isaac Hamalier once said, \"You see, Rav Zalman Zezmer is so great that me, my brain, and the brain of the cat are equal in comparison to Rav Zalman Zezmer.\" And he explained himself. \"I don't mean as far away as the cat is from my my intellect, that's how far I am away from him. That's not what I meant,\" he said. \"I mean that we are both equal in comparison to him, because we're in a different category altogether. It's called be'ein erech, bli gevul, it's unlimited, and therefore no comparison.\" Hashem, in comparison to the world, is bli gevul. And therefore it is impossible to say that there is a difference between the כלל or the פרט. See, an individual person, a king, you could say, \"Well, the king will get take care, will get involved in taking care of major issues in his nation, in his country. But to get involved in an individual person, a small whatever he does, does this person has a job or not, that's beyond the king.\" Because the general things are more important, this is less important. But when we talk about Hashem, can we say that the general things are more important and then nothing is important if you look at in comparison, it's nothing important. But we're saying that He for some reason had His desire to do it, to make it, and lower Himself, so why would we think it's a greater descent for Him to get involved in the individual rather than to get involved in the כלל? They're both a descent, and they're both equal when compared to Him. And therefore there is no reason to say that there is only hashgachah on the כלל generally, but there is no hashgachah on the individual. We find other examples to this, but this is the point I'm trying to bring out. So, number one, we must say there is hashgachah pratit besides the fact that it says in the Gemara, and there are other places in מדרשים where we find. But the fact that Hashem creates the world every second, and every detail of the world He keeps on creating, so obviously He's taking care of it. Besides that, there is no reason to even make a difference between the כלל and the פרט. So, if Hashem takes care of it, so He takes care of the פרט. I'm just trying to basically explain those few words that the רבי said to this בחור that, \"I don't understand how there could not be hashgachah pratit. If Hashem cared enough, was important for Him, to make all the different things, so why would it not be important for Him to take care of it? This is what it means. If He's made, so He's making it now, so He's taking care of it.\" And why is it less important, the פרט, the individual thing, than the כלל? And therefore we come to a conclusion, this is what the Baal Shem Tov said and this is what's accepted, that hashgachah of Hashem is in everything, in every detail of everything. And not only, as I said before, everything in its own right, but everything as part of the major plan that Hashem has in the whole creation of time and space and all the years together and Hashem has this plan. Every little thing is taken care of by Hashem as part of the plan.

Nevertheless, after all is said and done, the Baal Shem Tov adds another point, which many people are not aware of. Everyone knows that hashgachah pratit and everything is hashgachah pratit, everything in the world, everything in the world, every leaf, hashgachah pratit. There's one more point the Baal Shem Tov says, and that is that when it comes to Jews, to the יידן, he says the type of hashgachah pratit that we have on the יידן, the Baal Shem Tov, it's in the Frierdiker Rebbe brings it down in Yiddish, well, I'll say it in I'll say it in Yiddish. He says, Ken men zich nisht forshteln, men ken dos nisht farshteyn. You can't imagine it and you can't understand it. In other words, what he's saying here is that even though everything is hashgachah pratit, but the hashgachah pratit on יידן is much more than the hashgachah pratit on everything else in the world. Now, at first glance, what we would think that he means to say is that there's a difference in how revealed it is, because not everything that Hashem does is revealed. We say everything is השגחה פרטית, but it's not revealed to We don't see what is the reason in Hashem's mind why the leaf should turn over from this side to this side. So we might think that what he means to say is that in the world the השגחה פרטית is not so revealed, but when it comes to Jews, it is more revealed! That is true, too. But he means more than that. It's actually Hashem's connection and Hashem's getting involved and taking care is more when it comes to the Jews than to everything else. In other words, we're not saying like we think or people think that Rambam said that there is no השגחה פרטית on other things. We're saying there is. He takes care of everything, and nevertheless, he takes care more when it comes to the Jews. What is the meaning behind it? So the Rebbe explains it like this. There is a difference in the need Hashem has in everything in the world in comparison to the need Hashem has the Jews. Why does Hashem need the world? Now, we don't know why, but what is it that he needed? He needed the world for the sake of the Jews, for the sake of the Torah. That's what it says. In the beginning of Chumash it says, בראשית ברא אלקים את השמים ואת הארץ, in the beginning Hashem created heaven and earth, and Rashi says בראשית means בשביל ישראל ובשביל התורה. The world was created because of the Yid, because of the Torah. Why are there Yidden? Why is there a creation of Yidden? For not not for any specific reason of something else. Hashem wants the Yidden on their own right, just for themselves. The Gemara says this. The Gemara says that everything in the world was created לשמשני, to serve us, to serve the human being, which all includes to serve the Yid. So everything in the world is there to serve the Yid. ואני נבראתי לשמש את קוני, and I was there created for nothing else but to serve Hashem. So Hashem's need, so to speak, for everything else in the world is for a specific reason, for something else. And Hashem's need for us is not for something else. And the difference is, when there is a need in something for something else, not everything plays the same role. Some things are more important, some things are less important. Like the example we gave from this balaboste, the lashon in in in Chassidus is עקרת הבית the balaboste who sets up her breakfront with all her maaselech and tshatshkelech, and she has a cheshbon for every little thing, and everything she takes care of. Nevertheless, there itself, there are certain things which are more important to her, certain things less. It doesn't take away from the fact that each takes care, but everything she does, nothing that she did without a cheshbon, but certain things she takes extra special care because this is something that's more important. So there are differences. But that's all the differences you can make between one thing and another is all when it is for a certain reason. So it depends, how much does this serve the purpose? If there's a whole there's a purpose, there's a goal, this serves the goal, this is much more important, this is less important. It's important, but it's less. Like in a person. Take, for instance, a human being. A human being is made up of a lot of parts, and every part is important, and a person takes care of every part: your hands, and your feet, and your head, and your heart, and everything. Nevertheless, in the person there are more important parts than others. And certain parts you would take care with extra special care, and other one you wouldn't care so much, even though there's nothing that happens there without you taking care of it, but still they are more important. But that's all when there's for a certain reason. But if something is there because in essence this is what he wants, not because of its function, but there is an essential need for whatever reason in this, that is something that there is no difference between one and another. Therefore, in Jews there is no difference between a tzaddik and another not a tzaddik in this level of השגחה, because that's a difference in how much he does his job. But in the fact that he's needed, that's all the same. Like we always give a mashal of a father and a son and a child, a mother and a child. A child behaves, the parents are happy. Not behave, chas veshalom, the parents are unhappy. But it doesn't change at all the fact this is his this his or hers child. That can never be changed. That's a fact. That's beyond any behavior. The Yidden, their connection to Hashem is beyond their behavior. Therefore, we say ישראל אף על פי שחטא ישראל הוא, a Yid even if he sinned, he's still a Yid, because the fact that he's a Yid, that is an essential connection to Hashem. Hashem chose us because he wants us, not because he wants a job that we will do. He gave us a job also. We're not denying that, and we must do the job, there's no question about it. Just like a child must behave, and if not, parents are unhappy, and who knows what they'll do to him. But the fact is a child, that's he's there anyway, whether it's there or not. It's a child with a job, but the child is there. We are wanted by Hashem, we are there, Hashem has His bechirah, chose us, and wants us. And therefore, when it comes to Yidden, the hashgachah is not in the same way it is to everything else. To everything else, when we say Hashem takes care of, let's analyze for a moment, we have another just a few moments, when we say Hashem takes care of everything in the world, everything is there for a purpose, and He takes care of it, and it all fits into that purpose what He that He has in mind. What role does everything else, all the other things in the world, play in that general master plan that He has? As a means to an end. Hashem has something in mind, this and and and it's needed, but as a means to an end. Therefore, it's important, but it's important only as much as it will fit to the plan. By Jews, it is not because there is a plan and it has to fit to the plan. We are in essence something that Hashem wants, and therefore, we are something that Hashem takes care in a way that He puts Himself closer to us. So as much as it is not the way people think according to the Rambam that by Yidden there is hashgachah peratit and by everything else in the world there isn't, and we come and say, no, we know the Baal Shem Tov said it's not so, and obviously that's not what the Rambam meant, Hashem takes care of everything by hashgachah peratit. So some people think, well in that case, it means everything, not only the Jews, but everything, so everybody is the same. It is not so. As much as we say everything is by hashgachah peratit, but the Yidden are different. By the Yidden, because they are in a different category altogether. They this is the only being that is there for no reason, I don't mean for no reason, but not for something else, that is there for itself, and therefore the caring that Hashem has is something for itself. See other things that's there for a reason, what happens if for some for some reason that object does stop serving the purpose? What would the what would a baal habayis'te do when she sees something and this doesn't serve its purpose? So throw it away, she doesn't need it anymore. What happens if there is something that essentially is part of this person? There's no such thing as say get rid of it. Whether it serves a purpose or not, that's the person himself. And this is what we are, we are one with Hashem. So therefore, there is even a greater hashgachah peratit, but not chas veshalom that other things are not hashgachah peratit.

I do want to add one point, that when we talk about hashgachah peratit, there is only one type where there would have been a possibility there shouldn't be hashgachah peratit, and that's a person. See, funkt the opposite of what see, like this you say that Yidden have a special hashgachah peratit. Yidden, by Yidden there is a possibility to say that there isn't, because we have free choice. Free choice means that we choose, not Hashem makes us do it. Now we don't want to get into this whole subject, but it seems like those things that we have free choice about, which is Torah and mitzvot, anything that has to do with good or bad, Hashem takeh doesn't take care. He works, He makes it happen according to our choice. If a person chooses to do an aveirah, so that moment that he does the aveirah, God forbid, his hand is doing something, is מחלל שבת, what's making his hand exist that second, what's making his hand move? Hashem. So Hashem is making it move the wrong way, is making it move by turning the fire on? We say no, Hashem lets us choose, and if we choose to do it, He will work with us even though it's against His will. It's the only thing where there is no hashgacha, but not because Hashem cannot do the hashgacha, He could, but He decided that this is something He will leave to us. There is a higher level which I don't understand, the Rebbe explains it, and I never understood it, that there is a that even that is also hashgacha. The fact that we choose it is still connected to Hashem, and He makes it happen. How it works together, I really don't know, so I'm not going to try to explain it when I don't know myself. But as simple understood is that when it comes to things which we have free choice, Hashem does not make it happen. We make it happen. He helps, He does it for us because we can't do anything our own, He makes it exist, but based on our choice. The other problem is not a problem, the famous problem of ידיעה and בחירה, not hashgacha that Hashem makes things happen, how does that fit with free choice, but the fact that Hashem knows what's going to happen. Some people ask that question too. The Rambam has that question. That's a contradiction to choice, if Hashem knows what I'm going to do, so how do I have a choice to do differently? So there is no choice. And the Rambam says that it's a very deep question and there is no way we can answer it, we can't understand it. And the Raavad says, I don't understand First of all, the Raavad says, I don't understand the Rambam, if he had no answer, why'd he ask the question? So he says, לא נהג כמנהג המחברים he says. The Rambam you didn't The Raavad always writes very sharp against the Rambam in everything. So here he writes, you didn't behave like a normal author. You only write things that you know. If you don't know, don't don't don't get don't get involved. Why'd you write it? But he said, I'll explain it, and his explanation is very simple. He says, Hashem knows what you're going to choose, but He's not forcing your your choice. He knows ahead of time what you're going to choose. Imagine if you have a human being who is a יודע מחשבות, a person who knows the future who could read minds, or knows the future, יודע עתידות, knows the future, and knows that tomorrow this and this person will choose. Does that affect his choice? I know what you're going to choose. So he chose, but I know beforehand. It's the same thing with Hashem. Hashem knows beforehand what you're going to choose. So he's not making the person do it. He's just Hashem is beyond time, so he now knows as if it happened already, so just like when I know something that happened after it happened, it didn't affect his choice, by Hashem he knows before, exactly the same way, but the person chose. And I'll just finish off, and this illustrates it, the maaseh with with the with the Rabbi Yonatan Eibeshitz, with the famous maaseh, but I'll finish with that story which in this point. That the king once asked Rabbi Yonatan Eibeshitz, this he was very friendly with the king, he asked him this question, \"How can you say there is free choice when Hashem knows everything that's going to happen?\" So Rabbi Yonatan Eibeshitz says to him, \"I'll show you. That knowing doesn't affect the choice.\" And he says to the king, \"I know that in 2 weeks you have to visit a certain city, and that city has two gates to enter, there is a big gate and a small gate, and you have a choice to go through whichever gate you want. I'm telling you, I know now which gate you're going to enter through, and you'll tell me later if you had a choice or not.\" Took a piece of paper, wrote down something, and sealed it, and they put it away, locked it up. Two weeks later, the king went with his whole entourage, and came to the city, and they all expected to come through the big gate, so they decorated everything. The king came with everybody there. About to enter the gate, the king says, \"Stop.\" Didn't know what happened. \"Stop.\" And he starts thinking to himself, \"Rabbi Yonatan Eibeshitz was sure that I'm going to go through the big gate. Where else would the king go? I'm going to show him he's wrong. Let's go through the other one.\" He tells, \"Let's go around.\" Everyone thought he became a meshuga. They went all around. They came to the other gate, to the small gate. They're about to enter, he says, \"Stop.\" And he starts thinking to himself, \"I'm sure he was as smart as I am, and he was sure that I'm going to specially show him I'm going to go through the small one. I'll show him. I'll go through the big one.\" \"Everybody, let's go back.\" They all They all went back to the big gate, and they're coming to the gate, and they came to the big gate, \"Stop.\" \"Well, probably he knew that I'm going to do this, because it's so that's all I'll show him. I'll go back.\" He went back and forth. He couldn't make up his mind. And he felt, thinking to himself, \"Do I have choice? You bet I have a choice. I can't make up my mind. I can't.\" Finally, he said, \"What should I do?\" A brilliant idea came to his mind. Calls over some people, and he says, \"I want you to break through, make another gate in the wall someplace else.\" So they went, you know, right away, they broke through a gate, and he went with them through this new wall through a new gate in the wall. And he came on the other side, and he said, \"Now I showed,\" because always never he had a dispute or an argument with Rabbi Yonatan, he always won. Said, \"This time, I showed him that he's not going to know.\" So said, \"Bring the piece of paper.\" Opened the piece of paper. Rabbi Yonatan Eibeshitz quoted a Gemara, just wrote a line that the Gemara says. The Gemara says, \"מלך פורץ גדר ואין מוחין בידו.\" A king could break through a wall, and no one could stop him. The Gemara says that. So, they brought Rabbi Yonatan Eibeshitz, and Rabbi Yonatan Eibeshitz said, \"Now tell me, did my knowledge ahead of time affect your choice?\" He said, \"You bet it didn't. I couldn't make up my mind.\" He says, \"That's exactly what it is. If you have if you know what you're going to choose, it doesn't mean anything. What is a contradiction is hashgacha. If Hashem takes care of it, makes it happen, at the same time says, 'You choose,' that's a contradiction. So we say, those things that Hashem decided He's not going to force you, He says, 'Yes, I'll leave it up to you.' But anything else that even by a Yid that has nothing to do with Torah u'mitzvot, with good or bad, it's Hashem makes it happen, or anything else in the world, Hashem makes it happen because Hashem recreates it, and every second He takes care of it. And therefore, based on this, there's another thing which we're not going to get into, the Baal Shem Tov says that since everything is hashgacha pratit, Hashem makes it happen, that's why everything is a lesson to us. Everything you see in the world is to teach us something, because Hashem made it happen. Hashem made it happen, it's something, and if you see it, it's hashgacha pratit. Not only did it happen, but you saw it, you have to take a lesson. So that's a separate class to find out what lessons do we take from different things. Okay. Any questions? I started something last week. We're going to start emailing everybody