The second: that [the ways of a person’s benefit] are not hidden from the Creator, may He be blessed, etc.: this is the fourth that he mentioned above in chapter 2. Here he did not list them in the order given above; there is no earlier and later in these matters.

And if this holds true of human craftsmen, etc.: that is, a human craftsman knows what mends his work and what spoils it, even though in their work they bring about nothing but an outward form. For a carpenter, if he has wood in hand, can make a chair or a table of it, and so with all other crafts; but if he does not have the substance of the thing, he cannot bring it into being. And with all this, every craftsman knows what mends his work and what spoils it.

[All the more so] the One who brought into being a person’s root, etc.: now reason it out, all the more so: Hashem, may He be blessed, who brought into being a person’s roots and his form, all of it something from nothing, surely He is the wise One who knows what benefits a person, etc.

And His word is decisive above every word: His decree is stronger than anything.

The fifth: that it is not in the hand of any created being to benefit his own soul: [that is,] himself.

Or to harm it: to harm himself.

Or another: and likewise he cannot benefit or harm another, except by the permission of the Creator, may He be blessed.

And if one of them is able: that is, to benefit the servant more, because of his greatness and strength beyond the other master, the strength of his trust in him will certainly be, etc.

The sixth: that he know, etc., to man: this is the seventh of chapter 2.

The seventh: this is the fifth of chapter 2.

Substance and circumstance: I have already explained them well in Shaar HaYichud; they include all the creatures and beings in the world. And he says that they have a set limit: it is decreed for each one that this will be so and that will be so, and all of it by individual providence.

In its amount: that is, how many years he will live.

And its kind: how he will be, short or tall, and the like.

And its time: and in what time it will be.

And its place: and in what place it will be, and everything like this; for everything is in the hands of Heaven except the fear of Heaven.

Nothing increases: no one can increase a thing that was decreed to be little, whether in the years of his life, or in his livelihood, or in any of his affairs.

And nothing lessens, etc., and nothing delays what He decreed to come early: if it was decreed that this thing be so and so at once, today or tomorrow, and a person wants to put it off for a long time, no one can change the decree; and so the reverse, “and nothing brings early,” etc.

And whatever comes about in a way, etc.: that is, if a person sees new or strange things come about in the world, for example that this one grew rich and that one became poor, or the like, let him not wonder at the matter and say that it is by chance, that his effort or his slackness brought it about for them. For everything is a decree from before Him; only, HaMakom has many messengers, and these are the causes and the means through which, and by whose hands, everything is carried out, to fulfill the decrees of the King, HaKadosh Baruch Hu. But the causes have no power to increase or to lessen, as we see with grains of seed: when Hashem wishes to increase one man’s seed, his grain sprouts with great blessing, and from one grain he finds ten thousand grains. Whoever has eyes of understanding will not miss this: a grain has no ability to do such a thing; rather, certainly, when the King’s decree is that his grain should sprout so much, so he will find in the grains. And so with all things in the world: they are carried out only through causes, and these are the messengers of Hashem, may He be blessed. See below in the fifth premise, where the need for causes is explained with great reason, and you will understand it well.