nudges and tests

[cellio]

A friend who is converting to Judaism just faced her first job/Shabbat dilemma, and she is naturally frustrated by it. She needs the job, and the only interview time they would give her is on Shabbat, even though the job itself is Sunday-to-Thursday. She explained the problem and they wouldn't budge, so she's presumably lost the job. This prompted her to speculate about God's involvement in day-to-day life, and whether this was a test.

I've written before about the question of whether God is involved in the world (immanent) or just transcendant. I don't like some of the implications of an immanent God, but I believe this is the case nonetheless. (It's not either/or; God is both immanent and transcendant.)

But, I don't believe that God micro-manages. God does not get involved in minor actions or the day-to-day routine. God doesn't even decide who is going to suffer various man-made calamities. But every now and then, I believe God takes specific interest in specific events in specific people's lives. As a result of my friend's problem, I've realized that these interests take two forms: what I've been calling "nudges", and tests. (There is actually a third form, but I'm putting that off for later.)

I've talked about nudges before. Sometimes something happens that causes us to become more aware of God (and perhaps what he wants from us). This doesn't have to be the major nudge that sets someone to change religion; it could be the minor nudge that causes someone to start caring about some aspect of his life that he'd previously neglected (whether that be Shabbat, or what we eat, or how we interact with other people, or something else). Perhaps such nudges actually come entirely from within, but I think they come from God, at least some of the time. (Sometimes they come from heightened awareness, which itself may come from God.)

I hadn't thought much about tests before, but I suppose it makes sense that God would test us from time to time. I don't mean "test" in the "fail and you go to hell" sense, nor do I mean major events that affect other people like the Akeidah (the binding of Isaac). I mean the minor events that help us to solidify what we believe and strengthen our resolve. If a good job that's not available because of Shabbat conflicts helps one to strengthen one's commitment to Shabbat, then that is a good result, not a bad one. There have been several events in my life that I thought were bad at the time that ultimately turned out to be for good; they are the events that changed or strengthened me. I think, when we can see that and say that this too shall pass, we've sometimes passed a little test.

I don't mean to imply that God is personally involved in every temptation we face. If my kashrut is pretty strong, I don't believe that God is making sure the people around me are eating yummy-looking pork roasts or the like. As I said before, God does not micro-manage. Random temptations (that come from anywhere, really) are different from the incidents that actually shape or strengthen us.

I had to tackle some employment-related issues when I got serious about Judaism, though my job was never in any danger. At the time I was converting, some of my coworkers did not seem to take me seriously and that kind of hurt. I'm glad that, job-wise, I was able to make a clean break eventually: my current coworkers have only ever known me as an observant Jew, and this has made some things much easier. No one here questions early winter-time Friday departures; the previous coworkers remembered when that wasn't an issue. (Yes, we did talk about it briefly in the interview; the response was along the lines of "why should that be an issue? don't worry about it".)

Oh, the third category of divine involvement? What I'll loosely call "fortune". But it'll have to wait for another time.

Comments

[figmo.livejournal.com]

I had a potential employer who wanted me to interview just before erev Yom Kippur. I did the interview, but I had to rush it because I was more concerned with getting out of there in time than I was with getting the job.

It was just as well. I later learned they had no intention of hiring me and had purposely scheduled me and all the other Jewish candidates they didn't want to hire on or right next to the High Holy Days just so they could say we "stood them up" or "were distracted."

[goljerp]

I'm not normally a fan of the american "sue the bastards" gut reflex, but in this case, someone should.