Part V
The first parts showed how covert miracles reveal the foundations of emunah and that through these miracles Hashem allocates reward and punishment for our deeds. In addition there is a Divine hanhogo called mazal which, the Ramchal explains, is the handing out of different duties to each person according to his neshomoh's root without connection to the reward and punishment that he deserves or that he gets in this world.
The first parts of this important essay also quoted the Ramban who said that the performance of miracles establishes basic principles of the Torah. However, covert miracles, which are performed by Hashem all the time in arranging the world in an appropriate way in response to the way people act in doing mitzvos, praying and so on, are also a basic foundation of Torah. Nonetheless, the justice in the way the world is run is not always apparent.
There are also sources in Chazal that say that important parts of life are dependent on mazal and not on zchus. One point is that Hashem does not forgo sins so that our reward will be complete. To ignore any sin would cast a severe pall over one's reward in the World of Truth. Also, Hashem established two ways of conducting the world: for those who can meet the high standard He employs the middas hadin as He "originally" thought in making the world, and for those who cannot meet this standard he uses a middas horachamim that is more lenient.
In this part the Mashgiach zt'l explains, among other matters, the correlation between reward and punishment and mazal, and the tikkun of gilgul.
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Each Person's Special Duty in Completing the Creation and the Reason These Duties are Not Made Known to the Creations
The Ramchal writes further (ibid.): "The neshomoh said: According to this argument it would have been fitting for only tzaddikim to suffer, but the reality is not so."
We will cite what the Ramchal wrote in Derech Hashem (2:3:1) about each person's duty assigned to him in Olom Hazeh:
"In order to have all these elements exist [the possibility for man to execute all the points of good middos or their opposite with bechirah] it is necessary for people to be in different situations, so that every man will be tested in all these different types of evil, and to allow a person to strengthen himself against them and to choose the good. This can be understood through a moshol: if there were no rich and poor people there would not be a chance for a person to be merciful and not cruel. However, at present a rich person is tested by being wealthy: whether he will act cruelly towards the poor person who needs him or whether he will have mercy on him. Similarly, the poor person is tested [to see] if he will be satisfied with the little he has and will thank Elokim, or the opposite. In addition, affluence for a rich person will be a test to see whether he will become arrogant or attracted by the world's vanities. Will he forsake the avoda of his Creator, or despite all his wealth be modest and humble, and despise the world and choose Torah and avoda and the like?
"Now, the Supreme Wisdom divided the different types of tests among mortals as His profound counsel decreed fitting and appropriate. The result is that each person has his special part in being tested and a unique function in the war against the yetzer. This is his duty and yoke in Olom Hazeh, and he must be able to withstand it to the best of his ability. His deeds will be judged according to Hashem's measurement, with ultimate precision, according to all the aspects of the true nature of the yoke that was put upon him. This is like a king's servants, who are under his command, and through all of them the royal work must be completed. The king hands out to each servant part of the work until, among them, all the necessary parts will be completed. Each and every servant is obliged to fulfill the part given to him, and according to his work so will the king reward him.
"However, the hanhogo of allocating different duties and their intrinsic situations is more elevated than we can grasp or understand. Only the Supreme Wisdom, that is more sublime than any mortal intelligence can grasp, has evaluated and arranged them in the most perfect way." [And as such we don't understand why the division of the different situations are allocated in any specific manner, or to certain specific people as explained further on.]
Two Duties for Hashem's Creatures
The Ramchal has explained to us why there is a difference from one person to another in the way Divine Wisdom has apportioned the tests they face. The test of a rich person is different from that of someone suffering poverty. Nonetheless, the reason why we need this dissimilarity and how it fits in with the principle of reward and punishment is better explained in the Da'as Tevunos (ibid.):
"Hashem knows that to complete Creation and make a possibility of different types of tests and accomplishments, two states are needed: a state of increased radiance [of His countenance], which is the intensification and increase of abundance [where the control of G-d over the world is clearly recognized], and a state of withdrawal and decrease [in the radiance of His countenance in which state the presence of G- d is not felt and therefore it is much harder to be an oved Hashem]. There are matters that reach their tikkun and purpose in avodas Hashem through brilliance and abundance, while there are other matters that, on the contrary, have their tikkun through a withdrawal of brilliance and through its decrease, [there]by allowing evil to increase greatly [and being a much greater test for a person].
"Nonetheless, in general, the L-rd, Blessed be He, distributed the [task of achieving the] tikkun of Creation among all the neshomos that He made to serve Him. This was done according to what He knew to be proper for each one of them, according to how He created them. This is an extremely enigmatic matter, not perceived by any novi or chozeh, since it is involves the reasons for the Divine decrees we have been discussing [and the source of each and every neshomoh and for which reason each one is sent to this world] and these reasons are concealed from created beings. We can only know the consequences [of Hashem's decrees].
"One person will therefore deserve, according to his essential nature, to have a plentiful flow of Divine abundance, which is one of the ways the Creation is brought to perfection, as we explained. But there is also a person who, according to his essential nature, should only have a little flow of Divine abundance, which is the second way to complete the Creation. This has nothing to do with how these people acted [in having done good or evil]. It is, instead, according to what they are given according to the tikkun that the Lord, Blessed Be He, has apportioned among His creatures. There is one tikkun for a certain person and another tikkun for someone else, each person according to his particular way and purpose [in life]."
The World is Conducted According to Mazal
"There is no doubt that Elokim does mishpat [no matter which way he conducts the world]. After [the life of Olom Hazeh] He provides generous reward for the righteous tzaddikim who, according to the supreme hanhogo [the aforementioned one of the state of withdrawal and decrease of brilliance which allows suffering to be the lot of the righteous], were condemned to suffer and be tormented, and deserve reward both for their suffering in Olom Hazeh [for the purpose of the revealing the oneness and omnipotence of Hashem] and also for their good deeds. This way of conducting the world, in which zchus and chovah are not considered and the aim is only to do what is needed to perfect the essential nature of Creation, the Sages called mazal — something not dependent upon a person's choice or zchus, something which is purely a gezeira [done either to give tzaddikim more opportunities and greater nisyonos to overcome the forces of evil which are a result of a purposeful diminishing and hiding of His hashgocho in this world, or to artificially create more hastoras ponim — unclarity and suffering — that will be the vehicle so that eventually, when Hashem overthrows these negative forces, His Oneness and strength will be seen more clearly and vividly].
"You see that the L-rd, Blessed be He, does not always use mazal as the method of conducting the world. It is used only when He knows it will be beneficial. This is because Hashem prepared profound ways to bring Creation to its perfection, as we have explained. He laid forth two ways of conducting the world: the way of reward and punishment, and the way of mazal; and Hashem [constantly] decides which way to use. Sometimes He uses one way and sometimes the other, whichever way He knows is preferable for His world. Nonetheless, when He uses the way of reward and punishment all matters that evolve from [the resulting events] will be judged according to that way. When He uses the way of mazal all matters that evolve therefrom will be according the way of mazal and the innermost nature of the Creation, as we have explained."
We have learned from HaRav Moshe Chaim Luzzatto zt'l why sometimes situations apportioned to a person's lot are not according to reward and punishment but according to his mazal. This does not mean, chas vesholom, that any person can do what he wants: bad or good [wrong or right]. The Ramban has refuted this explanation in many places, as we have explained above (part I) that mazal is also from Hakodosh Boruch Hu and He will therefore use reward and punishment if and when he sees fit to do so.
The world-conduct of mazal is one of the ways that HaKodosh Boruch Hu Himself uses to bring about the world's perfection and tikkun. [There will certainly be the exact reward or punishment for one's actions, at the latest after death. But in the hanhogo of mazal, reward and punishment won't necessarily be the criteria for one's lot in this world.] This can be compared to a commander-in-chief fighting battles during a colossal war which, in order to win, he must conduct against the enemy on many fronts. A discerning person sees that the commander has divided his several forces. There is a front on which the cavalry can overcome the enemy, while in another front only the infantry can defeat them. The cavalry force was not put on a more difficult front as a punishment, but as a necessary move in order to win the war. This is likewise the case in how mazal runs the world, as we see from the Ramchal.
Let us continue according to this parable: after the war has ended, the king will award honor and praise to the various officers who helped attain the victory. Undoubtedly the more one's life was at risk in the area in which one fought, the closer he will be privileged to come to the King, and the more the King will honor him. Therefore the head of a force which was in the most risky and critical front will be the most honored and befriended, although this most difficult part of the war that he fought was assigned to him because of the need to win the war and not especially to give him reward or honor. This is true also in the hanhogo of mazal, as the Da'as Tevunos explains.
HaRav Dovid Kronglas zt'l, was the Rosh Mesivta and Menahel Ruchani in Yeshivas Ner Yisroel in Baltimore for twenty-five years.
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