Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Jewish Laws and Thoughts
- Jewish Thought
- G-d's leadership in the world
A. The Prophet Yirmiyahu said: 'By the command of the Most High, neither good nor evil come' (Eichah 3,38). The Midrash explains that this means that ever since the day that G-d "set before you today life and good, etc." (Deut. 30,15), neither good nor evil comes from His command, but rather as a result of man's good or bad deeds.
G-d, for His part, would be happy to shower upon us only goodness. The problem is that we falter and commit sins, and this is what prevents us from receiving His infinite abundance. We take ourselves to places that G-d knows that if He were to give us goodness, it could harm and even destroy us. As such, it is we ourselves who cause suffering to come upon us.
We thank G-d for not despairing of us or giving up. He rather gives us chance after chance, keeping His eye on us even via the troubles we undergo. He measures out the exact amount of suffering that will cause us to return to ourselves and rise up, and thus be worthy of His salvation. What we are thanking G-d for is His constant supervision and providence.
Rabbi Yehoshua Weitzman
G-d's leadership in the world Doesn't G-d Also Cause the Harm in the First Place?
Translated and edited by Hillel Fendel
Ein Aya If the Main World is in Heaven- Why is There Such a Strong Instinct to Survive?
Ein Aya Shabat Chapter B Paragraph 35
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
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Various Events FOR WHOM NOT TO VOTE
Rav Zvi Yehuda Kook stressed that Israeli politics is G-dly, so I have no problem answering this common question on a Torani blog. Also, Free-Will is a G-d-given right and obligation, to "destine one's fate" (R. Soloveichik, Kol Dodi Dofek, 67), so I obviously don't tell others how to vote. But once not a few (especially young) have already asked, a couple of personal words from experience and thoughts from chazal & Rav Kook which may be of help to others, mainly for whom NOT to vote.
P'ninat Mishpat Fallout from Failure to Install Elevator – part II
based on ruling 85007 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts
