"But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion" - Love and Fear in Judaism.

העובד מאהבה, עוסק בתורה ובמצוות והולך בנתיבות החכמה--לא מפני דבר בעולם, לא מפני יראת הרעה, ולא כדי לירש הטובה:  אלא עושה האמת, מפני שהוא אמת; וסוף הטובה לבוא בכלל.

“One who worships out of love, is occupied with Torah and walks in the paths of knowledge, for no other reason in the world, neither for fear of bad consequences nor hoping for good outcomes, but acts the truth because it is true and eventually good will follow on the whole[1]”. (Hilchot Teshuvah 10:2)

This is one of the most important statements that we can find anywhere in the Jewish literature and it truly defines our religion as it really is – The Quest for Truth - the ultimate Truth. What triggered this post is a quote from Steven Weinberg (Nobel Prize Physicist), in Jim Holt’s excellent book – Why Does the World Exist? – which I am now reading. Weinberg reportedly stated, “With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion”.  My reaction is that he is 100% right and that is because most people do not understand what real religion is all about. I don’t know enough about other religions but I know enough about our religion, Judaism to know that based on the way it is practiced nowadays and understood by the general Jewish religious community, Weinberg is correct. It is only by accepting Rambam’s definition of religion and understanding deeply what he is teaching that Judaism can become what it is supposed to be – to move humanity towards seeking Truth and not a tool for control and manipulation. 

The general rather simplistic and popular concept of Judaism today is that it is good for you. God knows all and watches all human actions and sits in judgment; good deeds are rewarded and bad deeds are punished. As man does not know what is right or wrong, a set of laws has been given – the Torah and Mitzvot – and doing good means following the Mitzvot, bad is ignoring or flouting them. Punishment is when bad things happen and reward is when good things happen. How to define good things and bad things? If a person’s wishes are fulfilled it is good and if they are thwarted it is bad. As human life is short there is an additional bonus, Olam Haba, life after death where if one was good one will bask in perpetual bliss, an undefined concept but said to be something that one cannot grasp while alive. The evil person, the one who flouted the Mitzvot while alive will burn in hell, suffering untold pain eternally. Then there are full panoplies of intermediary systems where one gets reward in this world for the good deeds so that he can be punished eternally for the bad and vice versa.  Interestingly some more “advanced thinkers” will suggest that there are “spiritual” benefits that result from following this path. If you try to delve deeper and ask what they mean by "spiritual" the answer is less anxiety, Bitachon, feeling good about yourself and other such “feel good” experiences. The common denominator is that the rewards are “good things” happening to the individual.  All one has to do is pick up a contemporary Mussar sefer or “theological” sefer to get a picture of this simple and easy to grasp system of reward and punishment. The ultimate goal of this type of religion is to adhere strictly to the Mitzvot and to reap the rewards that God bestows on those that follow rituals strictly.

At first blush, the sources fit very nicely with this understanding of Judaism. However this approach cannot satisfy a thinking person. It is a narcissistic and selfish perspective on life where everything one does is to satisfy personal wishes and needs. It is no better than capitalism, socialism or any other “ism” out there. Egoism and selfishness eventually lead to evil and it is in the name of these “isms” that much of the evil witnessed by humankind has been perpetrated. If there is nothing more to religion, then religion is truly the cause of evil. If religion is there only to better our material life then it will inevitably lead to evil. That is the idea behind Avodah Zara – idolatry - which is the ultimate falsehood and is the underlying theme of all that the Torah teaches away from. So how do we explain the prevalence of this way of thinking in our community? Human beings are endowed with the urge for self-preservation. That urge is common to all living things and is there to perpetuate themselves and their kind or genus.  That urge is narcissistic and selfish and is part of us just like appetite and all our other urges. This type of religious thinking caters to that urge and is attractive to the animalistic instinct, it “feels” good. It is also a misinterpretation and misunderstanding of the sources, a distortion of what they teach us as we will see further.

In addition to the survival instinct human beings have another innate capability - consciousness. That capability allows us to see ourselves, ourselves in relation to the other and in relation to our environment and our universe. It gives us the ability to see beyond our natural urges and our immediate needs, to see the other and develop moral and ethical codes that take into account the other and our environment. Moral and ethical societies do not necessarily require religion to function and indeed many societies work well without religion. Thus the first part of Weinberg’s statement is correct, good people will do good and bad people evil without religion. Consciousness and the ability to think abstractly and self-awareness that comes with it bring with them an even more advanced and sophisticated urge; it triggers in us the need to understand our existence why we are here, what is the goal of us being here and all the existential questions that humanity has struggled with for millennia. Judaism is meant to help people address these questions. Rambam counts as the eighth positive commandment

המצווה השמינית

הציווי שנצטווינו להדמות לו ית' כפי יכלתנו, והוא אמרו:

"והלכת בדרכיו" (דברים כח, ט). 

The existential question of how and why we exist and the search for the answer has a practical side to it – to find God so that we can emulate Him. The problem is that to know God, to know how to emulate Him is not easy. God is the Truth but also the Great Mystery and the search to discover Him and interpret His actions correctly is a lifelong task that takes over all aspects of a human being’s day. The greatest challenge is to overcome subjectivity, self-serving bias so that we can see things objectively. It is here that Torah and Mitzvot, the practical side of Judaism come into play. They are the tool that perfects our minds and our emotions so that we think objectively and thus know how to act constructively. Torah and Mitzvot are not the goal and end all of religious life but the most important gift we received from HKBH as tools to perfect us and help us reach our ultimate goal which is finding God and His ways and emulating Him. When religion is focused to help us realize these goals it is a very personal experience and does not lead to control and manipulation that is the source of evil. On the contrary it imbues us with respect to fellow seekers and compels us to enlist others into this quest through example and promotes love for our fellow human beings.

Returning to the question we asked earlier, why is our community so invested in the idea of following the Law for the sake of physical reward and to avoid punishment?  The question is even sharper when we read the strong admonishments and warnings in the last few Parshyot – Ki Tavo and Nitzavim. They all seem to focus on the physical good and bad. As I said earlier it is an attractive approach to the undeveloped person and therefore entices him to grab on to this misinterpretation of the sources. In Hilchot Teshuvah Chapter 9 Rambam addresses these sources  and explains how they are meant to be read. As this is a quite lengthy discussion I will leave it for another post.  Here is a summary of how Rambam understands this –

ו  נמצא פירוש כל אותן הברכות והקללות, על דרך זו:  כלומר אם עבדתם את ה' בשמחה, ושמרתם דרכו--משפיע לכם הברכות האלו ומרחיק הקללות, עד שתהיו פנויים להתחכם בתורה ולעסוק בה, כדי שתזכו לחיי העולם הבא, וייטב לך לעולם שכולו טוב ותאריך ימים לעולם שכולו ארוך.  ונמצאתם זוכין לשני העולמות, לחיים טובים בעולם הזה המביאין לחיי העולם הבא:  שאם לא יקנה הנה חכמה ומעשים טובים--אין לו במה יזכה, שנאמר "כי אין מעשה וחשבון, ודעת וחכמה, בשאול . . ." (קוהלת ט,י).

ז  ואם עזבתם את ה' ושגיתם במאכל ומשקה וזנות ודומה להם--מביא עליכם כל הקללות האלו ומסיר כל הברכות, עד שייכלו ימיכם בבהלה ופחד, ולא יהיה לכם לב פנוי ולא גוף שלם לעשות המצוות, כדי שתאבדו מחיי העולם הבא.  ונמצא שאיבדתם שני עולמות:  שבזמן שאדם טרוד בעולם הזה בחולי ובמלחמה ורעבון, אינו מתעסק לא בחכמה ולא במצוה שבהן זוכין לחיי העולם הבא.

It should be noted that at the end of all the admonishments and warnings where the Torah describes all the physical destruction and punishment that will result from our transgressions, the Torah describes what will happen at the end when we realize our mistake. It promises improvements in our physical wellbeing but ultimately the goal is – (Devarim 30:6)

ו  וּמָל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֶת-לְבָבְךָ, וְאֶת-לְבַב זַרְעֶךָ:  לְאַהֲבָה אֶת-יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ, בְּכָל-לְבָבְךָ וּבְכָל-נַפְשְׁךָ--לְמַעַן חַיֶּיךָ.

6 And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live.

The ultimate goal is to worship God out of love and not out of fear. Love comes with knowledge. We love someone we know; we do not love strangers. It is the search for the answers to our existential questions that leads us to the transcendental God, the mysterious and unknown Entity that we can only know through negating any physical attribute to, that we only perceive the results of His will and which we try to emulate. The understanding that this is the goal of Mitzvot and not just physical wellbeing will go a long way to keep us from falling into the trap Professor Weinberg so eloquently describes – “But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion”.

In another post I would like to expand more on this last fundamental issue – what exactly to we mean when we talk about God? When we say we are searching for God, what exactly are we looking for? Because the answer to that sharpens further why Professor Weinstein’s comment and indeed many of the anti-religion arguments of other atheists such as Dawkins and Hitchens do not talk to me when I think about real Judaism, the one Rambam teaches.

As this post was inspired by Steven Weinberg, who claims to be an atheist, I would like to share another statement of his regarding the boycotting of Israel by some humanistic/religious groups -

"Given the history of the attacks on Israel and the oppressiveness and aggressiveness of other countries in the Middle East and elsewhere, boycotting Israel indicated a moral blindness for which it is hard to find any explanation other than anti-Semitism."

Spoken like a Jew!

I wish all a Ketiva Vechatima Tova and a Shana Tova. Chag Sameach.  

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[1] “On the whole” indicates the possibility of a rocky road with a good outcome. The immediate result of “acting the Truth” may not be necessarily rosy but in the larger context it will lead to good. This falls into Rambam’s discussion of providence – Hashgacha.

A Personal Reflection On Why I Am A Jew.

I have been learning Rambam’s thought for many years now. I find his approach to Judaism extremely attractive and it has enhanced my innerand daily life tremendously. It is not Rambam’s supposed extreme rationalism as I am not a cold rationalist devoid of emotions and neither is Rambam. On the contrary, one has only to read the last chapters in Moreh Hanevuchim, the periodic emotional outbursts in Hilchot Yesodei Hatorah and even more in Hilchot Teshuvah to appreciate the great internal fire that was burning inside the great man and Tzaddik. David Blumenthal even claims that Rambam had a mystical bend to him. I believe he misinterprets Rambam in some of the proofs he uses to make his point but there certainly is some truth to it. So why do I pick Rambam’s approach over others, say Ramban and his predecessor the Kuzari, Rabbeinu Sa’adyah, R. Chasdai Crescas and others?

It has to do with how Rambam understands the relationship of man to God. One of the great problems the traditional or to be more accurate, popular approach to religion has, is that it is seen as fantasy that makes people feel good rather than being the truth. When I am told that I have to believe in God, that He controls everything, directs everything that happens, that by doing Mitzvot I induce Him to make good things happen to me and to others and if they do not happen it is because I did not do the Mitzvah well enough, I get an urge to become an atheist. I see it as an escape for the helplessness we feel in our attempt to control our lives, as the opiate needed to calm our insecurities. I see prayer for the sick, Tehilim, Mi Sheberach et al, the way it is popularly understood, in the same vein. It is this distorted thinking, distorted in my view though it may work for others, that leads to the obnoxious and ridiculous explanation of the holocaust as punishment for lack of religiosity between the wars. It is this type of thinking that leads to the rejection of the State of Israel and all the nonsense we observe in our community including the latest Chilulei Hashem that keep on surfacing endlessly and that are so painful and difficult to observe. Unfortunately, these events are not surprising. The popular understanding of religion, unfortunately encouraged by our leaders, is responsible for the big discrepancy between the religious and ethical life of so many of our coreligionists. After all if I am zealous enough by observing every Chumra, I daven thrice daily, say a long Shemona Esreh and yell out Amen Yehei Shmei Raba with full force etc…, God must look at me with favor and no bad can befall me even if I steal, rob etc… especially from a goy! Isn’t there a mitzvah of Lo Techanem in their case?

This thinking is not exclusive to Judaism; it is the norm in all religions. The Richard Dawkins of this world have therefore a very good argument in their rejection of religion, seeing it as anti-science and a pure fantasy developed by fertile imaginations. According to my understanding of Rambam, he probably would agree (I am saying this tongue in cheek – it would be a travesty to place him in the same camp as Dawkins). Rambam’s understanding of Judaism is that it came into existence to reject and counter this kind of religion. Idolatry saw the gods as entities that when treated right would serve humankind. Give them the proper bribe and in return, your crops will flourish, sicknesses will be healed and all good things would happen. Judaism teaches that God is not in man’s service. Man is obligated to serve God. (See the second Parsha of Shema). Religion is the search for an answer to the ultimate existential questions, why are we here? Is there a meaning to our existence? Does humankind have a role to play in the whole of existence? If yes, what is it? What is good and bad? What is right and wrong? How do I, an individual, do what is right? What is our obligation to ourselves, to our surroundings, to the whole of existence and ultimately to God? In short, what is the ultimate Truth?

These questions can only be answered if we understand our environment and our part in it, how we came into existence, whether our existence is just there or was brought into being, if the latter, what entity was responsible for that and if yes, try to conceptualize that entity in the only way possible namely what He is not. The problem is that after answering the questions about our environment by learning the empirical sciences that describe how things work, the questions we confront do not have easy answers. There are no hard facts that can demonstrate what existed the split second before the Big Bang, the currently accepted theory of how things came into being, how the event was triggered, why at that moment or who was responsible for it. These questions are beyond physics and science. They belong to the realm of metaphysics which some will refer to as pseudo science. Notwithstanding these difficulties, how we answer these questions is very important because they will have a major influence on how we lead our life and our whole raison d’etre. How does one approach this without going off into a world of fantasy?

The central Mitzvah in Judaism is Talmud Torah, the learning of Torah. Torah in Rambam’s thought is not limited to religious texts and halachot but it includes all sciences and knowledge about our existence. Note the emphasis on the word Talmud – “learning”. There is a lifelong obligation of constantly “learning”, in other words, searching. The Rav Z”L has a beautiful shiur on tape in Yiddish where he defines Avraham Avinu as the ultimate searcher. He was searching for HKBH, for Truth, and found it by recognizing God, the definition of Truth. The Torah is full of admonitions to search. We just heard one of those admonitions in last week’s Parsha –

כט וּבִקַּשְׁתֶּם מִשָּׁם אֶת-יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ, וּמָצָאתָ: כִּי תִדְרְשֶׁנּוּ, בְּכָל-לְבָבְךָ וּבְכָל-נַפְשֶׁךָ. 29

But from there you will seek the LORD your God; and you will find Him, if you search after Him with all your heart and with all your soul. (Devarim 4:29)

This is not only an individual’s lifelong search but multi-generational throughout human history. That is why the concept of Yemot Hamashiach is so important in Judaism and is one of its dogmas. It is a paradigm for this continuous search and what it hopes to accomplish. Unlike other Rishonim who accepted Kabbalah, Rambam sets strict limits to the human ability to acquire knowledge. We can only know the physical world we live in and we can extrapolate back to a time after things came into existence. Before then and how the physical relates to the transcendental, the whole construct of the Mekubalim of Atzilut, Bria’ah and Yetzira, the process of emanation and all the rest of these theories are foreign to Rambam thought. He believes that humans do not have the ability to know these things and trying to do so is futile. By trying to understand our physical world, we have enough information that allows us to find the traces of God and get an understanding of how He wants us to act in His world. That is the Truth that we are seeking and that the Torah and Mitzvot are there to help us get in a proper, correct and true perspective.

ב] העובד מאהבה, עוסק בתורה ובמצוות והולך בנתיבות החכמה--לא מפני דבר בעולם, לא מפני יראת הרעה, ולא כדי לירש הטובה: אלא עושה האמת, מפני שהוא אמת; וסוף הטובה לבוא בכלל

One who worships for the sake of love, is involved with Torah and Mitzvot and walks in the paths of wisdom, not because he fears the bad or so that he can enjoy the good or for any other reason in the world. He acts the Truth because it is true, and the good will generally come eventually. (Hilchot Teshuvah 10:2)

We expect nothing. All we want to do is to “act the Truth” because it is Truth. Note how it is not “find” or “contemplate” or “connect” but “act” the Truth – Osseh Ha’emet. In other words, finding the Truth is not an intellectual exercise but a necessary exercise to know how to act responsibly emulating God’s ways, the understanding we acquire in this continuous search.

In this worldview, the Mitzvot that are regulated by Halacha, are only one part of the whole Torah. They are the tool, the exclusive and obligatory tool a Jew has, to insure that he really searches for Truth. It prompts him to do so and then teaches him how to act, keeps him focused on the goal, disciplines and perfects him so that he remains objective and leads him on the path to Truth. Judaism is thus divided into two parts, the practical and the theological, where the first is the tool necessary to acquire the second, which in turn allows man to emulate his Creator by acting responsibly towards the whole of Creation including humanity.

It is this understanding of our religion that speaks to me. I see it as a guide and a teaching, as the word Torah implies, challenging us to express our full potential by living a life of responsibility. It is not an opiate but a challenge.

Shabbat Shalom.

Truth at The Risk of Atheism in Levinas Thought and Understanding of Judaism.

I am reading Difficult Freedom – Essays on Judaism - by Emmanuel Levinas and came across a very illuminating and interesting idea.

“For Judaism, the goal of education consists in instituting a link between man and the Saintliness of God and in maintaining man in this relationship. … Judaism has decharmed the world, contesting the notion that religions apparently evolved out of enthusiasm and the sacred. Judaism remains foreign to any offensive return of these forms of human elevation. It denounces them as the essence of idolatry.

The numinous (supernatural – DG) or the Sacred envelops and transports man beyond his powers and wishes, but a true liberty takes offence at this uncontrollable surplus. The numinous annuls the links between persons by making beings participate, albeit ecstatically, in a drama not brought about willingly by them, an order in which they founder. This somehow sacramental power of the Divine seems to Judaism to offend human freedom and to be contrary to the education of man, which remains action on a free being. Not that liberty is an end in itself, but it does remain the condition for any value man may attain. The Sacred that envelops and transports me is a form of violence” (Emphasis in the original).

Believing in the supernatural and what Levinas terms the Sacred and making it part of life denies human freedom of will, denying the concept of actions and consequence, being that the interference of a supernatural power plays a greater decisive role in the outcome of any action. This understanding of the supernatural is experienced through the ecstatic, where the intellect relinquishes control. Violence denotes submission to the control of another by giving up voluntarily or involuntarily control of self. Levinas then uses this idea to explain Echad, the uniqueness of God.

“Jewish monotheism does not exalt a sacred power, a numen triumphing over other numinous powers but still participating in their clandestine and mysterious life. The God of the Jews is not the survivor of mythical gods. … Monotheism marks a break with a certain conception of the Sacred. It neither unifies nor hierarchizes the numerous and numinous gods; instead it denies them. As regards the Divine which they incarnate, it is merely atheism.”

In other words, by denying the concept of the divine of the religious forerunners of Judaism, it is seen as atheism. It reminds me of the reaction I get when I deny that there is a supernatural – “are you a believer, a Maamin?” I may be an atheist in the questioner’s eyes but he unfortunately is misled clinging to idolatrous notions.

“ … And one frequently encounters curious Talmudic texts which try to present the nature of Israel’s spirituality as something which lies in its intellectual excellence. They do this not through any Luciferian pride of reason, but because intellectual excellence is internal and the “miracles” it makes possible do not at all wound, like thaumaturgy [the working of miracles or magic feats – Wikipedia dictionary], the dignity of the responsible being; and above all because these “miracles” do not ruin the conditions for action and effort.”

The “miracles” in Judaism are connected to the prophet, a person of intellectual excellence. They are therefore the result of action and effort. The “supernatural” in Judaism does not take away human control but is the result of human effort, an understanding of his environment and taking advantage of it. A little further on Levinas confronts the risks that this thinking entails.

“The rigorous affirmation of human independence, of its intelligent presence to an intelligible reality, the destruction of the numinous concept of the Sacred, entails the risk of atheism. That risk must be run. Only through it can man be raised to the spiritual notion of the Transcendent. It is a great glory for the Creator to have set up a being who affirms Him after having contested and denied Him in the glamorous areas of myth and enthusiasm. It is a great glory for God to have created a being capable of seeking Him or hearing Him from afar, having experienced separation and atheism.”

One has to deal with reality using one’s intellect in the search for Truth. There are no shortcuts and it is not simplistic “faith” nor the ecstatic experience brought about by the imagination that will allow a man to attain Truth. It is the painstaking search, even at risk of atheism that will eventually allow for a true understanding of God’s transcendence.



This is my first encounter with Levinas and is at a very early stage. So far I liked what I read.

Moshe Not Losing Sight Of God's Back -

In the previous post, I discussed Rambam’s understanding that metaphysical speculation leads to insights that are fleeting and can be compared to flashes of light. Considering that the essence of God, in fact the whole concept of transcendental existence cannot be fathomed by the human mind, what do these flashes of insight consist of?

“I will give you in this chapter some illustrations, in order that you may better understand the propriety of forming as many negative attributes as possible, and the impropriety of ascribing to God any positive attributes. A person may know for certain that a "ship" is in existence, but he may not know to what object that name is applied, whether to a substance or to an accident. A second person then learns that the ship is not an accident. A third, that it is not a mineral. A fourth, that it is not a plant growing in the earth. A fifth, that it is not a body whose parts are joined together by nature. A sixth, that it is not a flat object like boards or doors. A seventh, that it is not a sphere. An eighth, that it is not pointed. A ninth, that it is neither round-shaped nor equilateral. A tenth, that it is not solid. It is clear that this tenth person has almost arrived at the correct notion of a "ship" by the foregoing negative attributes. It is as if he had exactly the same notion as those have who imagine it to be a wooden substance which is hollow, long, and composed of many pieces of wood, that is to say, who know it by positive attributes. Of the other persons in our illustration, each one is more remote from the correct notion of a ship than the next mentioned, so that the first knows nothing about it but the name. In the same manner, you will come nearer to the knowledge and comprehension of God by the negative attributes. But you must be careful, in what you negate, to negate by proof, not by mere words, for each time you ascertain by proof that a certain thing, believed to exist in the Creator, must be negated, you have undoubtedly come one step nearer to the knowledge of God.” (MN 1:60)

When we look at the universe we live in - the only reality we know - we see that it operates on a system of cause and effect. We conclude that there must be, “exist”, one entity that is non-contingent, the cause of everything without being effected by anything else – a self-standing independent entity. (For a concise and clear exposition of this idea, see my earlier post here). Just like a person who has never seen a ship but knows that one must exist because he knows that people and products can be shipped across oceans, so too do we know from our own existence that there must be a non-contingent First Cause. Unlike a ship, which we can construct and eventually observe and touch, this non- contingent entity, by definition, cannot even be conceived by our minds. We therefore cannot describe it in positive terms. All we can do is explain what it is not, what makes it different from everything else. It is a much more cumbersome process, because we have to know and understand everything else that exists and conceptualize why this entity cannot be any of those things. If we were to take the same approach with the ship, we eventually would get to know and understand what a ship is, and even build one. However, we will never be able to even conceive anything about the makeup of this non-contingent entity which we call God. On the other hand, the more we know and understand why God is different from anything else that we know and understand, the better can we construct a vague sense in our minds about this entity whose traces we see in everything. That vague sense is metaphorically described as ““and you shall see my back”. As we develop more knowledge about our universe, we keep on expanding our knowledge of what God is not and the vague sense we develop, though closer to the truth, is different from the one we experienced before. That is how I understand Rambam in Shemona Perakim that I quoted here “On the other hand, when he sees him only from the back, although he does recognize him during that sighting, he will eventually have doubts and confuse him with another”. As these insights are vague and come in flashes, there is a lack of continuity as new information is processed and new insights develop. Is it the same entity I sensed during the last experience or was I wrong then? Am I wrong now? The only resolution of this dilemma is to maintain constancy in the process so that there is a continuous flow of insights that are built on each other and thus connected. It is like when someone catches fleeting sight of the back of a person he is following and does not let his eyes stray from that person, although he does not know how that person looks, he knows that he is following the same person he first saw from the back. Should he however lose sight for a second, he will never be sure that it is the same person he is following now. Moshe Rabbeinu was the paradigm of the person who never loses sight of Gods’ back once he caught a glimpse of it. Hilchot Yesodei Hatorah 7:14 -

ובזה הבטיחו האל, שנאמר "לך, אמור להם: שובו לכם, לאוהליכם. ואתה, פה עמוד עימדי"
הא למדת שכל הנביאים, כשהנבואה מסתלקת, חוזרין לאוהלם, שהוא צורכי הגוף
כולן כשאר העם; לפיכך אינן פורשין מנשותיהן. ומשה רבנו, לא חזר לאוהלו
הראשון; לפיכך פירש מן האישה לעולם ומכל הדומה לה, ונקשרה דעתו בצור
העולמים, ולא נסתלק ההוד מעליו לעולם וקרן עור פניו, ונתקדש כמלאכים.

It is this that God promised him saying, “Go tell them [the people] return to your tents whilst you stand here with me”, teaching that all prophets return to their tents, namely their material lives, after prophecy ends, just as the rest of the people do, remaining with their wives. On the other hand, Moshe Rabbeinu never returned to his original tent, [his material life], separating from his wife and all similar matters forever. His mind became entwined with the rock of the worlds, the grace never lifted from him, the skin of his face shone and he became sanctified like the angels.

One of the outstanding features of Moshe was that once he caught sight of God’s back he never let go. It is true that he never was able to “see God’s face” and therefore, should he have taken his eyes off even for a short moment, he could doubt if he reconnected with the same entity. He however never took his eyes off the ball. I believe this explains the apparent contradiction between Rambam in Shemona Perakim and Mishne Torah that I discussed here.

How this affects our own religious life and the implications this has to prayer and Mitzvot will be discussed in upcoming posts.

Lightning Flashes As Metaphor.

This post is a continuation of this earlier one.

In the Moreh, Rambam addresses the issue of Moshe’s apprehension of God in several places. In the introduction to MN, Rambam discusses what a person can expect to apprehend in metaphysics.

“Do not imagine that these most difficult problems can be thoroughly understood by any one of us. This is not the case. At times, the truth flashes so brilliantly that we perceive it as clear as day. Our nature and habit then draw a veil over our perception, and we return to darkness almost as dense as before. We are like those who, though beholding frequent flashes of lightning, still find themselves in the thickest darkness of the night. On some, the lightning flashes in rapid succession, and they seem to be in continuous light, and their night is as clear as the day. This was the degree of prophetic excellence attained by (Moses) the greatest of prophets, to whom God said, "But as for thee, stand thou here by Me" (Deut. v. 31), and of whom it is written, "The skin of his face shone," etc. (Exod. xxxiv. 29)… The degrees in the perfection of men vary according to these distinctions.”

The metaphor for apprehension used here is flashes of light. In moments when a person is able to distance himself from his “nature and habits”, from his personal physical needs and existence, he acquires a fleeting apprehension of the transcendental. That apprehension is so tenuous that it cannot be retained for more than a few moments. However, a trace of that insight is retained for “we return to darkness almost as dense as before”. When the next flash arrives, we start from a different level but we still “find ourselves in the thickest darkness of the night”. In other words, we cannot retain the full insight we gained. It flashes in front of our eyes and disappears just like a dream. It is the intensity and constancy of these flashes that defines the different levels of perfection attained by the various seekers. Moshe, the paradigm of perfection, never stopped having these flashes with great intensity, one after the other. However even to him these insights were only “flashes”. There was a fleeting quality to them but their constancy made it seem as if he was in a “continuous light”.

Rambam puts this idea into practical terms in MN 3:51. He first discusses the need to have the proper intellectual preparation and development when dealing with apprehension of God. He warns that one must beware from confusing God with figments of one’s imagination. After having acquired sufficient intellectual knowledge, one focuses the mind on trying to grasp all that is possible about God. It is at those times that the “flashes of light” that he spoke about in the introduction occur. Here he presents in practical terms how these insights must be handled.

“You must know that even if you were the wisest man in respect to the true knowledge of God, you break the bond between you and God whenever you turn entirely your thoughts to the necessary food or any necessary business. You are then not with God, and He is not with you: for that relation between you and Him is actually interrupted in those moments.”

He then describes a process of training that one must undergo over years, to retain this focus at all times. One starts with the daily prayers, concentrating on what we are saying, each time more and longer to the point that even after prayer is finished, we are still thinking about God. One then develops self-control and discipline to limit the times one deals with worldly affairs to a minimum leaving more time for the focus on God. He then again cautions:

“When you are alone by yourself, when you are awake on your couch, be careful to meditate in such precious moments on nothing but the intellectual worship of God, to approach Him and to minister before Him in the true reality which I have described to you and not by way of affections of the imagination. This I consider as the highest perfection wise men can attain by the above training.”

Here we are talking about a person that has attained intellectual knowledge sufficient to meditate about God must always be vigilant against straying into the imaginary. I understand that to mean that as these insights come in flashes that are fleeting, the next insight may not be properly anchored in the earlier understanding which is only a trace by now, especially if time has elapsed. That is the meaning of Rambam in the introduction, “We are like those who, though beholding frequent flashes of lightning, still find themselves in the thickest darkness of the night”. The “darkness of night” is the result of “you break the bond between you and God whenever you turn entirely your thoughts to the necessary food or any necessary business”. Here is however how Moshe is depicted:

“It is only when we have acquired a true knowledge of God, and we rejoice in that knowledge in such a manner, that whilst speaking with others, or attending to our bodily wants, our mind is all that time with God. It is only when we are with our heart constantly near God, even whilst our body is in the society of men. It is only when we are in that state which the Song on the relation between God and man poetically describes in the following words: "I sleep, but my heart wakes: it is the voice of my beloved that knocks" (Song v. 2). Then have we attained not only the height of ordinary prophets, but of Moses, our Teacher, of whom Scripture relates: "And Moses alone shall come near before the Lord" (ibid. xxxiv. 28); "But as for thee, stand thou here by me" (Deut. V. 28)”.

This is the practical presentation of “On some, the lightning flashes in rapid succession, and they seem to be in continuous light, and their night is as clear as the day”, which is how Moshe was described in the introduction. The constancy of the insights, these flashes coming uninterrupted, assures that the imaginative does not distort the proper apprehension. The traces of the insight that we retain tend to weaken as time goes on and the longer the interval the less remains of them. The resulting apprehension may therefore be inconsistent. To Moshe the flashes of insight were uninterrupted and therefore he was able to attain a level of apprehension no one else could or would.

The problem is that Rambam always cautions us that we can never apprehend the essence of God. So what kind of apprehension are the fleeting flashes?

I will discuss this in upcoming posts.

Rambam on Moshe - Apprehension and Doubt - An Apparent Contradiction.

I learned this Shabbat with two young men Rambam’s introduction to Avot – the Shemona Perakim. As usual when you learn Rambam, no matter how many times you have read him, every time you reread him you get a new insight or a new thread of thinking is triggered.

In the seventh chapter, Rambam discusses the perfection of knowledge and character necessary for a person to acquire prophecy. The level of prophecy is commensurate with how perfected the person’s character is. (Interestingly, the level of perfection in character is what creates the variation between different prophets and not knowledge, but that belongs in a separate post.) Moshe Rabbeinu is seen as the paradigm of the limits of how high a human being can aspire to, when it comes to this dual perfection and consequently prophecy, yet he too had limits in apprehending God. To illustrate Rambam uses three verses in Shemot 33 (the weekly reading in two weeks) where Moshe asks to know God.

יח וַיֹּאמַר: הַרְאֵנִי נָא, אֶת-כְּבֹדֶךָ.

18 And he said: 'Show me, I pray Thee, Thy glory.'

כ וַיֹּאמֶר, לֹא תוּכַל לִרְאֹת אֶת-פָּנָי: כִּי לֹא-יִרְאַנִי הָאָדָם, וָחָי.

20 And He said: 'You cannot see My face, for man shall not see Me and live.'

כג וַהֲסִרֹתִי, אֶת-כַּפִּי, וְרָאִיתָ, אֶת-אֲחֹרָי; וּפָנַי, לֹא יֵרָאוּ. {פ}

23 And I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.'

Rambam explains this as follows: (I will translate only the pertinent segment to this post, using selectively both the Rav Kafieh and Tibon versions and paraphrase the rest. The Hebrew below is the Tibon version at www.daat.co.il ) -

וכאשר ידע משה רבנו,
שלא נשאר לו מסך שלא קרעו, וכי נמשלו מעלות המידות כולן והמעלות הדיבריות
כולן. ביקש להשיג את האלוהים באמיתת מציאותו, אחר שלא נשאר מונע. אותה שעה
אמר:

הראני נא את כבודך (שמות ל"ג, י"ח).

והודיעו, יתברך, שאי אפשר לו דבר זה, להיותו שכל נמצא בחומר. רצוני לומר: באשר הוא אדם. והוא אמרו:

כי לא יראני האדם וחי (שמות ל"ג, כ')

הנה לא נשארה בינו ובין השגת האלוהים באמיתת מציאותו זולת מחיצת וילון אחת בהירה, והיא השכל האנושי שאינו נפרד. וגמל עליו האלוהים יתברך חסד, בתיתו לו מן ההשגה, אחר שאלתו, יותר ממה שהיה לו קודם שאלתו. והודיעו, שהתכלית אי אפשרית לו כל עוד שהוא בעל גשם. וכינה אמיתת ההשגה
בראיית פנים. כי האדם כשיראה פני חברו, הגיעה לנפשו צורתו ולא יערבבנו
בזולתו. אבל כשיראה אחוריו, ואם גם הבחינו באותה ראייה, אף על פי כן סופו
שיסופק בו ויערבבנו בזולתו כמו כן השגתו יתברך באמיתות היא, שיגיע לנפש מאמיתת מציאותו, שלא יהא שותף
לאותה מציאות שום נמצא אחר. עד שימצא בנפשו מציאותו קבועה ונבדלת ממה
שימצא בנפשו ממציאות שאר הנמצאים. ואי אפשר לאדם להשיג שעור השגה זה, אלא שהוא, עליו השלום, השיג מעט למטה מזה. והוא שנאמר בו:

וראית את אחורי (שמות ל"ג, כ"ג).

Moshe having understood that he had reached the ultimate human perfection (note that there is no self-modesty here, yet Moshe is the “Anav Mikol Adam” – knowing one’s self worth does not contradict humility), wanted to apprehend the essence of God. The answer he received was that it is impossible for a human being to achieve this, as man’s existence is materialistic. We are physical entities and therefore cannot grasp transcendence in its essence.

“He [God] informed him that this ultimate goal [apprehending the divine essence] is impossible whilst he is in a physical body. He metaphorically referred to the true apprehension of God’s essence as “seeing a face”, because when a person sees another person’s face, it leaves an imprint so that he does not confuse him with another. On the other hand, when he sees him only from the back, although he does recognize him during that sighting, he will eventually have doubts and confuse him with another. So too does true apprehension [of God] occur, when a person apprehends in his mind His true essence in such a way that no other existent shares that existence, to the point that he permanently establishes His existence in his mind so that His existence is different from the existence of all other existents. That level of apprehension is impossible. He, Moshe Rabbeinu, apprehended a level below this one and that is the meaning of “and you shall see my back”.”

Rambam is saying that a human being can never know with absolute certainty that what he is apprehending, what he is picturing in his mind as God, is really God and not another entity or a figment of his imagination. God is not physical therefore He does not have a face nor any other feature that when “seen” could identify Him just as we would identify an individual. God can only be identified as “being” different from the “being” of anything else. In other words to have absolute certainty that one apprehends God and not another, requires that one apprehend God’s “existence” as unique. The most a man can apprehend is that God exists but not even what “existence” in this context means. As we cannot “see”, or better, apprehend God’s essence because our minds are bound in materialism we cannot fathom existence in this context. There always remains a certain level of unknown and insecurity even to a man of Moshe Rabbeinu’s stature. Rambam however adds that although Moshe could not see God’s face, he reached a level of apprehension just below that. The implication is that he could still “confuse Him with another” because he could not fully apprehend the uniqueness of God’s “existence”.

In MT Hil Yesodei Hatorah 1:12 Rambam gives a slight variation -

והודיעו ברוך הוא מה שלא ידע אדם לפניו ולא יידע לאחריו, עד
שהשיג מאמיתת הימצאו דבר שנפרד הקדוש ברוך הוא בדעתו משאר הנמצאים, כמו
שייפרד אחד מן האנשים שראה אחוריו, והשיג כל גופו ומלבושו בדעתו משאר
האנשים; ועל דבר זה רמז הכתוב, ואמר "וראית, את אחוריי; ופניי, לא ייראו

The Blessed One informed him [Moshe] of something no other man before him knew nor [any man] after him will know. He apprehended about His essence a matter that differentiated God in his mind from other existents, just as he would differentiate a person from another person when he sees his back and apprehends his body and clothing in his mind [note: not his face]. That is what the verse signaled by saying “and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.”

Here Rambam is giving Moshe a level of security that comes when one is at the limit of human apprehension of the transcendent. When one meets another person and sees him only from behind, notices his body language and shape, notices his clothing but does not see his face and then meets him again in the same manner, he cannot be absolutely certain that it is the same person that he is seeing. Let us however imagine that this observer lives in a contained environment where he knows everyone that is there and discovers one detail that differentiates this person from all the others, knowing that no one else shares that feature, he still would not know how this person’s face looks but he will know it is that person and no other. In this presentation, although others, who do not know that particular detail that differentiates God from all other existents, are never sure that it is the same God they are meeting again, Moshe had no such doubt. Apparently, Moshe was able to identify something different in God’s “existence”, enough to, in his mind, separate God from any other existent, although he could not fully apprehend “existence” in this context.

Did Rambam change his mind? I do not know at this time how to explain this apparent contradiction. In upcoming posts, I will look at how Rambam addresses this issue in various other places and in the Moreh. Hopefully things will clarify as I move along.

Love and Knowledge of God - The Elusive Search and its Significance.

The general object of the Law is twofold: the well-being of the soul, and the well-being of the body. The well-being of the soul is promoted by correct opinions communicated to the people according to their capacity. Some of these opinions are therefore imparted in a plain form, others allegorically, because certain opinions are in their plain form too strong for the capacity of the common people…. Of these two objects, the one, the well-being of the soul, or the communication of correct opinions, comes undoubtedly first in rank, but the other, the well-being of the body, the government of the state, and the establishment of the best possible relations among men, is anterior in nature and time. (MN 3:27)

Thus according to Rambam the goal of all Mitzvot is to develop correct opinions about God, opinions that are presented in the Torah in a general macro form and allegorically. A deeper understanding of their meaning is seen as a goal for individuals to develop according to their capability. As long as the understanding developed meets the general criteria laid out by the Torah and Halacha, it is acceptable. There are therefore as many different understandings as there are people.

When I say that it must meet a general criterion, I had in mind the following Rambam statement –

For in the same way as all people must be informed and even children must be trained in the belief that God is One, and that none besides Him is to be worshiped. So must all be taught by simple authority that God is incorporeal; that there is no similarity in any way whatsoever between Him and His creatures: that His existence is not like the existence of His creatures, His life not like that of any living being, His wisdom not like the wisdom of the wisest of men. And that the difference between Him and His creatures is not merely quantitative, but absolute [as between two individuals of two different classes]. I mean to say that all must understand that our wisdom and His or our power and His do not differ quantitatively or qualitatively, or in a similar manner. For two things, of which the one is strong and the other weak, are necessarily similar, belong to the same class, and can be included in one definition. The same is the case with other comparisons: they can only be made between two things belonging to the same class, as has been shown in works on Natural Science. Anything predicated of God is totally different from our attributes; no definition can comprehend both; therefore His existence and that of any other being totally differ from each other, and the term existence is applied to both as homonyms, as I shall explain. This suffices for the guidance of children and of ordinary persons who must believe that there is a Being existing, perfect, incorporeal, not inherent in a body as a force in it-God, who is above all kinds of deficiency, above affections. (MN1:35)

Reading this carefully there is only one positive belief required – the existence of a perfect unique Being – all the other required beliefs are what God is not. This is quite significant as I have discussed many times – God’s essence - a positive description - is by definition false. Thus, ultimately God cannot be understood other than inductively. His true essence can never be grasped.

Do not imagine that these most difficult problems can be thoroughly understood by any one of us. This is not the case. At times, the truth shines so brilliantly that we perceive it as clear as day. Our nature and habit then draw a veil over our perception, and we return to darkness almost as dense as before. We are like those who, though beholding frequent flashes of lightning, still find themselves in the thickest darkness of the night. On some, the lightning flashes in rapid succession, and they seem to be in continuous light, and their night is as clear as the day. This was the degree of prophetic excellence attained by (Moses) the greatest of prophets, to whom God said, "But as for thee, stand thou here by Me" (Deut. v. 31), and of whom it is written, "The skin of his face shone," etc. (Exod. xxxiv. 29). [Some perceive the prophetic flash at long intervals; this is the degree of most prophets.] By others only once during the whole night is a flash of lightning perceived. This is the case with those of whom we are informed, "They prophesied, and did not prophesy again" (Num. xi. 25). There are some to whom the flashes of lightning appear with varying intervals. Others are in the condition of men, whose darkness is illumined not by lightning, but by some kind of crystal or similar stone, or other substances that possess the property of shining during the night. To them even this small amount of light is not continuous, but now it shines and now it vanishes, as if it were "the flame of the rotating sword." (MN Introduction)

Even the little we do grasp during our search may be fleeting. We understand things for an instant but the insight disappears in a flash. How much less can we understand what someone else conceived in his mind and how impossible is it to transmit these ideas from person to person? How careful must we be before we judge another’s opinion, assuming we did really grasp its full intent?

This search for God is not an a priori process where we start from a tabula rasa position, develop concepts and prove them to be true like in any scientific enterprise. As we are dealing with non empirical data, just inductive possibilities, we start with a set of beliefs that have been developed traditionally and transmitted from generation to generation all the way back to Sinai and Avraham before that. It is a multi generational and cumulative effort that humankind, has undertaken when Avraham Avinu decided to question the idolatrous ideas of his time. Our ancestors however understood that this kind of apprehension is very personal and individualized. However, they imparted to us broad outlines based on their personal investigation which was aided by prophecy – revelation - with the admonition to continue the search and develop these ideas further, adapting to the changing scientific knowledge as it developed. Of course, the most important teaching is truth. Truth is at the core of this whole system. Therefore, it is not enough to just say and accept these dogmas but they have to be researched and understood as far as each one of us can so long as we keep truth at the forefront.

The goal and end result of this whole search is to acquire or experience Ahavat Hashem – the Love of God.

“God declares in plain words that it is the object of all religious acts to produce in man fear of God and obedience to His word-the state of mind which we have demonstrated in this chapter for those who desire to know the truth, as being our duty to seek. … But the opinions which the Law teaches us--the knowledge of God's Existence and Unity—these opinions teach us love of God, as we have shown repeatedly. You know how frequently the Law exhorts us to love God. "And thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might" (Deut. vi. 5). The two objects, love and fear of God, are acquired by two different means. The love is the result of the opinions taught in the Law, including the true knowledge of the Existence of God; whilst fear of God is produced by the practices prescribed in the Law. Note this explanation.” (MN3:52). (I will discuss the fear component of the above statement separately).

Rambam in Mishne Torah argues for incorporeality. However being incorporeal and existing are two contradictory statements in our minds. Incorporeal “existence” must therefore be a homonym with physical “existence”. How we represent this to our minds depends on the sophistication of our understanding of physicality. It will therefore depend on each individual.

“There may thus be a man who earnestly devoted many years to the pursuit of one science, and to the true understanding of its principles, till he is fully convinced of its truths. He has obtained as the sole result of this study the conviction that a certain quality must be negated in reference to God, and the capacity of demonstrating that it is impossible to apply it to Him.” (MN1:59)

Dealing with the transcendental, we can only apprehend what God is not. His existence can only be perceived like in a fog due to the limitations of our mind.

“However great the exertion of our mind may be to comprehend the Divine Being or any of the intellects, we find a screen and partition between Him and ourselves. Thus, the prophets frequently hint at the existence of a partition between God and us. They say He is concealed from us in vapors, in darkness, in mist, or in a thick cloud: or use similar figures to express that on account of our bodies we are unable to comprehend His essence. This is the meaning of the words, "Clouds and darkness surrounds Him" (Tehilim 97:2)”. (MN3:9)

Anything non-corporeal is beyond our capacity to grasp properly. We just get a hint and a glimpse, a fleeting insight that eludes us immediately. It is therefore not transmittable and must remain personal. That is why the Torah can only set a criterion that we then have to develop. Understanding God cannot be transmitted; one can be directed to a way of thinking but the insight is personal and must remain so.

Summarizing, the goal of Torah and Mitzvot is to prepare us and put us on the path to understand our existence in God’s world and gain an understanding of God and His relationship to it, however tenuous that knowledge may be. As I have said many times, that knowledge is necessary for us to understand our role in God’s universe. To help us achieve this, the Torah sets out a list of ontological (not empirical) beliefs that we are required to prove to ourselves. The way to prove them is to make sure they do not contradict reality. Should they contradict reality, they must of course be reevaluated and reinterpreted. The correct understanding of those beliefs is therefore part of the process of searching and is particular to each individual. Not only does empirical knowledge – reality – play a role in the outcome but also so do personality, personal bias and general ways of thinking. Non-empirical concepts are by definition subjective. This is where those Mitzvot that work on our natural inclinations, come into play. Other Mitzvot keep us focused by reminding us that we are supposed to be constantly engaged in this lifelong search.

Reading the Ve’ahavta section of Shema with this in mind, it takes on a very different meaning. Love and knowledge in Rambam’s lexicon are synonyms. We thus declare daily and acknowledge that every act that we do day and night is focused toward that great search to love (know) God.

Discovering Our Role - Developing an Accurate Knowledge of the Universe.

In my last post, I suggested that it is humankind’s goal to understand its purpose and role in existence and act accordingly. The answer to this question, unfortunately or maybe fortunately, was not handed to us on a platter. We are expected to figure out on our own what our role is supposed to be. How are we supposed to go about it? The obvious and only answer is to observe carefully our existence, the environment we find ourselves in, both from a macro and micro perspective, trying to read the clues as to where we belong in it and what is expected from us.

As we look at the world we live in, we see that there is a built in mechanism for survival. All the components are interdependent and function together to a fascinating degree. Biological entities depend on each other for sustenance and survival, the ecosystem is finely tuned to insure its continuity and the same applies to every other component of our world and universe. It is therefore clear that each component’s goal is to survive and at the same time ensure the survival of other components that depend on it directly or indirectly. Thus, in addition to its own survival, each component also plays a role in the survival of the whole.

However, if we look carefully we see that all these components function in a predictable and automatic mode. The lion is hungry, he preys on other animals, the sun evaporates the waters of the seas and lakes, they gather in clouds and rise to cooler air, the wind pushes them over land and the waters return to feed the living organisms on land. Tehilim Perek 104 so eloquently presents this whole picture. There is no individual thought process, ethical or moral choice or any conscious thought process in all these components except man. From a functional perspective, man is outstanding in that he thinks and may choose how to act. That capacity of thinking and choosing therefore must be an important aspect of man’s role in the survival of the universe. It is this capacity to think and act accordingly that must be the sine qua non of his existence.

That capacity to think and choose is a function that man has because of the mind he possesses, the thinking part of man. Unlike all the other components of the universe, man has the capacity for self-awareness, he can understand abstract concepts, he can grasp how things work and with all that information, he can change his environment at will. The creativity that comes with this freedom allows man to do unpredictable things, act and react to circumstances as they arise and generally take control of everything.

וַיְבָרֶךְ אֹתָם, אֱלֹהִים, וַיֹּאמֶר לָהֶם

אֱלֹהִים פְּרוּ וּרְבוּ וּמִלְאוּ אֶת-הָאָרֶץ, וְכִבְשֻׁהָ; וּרְדוּ

בִּדְגַת הַיָּם, וּבְעוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם, וּבְכָל-חַיָּה, הָרֹמֶשֶׂת

עַל-הָאָרֶץ.

28 And God blessed them; and God said unto them - ‘be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that creeps upon the earth.'

Apparently, it is this unique capability that gives man the ability to fulfill his intended role in the whole of existence. However, because freedom of thought is an integral part of this ability, there is a risk that man will lose sight of true reality. And this is where things get complicated. The human mind is complex. It has many functions among which are imagination, intuition and rational thought. All three components are crucial to its proper functioning but they have to be kept in perfect balance for man not to go off into a world of fantasy, or miss important aspects because his imagination is too restricted. If his intuition is too suppressed his insights vanish. If it is however founded on imagination and fantasy, it has no realistic value.

Because early man could not understand the true reality of his environment, he developed an imaginary world of spirits and semi physical entities, a world of demons and angels that seemed to answer his questions about how things function. Fantasy and imagination took control of his rational capabilities. These ideas took hold and delayed human development by millennia. These ideas still exists and are with us, especially in the mindlessly “religious” societies. It certainly is quite common still in our own frum communities. It is exactly these ideas, this way of thinking that the Torah is intent on eradicating. In a discussion about the divinity of the Torah, comparing it to other man made legal systems, Rambam says:

You will also find laws which, in all their rules, aim, as the law just mentioned, at the improvement of the material interests of the people. But, in addition, tend to improve the state of the faith of man, to create first correct notions of God, and of angels, and to lead then the people, by instruction and education, to an accurate knowledge of the Universe. This education comes from God; these laws are divine. (MN 2:40)

The Torah contains no theological discussions. It however sets out sets of beliefs that it expects its followers to understand and prove their truths, each according to his capacity. The first such belief is that God exists and is the First Cause, the unique non-contingent Entity. We repeat this thrice daily when we say Shema. We are expected to understand what this means and prove it to ourselves, each according to his capabilities. It tells us that God is the ONLY transcendental entity and EVERYTHING else is physical. The Torah also teaches us that on the seventh day of creation, the day where all was put in place, God rested. From that point on, there was no more divine intervention to change things. The laws of nature took over. Any anomaly, what we would consider to be a miracle, was preset before the seventh day (see Avot Perek 5 Mishna 5). Angels are not some kind of semi physical entities – such entities do not exist and are at the core of idolatry – but descriptions of natural forces that are governed by the laws of nature set in place at creation.

ד עֹשֶׂה מַלְאָכָיו רוּחוֹת; מְשָׁרְתָיו, אֵשׁ לֹהֵט. 4 Who makes winds His messengers, the flaming fire His ministers (Tehilim 104).

I am just mentioning the above as examples to clarify. The Torah has several more such beliefs that it asks us to accept and then go back and think about them so that a rational understanding can be developed of what they mean. (I will discuss in a separate post what they are and why there should be preset beliefs and not require man to develop a priori concepts based on empirical evidence). It is only if we have a correct notion about the metaphysics that underlie our existence that we can have an “accurate knowledge of the Universe”. Otherwise, we are blinded and sidetracked. Instead of looking for natural laws that explain the workings of the perceived mysteries of our existence, our world and universe, we hang our hat on mystical and supernatural explanations. Science, the knowledge that gives us the necessary “accurate knowledge of the universe” does not thrive in a supernatural environment. If we are to understand our role and place in the survival of the whole of existence, we have to develop a better understanding of the universe we live in. It is only then that we will grasp the true intent of God in creating us, understanding how we are to emulate Him in ensuring the continuity of existence. It is only after creating man that the Torah says –

לא וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים אֶת-כָּל-אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה, וְהִנֵּה-טוֹב מְאֹד 31 And God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was exceedingly good.

That is because it man’s role to emulate God, the ultimate eternal Existent, the source of all existence, the greatest “Good”, and thus do “good” by ensuring existence. Contributing to the existence of the whole is “exceedingly good” - טוֹב מְאֹד. It is with this in mind that Rambam closes his magnum opus of theology, the Guide of The Perplexed,

The object of the above passage is therefore to declare, that the perfection, in which man can truly glory, is attained by him when he has acquired--as far as this is possible for man--the knowledge of God, the knowledge of His Providence, and of the manner in which it influences His creatures in their production and continued existence. Having acquired this knowledge, man will then be determined always to seek loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, thus imitating the ways of God. (MN 3:54).

More to come in upcoming posts including the role of Torah, revelation and also, I hope to deal with the great controversial subject of Ikarim (dogma).

Chacham Faur on Newton, Rambam and Lord Keynes.

Over Shabbat, I read a fascinating article in the latest issue of Cross Currents by Chacham Professor Jose Faur. The article, Newton, Maimonides and Esoteric Knowledge, seems to be one of a series that Chacham Faur has been writing regarding the connections between Newton and Rambam. It is based on Lord Keynes (yes the economist!) who was a Newton scholar and researched the private diaries and letters. What comes out of this article is that Newton was a man of religion first and science was a tool for him on the path to understanding God. Chacham Faur shows that many quotations are sourced in Rambam’s writings either MN or MT. Here are some ideas that I found interesting.

Lord Keynes on Newton’s interests:

During these (the time he developed Principia) twenty-five years of intense study mathematics and astronomy were only one part, and perhaps not the most absorbing, of his occupations. Our record of these is almost wholly confined to the papers which he kept and put in his box when he left Trinity for London.

Lord Keynes’s description of Newton’s outlook:

…he looked on the whole universe and all that is in it as a riddle, as a secret which could be read by applying pure thought to certain evidence, certain mystic clues that God had laid about the world to allow a sort of philosopher’s treasure hunt to esoteric brotherhood. … By pure thought, by concentration of the mind, the riddle, he believed, would be revealed to the initiate.

He did read the riddle of the heavens. And he believed that by the same powers of his introspective imagination he would read the riddle of the Godhead, the riddle of past and future events divinely foreordained, the riddle of the elements and their constitution from an original undifferentiated matter, the riddle of health and of immortality.

Clearly, Newton and Rambam had a very similar understanding of prophecy. I also believe it gives an insight into the Maimonidean “active intellect” which seem to me to be somehow related to the “riddles” in Newton.

Chacham Faur explains the similarity of how Newton and Rambam understand the allegorical nature of the stories on Creation in Torah and the need to teach the theological perspective to persons that have not yet assimilated scientific truths.

Not long before his death, Newton said:

I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy, playing on the seashore, and diverting myself, in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

To Newton, the real Truth is to understand how the physical came into being and the non-contingent Existent that is the First Cause. This can only be apprehended through the reality of the world, the seashore. Venturing beyond that into the ocean of metaphysical knowledge is the ultimate goal of humankind in its search for a True understanding of its existence and objective. Is this the allegory of the water above the heaven in Breishit? Just a thought.

The Faur article is a worthwhile read and I hope the editors of Cross Current place it online, in full.

Ending, I just want to refer to Rambam in Hilchot Shemita Veyovel 13:11 which came to mind when reading this article –

ולא שבט לוי בלבד, אלא כל איש ואיש מכל באי העולם אשר נדבה רוחו אותו

והבינו מדעו להיבדל לעמוד לפני ה' לשרתו ולעובדו לדעה את ה', והלך ישר כמו

שעשהו האלוהים, ופרק מעל צווארו עול החשבונות הרבים אשר ביקשו בני

האדם--הרי זה נתקדש קודש קודשים, ויהיה ה' חלקו ונחלתו לעולם ולעולמי

עולמים "

Not only the tribe of Levi, but every man that passes through the world, whose spirit and intellect drove to separate him to stand before God to serve and worship Him, to know Him. Who also walked in the righteous path as God made him, removed the yoke of the many [extraneous] matters that men tend to seek out, such a person if considered holiest among the holy. God will be his legacy forever.

Newton apparently was such a man that passed through the world.

An anonymous commenter has directed us to the online version of the above article at

http://faur.derushah.com/downloads/essays/Newton%20Mathematics%20and%20Esoteric%20Knowledge.pdf

What Is Wrong With Idolatry and Superstition? Astrology - Lies and Falsehood.

In Bamidbar 15:22 we read –

כב וְכִי תִשְׁגּוּ--וְלֹא תַעֲשׂוּ, אֵת כָּל-הַמִּצְו‍ֹת הָאֵלֶּה: אֲשֶׁר-דִּבֶּר יְהוָה, אֶל-מֹשֶׁה.

22 And when ye shall err, and not observe all these commandments, which the LORD hath spoken unto Moses,

The difficulty with this verse is obvious – a special sin offering for not keeping (doing) ALL the Mitzvot?

The Rabbis in Sifrei tell us that this verse is talking about Avodah Zara – idolatry – because it is the underlying reason for the majority of Mitzvot. Idolatry is so nefarious that its eradication is the Torah’s central objective. That is why it is seen as if one has contravened all the Mitzvot.

What exactly is Avodah Zara? Why is it so nefarious? Rambam in the first chapter of Hilchot Avodah Zara gives a long historical explanation for idolatry and also addresses it in various places in his Pirush Hamishna and Moreh Hanevuchim. I will try to summarize how I understand him, quoting and paraphrasing / translating what I believe to be pertinent segments. (Link to the full original MT Hil AZ at the fabulous Mechon Mamre - http://mechon-mamre.org/i/1401.htm )

People noticed that the stars and spheres (the ancients understood the cosmos as being composed of a number of spheres) have a strong influence on how things work on our world. The moon controls the tides; the sun daylight and night; the weather is influenced by seasons which are controlled by the movement of the sun and so on. Not having developed a natural scientific theory for how the stars and spheres function, they assumed that they were sentient entities created by God as His subordinate representatives, similar to what we would call a cabinet minister. The original idea was that as representatives of God, one shows respect to their Creator by honoring and worshipping them, much as a king’s minister requires homage as a representative of his master.

כיון שעלה דבר זה על ליבם, התחילו לבנות לכוכבים היכלות

ולהקריב להם קרבנות, ולשבחם ולפארם בדברים, ולהשתחוות למולן--כדי להשיג

רצון הבורא, בדעתם הרעה. וזה, היה עיקר עבודה זרה

“Once this idea was developed, [people] started to build temples to the stars, offering them, Korbanot [fire-offerings], praising and honoring them with words and prostrating themselves to them. All this was done to acquire God’s goodwill according to their misguided thinking. This was the basis [literally: root] for idolatry.”

The misguided thinking Rambam refers to, as I understand it, is that there is a non-physical - a spiritual - cause and effect relationship between the stars and our world. Worship and other such acts can influence the natural flow of events; in fact, it IS how nature works. That idea, which to the ancient idolaters was natural science, blinded them to reality and had far-reaching consequences in every aspect of humanity’s intellectual and social development. It took millennia to reverse the harm done by this thinking and it still plagues many of us nowadays. But I am getting ahead of myself.

Coming back to Rambam, what appeared as a harmless misguided way of thinking, in fact had deep and extremely negative consequences. Instead of turning to scientists to try to understand how humanity could affect its environment, people listened to false “prophets” who developed entire religions based on what they claimed would influence the gods, the stars, the spheres and the “spirits” that emanated from them. Some “prophets” claimed that God instructed them while others claimed that they were in communion with the different forces that ruled as His proxies. A human hierarchy of kings, prophets and priests sprouted who oppressed and controlled the population exploiting this superstitious understanding of their environment.

In his commentary to the Mishna in Massechet Avodah Zara 4:7, Rambam breaks down the development of the pseudo-science that idolatrous thinking brought about into three steps. First people established Astrology as a science. As the stars do not influence physically but rather spiritually, knowing which star is in ascendance at a particular time and the type of influence it has, would be the first step in understanding our world. This was followed by developing a whole system of talismans and statues that affected the stars influence some attracting and others deflecting. The third step combined with the second led to a whole system of worship where certain incense coupled with rituals and magic words could influence further the way the stars would deal with us.

This way of thinking was encouraged by the ruling elite because it was an easy way of uniting the populace and controlling and oppressing them.

וזה, שבזמנים שעברו אוחדו בהם המדינות והוטעה בהם המון העם, ונאמר להם שתיקון ארצכם ומצביכם באלה הצורות

ושתתקבצו לבתיהן, ותגדלו אלו הזקנים אשר ילמדו סודותיהן, והתקיימה בזה

המלכות,

“It is through this that in the earlier times nations were united, fooling the masses with this [fiction]. They were told that their land and status would improve by worshiping these stars and statues and therefore they should gather into places of worship and honor and aggrandize the elders who taught these secrets. This then promoted the monarchy [who supported these elders].”

By taking advantage of ignorance, in fact promoting it by closing the door to any rational scientific investigation, and playing on the fears of these people in their struggle for day to day survival in the face of the elements, their rulers controlled them. That is why idolatry persisted for so long and, if we think about it carefully and honestly; it is why superstition is still rife even in our contemporary community.

Rambam, unlike other Rishonim, insists that the core problem with idolatry and superstition is that it is a lie. It is false and falsehood is destructive. Here is how he puts it in a letter to the sages of Marseilles who asked him about astrology, the first of the steps towards idolatry.

דעו רבותי, שאין ראוי לו לאדם להאמין אלא באחד משלשה דברים.
הראשון דבר שתהיה עליו ראיה ברורה מדעתו של אדם כגון חכמת החשבון, וגימטריאות, ותקופות.
והשני דבר שישיגנו האדם באחד מהחמש הרגשות, כגון שידע ויראה שזה שחור

וזה אדום וכיוצא בזה בראית עינו. או שיטעום שזה מר וזה מתוק. או שימשש שזה

חם וזה קר. או שישמע שזה קול צלול וזה קול הברה. או שיריח שזה ריח באוש

וזה ריח ערב וכיוצא באלו.

והשלישי דבר שיקבל אותו האדם מן הנביאים ע"ה ומן הצדיקים.

“Know my teachers that a person may only believe in one of three things –

The first are things that can be proven rationally such as arithmetic, geometry and astronomy [literally: seasons].

The second are things that one can “feel” through one of the five senses, such as, recognizing colors, differentiating tastes, feeling different temperatures, hearing different sounds or smelling different odors.

The third are things transmitted from the prophets and the righteous.”

Rambam continues by telling the Marseilles sages that one has to always keep in mind to which category a particular knowledge belongs.

וכן צריכים אתם לידע, שכבר חיברו הטיפשים אלפי ספרים, וכמה אנשים גדולים

בשנים - לא בחכמה - איבדו כל ימיהם בלמידת אותם ספרים, ודימו שאותם ההבלים

הם חכמות גדולות, ועלה על ליבם שהם חכמים גדולים, מפני שידעו החכמות ההן.

“So too must you know that these fools wrote thousands of books [on the pseudo-science of astrology], and many “great” people – [great] in age not in wisdom – wasted their life reading them thinking that all this nonsense is a great science. They considered themselves wise men for having [acquired] this “wisdom”.”

After dismissing the popular belief that written things must be true, Rambam makes a fascinating and full of implications statement –

וזו היא שאבדה מלכותנו והחריבה בית מקדשנו

והאריכה גלותינו והגיעתנו עד הלום. שאבותינו חטאו ואינם, לפי שמצאו ספרים

רבים באלה הדברים של דברי החוזים בכוכבים, שדברים אלו הם עיקר עבודה זרה,

כמו שביארנו בהלכות עבודה זרה, טעו ונהו אחריהן, ודימו שהם חכמות מפוארות

ויש בהן תועלת גדולה, ולא נתעסקו בלמידת מלחמה ולא בכיבוש ארצות, אלא דמו

שאותן הדברים יועילו להם.
ולפיכך קראו אותם הנביאים סכלים ואווילים.
ודאי סכלים ואווילים היו, ואחרי התוהו אשר לא יועילו הלכו.

“And it is the sins of our ancestors that caused us to lose our land, destroyed our Beit Hamikdash and lengthened our exile bringing us to our current situation. They found many books written on this subject of astrology, which are at the root of idolatry, as I explained in Hilchot Avodah Zara, and mistakenly followed them. They imagined that this [astrology] was an admirable science that afforded great advantages. They therefore did not learn how to fight wars nor did they conquer lands, believing that these things would help them [prevail]. That is why the prophets called them [our ancestors] evil fools! They were evil fools for following hopeless nonsense!”

I think that reading this we get an idea of how Rambam understands the great damage that idolatry brings about. It is the negation of truth, the consequent resistance to seeking truth out, losing touch with reality. One cannot win a war by invoking the spirits that emanate from the heavens! One wins wars through courage, tactics and strategy, building armies and acquiring weapons.

There is much more to be said but I am reaching the limits I imposed on myself on the size of a post.

To be continued…