What does the name Mohamed Bouazizi mean to you? Haven’t heard of him? He’s the one who triggered all the turmoil that’s been toppling governments one after the other in North Africa and the Middle East. He himself doesn’t even know what he caused because he is dead. His suicide took place in Tunisia the day before the revolt broke out.

Mohamed was an unemployed student with a family to support and he tried to bring in some cash selling vegetables in the local marketplace. He was peddling without a license however and was caught by the authorities who confiscated his vegetable wagon. When he went to the police station to plead with them to return the wagon explaining that this was his sole source of livelihood a hard-hearted policewoman slapped him in the face and threw him out ignoring his pleas of desperation. Out of despair and humiliation he publicly set himself on fire and died of his burns.

That act was the match that ignited the entire region. The enraged populace took to the streets and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali the Tunisian strongman fled for his life. The rage quickly spread from Tunisia to Egypt. And now it includes Libya Yemen and Bahrain and we can only look on in fascination and fear not knowing where it is going to stop.

How is it that a petty incident over a vegetable stand should cause an international shakeup of such proportions when the participants in the drama never had an inkling that their isolated scene would play itself out on the world stage?

It is indeed an Almighty ruckus a turmoil directed by the Hand of G-d.

A gemara in Maseches Avodah Zarah (2b) tells us that the day will come when HaKadosh Baruch Hu will ask the nations of the world “How did you occupy yourselves?” They will say “Master of the Universe we built many marketplaces many bathhouses; we waged many wars and we did all this only so that the Jewish People should spend their time studying Torah.”

HaKadosh Baruch Hu will answer them “Everything you did you did for your own purposes. You built bridges in order to collect taxes …” The Gemara goes on in a similar vein refuting the claims of the nations.

And as for wars HaKadosh Baruch Hu informs the nations that they are mistaken in thinking they made wars. “I made the wars” He tells them as the pasuk says “Hashem Ish milchamah.”

“You see” says G-d to the nations “the bathhouses and bridges that you built [and this surely alludes to all the structures of world civilization] you built for your own personal benefit. You can’t deceive Me with your claim that you did it for the sake of the Jewish People. But the wars that you proudly say you made for their sake you didn’t make at all. I take responsibility for those.”

What does this mean?

World events take a natural course. And while every manifestation in this world is a hidden miracle anyone who is obstinate enough can explain anything that happens as a natural occurrence. Even the Plagues of Egypt have been explained away as quirks of nature by people who stubbornly refuse to see the Hand of G-d.

The Plague of the Firstborn however couldn’t possibly be ascribed to a natural cause. And the Torah in announcing the onset of this plague uses the word Ani “I” — G-d himself. “At midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt.” This teaches us that in this crushing plague the Creator Himself made an appearance; it was an actual gilui Shechinah a divine revelation of G-d’s tangible presence in the pit of Egyptian depravity.

This same concepts apply to the events we are currently witnessing. “I made the wars” says HaKadosh Baruch Hu. That is to say when it comes to the major events that move the wheels of history forward their development cannot be attributed to anything other than an action stemming directly from the will of Divine Providence above the natural sequence of events.

And in the chain of developments since the beginning of world history the trigger that sets things off has no revealed direct connection to the results. The pages of history are full of fascinating stories that illustrate this process and in Tunisia yet another chapter has been added to the saga. A poor hapless young man kills himself in despair and history changes course.

This is the historical reality and if one is equipped with the right set of antennae one can pick up the “voice of G‑d walking about in the garden” of the world. Except that the people of the world have made the “garden” into something more like a jungle.

Even those who are distant from the Torah view of the world have perceived this truth on occasion. Although the message has been relayed through historical research it’s been picked up nonetheless. Seventy years ago a Swedish historian wrote:

“Humanity progresses by laws that make their way undisturbed through the generations either in accordance with or against the will of the men and nations of the time. What are these laws? No one knows their inner essence but they leave marks that are sometimes visible with greater or lesser clarity. If we listen well to the sounds of the past we may perceive in the way events link themselves together something akin to a human face smiling sternly yet softly at nations that imagine they are walking on paths they have determined for themselves when in fact they are constantly going somewhere they never wanted to go. And although this may be an idle fancy nevertheless one suspects that these harsh laws of history are not merely a set of dry laws but manifestations of a Higher Will against which nothing can stand.”

In other words “I made the wars.” It is not in human hands to utilize trivial incidents to trigger historical upheavals; this is the work of Divine Providence. We describe it daily in the Ashrei prayer in the words “u’memshaltecha b’chol dor vador — Your rule is over every generation.” Or as the Ramchal expressed it “The will of HaKadosh Baruch Hu is done no matter what.”

And as the entire world today seems to be moving toward a goal that is beyond our understanding at least we know that G-d is running the show.

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I have received many letters in response to my two recent columns dealing with the question of how to make belief in the Creator relevant to the present generation. This is a critical issue and with Hashem’s help next week I will devote a column to discussing the readers’ comments — for it is our very lives and the lives of our sons and daughters that are at stake.

Food for Thought

Every Jew comes into the world in order to fulfill a specific task.

(The Baal Shem Tov)