“On one hand, we feel God to be very near; on the other, as we see, He is very distant.
We call Him Father.
We also call Him ‘Ein Sof’ (Infinite).
Actually, I need both of these, especially when I am concerned with the question of Divine Providence.
For whenever I move something -- even to the slightest degree -- it has a reason and a result.
As the Tzadik said, lifting up a handful of sand and letting it run out through his fingers:
‘He who does not believe that every one of these particles returns exactly to the place that God wishes, is a heretic.’
Another image, attributed to the Baal Shem Tov, says that sometimes a great storm comes, hurls everything about, and causes the trees to shake violently so that the leaves fall.
One such leaf may drop close to a worm, and it was for this the whole world was in a furor -- that a worm may eat of a certain leaf.
This then, is the aspect of personal Providence.
God's word activates and changes the world all the time.
At every moment there is a totally new state of affairs.
Whether a microbe or a galaxy, all are equally part of this and are in the same proportion to Him.
This means that God is close to us without ceasing.
Nothing can occur without Him.”
--Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
From The Sustaining Utterance, p.28 by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
