I will treat you with the fury of chance. (Vayikra 26:28)
Some people think things happen by chance.
The Rambam writes:
It is a positive Biblical mitzvah to cry out and sound bugles over any trouble that comes upon the public, as it says רַּצַל הַ עתֹרְצֹצֲחַּם בֶתֹעֵרֲהַם וֶכְתֶר אֵרֹּצַה – “Over the calamity that troubles you, you shall blast the bugles.”
And if not?
But if they don’t cry out and don’t sound the bugles, but rather say that this is a natural event that occurred to us, and the trouble came by chance, this is the way of cruelty. It causes them to stick to their evil deeds. It will intensify the trouble and bring other troubles. About this it says in the Torah םֶכָּמִי עִּתְכַלָהְי וִרֶקְּי בִּמִם עֶּתְכַלֲהַ ויִרֶת קַמֲחַּב – “If you treat Me with chance, I will treat you with the fury of chance.”
In other words, if I bring upon you trouble so you will do teshuvah, and you say it is by chance, I will add fury to that “chance.”
The Rambam said attributing troubles to chance is “the way of cruelty.” This needs to be explained. Who is it cruel to?
The common explanation is that people who attribute troubles to chance are being cruel to themselves, because they are causing themselves more and worse troubles than they already have. But if so, why is it specifically here that they are called cruel? Every sin brings severe punishment!
Besides that, it is not normal for people to knowingly cause themselves troubles. On the contrary, people usually protect themselves as best they can. It must be that here, they lost awareness and didn’t know what they were doing. Why would this be called called cruelty?
Because we are not talking here about atheists who don’t even know Who created them. Such people would not be described as cruel but as lacking in basic knowledge and understanding. We are talking about people who know that the world has a Creator, but think that the troubles they are experiencing did not come from G-d to awaken them to repentance; the troubles just happened by chance, because G-d lets things happen randomly in the world.
This attitude is incredibly cruel; so says the Rambam. Hashem left the world to run by chance? Randomly? Hashem created a world full of dangers, and threw everyone into it, to suffer whatever fate just happens to come their way? This would be like taking a thousand people and banishing them to a forest full of predatory animals, without giving them a way to protect themselves. Whoever happens to get eaten alive, tough luck.
How could anyone attribute such an act to Hakadosh Baruch Hu?!
A person who thinks this way must be cruel himself. He is capable of doing such a thing, so he attributes it to others as well. If he wasn’t cruel himself, he would not attribute such a thing to others, and certainly not to the All-Merciful Creator.
This is similar to what the Rambam wrote about Bilaam, who had a nefesh rechavah, meaning that he was a baal taavah, he was inordinately desirous. How do we know that Bilaam was a baal taavah? Because if not that he had this trait himself, he never would have advised others to do such a thing. (This refers to the incident with the women of Moav.)
This can be applied to our subject as well. If not that a person is capable of acting so cruelly himself, he never would attribute it to his Creator.
But someone who is merciful knows that the world is full of mercy, and the world’s inhabitants were not tossed into a forest of chance. So if trouble comes his way, it must be on purpose, for his own good, so he will wake up and better his ways.
