ATONEMENT FOR SINS
The foundation for the Ba’al Shem Tov’s approach to Divine Providence appears in the following teaching from Keter Shem Tov.
Let us quote the teaching in its original form, even though it is a bit complex and written in shorthand. We will fully explain each section of this teaching. The first part states:
From the Ba’al Shem Tov: I heard from my teacher an explanation that "Israel was not exiled until they denied God and David," and the explanation of the Talmud states that “there is no difference between this world and the days of the Mashiach except for the [Jewish people’s] subservience to the nations.” As they said in the Talmud, "Anyone who has passed forty days without suffering has received his world. [And they asked:] How do we define suffering? If someone stretches his hand to take a gold coin from his wallet and takes a lesser coin.” The sages challenged this, "But there is no suffering without sin?" Could this possibly be considered atonement for sin?
The Ba’al Shem Tov begins by connecting three different sayings from the sages. The first is "The Jewish people were not exiled until they denied God and David."
It is worth mentioning that in other places, it is stated that the Children of Israel rejected three things—the sovereignty of God, the sovereignty of the House of David, and the Temple. Consequently, the redemption depends on returning ask for these three things. But here, the saying connects faith in God’s sovereignty and faith in the House of David together in a way that truly unites them, as we will see in this Torah.
The second saying is from the sage Shmuel, who says that, “There is no difference between this world and the days of Mashiach except for the [Jewish people’s] subservience to the nations.”
The plain meaning of this saying is that in the time of redemption, there will be no change in the nature of reality. The only change will be the liberation of the Jewish people from their servitude to the nations of the world. However, as we will see, the Ba’al Shem Tov offers a novel explanation of this saying.
The third saying comes from another part of the Talmud altogether and states that, "Anyone who has passed forty days without suffering has already received his world.” Meaning, that he has already received “the World to Come,” in other words, he has been given ample reward for his service in life. The Talmud then proceeds to ask what constitutes suffering and then gives examples of what the lightest suffering is.
At first glance, we might understand that the question is how it is possible that forty days without suffering is a reward equivalent to the World to Come that a person is destined to receive? And the answer is meant to calm us by noting that even very light suffering, which certainly always occurs, is sufficient to ensure that we do not pass 40 days without suffering; therefore, there is no concern that a person has already been given a reward equivalent to their World to Come.
But the Ba’al Shem Tov extracts a different question from this saying. He asks, since “there is no suffering without sin,” how is it possible that the light suffering brought as an example could atone for any sin?
REPENTANCE AS AWARENESS OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE
The Ba’al Shem Tov first answers the last question and then connects the answer to belief in Divine Providence. From his words, we learn that he regards faith in Divine Providence as the most essential element of the faith of a tzaddik Indeed, the value of Divine Providence (יתִטָרְה פָּחָּגְׁשַה) equals 10 times the value of “faith” (הָנּמוֱא).
In his words:
He explained that “a tzaddik lives by his faith,” for one who believes in the Divine Providence of the Holy Blessed One and knows that all the events in a person's life come from Him, whether they are insignificant or great; everything is according to the judgment of God, according to the judgment of Heaven.
The sages say that the prophet Habakkuk established the entire Torah on the foundation of faith—"The tzaddik lives by his faith." And with what tenet of faith does the tzaddik live? The most important one is the belief that everything that happens in their life, whether insignificant or important, all is under the Divine Providence of the Blessed One Himself.
From this teaching comes a great principle. When we say that the foundation of the Ba’al Shem Tov's teachings is Divine Providence, we mean awareness of Divine Providence. Belief in Divine Providence is not a new idea originated by the Ba’al Shem Tov. It is a subject that was discussed by the great scholars of Israel in previous generations. But the Ba’al Shem Tov added that there is work required—becoming aware of Divine Providence is a spiritual objective.
This teaching is not concerned with the specifics of Divine Providence, how God governs all creatures and guides them toward a particular destiny. It is also not about the reincarnations of each soul, another important aspect of Divine Providence. Rather it focuses on that which pertains to the individual human and his or her own path and "rectifications."
Divine Providence is, ultimately, a revelation of God’s mercy, but the initial revelation of Divine Providence is through the principle that “the law of the Kingdom is law” (אָינִּא דָתּכוְלַמְּא דָינִּד). Law (אָינִּד) is a permutation of God’s Name, Adni (יָנֹד-ֲא), the Name associated with the sefirah of kingdom. The beginning, the essence, and the root of Divine service is “mundane awe” (הָאָּתַּה תָאְרִי), therefore the awareness of Divine Providence begins precisely with attention to God’s judgment (and from this, one reaches a state where Divine Providence is sweetened and becomes the ultimate revelation of God’s mercy, as will be explained).
Many times, we explain that awe of Heaven, even awe in general can be understood as sensitivity. Belief in Divine Providence is sensitivity to Providence itself, and it all starts with a sensitivity to judgment.
Later in this teaching, the Ba’al Shem Tov says that all that a person can grasp about Divinity is in the realm of the sefirah of kingdom, but above that, it is impossible to grasp." This is why attention to God’s kingdom, i.e., His Divine Providence over the world, is so important, as it is the primary connection we have with God. The first one to call God by this Name, Adni, meaning “Master" was Abraham. He recognized that there is a Master of Creation who oversees everything with Divine Providence.
Let us continue with the Ba’al Shem Tov’s words:
And it [every judgment in life] is due to his sin, and immediately he regrets and is filled with awe and fear of God, and immediately he is forgiven since he believes, repents, and attaches his thoughts to the Blessed One. That is why even if one reaches for a gold dinar but ends up with a silver dinar, because it is due to his sin and he regrets it, such an event [of light suffering] is considered an atonement for his sin.
Someone who believes that the light sufferings come upon him, through Divine Providence, because of his sin—and does not just accept this belief but also thinks and identifies the sin within himself—immediately dwells on repentance, whose most important aspect is refocusing on God’s Presence. The moment the person awakens in repentance, God forgives him for the sin.
The sages say, “Anyone who commits a sin and is ashamed of it is forgiven [not only for that particular sin but] for all of his sins.” If the regret is out of shame, arising from awareness to Divine Providence that reminds a person of his sins, it causes general forgiveness for everything. God’s forgiveness for a person’s sins, following light suffering, is a revelation of His mercy, and it reveals retroactively that even the judgment was part of God's mercy. It was nothing more than a pinch meant to awaken the person from his slumber, to stir him to repent, beginning with refocusing his faith, and makes it into a vessel for God’s mercy.
This is the answer to the Ba’al Shem Tov’s question: how can such tiny sufferings atone for a person's sin? It is not an automatic atonement, but rather an atonement that follows repentance. One who properly pays attention to Divine Providence sees the sufferings they receive and immediately reflects on repentance. Then, even the smallest sufferings become an atonement for sins.
DAVID: LOWLINESS AND DIVINE PROVIDENCE
Now, the Ba’al Shem Tov returns to the two sayings mentioned earlier. First, what we have just described, this aspect, is referred to as “David.”
King David was sensitive to all the shifts in Divine Providence, feeling the 'pinches' and understanding that they came to awaken him. It is written that King David never slept longer than the time it takes a horse to breathe sixty times (in practice about half an hour). This was likely because even the slightest ‘pinch’ woke him.
The Ba’al Shem Tov explains the significance behind David’s name (דִוָּד), which in Hebrew exhibits symmetry: two letters dalet (ד) and between them, a vav (ו).
For the Infinite, which is referred to as “nothingness,” corresponds to the letter dalet, and from it the vav extends to the second dalet, which represents the ultimate lowliness, all under Divine Providence from the Blessed One.
In this section, the Ba’al Shem Tov explains that the first dalet represents the Divine "nothingness" (the Ein Sof), the second Dalet represents the lowliness of the person, and the vav is the connection between them. We like to mention the explanation of the Maggid of Mezritch, who serves as a kind of "bridge" between the Ba’al Shem Tov’s explanation and Chabad philosophy. He explains that each dalet (from the word meaning “there is not,” דלית) represents contraction and self-nullification. Hence, the upper dalet is the contraction of the Giver in order to give and the second dalet is the contraction of the receiver in order to receive, and the vav between them is the drawing from the Giver to the receiver.
The contraction of the Giver, of God, means that He is essentially making Himself into "nothing" in order to give. But the emphasis here from the perspective of the receiver is his lowliness. The ultimate lowliness is attained when one feels that everything is under Divine Providence of Hashem.
In fact, only one who has a sense of his own lowliness can feel that everything is under Divine Providence. One who attributes all their success to themselves is coarse and crude (grob, in Yiddish)—he remains indifferent to his failures. He may get a little upset, but he does not view failure as significant. But one who has lowliness knows that all success come from God, but that all his failures are his own doing. He becomes sensitive to every failure and understands that it is his sins that are solely responsible for it. Failure serves as a reminder that he forgot about God. The essential trait of King David is exactly this type of lowliness, as he says, "And I will be lowly in my own eyes." This is why David represents the experience of Divine Providence; his lowliness and his awareness of Divine Providence are interdependent.
Lowliness is a very fundamental principle that we speak of often. Here there is another essential reason for this, because the foundation of all faith, belief in Divine Providence, depends specifically on lowliness. Elsewhere, we delve into the connection between lowliness and God’s compassion, and in truth, everything is deeply interconnected. When you awaken from the 'pinch' of God, out of the lowliness it prompts in you, you become a vessel for His compassion.
The repentance here is the desire to cleave yourself to God—if you believe in God and want to cleave to Him, you have already performed full repentance, complete teshuvah! This regret and repentance serve as an atonement for the sin, and for all sins, and Hashem bestows upon you great and abundant compassion; you become a 'recipient' of His compassion.
Elsewhere, we explain that in order to experience lowliness, a person must first be convinced that God has tremendous compassion for them, otherwise, their sense of lowliness would shatter them. In the same way here, when a person awakens to repentance, they need to feel God's mercy so that they are encouraged to repent. If they perceive God as a harsh judge, they would despair, do nothing, and their lowliness would turn into a fall. It is knowledge of God’s compassion that encourages repentance.
BELIEF IN GOD AND IN DAVID
Continuing with the Ba’al Shem Tov’s teaching:
When one does not believe that everything is under Divine Providence from God, but instead says, "My own strength and the might of my hand have made this success for me," this is called denying God and the aspect of David just mentioned, because one is denying the judgment of the kingdom of God.
Normally, we distinguish between belief in God’s existence ("There is God in the world") and belief in Divine Providence. Every Jew has belief in God’s existence, in a certain way. However, for the chasid, there is a great emphasis on belief in Divine Providence. But here, we learn that the denial of David—i.e., of Divine Providence—is equivalent to a denial of God.
In simple terms, there is no belief in Divine Providence without belief in God, but here the emphasis is that belief in God’s essence goes hand in hand with belief in Divine Providence. The denial is of "the judgment or law of the kingdom of God." More particularly, Havayah, God refers to Adni and kingdom refers to David. The denier says, "My strength and the might of my hand have made this success," and repenting for this is achieved by "And you shall remember Havayah your God, for He is the one who gives you the strength to be successful." This “remembrance” is known as the remembrance of the Land of Israel.
This situation, of lack of belief in God’s kingdom, is what lies at the core of being under "the subjugation of the nations," which the Ba’al Shem Tov explains (not as the subjugation of a foreign kingdom over the Jewish people, but) as the subjugation of the sefirah of kingdom, the kingdom of holiness, the kingdom of God:
Only the kingdom is covered and subjugated to the kelipah [the impurity] that covers and conceals His Divine Providence from human beings. In the future, in the days of Mashiach, when He will remove the spirit of impurity from the land, then His Divine Providence will be revealed in every detail.
This explains why the Jewish people were not exiled until they denied Hashem and the kingdom of the House of David. This is the meaning of the statement that the difference between this world and the days of Mashiach is the subjugation of kingdoms.
The Ba’al Shem Tov says something profound here, which he repeats in other places: the true purpose of full awareness of Divine Providence will only be revealed in the days of Mashiach. In fact, this revelation is the Mashiach himself. The sefirah of kingdom, God’s sovereignty over Creation must be freed from the clutches of the kelipah, and it follows then that this is the Mashiach.
Today, we have belief in Divine Providence, but only when the Mashiach comes and the kelipah disappears will the kingdom be revealed in its fullness, and the belief will turn into complete knowledge, a revelation of Providence in every detail.
We have said in the past that if we want to influence the nations of the world with Torah—a campaign known as the "Fourth Revolution” in Torah learning—we need to explain to them about Divine Providence. Indeed, the revelation of Providence is itself the coming of the Mashiach.
About the coming of the Mashiach, it is said, "For eye to eye they will see when God returns to Zion." "Eye to eye" means a revelation emanating as it were from God’s eyes—the secret of Divine Providence—and reaching the eyes of man. The revelation of God’s constant watchfulness ("Always Hashem, your God, is watching over it") will be revealed to our eyes specifically with the coming of the Mashiach.
In conclusion, from this teaching it emerges that Divine Providence is connected to belief in God Himself, and the foundation of our Divine service is to strengthen our awareness of Divine Providence, an awareness that awakens the person to return and cleave to God in everything that happens to them.
(based on a shiur given on Shabbat eve of parashat Shemini, 5784)
1 . Section 46a. This is part 1 of a multipart article on Divine Providence in the Ba’al Shem Tov’s teachings. The complete series will be published in Wonders over the course of a few weeks.
2 . Zohar 2:175b.
3 . Berachot 34b.
4 . Arachin 16b.
5 . Habbakuk 2:4.
6 . Bava Kama 113a and elsewhere. Originally, this statute requires Jews to obey the laws of the state [kingdom] in which they live.
7 . Ta n y a, ch. 41.
