The way the Ba’al Shem Tov explained these two verses calls upon one of the foundations of Divine Providence.
“...You shall go to the place on which Havayah your God will choose.” A Jew must know that when he goes from one place to another, it is not that he is going, but rather that he is being led from above, and the intent is, “to rest His name there,” meaning to publicize the Divine Presence in the place where he is.
When the Ba’al Shem Tov repeated this teaching, he added:
“You shall go to the place... to rest His name there”—you must exercise mesirut nefesh [self-sacrifice] to rest the Divine Presence there. How does one publicize the Divine Presence? By reciting a blessing and with a verse from Psalms.
Here, there is a special emphasis on Divine Providence over a person’s walking, following the verse, “The steps of a man are established by God, and He desires his path,” which describes this exact situation whereby God leads the person to fulfill a mission—to make a blessing, to say a verse, or to perform a mitzvah, and elevate the sparks waiting in a specific place. This is not about repentance, equanimity, or prayer—all of which are considered Divine service relative to Divine Providence—but about the recognition that Providence sends the person on a mission.
Even when the person finds himself traveling for the purpose of business or some other reason, he should know that the mundane goal is not God’s inner intent; the revealed goal is only an exterior garment, cloaking what God truly wants from the individual, which is to illuminate the place they arrive at and publicize the Divine Presence there.
We have in the past taught about the “reasons” or “causes” (תֹסִבּו) that Rebbe Asher Freund would speak of often. This is the origin of this notion in his thought. In Rebbe Asher’s language, everything that God does is an external “cause” or “reason” meant to be uncloaked and God’s true will be discovered inside.
Here, Divine Providence is specifically associated with the feet, in the person's walking, and therefore we can identify two additional elements. First, the vessel or instrument with which one can sense Divine Providence in general, and specifically in the context of “the law of the Land” (דִּינָא דְּמַלְכוּתָא) of the Kingdom of Heaven, is lowliness (ִפְלוּתשׁ). It would seem that the instrument for sensing Divine Providence when walking (i.e., traveling) is modesty, as it says, “And walk humbly with your God.” The more a person practices walking with humility, the more they understand the Divine Purpose of their journey.
Walking requires both feet, which correspond to the sefirot of victory (netzach) and acknowledgment (hod). According to Kabbalah, it is the left foot, the sefirah of acknowledgment, that exercises control over the sense of walking, a concept captured in the verse, “When one walks with earnestness [the inner experience of acknowledgment] one walks confidently [the inner experience of victory]” (בְּתֹם הוֹלֵ� יֵלֵ� בֶּטַח).
Earlier, we presented the 5 verses of repentance taught by Rebbe Zusha. The focus then on the verses, “I have set Havayah before me always” and “In all your ways know Him.” Now the focus is on another of Rebbe Zusha’s verses of repentance, “You shall be earnest with Havayah your God” (“The one who walks with simplicity”)—relating directly to the verse, “When one walks with earnestness....”
