The System Behind Divine Providence | Part One

We’ve said it before but it bears repetition: G-d is the only one utterly free being. Everyone and everything else is either only partially free, or not at all. We’re to recall, though, that G-d elected to *restrict* His utter freedom when interacting with us, for otherwise we simply couldn’t interact with Him (i.e., we couldn’t bear the might of His full Being). Thus, G-d could be said to “play with a handicap” of sorts when He interacts with us and to use less-than-Divine means to His end. Why? In order to give us a chance to understand “the rules of the game”, if you will.

As such, G-d is said to govern everything in the universe — from the most subtle of spiritual phenomena to the coarsest of material ones — much the way we govern ourselves. He’s therefore, said to have established Heavenly courts, deliberating bodies, and tribunals in classical terms, with judges, witnesses, advocating attorneys and prosecutors.

But it would help us to term them “committees” and “boards of directors”, for our purposes. And to speak of advocates for or opponents to the various ideas, individuals, and processes under consideration. It will also help us to recall the fact that decisions made in our experience are either made by the committee, the chairperson, or both; and that they’re based 010on the thrust and parry that goes on there. That model follows through in the Heavens as well.
We’ll see how all that plays itself out in our interactions with G-d.