First of all, a big shalom and thank you to everybody involved with GlobalYeshiva - great idea wich I hope will grow and blossom in the near future...

I have a little issue wich I've been thinking about a lot lately, and I'd really appreciate some insights from those in the know:

As the Torah teaches, I firmly believe that man is the crown of creation and the purpose of our existance here is to attach ourself to Hashem. I also understand that we have been given free will to make our own moral choices, and that although Hashem wants us to see this truth and make the correct choices, it's still up to every man/women to do so. These choices will of course result in reward and/or punishment. I also feel stongly that everything that happens to us is not just random or coincidence, but part of the greater plan that Hashem has for us.

Having said all of that, I still feel there is a little gap in my basic understanding of the relationship that Hashem has with us in regards to our everyday life on earth. Does all of this mean that Hashem has a plan for all of us already laid out, from the day of birth to the day we die ? And also, is the amount of good or bad that we experience alloted randomly ?

I guess that what I'm getting at is the fact (or is it?) that some people seem to have it easier than others during their life span (eg. what kind of job they get, good health, good fortune in business, meeting their soul mate early on and having a nice family etc etc). Logical reasoning tells me that someone who maybe did not have those blessings, but still managed to devout their life to serving Hashem must have a greater part in the world to come, not so ? Or do we all get equal chances in life and maybe I'm just to short sighted and ignorant to see this ? Also, if it "fair" in human terms that some people get a better chances to do good and earn reward in the next life (I know we serve Hashem out of love and not for reward, this is just for reasoning purposes).

Hope I made sense and you understand my question.

Thank you all in advance...

Very good questions indeed. Of coarse, everything is put into the final tally, how much we suffer, and even so we still stuck to Hashem. (L'fum Tzarah Agrah). The Gemmarah in the beggining of Brachos deals with the question of Tzadik V'ra Lo V'rasha V'tov lo. (Why some good people suffer and some bad people prosper.) One of The Gemaarah's answers was that the incomplete Tzadik suffers to pay back for his sins he did in this world so he can enjoy the next world better. The Rasha gets his reward for mitzvos in this world so He wouldn be destroyed in the next.
There is also a concept of suffering that Hashem gives us with "love", which some Miforshim explain that to give us challenges to encrease our rewards for still keeping on the right track.

In my humble opinion, I feel that the underlying thing, that what happens to people cannot be an exact science (i.e. that it can't be if you do A than B will automaticly happen) because then it would have to great of a pattern, thus removing the free will (if we know if we eat non kosher we would be hit by lightning minutes later, than we automaticly wouldn't do it) So for some people HAshem would give easier lives and other harder, assumingly random, to cover any pattern, while he's dealing with one to give him a good life here while another he gives problems to pay off his debts. Why He picked one and not the other could be dependent what they might of did in past lives (Gilgulim) or some other unknown reason.

Also, you must realize that the grass is always greener on the other side. Some people might be giving the impression that they have a great life, but inside they might not having so great of a life.

I guess it is fair to say that some people get it easier (I cannot say that the FFB path was not easier then the BT). But this all put into the tally, of how difficult something was, and how incumbent on the person to do the perticular task. (i.e. If there was some Jew in the mountains of Tabet that went through his whole life without hearing of Judaism would get off a lot easier than someone who lived in America in a Frum community)

Thank you for the great answer Rav Chaim.

I'm BT, so I'm not all that familair with the concepts of Gilgulim but I'm surely going to focus on it in future.

I guess what I've learned is that the soul is eternal, unlike the body. We tend to equate good/bad and reward/punishment in earthly terms, eg. that wich can be accomplished in our lifetime. Yet, if we think about our soul and it's eternal existance, then having two or three "lifetimes" as a human being is not that far-fetched. Or maybe having to endure another 20 or 30 years of earthly turmoil to purify the soul for the eternal communion with Hashem.

Also, this leads me to thank Hashem for his great mercy in giving us a second go at it, so to speak. You'll think that a man will be able to see the light after 80 years of looking into it. Some of us don't. So it's great to know that Hashem has mercy on us and does not condemn us immediately, but gives us yet another chance to repent and see the error in our ways.

We have many statements amongst the Rabbis about these issues. Ramban says for instance, that the more that a person focuses his thoughts only on HaShem, the more that G-ds hasgacha involes itself in his life.(Read, miracles happen for him.) The more he allows other things to absorb his attention, the more random nature affects his life. To such an extent, that even a good person that doesn't sin, can have something befall him because of it. This idea is found in the Rambans perush on Job, 37:6.

Ramchal tells us that even though the laws of nature should be predictable, by using astrology for instance, since G-d is constantly editing those forces directly, that is changing what should happen to something eles, we can't use the rules to figure out what should happen. This is found in Derech HaShem. See also Rambams comments on Astrology in the Moreh. It seems to me that this would be one way of explaining what Rambam means by his comment, none of the books written about astrology are a science.

Basically, I believe that what we see from all these comments, is that the world operates in a very complex manner, and that any rule which seems to operate, must be operating. So, we have to take all the obvious rules into calculation that we do. Ergo, don't rely on miracles. That doesn't mean that there aren't exceptions...

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Originally posted by lavi:

Basically, I believe that what we see from all these comments, is that the world operates in a very complex manner, and that any rule which seems to operate, must be operating. So, we have to take all the obvious rules into calculation that we do. Ergo, don't rely on miracles. That doesn't mean that there aren't exceptions...

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I agree. If I may add, Rambam underscores in the Moreh (is that the Guide for the Perplexed?) that nothing G-d does is really physically impossible, but our level of knowledge may simply not be sufficient yet to understand in their entirety the laws of physics, chemistry, sociology, psychology by which Hashem exercises His will. I think I recall how some 10 years ago, a professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem demonstrated on a scale model the physical possibility of the Parting of the Sea, based exactly on the verses of Torah: it took 3,000 years to understand the physics of that rare occurrence! That is NOT, by any means, to be interpreted as if these events were not demonstrations of G-d's good will to the people of Israel. On the contrary, He had made these events physically possible when creating the world - and extremely rare - in order to deliver us from slavery and make us His people.

It took the same amount of time for physicists to comprehend the Creation, too.

Personally, I think that the recent discoveries in secular sciences confirming the possibility of what used to be called miracles, impossibilities, and so on, are another form of Hashem's proof of the truth of the Torah account of events for those who doubt it.

Since we don't yet understand the "how", we call these events miracles, postponing their comprehension for a later time, when we know enough to understand the "how". Will we ever understand the "why"? I doubt it, except perhaps for some events...

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