LESSON 4, TRANQUILITY: INNER PROVIDENCE AND EXTERNAL PROVIDENCE
Last week we raised the question, why we should trust in g-d?
We answered that there are 10 benefits to trusting in g-d, 5 spiritual benefits and 5 material benefits
Of the spiritual benefits there are
- Tranquility
- Independence
- Peace of mind and serenity
- Financial satisfaction
- Financial responsibility
Of the material benefits there are
- Stress free life
- Immunity from the fatigue of traveling
- Harm-free employment
- No distress
- Always happy
As to tranquility
- Trust in g-d
- Trust in another
- Trust in ourselves
- Last week we discussed that g-d is our master and our sole responsibility is to serve him.
When trusting g-d, how does g-d show his existence to us?
Inner providence which is grand miracles like the 10 plagues in egypt, the splitting of the red sea, the giving of the 10 commandments on mt. Sinai, the macabbees beating the great greek army, david beating goliath
External providence is what we call nature, those daily miracles which permit us to live our day, relying on the process of our eyes seeing, our ears hearing, our feet carrying us, our nose smelling etc. These are a set of miracles which we call nature, but which are miracles nevertheless, which we mostly take for granted, until something happens.
By way of example:
I lost my sense of smell and taste during the covid pandemic. I didn’t realize how crucial it was to my life until i baked a sheet of cookies and burned them because i realized i couldn’t rely on my sense of smell to smell that they were baked and ready. I cooked food for my family which was consistently awful because i couldn’t taste the food while cooking for six months, it was frustrating for us all.
We acknowledge these daily not so small miracles in our amidah/standing prayer three times a day, when we say modim anachnu lach/thank you g-d for all the miracles that are with us daily and your wonders and favors that occur at every moment of every day, evening, morning and afternoon.
Indeed, thank you for giving us nature so we don’t have to worry every single night whether our bodies will function properly when we rise. Whether there will still be gravity, the sun to ripen our harvest and the moon upon which we rely on to inform us impending jewish holidays. This provides us with tranquility and peace of mind.