On Divine Providence: From “The Guide for the Perplexed” by Maimonides (vegetarian), Part 2 of 2

“The relation of Divine Providence is therefore not the same to all men; the greater the human perfection a person has attained, the greater the benefit he derives from Divine Providence. This benefit is very great in the case of prophets, and varies according to the degree of their prophetic faculty; as it varies in the case of pious and good men according to their piety and uprightness. For it is the intensity of the Divine intellectual influence that has inspired the prophets, guided the good in their actions, and perfected the wisdom of the pious. In the same proportion as ignorant and disobedient persons are deficient in that Divine influence, their condition is inferior. This belief that God provides for every individual human being in accordance with his merits is one of the fundamental principles on which the Law is founded.”

“When we see that some men escape plagues and mishaps, whilst others perish by them, we must not attribute this to a difference in the properties of their bodies, or in their physical constitution, ‘for by strength shall no man prevail’; but it must be attributed to their different degrees of perfection, some approaching God, whilst others moving away from Him.”

“For philosophical research leads to this conclusion, if we assume, as has been mentioned above, that Divine Providence is in each case proportional to the person’s intellectual development. For only individual beings have real existence, and individual beings are endowed with Divine Intellect; Divine Providence acts, therefore, upon these individual beings.”

“It is undoubtedly an innate idea that God must be perfect in every respect and cannot be deficient in anything. It is almost an innate idea that ignorance in anything is a deficiency, and that God can therefore not be ignorant of anything.”

“David proceeds to explain that God endowed us with the intellect which is the means of our comprehension, and which on account of its insufficiency to form a true idea of God has become the source of great doubts; that He therefore knows what our defects are, and how the doubts originate in our faulty reasoning. The Psalmist therefore says: ‘He who teaches man knowledge, the Lord, knows the thoughts of man.’”