השגחה פרטית · A leaf turning

The Besht is reported to have taught that providence is individual all the way down: not merely that God governs species and nations, but that a leaf turning over in a stream is turned, and turned for a reason bound up with the whole repair of the world.

⚠ It is a real philosophical position and it breaks with the medieval consensus. Maimonides restricts individual providence to human beings, and to human beings in proportion to their intellectual attainment. The Hasidic reading extends it to everything, which is coherent with the sparks doctrine and is a genuine disagreement with the Guide rather than a pious flourish.