59. How the Spiritually-Perfected Become Vulnerable

Having described in great detail how one can get close to God, an idea occurs to the Rambam, which he feels answers a philosophical difficulty that may bother some people. [III, 51] He previously discussed how human beings enjoy individual providence, but not all to the same degree. Rather, the closer a person is to God, the greater degree of providence he enjoys. (Refer back to section 41.) The Rambam observes that even those who have perfected their relationship with God cannot reflect upon Him 24 hours a day. There are simply times when they must attend to their temporal concerns. Therefore, the providence they enjoy cannot be absolute; there are of necessity gaps of vulnerability.

These gaps are not the same as those facing a person with more limited providence. The Rambam likens one with a perfected knowledge of God during his moments of mundanity to a trained scribe who doesn't happen to be writing: he still possesses the knowledge, even when he's not employing it. Such knowledge, even in its potential state, is still a higher level than one who does not possess the potential at all.

Nevertheless, such gaps in providence are the reason why misfortune is able to befall a prophet (who has achieved an extremely high level of spiritual perfection) or a pious individual. It's a reciprocal relationship: when we get closer to God, by definition He is closer to us. Conversely, when we distance ourselves from God, for whatever reason, He is necessarily farther from us. It is during these moments of distance that misfortune can strike even the spiritually perfect.[1]

We see that misfortune is a consequence of God's distance from such verses as Deuteronomy 31:17, "... I will hide my face from them and they will be devoured; many evils and troubles will come upon them causing them to say on that day, 'Haven't these evil things happened to us because our God is not among us?'" The reason God "hides His face" is because of our own misdeeds, as the next verse continues, "I will surely hide My face on that day because of all the evil they have done..." (31:18).

It is clear from this that evil is a consequence of distance from God, and that our proximity to God is ultimately up to us. When we merit God's nearness, nothing can harm us. This is reflected in such verses as Isaiah 42:10 ("Fear not, for I am with you...") and Psalms 118:6 ("God is on my side; I will not be afraid. What can a human do to me?"), among others.

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1. The Rambam doesn't mention this as a support but the Talmud in Shabbos (30b) discusses how the "angel of death" had to distract King David from his studies in order to take him. This jibes perfectly with the Rambam's hypothesis.


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