Dear Mugbal,

{for whatever reason, the system wouldnt allow me to post as a comment, so im putting it here as a post}

Thanks for the comments.

You are talking about Hishtadlus and “being at the right place at the right time”- as if they were one and the same thing.

There are {at least} 3 steps here:

1) those who do not believe that god has any interest in what we do; they include many factions, but what they have in common is that they adhere to the position that god does not meddle into human affairs on a personal level.

2) the early believer position: that god does very much care about what happens to us, and that the world is actually run on spiritual credit/debt system- where the good get rewarded with material good in return for their services to god. In this view, man acts out of free will- and therefore- when he chooses bad, he gets punished in this world and the next {aside for a chosen few who are all evil who get to live it up in this world as it is their last}. When man chooses to be good he gets rewarded by material prosperity {unless in some cases, where they are given pain in this world for their own benefit in the other}.

This group would include the Rambam, Rashi etc. etc.

This is where ‘hightlus’ comes into the picture: if god runs this world and I believe that- why do I have to tie my camle? Why do I have to do a thing other than good deeds and other merit-gathering acts?

Histadlus introduced the concept that although this world is run by god, he helps only those who help themselves. We only have to do histadlus, so that he wants to help us- but ultimately its all up to him.


3) Hasgocheh Protis is the chassidic contribution to Judaism: the idea that god is in charge of every move of every being and thing. That our thoughts, speech and deed are all by divine design. That we were in it together with god {a literal approach to “naaseh shutfoy shel HKB”H…}, and that we each could not be healthy without the other. they explained that this world and us are both equally a part of the one living god. We all make it to the finish line {as the “Dorshei Reshimes hoyu oymrim kulom yeish lohem chelek le‘oylom haboh}: the question is limited to how quickly and whether we enjoy the journey.

This means that its not our fault- we sure did not create the mess we were placed in; that the world was coming from a {pre-human} very dark place, and that slowly we, humans partners of God, are doing the job of cleaning up this mess.

(It goes without saying that on the higher planes {from Bineh upward, or rather, inward} God {that includes us} is already ok, but remains for us to do the work of bring down {or out} this same bliss into our realm- Malchus-ville).

Instead of god rewarding and punishing, he was forever on our side, only, that there is a system {to change the system, we would have to start over again- as god in Taanis offers Reb Elozer “do you want me to distroy the world and rebuild it {again} and maybe you will be born {again} under conditions where you have wealth?“} in place- where by the nature of things, evil brings more darkness and good dispels some of it; when we do certain things or go to certain spiritual heights, we bring light into our being which illuminates our existence which includes ex amount of divine particles. As darkness is finite and light infinite, light is sure to win- this too pertains to us.

More specifically, any problem or inconvenience in our lives, is only a symptom of our general inner reality. The real issues are happening within our psychic subconscious mind. A little bit of progress clears up a whole lot of symptoms {which is the only thing that we stupidly care about}; while if we work on the symptoms, on a purely cosmetic level, while we may {after much toil and struggle} solve one symptom- there will always be another symptom, another problem to take its place needs our urgent attention. Curing a symptom does not result in an over-all better quality of life. I know of many who spent a whole life time conquering and making progress on a cosmetic level without improving anything at all- other than looking good {for themselves, what they perceived as god and society} on a most shallow external cosmetic level.

So to answer your question: there is a divine reality going on here- though there is no proof whatsoever for any of this {or the existence of god, for that matter}, you can tune into your higher self and experience this divine reality for yourself.

The choice is ours.


We can either tune in and make progress on a real level or disregard it as non-sense and go on working on the symptoms {that, as your own experience will be able to tell you, only multiply}.

Please understand that this not only in relation to wealth: this is noygeya to every level of existence. How do we deal with our psychological well-being? Etc.

Do we attack our short-comings, check in to AA, and die trying- or- make peace with ourselves/god {realizing that the holy and the profane within are equally divine} and enjoy the journey.