God desires not that you should rely on him, nor does he desire you should rely on yourself; certainly not that you should rely on anyone else; so who should you rely on? – the balance of how God interfaces with humanity is called rotzu-vishuv, which is the hardest balance for humanity to achieve

 

Many are those whose belief in God causes them to truly give up their responsibilities, in the notion that this is what God wants – from, I believe, the Seventh Day Adventists, who refuse medical care, claiming that God’s will must be done, to the countless, who instead of taking personal responsibility, believe that if God desires, it will happen.

 

Our Rebbe, the culmination of all the thousands of years of Jewish mysticism, philosophy etc., believed our relationship with God must be one in which we have a dual reality – which is why it is so hard for us to do – on one hand, we must know beyond a shadow of a doubt, like a farmer who plants a seed, that without the rain from heaven, his seed is useless

 

But simultaneously, without your tiny effort – God gives you the seed, gives you the field, and will give you the rain – but if you don’t physically plant that seed! all of God’s blessings will not produce a miracle

 

Succinctly, we must internalize the truth, that nothing grows, nothing sprouts, nothing works without God’s blessing; but all of that wisdom is, so, we then humbly start planting seeds