One of the important allusions regarding our current year, 5785, which is fast coming to its end, is that in its Hebrew form, תשפה, it stands for “May this be a year of personal Providence” (יתִטָרְפּהָחָּגְׁשַהתַנְׁשאֵהְּת). Over the past year, HaRav Ginsburgh has taught repeatedly about the topic of personal Divine Providence in Chasidic thought. Here we bring you the sixth installment of his teachings on the subject. The first five parts were printed in Wonders issues 145, 146, 147, 160, and 161.
This is the final article in the series on the Ba’al Shem Tov’s teachings on personal Divine Providence.
A Partzuf of Personal Divine Providence
In this series of articles on personal Divine Providence in the Ba’al Shem Tov’s teachings, we have seen many different aspects of the issue. As is our custom, let us now collect all these aspects and order them in a partzuf by corresponding each to one of the sefirot. Doing so will provide us with a quick review, help us truly understand each aspect, and once the partzuf is complete, help us memorize them. Finally, ordering different elements or perspectives into a partzuf is the best method for seeing the coherence in a topic.
Rosh Hashanah: The Day of Divine Providence
The first teaching we learned emphasized the dependence between pure faith in God Himself alone and faith in Divine Providence. This, as we saw, is the secret of the prophetic mention of seeking “Havayah their God and David, their king,” where seeking David is akin to having faith in seeing personal Divine Providence in life. The fact that the prophet ties this with King David, whose essential character trait was his lowliness, stresses that to be mindful of personal Divine Providence, we first need to seek to mimic King David’s lowliness. King David is also the master of all penitents, from which we learn that to become sensitive to the fact that all of God’s judgments are demonstrations of compassion, we too need to be penitents—ba’alei teshuvah. All these concepts converge in the meaning and spiritual work connected with Rosh HaShanah.
Indeed, the main verse in the Torah that describes God’s personal Divine Providence is “A land which Havayah your God looks after, the eyes of Havayah, your God, are always upon it, from the beginning of the year until the end of the year” (Deuteronomy 11:12).
Awareness of personal Divine Providence renews specifically on Rosh HaShanah—“from the beginning of the year.” The word “beginning” (יתִׁשֵר) is missing the letter alef (א), but because of that it can be permuted to spell “Tishrei” (יֵרְׁשִּת). The missing alef also hints to the sense of deficiency and the lowliness it promotes, the necessary instruments for fostering our awareness of personal Divine Providence. More explicitly, the deficiency felt on Rosh HaShanah has to do with the concealment of the moon, as Rosh HaShanah is the first day of the lunar month, as the verse says, “Blow the shofar on the new moon, when it is concealed,” referring to the diminished moon (a symbol for the notion of lowliness that is the trait of the moon—the sefirah of kingdom). The verse continues, “our festival,” and the sages ask, “What festival takes place when the moon is hidden? That is Rosh HaShanah.” Rosh HaShanah is the only festival that takes place on the first day of a lunar month strengthening its essential connection with lowliness and thus promoting our awareness of personal Divine Providence.
On Rosh Hashanah, the sixth day of creation, a deep sleep fell upon Adam for the purpose of separating Eve—the mystery of the severing (הָירִסְּנַדהֹסו), part of which is the secret of the construction of the sefirah of kingdom. This process is repeated every year. The special commandment of Rosh HaShanah is the sounding of the shofar to awaken us from our slumber, akin to a type of “pinch” that arouses us to do teshuvah, i.e., to return to God. The ultimate goal of teshuvah—starting with lower-level teshuvah (הָאָּתַּהתָבּוׁשְּת), which is driven by fear of sovereignty that leads to an acceptance of the yoke of Heaven’s sovereignty—is that we cleave to God and seek the rule of the House of David, the secret of the construction of the sefirah of kingdom on Rosh Hashanah.
It is said about Rosh HaShanah that “the law of the kingdom is the law.” The two instances of “law” (אָינִּד) in this idiom refer to two forms of judgment, harsh and lenient. On the first day of Rosh HaShanah, God judges more harshly, but on the second He is more lenient. In fact, the harshness of the first day transforms into the leniency of the second, or in the metaphor used by the sages, after hearing the shofar blows, God rises from His seat of harsh judgment, as it were, and moves over to His seat of lenient judgment. The harshness transforms into compassion, as it says, “Elokim [God’s Name of harsh judgment] ascends with the blast of the shofar, Havayah [God’s Name of compassion] with the sound of the shofar.”
When the Holy Blessed One ascends and sits on the throne of judgment, He ascends in judgment, as it is written “Elokim ascends with the blast of the shofar.” But once the Jewish people take the shofar and blow it, the Holy Blessed One stands up from the throne of judgment and sits on the throne of mercy, as it is written “Elokim ascends with the blast of the shofar,” and He fills them with compassion, having mercy on them, and He immediately transforms the attribute of judgment into the attribute of mercy.
The Service of Yom Kippur
Continuing along the same line, let us correspond the second teaching about personal Divine Providence from the Ba’al Shem Tov, to the service of Yom Kippur. The salient and novel point of the second teaching was that awareness of God’s Providence brings one to a state of equanimity (תּוּוַּתְׁשִה), and from there one can attain the service known as “In all your ways, know Him” (ּהוֵעָּדיךֶכָרְּלדָכְּב). Furthermore, one should pray that to merit seeing personal Divine Providence and understand that everything that happens is for one’s benefit.
This corresponds to our service on Yom Kippur. On the holiest day of the year, we reach the recognition that everything is God (א ה'ּל הוֹכַּה), a recognition that leads to a state of equanimity. Yom Kippur is described as:
A day without eating, without drinking, without bathing, without applying oils or ointments, without marital relations, without leather shoes. A day for love and friendship, a day to abandon envy and rivalry.
Yom Kippur is a day that promotes equanimity. Tzaddikim say that on Yom Kippur, who needs to eat? Similarly, all five things we forbid on Yom Kippur, from this perspective of equanimity, are not afflictions at all. In fact, from a state of equanimity, the fasting on Yom Kippur manifests the words of the verse, “to vitalize them through hunger” meaning that the hunger itself adds vitality and pleasure. This vitality is in fact the pleasure of the World to Come, which in our present reality is revealed through the rectification of the covenant—the organ of pleasure and procreation—one of the central themes of Yom Kippur, which ends up providing us with the strength to attain the service of “In all your ways, know Him.” Of course, Yom Kippur is also a day entirely dedicated to prayer—the only day when we pray five prayers—where the ultimate goal of prayer is to see God’s beneficent Providence over us.
Constructing a Partzuf of Providence: Crown and Knowledge
In terms of sefirot, the two major principles from the Ba’al Shem Tov we began with and which correspond to Rosh HaShanah and to Yom Kippur, correspond to crown (keter) and knowledge (da’at), which are then mirrored in foundation (yesod) and kingdom (malchut). First, the highest aspect of the crown (known as the Unknowable Head, Radla) is faith, which is then mirrored in kingdom (the deep meaning of “I am first [crown] and I am last [kingdom].” Isaiah 44:6). On Rosh HaShanah this mirroring is expressed through the spiritual work of coronating God.
The equanimity filled with the supreme pleasure corresponds to the middle aspect of the crown (the Head of Nothingness, Reisha DeAyin, which in Chasidut is known as the source of supernal pleasure), which is then revealed in the sefirah of knowledge (da’at), i.e., in our consciousness and from there extends to the sefirah of foundation (the faculty of interconnection among the heart’s emotive powers) and rectifies it.
This promotes the state of “In all your ways, know Him” mentioned above. The prayers we say on Yom Kippur themselves correspond to the sefirah of kingdom (malchut), which is the secret of “And I am prayer,” spoken by King David.
Victory and Acknowledgment: Walking from Place to Place
The third teaching on personal Divine Providence we saw was about seeing God’s guidance when we travel and walk from place to place. This teaching clearly corresponds to the sefirot of victory and acknowledgment, which correspond to the two feet.
Might: Divine Providence in Deficiencies
The fourth teaching was about seeing personal Divine Providence even in those things that are lacking (which then requires us to make up for them) corresponds to the sefirah of might since lack refers to negation and contraction. Whenever there is a lack that needs to be made up for, it calls upon us to muster our might and overcome the situation. A lack or contraction creates an emptiness (symbolized by an embossed seal) which arouses the individual to fill the void (and respond with an engraved seal).
Beauty: The Whole Picture
The fifth teaching on personal Divine Providence from the Ba’al Shem Tov that we saw involved seeing every event in a wider context, thereby connecting the parts with the whole. This teaching corresponds to the sefirah of beauty (tiferet), which unites all the various details into a unified picture. It was with respect that this teaching that we saw four levels of awareness and sensitivity to personal Divine Providence, which we ordered as they correspond to the four letters of God’s essential Name, Havayah, which is expressed in its most complete form in the beauty.
Beauty lies on the middle axis of the sefirot and right above it is knowledge (da’at), which is considered its soul. Since knowledge is divided into two aspects known as higher and lower knowledge, we find that a sensitivity to personal Divine Providence without an awareness of its implications for all the other details corresponds to lower knowledge while the ability to perceive the unification of everything to the higher intent and the consciousness that all is one corresponds to higher knowledge.
Noting this parallel with the sefirah of knowledge, we can elaborate some more on what it takes to perceive the total intent of reality. The verse from which we learn that there are two levels of knowledge is, “God is a God of [forms of] knowledge and He does [not] plan His actions.” The reason the word “not” is in square brackets is because there is a difference between how the verse is written (the ketiv) and how it is read (the kri). The oral reading of the verse is, “and He does plan His actions.” The written version reads, “and He does not plan His works.” This discrepancy between the oral and written versions of the verse is the basis for another important observation made in Kabbalah and Chasidut. It suggests that there are not only two forms of knowledge, but that one of them is concealed, the other revealed, and both act as the soul of beauty.
Higher knowledge illuminates the top third of beauty, which is concealed from consciousness. This top third is known as the secret of the Tree of Life whose fruit, when consumed, does not lead to consciousness of self. When the ego is concealed, there remains only a recognition of the good Divine intention in everything that occurs.
Lower knowledge is clothed in the two lower thirds of beauty which are revealed and are the secret of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which represents self-consciousness. Lower knowledge perceives that there is both good and evil in Divine Providence.
Atik and Arich: Causes and Reasons
The next teaching we saw about personal Divine Providence from the Ba’al Shem Tov was about the cause and effect involved in everything that occurs. We saw there that Divine Providence has two origins, one called the distant surrounding light (קֹחוָיף רִּקַמ), the other called the near or close surrounding light (בֹרוָיף קִּקַמ). Two different words that mean “cause” are used to designate the effect of these two origins. The first can be translated as just “cause” (הָּבִס) the second, to simplify can be translated as “reason” (הָּלִע). Using our convention, the origin of “causes” is in the distant surrounding light, and the origin of “reasons” is in the near surrounding light. The first can be identified as what influences the “object” (אָצְפֶח) and the second as what influences the “subject” (אָרְבַּג) of any element in Creation. The former is the masculine dimension of reality, the latter, its feminine dimension. Finally, when corresponding them to the sefirot, the far-surrounding, masculine, objective cause belongs to Atik, the higher aspect of the crown, and the near-surrounding, feminine, subjective reason belongs to Arich, the crown’s lower aspect.
Yisrael Saba: The Small Things
Another teaching was on personal Divine Providence on the smallest things, which corresponds to the partzuf in Kabbalah known as Yisrael-Saba, who watches over Ze’ir Anpin (the Small Countenance). As Jacob (who is Yisrael Saba) prayed in his prayer about God’s providence over him: “I have become small as a result of all the loving-kindness [You have showed me]” (יםִדָסֲחַל הָכִּי מִּתְנֹטָק), which is the source of all smallness.
Loving-Kindness: Finding Providence in Others
Yet another teaching was about seeing personal Divine Providence when two people meet. The sense of Divine Providence specifically in meetings between people that are close and care for one another corresponds to the sefirah of loving-kindness (chesed), whose inner core is love. The ability to learn something from every individual, including a non-Jew, suggests that when meeting him, I can uncover that he was sent by God as a messenger to teach me something about my service of God. Seeing this and utilizing it properly depends on the amount of love I have for the Divine spark within. In fact, the Divine spark is exactly the subject of what I am meant to learn from the individual.
Understanding: Nurturing Providence
In last week’s issue of Wonders, we covered the Ba’al Shem Tov’s core teaching of “a man’s soul will teach him,” whereby everything we hear is meant to guide and instruct us, if we are able to understand it properly. This is a maternal dimension of personal Divine Providence because it is intended to nurture the character of the individual being watched over. Being that it is nurturing and caring, it obviously corresponds to the Mother principle and the sefirah of understanding (binah), which is obviously nurturing.
Wisdom: Providence Through Torah
The final teaching from the Ba’al Shem Tov regarding personal Divine Providence centered on the role that learning Torah has in bringing us to recognize God’s hand in all that happens. In fact, the essential role of learning the Torah’s inner dimension and making the Torah, “My Torah,” is itself the belief in and feeling of Divine Providence (which keeps us from being forsaken by God). This teaching corresponds to the higher father principle, the higher aspect of the sefirah of wisdom. Indeed, “Torah emerges from wisdom.” This is the level of what we liken to the Torah’s oil, the deepest secrets of the Torah. The gematria of “Secrets of Torah” (הָרֹוי תֵזָר), equals Tzafnat Pa’aneach" (ַחֵנְעַת פַּנְפָצ), meaning “he who uncovers the concealed, suggesting that the study of the Torah’s secrets is what makes it possible to understanding the Divine Providence.
It is specifically through learning the Torah’s inner dimension, from a place of self-nullification, that the depth—the inner essence of Divine Providence, which is the secret intent behind all that occurs—is revealed. Lowliness is the tool for revealing the literal level of Divine Providence—the reality that nothing happens by chance, and that everything is Divine Providence from God to fulfill the overall intent of creation and my own personal rectification. But only through self-nullification can one access the internal message of the Divine will.
To Conclude
We have drawn correspondences between the teachings of the Ba’al Shem Tov on personal Divine Providence and the sefirot, and we have had to make do with a short explanation for each aspect, all in the spirit of “Give to the wise, and he will grow even wiser.”
Notes:
1. Deuteronomy 11:12.
2. Psalms 81:4.
3. Rosh HaShanah 8a.
4. Psalms 47:6.
5. See Tzava’at HaRivash (Kehot: 1998) §2-3: “...no matter what happens, whether people praise or shame you, and so too with anything else, it is all the same to you.... Whatever may happen, say that ‘it comes from God and if it is proper in His eyes....”
6. Proverbs 3:6.
7. Quoted by Rabbi Isaac of Homil as a Chasidic idiom in Chanah Ariel (Berditchev: 1902), addendum 4b. This idiom is based on Abraham calling out to the whole world, in the name of God, who he calls “Kel Olam” (םָלֹ־ל עוֵא), which should be translated as “God-world.” God is not as we might expect “the God of the world,” which in Hebrew would read “Kel HaOlam” (םָלֹעוָ־ל הֵא). Meaning that according to Abraham’s call, God and the world are virtually identical. See more in Wonders issue 154, p. 5.
8. From the Yom Kippur liturgy.
9. Isaiah 44:6.
10. In the Torah, this pleasure is alluded to by the description of Yom Kippur as “Shabbat Shabbaton” (Leviticus 16:31).
11. The confessions of Yom Kippur, which according to the Rambam are the primary act of teshuvah we do on the holy day. They serve to draw our intellect—specifically our sefirah of understanding—down into the sefirah of foundation, since the most important rectification we perform on Yom Kippur is that of our procreative drive.
12. Psalms 109:4.
13. See Wonders, issue 147, p. 11.
14. Wonders, issue 160, p. 3ff.
15. See Eitz Chaim 44:6. Torah Or (Noach) 10b.
16. 2 Samuel 2:3. See Eitz Chaim 25:2. Siddur Im Dach, s.v. Mizmor LeTodah (44a).
17. Wonders, issue 160, p. 5ff.
18. Proverbs 9:9.
