Hashem’s Hashgachoh Extends Even Over the Birds
In His boundless chessed, Hashem watches over us. Am Yisrael are not at all subject to the influence of the mazalos – if, and only if, we do not attribute events to happenstance. If someone says something like, “He died because he was so old,” or, “The people who died in that fire in Barcelona just happened to be there when a wagonful of gun powder exploded,” that person will not merit Hashem’s hashgachah pratis.
In truth, every member of Klal Yisrael is an entire world, because each person has three angels – one on his right, one on his left, and a third overhead. Each angel is one-third of a world; thus, every Yid constitutes an entire world. How can it be that Hashem would destroy worlds haphazardly, without an explicit decision to do so?
Rambam states in Moreh Nevuchim that Hashem watches over every individual human being with hashgachah pratis, whereas His hashgachah over animals and birds is for the general preservation of each species as a whole, but not for each individual animal or bird.
Ramban disagrees.
Midrash Rabbah (Vayishlach 77:7) tells us that when Rabi Shimon bar Yochai left the cave after many years, he saw a hunter trying to trap a bird. A Bas Kol came forth saying, “This one will not be trapped,” and that bird escaped unharmed. Then, regarding a different bird, a Bas Kol announced, “This one will be trapped,” and indeed, the hunter managed to catch it. Rabi Shimon bar Yochai then declared, “We see that without a heavenly decree, a bird cannot be trapped.”
The Ya’aros Devash (Drush 6) explains that at first Rabi Shimon bar Yochai thought that, as Rambam held, there is no hashgachah pratis for individual birds. But then he perceived that this was not the case; there is specific hashgachah on each bird, so that without a heavenly decree, it cannot be caught.
