“On one hand, we feel God to be very near; on the other, as we see, He is very distant.
We call Him Father.
We also call Him ‘Ein Sof’ (Infinite).
Actually, I need both of these, especially when I am concerned with the question of Divine Providence.
For whenever I move something — even to the slightest degree — it has a reason and a result.
As the Tzadik said, lifting up a handful of sand and letting it run out through his fingers:
‘He who does not believe that every one of these particles returns exactly to the place that God wishes, is a heretic.’
Another image, attributed to the Baal Shem Tov, says that sometimes a great storm comes, hurls everything about, and causes the trees to shake violently so that the leaves fall.
One such leaf may drop close to a worm, and it was for this the whole world was in a furor — that a worm may eat of a certain leaf.
This then, is the aspect of personal Providence.
God’s word activates and changes the world all the time.
At every moment there is a totally new state of affairs.
Whether a microbe or a galaxy, all are equally part of this and are in the same proportion to Him.
This means that God is close to us without ceasing.
Nothing can occur without Him.”
From The Sustaining Utterance, p.28 by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz