Rabbi Shulman continues developing the idea of **השגחה אישית** as Hashem’s individualized guidance, framing a person’s life circumstances as tailored tests aligned with their unique spiritual mission (“מזל” in a higher sense). He contrasts this with the Gemara’s “אין מזל לישראל,” explaining that Jews can transcend astrological determinism, while still having a divinely assigned role that shapes their challenges. Rabbi Shulman then introduces a second axis beyond mission: **דין וגמול**—how a person’s deeds generate increased assistance, more opportunities for mitzvot, and even protection from עבירות, while misdeeds can create escalating obstacles that (paradoxically) can later become a source of greater תיקון.

Outline: https://danielggordon.github.io/ateresami/dh-biyun-2-3-34-20260916-130540-outline-20260916-130627.pdf

Rabbi Shulman explains that Hashem intentionally designed avodat Hashem with enormous diversity—across mitzvot, life circumstances, and even moment-to-moment emotional states—so that our relationship with Hashem can be multi-faceted rather than one-dimensional. Each person receives a unique “portion” of the overall spiritual work, and judgment is therefore individualized with exact precision. Rabbi Shulman then connects this to the Ramchal’s model of hishtalshelut: our earthly challenges originate in higher spiritual “roots,” and human bechirah can repair (or damage) those roots, affecting the world below.

Outline: https://danielggordon.github.io/ateresami/dh-biyun-2-3-12-20260901-040550-outline-20260901-040628.pdf

Rabbi Shulman continues studying the Ramchal’s framework of divine justice, distinguishing between deeds that become eternal assets in עולם הבא and deeds that are “cashed out” in this world. He explains a troubling middle category: people who do have a share in eternity, yet many of their מצוות are nevertheless paid out in worldly “trinkets,” leaving them with a diminished eternal stature due to קלקול המעשים. Rabbi Shulman then transitions from the “general axis” (universal bookkeeping) to the “personal axis,” where Hashem’s wisdom creates diverse human circumstances—wealth, poverty, and more—to generate the full range of moral and spiritual tests.

Outline: https://danielggordon.github.io/ateresami/dh-biyun-2-2-83-1-20260825-230536-outline-20260825-230610.pdf

Rabbi Shulman explains the Ramchal’s view that יסורים are not merely “payment” demanded by strict דין, but a rehabilitative process that repairs the רוחני damage created by עבירות. He develops how actions concretely reshape a person’s גוף and נפש—good deeds build זוהר and שלמות, while sins embed עכירות and חיסרון that block דבקות. Rabbi Shulman then clarifies why some cleansing can occur through suffering in this world while deeper stains require “spiritual” יסורים (גהנום), and concludes with a foundational principle: the exact level of one’s עולם הבא is self-chosen, leaving no room for complaint against others.

Outline: https://danielggordon.github.io/ateresami/dh-biyun-2-2-567-20260818-031235-outline-20260818-031323.pdf

Rabbi Shulman explains the Ramchal’s framework of **השגחה כללית** as a system of spiritual “accounting” that ensures every deed is addressed, enabling true דביקות with Hashem in עולם הבא. He develops how Divine justice and kindness require multiple “arenas” of payment—this world, Gehinnom (and related post-life afflictions), and the ultimate world—so that most souls can be refined rather than annihilated. Rabbi Shulman then goes deeper: suffering is not only bookkeeping, but a process that changes the person’s inner spiritual reality, because mitzvot and עבירות become internalized as perfection or spiritual opacity.

Outline: https://danielggordon.github.io/ateresami/dh-biyun-2-2-4-20260804-030532-outline-20260804-030608.pdf

Rabbi Shulman outlines the Ramchal’s framework for understanding השגחה: since humanity’s purpose is to earn דבקות בה׳ in עולם הבא, the entire arrangement of עולם הזה is designed as preparation for that ultimate end. Rabbi Shulman explains that this preparation operates on two parallel “axes”—an individual axis (האישי) and a general, species-wide axis (הכללי)—and focuses here on the general axis: a דין-and-accounting system that ensures every deed is repaid, with “majority” defining one’s eternal destiny and “minority” being settled in this world through success or suffering.

Outline: https://danielggordon.github.io/ateresami/dh-biyun-2-2-12-20260729-120735-outline-20260729-120832.pdf

Rabbi Shulman explains the philosophical problem of how “evil” can exist if Hashem is the source of all goodness, developing the Rambam’s model that evil begins not as a created substance but as the withdrawal of divine revelation (hester panim). He then adds a second stage: once that “absence” forms a dysfunctional “blueprint,” Hashem’s ongoing life-giving power can animate it into real existing forces of harm—without implying that evil reflects Hashem’s essence. The dvar Torah concludes by mapping how varying degrees of divine concealment empower forces of tumah, how this weakens the side of good in a “zero-sum” dynamic, and how even destructive angels remain loyal servants carrying out Hashem’s decree.

Outline: https://danielggordon.github.io/ateresami/dh-1-5-89-20260714-121944-outline-20260714-122027.pdf

Rabbi Shulman explains how human free will can “move” higher spiritual powers upward, triggering an inevitable, determined flow back downward into the world. He clarifies that not only actions, but also speech and thought, generate uniquely calibrated effects—varying by intensity (*שיעור*) and by spiritual “location” or level (*מדרגה*). Rabbi Shulman then turns to the theological problem of evil, presenting the Ramchal’s model: good is caused directly by Hashem’s illumination, while evil is rooted not in Hashem as a “cause,” but in the concealment/absence of that light—an engineered condition that makes free will possible.