Reading Mevakshei Panecha - Part 1 - Secular Knowledge and The Torah Jew

My Israeli friend Mechel recently gave me as a gift the book Mevakshei Panecha, an interview of Rav Aharon Lichtenstein by Rav Chaim Sabato. It is not an easy read although Rav Sabato is a writer par excellence. Rav Lichtenstein has developed the dialectical method to an art form and some chapters leave the reader in a state of confusion – at least that was the case with me. The effort to read is however well worth it as we get a glimpse of the workings of a great mind and a Gadol Betorah, one of the greatest of our time. I am about half way through the book and I want to share/discuss some points that I found enlightening and interesting. As the book is in Hebrew, I will translate the pertinent excerpts.

In a chapter discussing how to relate to values that come to us from outside the Torah:

“There are people including gentiles whose historical mission is one of creativity – literary or moral creativity. These are people that you see in them greatness whether greatness of the soul or moral greatness. How can one not be impressed with Samuel Johnson  ?  A man who started life in the London gutter and climbed to a level of Gemilat Chassadim that I wish I could reach. Should I ignore this just because he was a gentile? …. What nobility, what fear of heaven and dedication are projected and the final lines of the wondrous sonata of Milton regarding his blindness! Why should I ignore this?”

We are not talking about TIDE (Torah im Derech Eretz) which is generally seen as a utilitarian approach to secular studies but rather a fundamental appreciation of that knowledge and the creativity found in that world. An appreciation that sees it as part of the basic education needed to make us into perfected human beings and Jews. However Rav Lichtenstein does set some limitations.

“One has to differentiate between the ideal and the practical. In practice, one must be careful when importing values from the outside by looking at two issues. One issue is self-suspicion. When I am searching for values outside the Torah I must ask myself: what propels me to look for universal values? Why am I not looking for them in our own sources? Am I truly looking? Is the search occurring only after I have fully evaluated everything that is written in the Torah about these values without finding them, to the point of having to look outside? Is there another reason that I am compelled to look in places other than the Torah? … The second issue one must investigate is where these external values come from. Are they possibly coming from sources that from our standpoint are unreliable and unwanted? Having concluded these two analyses I find myself confronting a universal question and not necessarily a Jewish one. It is told that the Caliph Omar Ibn Hatab, one of the famous Caliphs in the middle Ages ordered the burning of the famous great library in Alexandria. He argued that if what is written in this library is true it must be found in the Koran and if it is not found there it must be false…”

Rav Lichtenstein subtly points out that the standard Yeshiva world argument that anything not found in the Torah must be false is an old argument developed by other religions. As he points out further this argument was quite common in 17^th century England between the Puritans and their more enlightened opponents.  Rav Lichtenstein then fleshes out the immediate questions one has to confront when going out to look for external values. First we have to determine how well grounded the person that embarks on the search is. Is he easily swayed or is he self-confident and has a firm footing in his thinking?

“We then have to focus on two additional issues. One is the environment the person is in. When I say environment I refer to two things. First is to analyze the social, financial and cultural environments. The whole environment could be so different from what it once was, that the sources do not address the current situation. We have to however caution; the fact that the circumstances changed does not mean that one has to automatically expect a changed stand. Not every circumstantial change forces us to modify our thinking or outlook. But we must at least be aware of the changed circumstances. I always ask myself whether the situation I am in now is a mirror of the situation and circumstances that is presented in the words of Chazal and the Rishonim. Second, even if the environment has not changed, I have to ask are the tools that I have now different than those that were available to the past. And even if there is no change in either the circumstances or the tools, sometimes there is a change in the weltanschauung that I have to things, which may not be exactly the same it was once….”

Rav Lichtenstein is very sensitive to the changes that have occurred over time and the effect they have on how we look at them from the Torah viewpoint. We cannot let the Torah viewpoint become ossified to the point of making it irrelevant. Rav Sabato asks him if his father in law, RYBS Z”L was influenced by external sources.

“A certain person once asked me if Rav Soloveitchik was influenced by Kierkegaard. I understand that one who asks this question does so with a critical undertone, as if saying that should the Rav have been influenced by Kierkegaard, woe is to us!   I answered him that if the question was whether the Rav read Kierkegaard, of course he did!  But if the question was did he take anything from him? I don’t know for sure but I suspect the answer is positive too. Of course, a great person like the Rav, who learned Torah all his life, who is rooted in its world, its opinions and its values – such a person when he is confronted by a book by Kierkegaard, if after a careful inspection he discovers that the things he read in there are true, moral and deepen our understanding of divine worship, does he have to ignore them? Does he have to turn away from them? Why? Just because they are based on Kierkegaard? If the notion is true, he will take it and if not he will ignore it, not because it comes from Kierkegaard but because it is wrong... There is a problem that many people nowadays have, including Yeshiva students. They lack the ability to dive into stormy seas. They live in a world of fear. They are afraid of everything. A part of the Yeshiva world suffers from this disability. True, in some matters they are right, but in many other things, and not necessarily literary matters, they are not right…”

Rav Lichtenstein interestingly starts the discussion by setting very clear parameters. One has to analyze and be suspicious of one’s motives. We first have to explore the whole Torah and try to find an answer to the existential question that is intriguing the searcher. He then admits that there are contemporary matters and issues that because of the environment, the culture, the tools we now have, cannot be solved by ignoring external sources. And then he turns to the Rav and how he did take out good ideas from secular culture and introduced them into Judaism.  The way I read the progression of his thought is that people of the caliber of the Rav are able to independently fish in the deep waters of secular thought and find the kernels of truth that advance the thinking of a modern Jew living in our world today. He does not say it, but it is clear that he sees himself as capable of doing the same. Lesser scholars and other interested students can then study their insights which help them navigate the contemporary cultural currents. The Yeshivot are so afraid of possible deviance that they prohibit even that, thus restricting their members from fully participating in the contemporary world. As we will see further, this respect for truth from whatever its source leads Rav Lichtenstein to a unique and extremely enlightening perspective on the secular Jews of our time. I will write about that in an upcoming post.

    

  

Is Reward And Punishment A True or A Necessary Belief? Musings on MN 3:28.

The end goal of Torah and Mitzvot is to create a society with great knowledge of their environment and through that knowledge develop an understanding of God and His ways fulfilling their role in existence by emulating Him. This society will bring along the rest of humanity to the same developed state. If we look back at the history of the human species, we have evolved from a hunter-gatherer society where immediate survival was the central focus of day-to-day life into a (relatively) technologically advanced one. This evolution took many millennia, was gradual with many hiccups and regressions along the way with humanity still a long way from having fulfilled its potential.

We know that early man was baffled by his environment and completely at the mercy of it. His understanding was guided by his imagination as there were no tools available to perform any experiments that would provide empirical data. Man developed a theological system based on imaginary myths that tried to explain his existence. Those myths developed into a complicated system of gods,  some benevolent others malevolent, operating on a reciprocal approach where these gods were to be mollified and bribed if man wanted to be saved from their wrath or deserve their munificence. This system based on imagination created societies with hierarchies of slave and ruler abetted by priests who preyed on their fears presenting themselves as “god specialists” who knew how to bribe and manipulate the deities. Having sunk into this system based on imagination, humanity needed to expend great effort to break away from it and begin looking objectively at the world so that it could develop and become more than just another animal species amongst many. The Torah and its Mitzvot is the tool given to us, Jews, by HKBH to help us pull out from these ages of intellectual darkness and bring humanity along with us. In a macro sense, the Torah has three categories of Mitzvot: (i) Societal Law, (ii) Guide for Self-Improvement and (iii) Intellectual/Theological Teachings. The first two categories are focused on our physical well-being so that we can dedicate ourselves to the third category which is the ultimate objective.

“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 body is established by a proper management of the relations in which we live one to another. This we can attain in two ways: first by removing all violence from our midst: that is to say, that we do not do every one as he pleases, desires, and is able to do; but every one of us does that which contributes towards the common welfare. Secondly, by teaching every one of us such good morals as must produce a good social state.” (MN3:27)

The societal laws can be summarized as “do not unto your friend what you would not do unto yourself”. In other words, there are obvious consequences to how we act with each other. Society operates on a reciprocal basis where generally we react in kind to kindness, fairness, nastiness and injustice. Narcissism and selfishness are at the root of the latter two and controlling our natural impulses is the key to controlling these inclinations. Looked at from this perspective, reward and punishment are natural outcomes of ethics and morals or the lack thereof.  One does not need to be a scientist or a philosopher to grasp this concept of reward and punishment. In fact, every child is taught that there are consequences to his actions whether explicitly or implicitly and it is a key component of education.

On the other hand, when it comes to intellectual development, the process is long and arduous. One cannot teach Algebra, to someone who has not mastered basic arithmetic or any other advanced theory in any science without having understood the basics. Correct theology is based on correct science. Rambam teaches that if we want to have a correct understanding of God and our existence in relation to Him, we must first have a good and correct grasp of all the sciences. Theology and science go hand in hand; they are not two disparate things, as many thinkers want us to believe.

“There may thus be a man who after having 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, 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)

Myths are the antithesis to science. They offer alternate explanations based on imaginary fantasies for reality. For science to flourish, myths and idol worship, the practical outcome of myths, must be eradicated. Rambam sees Avodah Zara as falsehood. Eradication of falsehood is at the core of the prohibition to have anything to do with Avodah Zara. The Torah teaches that Avodah Zara leads humanity away from seeking the truth and thus away from God the ultimate Truth.

Teaching a developing society, one has no trouble discussing consequences. One can be explicit and describe consequences as reward and punishment. Although simplistic, reward and punishment lends itself to a presentation that allows for dual meanings: the simplistic obvious one and the more advanced and sophisticated understanding thereof. Both understandings are helpful for the promotion of responsible behavior, though the simplistic approach may be inaccurate at face value. From a practical standpoint, there is value in a detailed description of consequences for bad behavior and the Torah indeed repeats the concept many times in places in excruciating detail. 

However, teaching correct theology is impossible to a society that has not yet reached its ultimate perfection, never mind a primitive one at the start of its journey toward intellectual perfection. As long as a man has not grasped the sciences and all it means, he cannot really know God and Truth. He can be told that the goal, the end-purpose is to know God and he must learn all he can about the world he lives in to achieve that. The real meaning of knowing God however can only be pointed to, not taught.

“It is necessary to bear in mind that Law only teaches the chief points of those true principles which lead to the true perfection of man, and only demands in general terms faith in them. Thus, Scripture teaches the Existence, the Unity, the Omniscience, the Omnipotence, the Win, and the Eternity of God. All this is given in the form of final results, but they cannot be understood fully and accurately except after the acquisition of many kinds of knowledge.” (MN3:28)

However when it comes to reward and punishment, consequences –

“In the same way the Law also makes a call to adopt certain beliefs, belief in which is necessary for political welfare. Such is the belief that God is angry with those who disobey Him, for it leads us to the fear and dread of disobedience [to the will of God]. There are other truths in reference to the whole of the Universe which form the substance of the various and many kinds of speculative sciences, and afford the means of verifying the above-mentioned principles as their final result. But Scripture does not so distinctly prescribe the belief in them as it does in the first case; it is implied in the commandment, "to love the Lord" (Deut. xi. 13).” (MN3:28)

Reward and punishment is presented in the Torah in its simplistic way, “the belief that God is angry with those who disobey Him”, and in great detail (see Vaykra 25:14-42 and Devarim 28:15-69) while theology is presented in a very limited and allusive way, “it is implied in the commandment, "to love the Lord"”.

When practical commands - Mitzvot – are given and their reason presented we have the same situation. The Mitzvot that have a theological underpinning, their reason is often omitted and if presented, they are only in an allusive way, while those that are societal, their reason and consequences for transgressing them, are laid out clearly.

“Consider what we said of Beliefs: In some cases the law contains a truth which is itself the only object of that law, as e.g., the truth of the Unity, Eternity, and Incorporeality of God. In other cases, that belief is necessary for securing the removal of injustice, or the acquisition of good morals. Such is the belief that God is angry with those who oppress their fellow men, as it is said, "Mine anger will be kindled, and I will slay," etc. (Exod. xxii. 23). Or the belief that God hears the crying of the oppressed and vexed, to deliver them out of the hands of the oppressor and tyrant, as it is written, "And it shall come to pass, when he will cry unto me, that I will hear, for I am gracious" (Exod. xxii. 25).” (MN3:28)

Some classic interpreters of Rambam as well as modern scholars pointed to this chapter as an example of Rambam’s “true” esoteric beliefs about reward and punishment. They argue that he did not believe in reward and punishment as true belief but rather as a utilitarian one. I have difficulty accepting that, after studying his presentation of Divine Providence. It is obvious that Rambam sees providence as a natural phenomenon and it is up to man to act in ways that fall in line with God’s will which by definition is “good” as it promotes continued existence. Reward and punishment is thus a natural consequence of our actions. As we believe that God willed things into existence, consequences are therefore traceable to that original will (see MN2:47). When we say that God punishes we are saying that He created the world in a way that there are consequences to actions. This is the sophisticated understanding of reward and punishment. However, the simplistic understanding, that God Himself indeed punishes for every transgression can be understood by all and offers the same result; incentivize good ethics and morals. In fact, the two examples Rambam brings for explicit reward and punishment, both deal with ethical and moral issues that affect society and where the consequences can be traced to reciprocal societal norms.

I understand this as being the message of this chapter and not an “esoteric” view of reward and punishment. As further support for my understanding, this chapter is placed in the midst of chapters that deal with the reason for commandments and not among those that deal with Hashgacha - providence. It explains why some reasons for Mitzvot are explicit and others are not and why some are detailed while others only allude to the reason.

Chag Sameach.   

Kefirah is Good For Jews.

כשחושבים על דעת אלוהים בלא השכלה ובלא תורה מתהוה ברעיון ציור אפל מלא תוהו ובוהו ואחר כך כשבאים להשתעבד לעבודת אלוהים על פי המושג הריקן הקדום האדם הולך ומאבד את זוהר עולמו על ידי מה שהוא מקשר את עצמו לדברי תוהו ובוהו נידף וכשהדבר הזה נמשך משך של איזה דורות מוכרחת הכפירה לצאת בצורה תרבותית לעקור את זכר אלוהים ואת כל המוסדים של עבודת אלוהים אבל מה היא עוקרת רק הבלים ודברי נואש שהם רק חוצצים בין האדם ובין אור אלהי אמת ועל משואות החורבות שהכפירה מחרבת בונה דעת אלהים הנשגבה את היכלה

(Free translation)


When one speculates about God without [secular] knowledge and without Torah, one develops in one’s mind a dark image, full of emptiness and confusion. When that person now turns to divine worship based on this previous empty concept, man slowly loses the splendor of his existence, because he becomes attached to empty and confused ideas. When this goes on for several generations, it is inevitable for Kefirah to show itself culturally[1] with the goal of eradicating the memory of God and all the trappings of God worship. But ultimately, what is it eradicating? It is eradicating nonsensical and hopeless ideas that truly interfere between man and the light of the true God. It is upon these destroyed ruins trampled by Kefirah, that God’s supreme wisdom builds its temple! (Shemona Kevatzim volume 1, page 31).

Rav Kook again amazes. Without the combination of the two, Torah and a good understanding of the environment, a person develops a distorted picture of God and in turn, a false concept of divine worship. One has to have a good understanding of reality and combining that knowledge with a correct understanding of the ontological teachings of Torah, one may develop a correct notion of God and His worship. Without that, religion descends into the dark ages losing its spark. Human thought cannot be suppressed. With time, people rebel against mind-numbing and irrational thought and rituals. They blame religion and the worship that it entails for this obscurantism. The reaction of the establishment is to ostracize and evict these miscreants. But what are these revolutionaries battling? They are not attacking truth, but nonsense and misunderstandings of the Divine. By cleansing society from this misdirection, a new sublime and true religion, based on Truth and a proper notion of the divine resurges. Rav Kook is describing the sociological process and internal upheavals of how true religion develops. He has an unbounded and optimistic view of human nature. What others see as a negative he has a broader and longer view and sees as constructive.

As I said in an earlier post, these are personal notes that Rav Kook used to jot down when ideas came to his mind. Reading this we can appreciate how he could love every Jew and accept all without exception. He was friendly and close with intellectuals and scholars of many different stripes and ideals, religious and non-religious even anti-religious. Just look at his correspondence.

Shabbat Shalom.




[1] I suspect he is referring to the Haskallah Movement.

וְזוכֵר חַסְדֵי אָבות - He Remembers The Merit of The Patriarchs (Avot)

In a discussion of the reason for the Festival of Sukkot Rambam writes in MN 3:43 –

“We shall thereby [sitting in Sukkot] remember that this has once been our condition, "I made the children of Israel to dwell in Tabernacles…" (Lev. 23:43). From this we went over to dwell in richly ornamented houses, in the best and most fertile place on earth, by the kindness of God, and because of His promises to our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, inasmuch as they were perfect people in their opinions and in their moral character. For this too is one of the pivots of the Law, the belief that every benefit we have received and ever will receive of God, is owing to the merits of the Patriarchs, who "kept the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment" (Gen. 18:19).”

It is not only Sukkot but also daily, three times in our prayers, we remind ourselves about the merits of the Avot and we invoke it constantly. What is the meaning of this constant reminder? If we read this segment carefully, we see that Rambam refers again to that famous verse in Breishit 18:19 –

יט כִּי יְדַעְתִּיו, לְמַעַן אֲשֶׁר יְצַוֶּה
אֶת-בָּנָיו וְאֶת-בֵּיתוֹ אַחֲרָיו, וְשָׁמְרוּ דֶּרֶךְ יְהוָהלעֲשׂוֹת צְדָקָה וּמִשְׁפָּט--לְמַעַן, הָבִיא יְהוָה עַל-אַבְרָהָם,
אֵת אֲשֶׁר-דִּבֶּר, עָלָיו.

19 For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice; to the end that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which He has spoken of him.'

As I have explained many times, “keeping the way of the Lord” or in short emulating Him can only come about once we understand the role that God set out for us, humans, in the universe. And that can only happen if we understand our true reality and the world we live in. The Avot starting with Avraham were completely focused on creating a nation that will lead humanity in that quest for knowledge. What we are today, “every benefit we have received and ever will receive of God”, is a result of the path upon which the Avot have set us. We are not the same people we were then, our beliefs have evolved and changed, our science is totally different, but all that we are is an evolution of what was started by the Avot several millennia ago. We get lost in the mundane of the day to day and our goals become a little confused in our minds. Remembering and bringing the Avot and the goal they had in mind, back into focus constantly, reminds that we are supposed to seek truth and reality and try to understand it and our role in it as one more responsible component of God’s universe.

What Is The Purpose of Torah Law? A Cosmic Viewpoint.

There are certain times in our thinking that we know we had a crucial insight that answered many difficult questions that were lurking in our minds. These insights often open an entire new avenue of thought and understanding. Over the years, I had several such moments that changed and influenced my thinking going forward. I experienced such a moment recently when I was working on my article on Avodah Zara published in Hakirah 6. As I was rereading Rambam’s explanation of the word Tov mentioned so often in the description of creation, I realized that Tov Me’od which appears at the end of creation when man comes into existence addresses man’s purpose, goal and his part in the totality of existence. Rambam sees the whole of existence as an interconnected interdependent system, where each component has a built in mechanism that promotes self-survival and survival of the whole. All components however have very defined roles without any freedom of choice on how to act while humans are endowed with the potential for creativity, thinking and acting responsibly. It is that potential that differentiates man from all other components of the universe and it is that ability that informs him what his expected contribution to the survival of the whole is and therefore his goal in existence. Thus, creation was complete and Tov Me’od, a term denoting the permanent continuity of all that was created, could be used. Working towards understanding and fulfilling the potential of humanity is the responsibility of each individual, the community and all of humankind, generation by generation, over the millennia. For man to know how to fulfill his part in the whole of existence is not simple and straightforward. It cannot be known without understanding thoroughly how every component works, what its purpose is, where the whole enterprise of existence is going and the risks and challenges it all faces. That knowledge however is elusive. It has taken humanity thousands of years to even begin scratching the surface of the different sciences that try to explain how things work. We are just at the beginning of the process of deciphering the laws of physics, chemistry and biology etc… empirical knowledge that can be physically demonstrated. Ontological questions which have no empirically proven answers are the most elusive and may never be answered satisfactorily. However, for the ontological premises to make sense they have to be anchored in reality as demonstrated by the sciences but they also require personal perfection if they are to be the Truth and not just subjective conjectures.


“It has been proved that moral conduct is a preparation for intellectual progress, and that only a man whose character is pure, calm and steadfast, can attain to intellectual perfection: that is, acquire correct conceptions. …For this science is, as you know, different from the science of Medicine and of Geometry, and, from the reason already mentioned, it is not every person who is capable of approaching it. It is impossible for a man to study it successfully without moral preparation; he must acquire the highest degree of uprightness and integrity…Therefore, it was considered inadvisable to teach it to young men; nay, it is impossible for them to comprehend it, on account of the heat of their blood and the flame of youth, which confuses their minds. That heat, which causes all the disorder, must first disappear; they must have become moderate and settled, humble in their hearts, and subdued in their temperament; only then will they be able to arrive at the highest degree of the perception of God, i.e., the study of Metaphysics, which is called Ma‘aseh Merkavah.” (MN 1:34)

The problem is that the push for survival is instinctual and present in each of us for our own selfish self-preservation even at the detriment of the other. It is not obvious to us that unless we act in a way that protects and promotes the survival of the totality of existence we will self-destruct. It is this instinct that is the cause of wars, environmental destruction and is at the root of many of humanity’s societal ills which hinder its development towards fulfilling its intended role. Furthermore, when faced with ontological questions that require a clear unbiased perspective, narcissistic tendencies cloud our thinking. When there is no concrete evidence to support an answer to an abstract question, we tend to pull in the direction that satisfies egotistical tendencies. This instinct therefore has to be channeled so that it allows us to find the true answers that will inform our actions.

That is where the Torah comes into play. The Torah through its Mitzvot teaches morality and ethics forcing people to look beyond their own selfish narcissistic needs and interests. The ritualistic commandments, those commonly referred to as Mitzvot bein Adam Lamakom, are needed to keep us focused at all times on the ontological questions while at the same time forcing us to go beyond our built in tendency of taking care and satisfying our physical needs. The societal Mitzvot teach us ethics, morality and the need to think of the other while also organizing society so that people live peacefully with each other. The Mitzvot are therefore tools to make us better people so that we can fulfill our raison d’etre and learn how to play a responsible role in the continuity of existence.

“The general object of the Law is twofold: the welfare of the soul, and the welfare of the body. The welfare of the soul is promoted by correct opinions communicated to the people according to their capacity. … The welfare of the body is established by a proper management of the relations in which we live one to another. This is achieved through two things. One of them is the abolition of their wronging each other. That is to say, that we do not do, every one as he pleases, desires, and is able to do; but every one of us does that which contributes towards the common welfare. Secondly, by teaching every one of us such good morals as must produce a good social state. 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)

With this perspective, I believe most of the questions that plague us about the reasons for specific supposedly illogical Mitzvot vanish. For example, the laws of impurity generally seen as Chukim have no intrinsic value. Their primary purpose is to remind us that we are about to enter the places designated to make us focus on metaphysics and God, the Beit Hamikdash. The idea is to not make our presence there mundane and create an aura of holiness and restraint from physical matters. Its extended purpose is as Rambam says in Hilchot Tume’at Ochlin (16:14)

אף על פי שמותר לאכול אוכלין טמאים ולשתות משקין טמאים, חסידים הראשונים
היו אוכלין חוליהן בטהרה ונזהרין מן הטומאות כולן כל ימיהן; והן הנקראין
פרושים. ודבר זה קדושה יתרה היא, ודרך חסידות שיהיה אדם נבדל ופורש משאר
העם, ולא ייגע בהן ולא יאכל וישתה עימהן: שהפרישות מביאה לידי טהרת הגוף
ממעשים הרעים, וטהרת הגוף מביאה לידי קדושת הנפש מן הדעות הרעות, וקדושת
הנפש גורמת להידמות בשכינה, שנאמר "והתקדשתם והייתם קדושים, כי קדוש אני"

The idea is to create an aura of holiness and separation from day-to-day preoccupations and personal needs to allow the person that wants to focus on the existential issues to do so and arrive at correct conclusions that are not narcissistic and self-serving. The ultimate purpose of these laws is therefore to develop correct opinions and find the true ways of HKBH so that we can emulate Him. The laws of impurity are an important tool, one of many, in leading us to that understanding.

“We must bear in mind that all such religious acts as reading the Law, praying, and the performance of other precepts, serve exclusively as the means of causing us to occupy and fill our mind with the precepts of God, and free it from worldly business.” (MN3:51)

And what is the point of filling our minds with God and thinking about Him?

“The prophet thus, in conclusion, says, "For in these things I delight, says the Lord," i.e., My object [in saying this] is that you shall practice loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. In a similar manner, we have shown that the object of the enumeration of God's thirteen attributes is the lesson that we should acquire similar attributes and act accordingly. 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 he will then be determined always to seek loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, and thus to imitate the ways of God.” (MN 3:54)

From Creation To Noach - A Perspective.

Many are bothered by the science and historicity of the events described in the Parshyot that we read at this time of year. The descriptions of the creation of the world and man, the Dor Haflagah (Tower of Babel) and the Flood have been discussed by believers and non-believers for generations and at times used by some as a reason for denying religion as Truth. How can a divine torah be wrong, or at best inexact, about history?

Rambam in MN 3:50 makes a sweeping comment which addresses the issue.

“Know that all the stories that you will find mentioned in the Torah occur there for a necessary utility for the Law. Either they give a correct notion of an opinion that is a pillar of the Law or they rectify some action so that mutual wrongdoing and aggression should not occur between men.”

In other words, one has to look at the reported stories more as commentaries on occurrences rather than a description of an historical event. It does not mean that the story is untrue but rather that the details that are reported are only those that are needed to make a theological, ethical or moral point supporting a teaching. After all the word Torah, comes from Hora’ah which means teaching. The Torah teaches ethics, morals and theology not science or history. We cannot look to the Torah to tell us how the world was created and operates, the laws of physics, chemistry and biology, but we look to it to tell us that it was willed into existence by a unique entity that we refer to as God. The question whether the Big Bang (if this theory is eventually proven without doubt) occurred as a result of a singularity or if it was willed by an entity that we call God, cannot be answered empirically. It will always remain in the realm of theology which is what Torah addresses. Judaism is based on a belief in a universe that was willed into existence by HKBH as the basis for its ethics, morality and theodicy. It is why we believe that there are consequences to our actions and we therefore have to do our part in how the world is run as an active participant in this great universe conceived and willed into existence by HKBH.

The same logic applies to the stories that describe human evolution. Starting with Adam Harishon, the first human in the line of contemporary man, it describes the different branches, Cain, Hevel and the branch that eventually became ours, Seth. It describes very cryptically how man slowly became aware of how his actions have consequences in the lead up to the great cataclysm of antiquity, the flood. It describes briefly how humanity changed after the cataclysm, how the basic laws of ethics and morality, the Seven Noachide Laws, were developed, how nations and different cultures flourished in the area of the Fertile Crescent. That awareness of consequences to our actions brings us to Avraham, who developed a coherent theology that offers an explanation and a raison d’etre to our existence.

Looking at these Parshyot from this perspective, I understand the whole of Sefer Breishit as the narrative that puts our religion and theology in context. There is no reason to doubt the veracity of the narratives but at the same time we cannot expect to learn from the text exactly how, when, where and what happened. We know that at some time in antiquity there was a cataclysmic flood that left an indelible mark in human memory. There is no way of knowing from the Torah narrative where it occurred or how widespread it was. All we know is that it was a cataclysm of such proportions that it changed the course of human history at least in the Fertile Crescent. The Torah uses it to teach us that we have to be aware of our environment and sensitive to the messages it sends us just as Noach was. Like Noach, we have to act on that information to protect ourselves.

The inordinate long life of early man as told in the Torah is another area that has baffled generations. I do not purport to have a good explanation of it but I would rather seek to understand the underlying message the Torah is sending us. Rambam is bothered by this problem and suggests that these long-lived individuals were the only ones in their generation to live so long. Ralbag however has an interesting take on it. He says that at the early stages of human civilization, man being a tabula rasa as far as sciences and general knowledge were concerned, needed a long life to allow for continuity so that difficult concepts could be developed and understood within a lifespan. The lack of continuity in a short life leaving half-developed ideas to be developed by the next generation would not permit the speedy advancement needed to create sophisticated societies. Thinking along similar lines, I would like to suggest that the Torah describes different schools of thought. Each long-lived individual represents one school of thought that led to the next which eventually brought humanity Avraham who changed its way of thinking as the first proselytizer of monotheism. Each school of thought required a long time, several normal life spans, to mature enough to allow for the next more advanced one to take over. It also suggests that at some point there was an overlap where after a few years the next school started to germinate its own ideas taking hold as the earlier one matured. That is how I understand why the Torah tells us at what age of the father the next son was born namely the next step in the evolution of ideas. It also tells us that there were other branches that developed in parallel but apparently did not leave a mark; just the one that survived and became dominant for a while is identified. That is how I understand the repetitively similar verses to this one –

ג וַיְחִי אָדָם, שְׁלֹשִׁים וּמְאַת שָׁנָה, וַיּוֹלֶד בִּדְמוּתוֹ, כְּצַלְמוֹ; וַיִּקְרָא אֶת-שְׁמוֹ, שֵׁת. 3

And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth.

ד וַיִּהְיוּ יְמֵי-אָדָם, אַחֲרֵי הוֹלִידוֹ אֶת-שֵׁת, שְׁמֹנֶה מֵאֹת, שָׁנָה; וַיּוֹלֶד בָּנִים, וּבָנוֹת.

4 And the days of Adam after he begot Seth were eight hundred years; and he begot sons and daughters.

ה וַיִּהְיוּ כָּל-יְמֵי אָדָם, אֲשֶׁר-חַי, תְּשַׁע מֵאוֹת שָׁנָה, וּשְׁלֹשִׁים שָׁנָה; וַיָּמֹת. {ס}

5 And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died. {S}

(Breishit 5:3-5)

Adam’s philosophy was accepted by his son Seth, he begat “a son in his own likeness” (see MN 1:7), but other schools of thought began to develop in the later years of his life, after 800 years he “begot sons and daughters”. I would suggest that the other verses that follow be understood in a similar vein.

I say this because the Torah leaves several signposts that indicate a start of a major new school of thought.

כו וּלְשֵׁת גַּם-הוּא יֻלַּד-בֵּן, וַיִּקְרָא אֶת-שְׁמוֹ אֱנוֹשׁ; אָז הוּחַל, לִקְרֹא בְּשֵׁם יְהוָה. {ס}

26 And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enosh; it was then that the name of God was invoked. {S} (Breishit 4:26)

The Rabbis read the last few words negatively. The word הוּחַל is translated by them as profane, God’s name was profaned at that time and the philosophies that support idolatry were developed. A few generations later, we encounter a new theological step.

כב וַיִּתְהַלֵּךְ חֲנוֹךְ אֶת-הָאֱלֹהִים, אַחֲרֵי הוֹלִידוֹ אֶת-מְתוּשֶׁלַח, שְׁלֹשׁ מֵאוֹת, שָׁנָה; וַיּוֹלֶד בָּנִים, וּבָנוֹת.

22 And Chanoch walked with God after he begot Methushelach three hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.

Chanoch discovered God and understood the need to walk with Him, try to understand His world and act in concert with it. The Rabbis considered Methushelach to be a righteous man who apparently absorbed and further developed Chanoch’s ideas leading up to Noach who acted on this understanding. The Rabbis tell us that Noach was a man of action who took the ideas of Chanoch and Methushelach and expressed them practically by developing agricultural implements and methods. He also was attuned to his environment to the point that he could presage the great cataclysm of the flood, acting to protect himself from it.

Looking at these narratives from this perspective puts them in their proper context as the description, though cryptic, of the development of human thought and ideas that led to Avraham and eventually the emergence of the Jewish people and its beliefs, the subject of the rest of the Torah.

Reading a Theological or an Historical Text -

Although there is some overlap between the categories and there also is some controversy among the interpreters to which category certain texts belong, the Torah, the Five Books of Moshe, contain legal, theological and historical texts. While legal texts are almost exclusively found in the Torah, the other two categories are common to all the prophetic books including Nach, the Books of the Prophets. The legal portions are addressed in the Halachik discourse and comprise what is generally known as Talmud Torah, the learning done in Yeshivot and on a daily basis by most observant Jews. Although generally ignored, there is a very important theological and philosophical foundation to the Halachik discourse which therefore affects legal decisions and how Mitzvot are practiced. Practice however can be defined while theology and philosophy are much more fluid and therefore much more controversial. Furthermore, philosophy and theology should be seen as developmental processes that span millennia and generations. As I explained in earlier posts, the scriptures posit beliefs that we are then tasked to convince ourselves of their veracity and correctness. It is this process of learning and searching that moves us along as individuals, a people and through us the whole world towards the goal of attaining the ultimate Truth,

כִּי-מָלְאָה הָאָרֶץ, דֵּעָה אֶת-יְהוָה, כַּמַּיִם, לַיָּם מְכַסִּים.

For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. (Yeshayahu 11:9)

It is with this in mind that we have to approach the theological texts as we try to understand them and interpret them.

The way I understand it, Torah theology is a way of looking and interpreting our observations of our surroundings and existence. In other words, we observe and try to understand the science underlying the physical world we live in, a developmental process in itself that also spans millennia and generations, and at the same time try to make sense of our raison d’etre, why we are here and what is the purpose of this whole enterprise. For ease, I will refer to all science as physics while metaphysics is included in theology. Looking at physics, although we are still far from having a complete understanding of it and may never understand it all the way, at least theoretically we should eventually be able to acquire full knowledge thereof. That is so, because physics is an objective and empirical science. Theology with its underlying belief system and metaphysical theories, on the other hand, is subjective and cannot be proven empirically. It is a way of looking at things based on a combination of deductive thinking, intuition and prophecy, revelation. However, these two different types of knowledge go together and are interdependent. As humanity develops its knowledge of physics, it also develops its understanding of theology which is de facto a commentary and interpretation of the first.

The Torah sets down an axiom – God exists. Rambam holds that it is empirically provable but requires a lot of work and effort. He therefore considers it a Mitzvah – a commandment – to “know” that God exists.

…יסוד היסודות ועמוד החכמות, לידע שיש שם מצוי ראשון
וידיעת דבר זה מצות עשה, שנאמר "אנוכי ה' אלוהיך

The way I understand Rambam is that this axiom is at the intersection of physics and theology. That God “exists” is empirically provable however, what God “is” and even how the word “exists” relates to Him is a matter that belongs to the realm of theology. Everything about God, omniscience, omnipotence, will, whether He created the world from nothingness, His providence and His relationship to our own existence, all belongs to theology and is subjective, a way we look at things rather than something empirically provable. It is theology that the Torah presents in its non-legal texts and is the subject of Nach. It tells us how we should look at things and it lays out markers that we should follow as we try to understand and make sense of it all but it ultimately leaves it to us to fill in the blanks. It is through the combination of this process of thinking, keeping the Mitzvot and understanding them, which in itself depends on our theological insights, that we will eventually fulfill the first Mitzvah of “knowing” that God exists.

It is with this in mind that the Torah starts off by describing creation. It certainly does not intend to tell us a scientific truth as that is left to us to discover – it therefore should not be read literally, even if the literal reading were to agree with current science which it does not. It is teaching us that as we observe our world and develop an understanding of how it works, we have to keep in mind that it was willed into existence by HKBH from nothingness. Whatever scientific theory for the world’s beginning is in vogue, whether it is the Big Bang or any other such theory that may arise, the prior cause for that singularity is God and His will and not some other subjective explanation. The Torah presentation of creation also tells us that all components of the universe are interrelated and interdependent and all, including humans have a role to play in its continuity. It also tells us that God has put into place in this universe a self-sustaining system that does not require any further intervention on His part – He “rested” on the seventh day. It also tells us about man and his mental and psychological makeup, abilities and responsibilities. What it does not tell us is the scientific and physical makeup of the world.

“First, the account given in Scripture of the Creation is not, as is generally believed, intended to be in all its parts literal. For if this were the case, wise men would not have kept its explanation secret, and our Sages would not have employed figurative speech [in treating of the Creation] in order to hide its true meaning, nor would they have objected to discuss it in the presence of the common people. The literal meaning of the words might lead us to conceive corrupt ideas and to form false opinions about God, or even entirely to abandon and reject the principles of our Faith. It is therefore right to abstain and refrain from examining this subject superficially and unscientifically. We must blame the practice of some ignorant preachers and expounders of the Bible, who think that wisdom consists in knowing the explanation of words, and that greater perfection is attained by employing more words and longer speech.” (MN 2:29)

This is the approach that we have to take to every text that deals with theology. Its purpose is to tell us how we should look at our physical reality, the world we live in, at things that happen to us as a nation, as individuals and as humanity. It tells us how we should interpret the good and bad things that happen to us and how we should act when we are presented with choices, basing ourselves on certain ethical or moral imperatives. The same thinking applies to historical events. The Torah is not interested in passing along to us historical events but rather how we should look at them and learn from them.

“Know that all stories that you will find mentioned in the Torah serve a certain purpose in connection with religious teaching. They either help to establish a principle of faith, or to regulate our actions, and to prevent wrong and injustice among men.” (MN 3:50)

Although I see no reason why I should question the historicity of most of the events related in the Torah, it is really irrelevant to the insight it is intended to teach. The point is the teaching that it is transmitting which is the same regardless of the fine details of the actual event. The story of the flood to me is a lesson on how human beings should behave when they see a calamity coming and how they should interpret it. Unlike the pagan world that developed the Gilgamesh myth to explain the cataclysmic floods that were still alive in human memory thereby shifting the responsibility to the gods, the Torah teaches that Noach acted with foresight when he became aware of the forthcoming cataclysm. Apparently the way the rabbis read it, there were early signs over several centuries that global warming was occurring and a cataclysm was about to occur. The Torah also teaches lessons about the breakdown of society and how that affected its ability to prepare or even foresee the cataclysm. To me that is, among others, the important messages the story sends and not the historical details of how widespread it was and so on. I believe a similar approach should be taken with every Torah narrative.

More to come…

Gmar Chatima Tova.

Textual Literalness - Contradictions as a Teaching Method.

Rambam in MN 1:46 writes –

“The same is the case with the information concerning the knowledge of God given to the multitude of men in all the books of the prophets and in the Torah. For it was found necessary to teach them that God exists, and that He is in every respect the perfect Being. That is to say, He exists not only in the sense in which the earth and the heavens exist, but He is an Existent who is living, possessed of knowledge and power, active, and all the other characteristics which our belief in His existence must include, as will be shown below. That God exists was therefore shown to the multitudes by means of similes taken from physical bodies; that He is living, by a simile taken from motion. For the multitudes consider only the body as fully, truly, and undoubtedly existing…”

Scholars of antiquity argue that we have to read the text as is and that early Judaism was closer to the religion of the neighboring beliefs in the region. From a historical perspective, they may have a point and the Torah seems to agree when it tells the story of the Egel – the Golden Calf. Immediately after experiencing the Sinaitic revelation, they turned to idol worship! The scholars however overlook a basic difference. While the other religions accepted corporeal gods, Judaism was teaching away from it. When it taught the existence of a unique God, that statement if analyzed properly, led to the conclusion that God has to be incorporeal. Unfortunately, not everybody can arrive at that conclusion immediately and it requires a lot of intellectual development before that can be understood and internalized. Torah as a teaching tool uses a strategy that keeps the issue of searching for an understanding of God at the forefront of a man of religion. It is a strategy that by necessity has to work at all stages of development of the individual and the group at the time it was given, and for future generations, no matter how primitive or how advanced and sophisticated the individuals and societies are. One of the methods it uses is to set out certain beliefs, postulates, in a form that can be accepted by all and encourages the individual to develop an understanding of its meaning according to his personal state of development and sophistication. It is this process of constant refinement of how a person understands God that is the real Avodat Hashem that leads to Yediat and Ahavat Hashem, the goal of religion.

The Torah teaches that God “exists”. The idea of existence when attributed to God is quite complex. What exactly does “existence” mean when we talk about a transcendent entity? To establish that God exists the Torah therefore teaches that as we look at the results of His existence, our own existence and the universe we are in, we extrapolate that He must have commanded, acted, created and so on. By attributing action to God, we establish in our mind that He truly does exist. At the same time, Torah teaches that He is incorporeal and that therefore it is forbidden to make any physical representation of God. Rambam Yesodei Hatorah 1:8 -

הרי מפורש בתורה ובנביא, שאין הקדוש ברוך הוא גוף וגווייה: שנאמר "כי ה' אלוהיכם, הוא האלוהים בשמיים ממעל ועל הארץ מתחת
והגוף לא יהיה בשני מקומות.
ונאמר כי לא ראיתם, כל תמונה
ונאמר ואל מי תדמיוני, ואשווה
ואילו היה גוף, היה דומה לשאר גופים

“It is made clear in the Torah and the writing of the Prophets that God is incorporeal. It says, “Hashem your God, is God in heaven on high and on the earth below” – a body cannot be in two places at the same time. It also says, “For you have not seen an image” [at Sinai]. It also says, “To whom can you liken Me and to whom can I be compared?” Had God been corporeal, He could be comparable to other bodies.”

These two teachings, that God exists and therefore acts and that He is incorporeal, are two contradictory teachings. That these two teachings contradict each other is not obvious to the novice and beginner and requires some sophistication. However, once a person starts thinking and learning he confronts the contradiction and start developing a more advanced understanding of “existence”, action and all the attributes as they relate to God.

“That God is incorporeal, that He cannot be compared with His creatures, that He is not subject to external influence; these are things which must be explained to every one according to his capacity. They must be taught by way of tradition to children and women, to the stupid and ignorant, as they are taught that God is One, that He is eternal, and that He alone is to be worshipped. Without incorporeality, there is no unity, for a corporeal thing is in the first case not simple, but composed of matter and form which are two separate things by definition, and secondly, as it has extension it is also divisible. When persons have received this doctrine, and have been trained in this belief, and are in consequence at a loss to reconcile it with the writings of the Prophets, the meaning of the latter must be made clear and explained to them. We point out the homonymity and the figurative application of certain terms discussed in this part of the work. Their belief in the unity of God and in the words of the Prophets will then be a true and perfect belief.” (MN 1:35)

Rambam thus sees the apparent contradictions, the dialectics, as a teaching method that lives up to the Torah’s goal, teaching men how to find God. As we grow in understanding and become more sophisticated, we confront the text and the apparent contradictions. We start developing a sense of when the text has to be read literally and when it is a metaphor or an allegory. This process is one of the various methods the Torah uses to keep us focused on our lifetime goal, finding God. Insisting on reading the text literally, as is the current trend in our community, defeats the Torah’s effort at making us an

ּ רַק עַם-חָכָם וְנָבוֹן, הַגּוֹי הַגָּדוֹל הַזֶּה

Surely, this great nation is a wise and understanding people.

I will discuss in upcoming posts if there are rules regarding how to read the different texts, those dealing with God and His relationship to us and our surrounding and those dealing with historical reports. I will also address the other methods Torah uses to keep us focused on the goal which will bring us back to Ta’amei Hamitzvot.

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

Why Belief in Resurrection Is Only Mentioned by Daniel During the Babylonian Exile?

Rambam in MN 3:32 discusses Korbanot explaining that they were necessary developmentally. As the Jewish people exiting Egypt, a culture that taught that there is a need to placate the gods with offerings to prevent them from harming us, the Korbanot were a method of weaning them from this dependency. By diverting the worship from idols to the one God and focusing their attention on Him, they eventually developed an understanding of Unity and transcendence. To drive home the point that, unlike the offerings to idols which were seen as bribes where the more the merrier, Korbanot were a very defined and circumscribed service or worship – Avodah. There are more rules on how to precisely bring and offer a Korban than for any other Mitzvah, where the slightest deviation may invalidate the offering. Korbanot became a paradigm for all Mitzvot, the positive commandments, which inherently have the same problem, especially those that are rituals – bein Adam lamokom. Our rituals cannot have an impact on a transcendental God and are meaningless from God’s perspective. Just like Korbanot, they are a form of service, defined and circumscribed by exacting rules that keep us focused on God, the source of the rules. These exact rules on how to perform them are necessary to remind us that they are not bribes but service and worship. We get not physical benefit in return when doing them other than the greatest good of all, a step closer to knowledge of God and hopefully, if we are diligent enough, an understanding of our role in His universe and how to fulfill that role of ours. Unlike idolatry, the Torah teaches that we cannot change God’s mind with our offerings nor can we change anything else in nature through manipulating the “spiritual” realm. We can try to understand God, try to discover His will and our role and act accordingly, making an impact on our physical existence. It is in the physical world that our actions have consequences. Those consequences are the “miracle” of reward and punishment – the blessing and curses – of the Torah.

This quest for understanding of God and our role in His world is not simple. It is quite complicated and difficult and people have had varying degrees of success in that endeavor. It involves not only understanding the world, the science that underlies it, it also entails knowing how to act on that knowledge and the impact those actions will have not only in the short term but also over time and generations. The most successful people, those who acquired this knowledge and acted responsibly, are referred to as prophets and their unique connection with the so to say, “mind of God”, the blueprint of existence, is called prophecy. Unlike the magical “knowledge” of the idol worshipper, this knowledge is based on reality and a realistic understanding of God and His world. It understands that everything operates according to laws of nature put in place by God, laws that are wisdom and not whimsy. This realization came first to Avraham Avinu and he transmitted it to his children and grandchildren. It was further reinforced (rather reintroduced) by Moshe Rabbeinu and the Torah and Mitzvot he gave us, whose aim it is to over time wean the Jewish people and through them the world, from the erroneous idolatrous beliefs. Those myths and beliefs are so deeply embedded in the human psyche that they are still present today, even in our community, even after several millennia of Torah. Clearly, this educational process is lengthy, drawn out and multigenerational.

As we can see, prophecy is central to this Torah worldview. It is through its medium that we can apprehend God’s will. One of the features of prophecy, indeed a test of its veracity especially when used to guide others, is its ability to foresee future events. Not only does it foresee normal natural sequences of events but also the anomalies in nature that I talked about in my last post. It is through this kind of insight, a result of deep study of the world and meditation on the metaphysical issues that pertain to its existence, that the prophets took advantage of these anomalies in what were seen as “miracles”, the same “miracles” that also demonstrate that God’s will was responsible for creation. The transition from believing that the vagaries encountered by man in his daily life are the result of magical forces to understanding a world run by God’s laws of nature and the ability of man to apprehend that and eventually acquire prophecy took a long time. Rambam in the Treatise on resurrections explains that at the time of Matan Torah, it would have been futile for God through Moshe to tell us about a future anomaly such as Techyat Hametim – the resurrection of some dead people - will occur at some point in the future. The people could not have accepted it and needed almost a thousand years of indoctrination before this concept could be accepted as plausible.

. ואיך יסופר למי שלא התבארה אצלו

הנבואה בדבר שאין ראוי עליו אלא האמנת הנביא, והוא גם כן נמנע אצלם לגמרי

לפי אמונתם בקדמות העולם,

כי לולי המופתים לא הייתה אצלנו תחיית המתים מכת

האפשר

“Why would one tell someone who has not yet accepted prophecy, a subject that depends on belief in prophecy? Furthermore, [prophecy] was impossible according to their understanding that the world is eternal [a parte ante]. For without miracles [signposts] Techyat Hametim would not be possible in our minds. [See my last post for an in depth discussion of this statement].

It took years of educating and teaching, experiencing the great “miracles” the Torah teaches us, those that were signposts that HKBH created and willed this world, for this lesson to sink into the people’s psyche. It is only after this long process, at the time of Daniel, when the long-term consequences of the stubborn belief in idolatry brought them into exile again, that the prophet could predict the future anomaly of Techyat Hametim and be believed. It is only after going through short and long-term cycles of actions and their “miraculous” consequences, of “miraculous” anomalies that occurred at propitious times, that this revolutionary and new understanding really took hold.

וכאשר רצה השם יתעלה לתת תורה לבני אדם, לפרסם בהם מצוותו ודתו ואזהרתו על

ידי הנביאים בכל העולם, כמו שאמר "ולמען ספר שמי בכל הארץ". חידש המופתים

הגדולים הכתובים בכל התורה, עד שהתאמת בהם נבואת הנביאים וחידוש העולם. כי

המופת האמיתי ראיה ברורה על חידוש העולם כאשר בארנו ב"מורה הנבוכים

והתמיד העניין כן, עד שנתחזקו אלו הפינות והתאמתו בהמשך הדורות, ולא נשאר

ספק בנבואות הנביאים ובחידוש המופתים. ואחרי כן ספרו לנו הנביאים מה

שהודיעם ה' יתעלה מעניין תחיית המתים, והיה קל לקבלו

When God wanted to give Torah to humankind, to make His commandments, religion and warnings [that there are consequences to our actions] known in the whole world, as it says, “so that My name is told in the whole earth”, He brought about the great miracles [signposts] that the Torah reports. This verified that there is prophecy and the world is created. For the true “miracle” [signpost] is clear proof that the world is created as we explained in MN. This continued until this fundamental belief was strengthened and verified over generations so that there was no longer any doubt that prophecy exists and “miracles” [signposts] occur. It was only then that the prophets told us what God told them about TH, and they accepted it with ease.[1]

To summarize, Rambam sees TH as one more anomaly among many. These anomalies, when they occur under the conditions Rambam enumerated, are signposts that HKBH has will and willed this world into existence with wisdom and omniscience. They teach that this world has embedded in it a system of actions and consequences that is incumbent on humankind to learn and discover. In this process of discovery, humankind will understand what its role is in the promotion of continuity of the whole of existence as will each individual who takes his responsibility seriously find his own role in that great whole. This belief in TH is therefore one of the fundamental cornerstones of Judaism.

What I find exhilarating and beautiful about Rambam’s approach is that he gives us a great vision, an optimistic and positive vision, of what Torah’s goals are for the Jewish people and the whole of humankind. He shows us how all the pieces fit together and ultimately are stepping-stones in the fulfillment of that great goal. As we say in our daily prayer ותלמדם חוקי חיים – when God gave the Jewish people the Torah, He taught them the “laws of life”. To me these few words say it all.

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[1] It is noteworthy that Rambam uses here the same justification he used for explaining the reasoning behind Korbanot. He compares it to the reluctance on the part of God to use a direct route from Egypt to Israel that ran through the land of the Philistines for fear of a war disheartening the newly freed slaves.

ואתה תמצא כמו התחבולה הזאת בעצמה עשה השם יתברך עם ישראל, אמר עליהם

ולא נחם אלהים דרך ארץ פלשתים כי קרוב הוא כי אמר אלהים" וגו'. ואם

הורגלו בענייני העולם מפני שחשש עליהם שישובו למצרים ויבוטל מהם המכווין

בהם, כן חשש עליהם עוד שלא יקבלו זה הדעת, רצוני לומר התחייה, ויבוטל בו

התכלית המכוון בהם ומהם

Teaching the Masses - Was Rambam an Elitist?

I left off my last post with Rambam’s statement that in the Treatise on Resurrection he is not adding anything to what he already wrote on the subject because he intends it to be understood by the unsophisticated masses. At first blush, it would seem to be an elitist approach where the “masses” are discriminated against. As we will see this is far from the truth.

The word “knowledge” is not easy to define and is still a matter of discussion by philosophers. For our purpose, I will define it as the totality of information that a human can (theoretically) garner about existence. At a basic level, it is a practical quest for understanding. A person wants to know about his environment so that he can use it for his own, or for his specie’s survival. But there is a deeper need to satisfy a curiosity about everything that is out there and how it works, what made it come into existence and to what end. That curiosity has to be fostered and developed. It does not come naturally to most of us. Left to ourselves most of us would give the whole issue only passing attention. It is however an extremely important subject and is at the core of human existence. In Judaism’s view of the world, humanity has a role to play in the continuity of the whole of existence and it is up to humankind to discover that role and act on it at appropriate times. Discovering what that role is can only be accomplished if we question the reasons for our existence, how we came about and where all this is going. It also has to be a communal effort. The task is so daunting that a single individual alone in his short lifetime can never accomplish it. It is therefore crucial that as many human beings as possible during endless generations are made cognizant of this responsibility and are recruited to this great endeavor. That is the goal of Torah. It is supposed to teach us from childhood to focus on this quest. Although all human beings have to some degree the ability to embark on this quest, it is part of man’s nature that he has free will. For reasons known only to HKBH He wanted us to have that freedom, an apparently necessary trait for the fulfillment of our role and part in existence. Free will demands that we choose to pursue our destiny responsibly. Choice means we do not have to and our other natural tendencies drive us to focus on ourselves ignoring the existential questions that confront us. The Torah’s goal is to trigger us into thinking, questioning and searching for answers. How does it go about it?

One among much method is through the Mitzvah of Kryat Shema. The Halacha requires us to declare twice daily that God is unique – Hashem Echad. The saying of Shema is the first thing taught a Jewish child as soon as he acquires the ability to talk and is the last thing a person says at the time of death. It is so important that it is the only daily Torah obligation. There is no other Mitzvah that is a Torah mandated (as opposed to Rabbinic) daily obligation. When the child asks what the word unique in Shema means, he is told much more than just that God is unique.

“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 worshipped, so must all be taught by simple authority that God is incorporeal. There is no similarity in any way whatsoever between Him and His creatures. 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. 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 any 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.” (MN1:35)

Of course, Rambam is describing a long process of education where a child is taught the basic ideas and slowly progresses as he matures to a more advanced understanding. However all this is taught “by simple authority” without any logical proof or argument. When the maturing child confronts the new texts he is now learning, the contrast and apparent contradiction with this teaching about God’s uniqueness and the text itself, triggers a series of questions. That forces those that are more intelligent and have the mental capacity to think, venturing farther afield and thus deal with the existential questions.

“That God is incorporeal, that He cannot be compared with His creatures, that He is not subject to external influence; these are things which must be explained to every one according to his capacity. They must be taught by way of tradition to children and women, to the stupid and ignorant, as they are taught that God is One, that He is eternal, and that He alone is to be worshipped. Without incorporeality, there is no unity, for a corporeal thing is in the first case not simple, but composed of matter and form which are two separate things by definition, and secondly, as it has extension it is also divisible. Persons having received this doctrine, having been trained in this belief are in consequence at a loss to reconcile it with the writings of the Prophets. The meaning of the latter must be made clear and explained to them by pointing out the homonymity and the figurative application of certain terms discussed in this part of the work. Their belief in the unity of God and in the words of the Prophets will then be a true and perfect belief.” (MN 1:35)

Rambam’s Torah does not suffer of an inferiority complex. On the contrary, it challenges man to question and search for Truth. When man understands rationally the meaning of uniqueness (unity) as applied to God, the idea of transcendence, omniscience, omnipotence etc… and his own place and status in that context, he truly understands the words of the prophets. The prophets teach man about his responsibility and need to discover his role in existence. The prophets teach that man has to try to understand God, His deeds and emulate Him in creation. The Torah defines this goal of humankind in the story of creation.

כו וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, נַעֲשֶׂה אָדָם

בְּצַלְמֵנוּ כִּדְמוּתֵנוּ; וְיִרְדּוּ בִדְגַת הַיָּם וּבְעוֹף

הַשָּׁמַיִם, וּבַבְּהֵמָה וּבְכָל-הָאָרֶץ, וּבְכָל-הָרֶמֶשׂ, הָרֹמֵשׂ

עַל-הָאָרֶץ.

26 And God said: 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.'

The prophets continue this teaching and apply it to practical day-to-day behavior.

Of course, Torah is not one-dimensional. Shema is only one Mitzvah among many. There are many more Mitzvot that permeate our daily life and force us to constantly confront the question of why we are doing them. The search for an answer invariably leads us back to thinking about God, the lawgiver who is also the Creator and First Cause. Thus, all Mitzvot have the same goals – turn us into thoughtful human beings in search of God and our role in His universe.

Rambam believes that when the Torah and that includes the Prophets and the rabbis of the Mishna and Talmud, teach theology through direct edicts or through stories and metaphors, they use a multi-level language. It is a language that can be understood by the beginner child as well as by the sophisticated philosopher. They both will have an understanding that will trigger further thought at their respective level of apprehension. It is this dialectic between the written text and the “simple authority” at first and the logical understanding and conviction as the person progresses, that induces the person to question it and promotes thoughtfulness. When Rambam is telling us that he is not adding anything more than he has said in the past on the subject so that the masses understand him, he is emulating the way he understands Torah teaches. He will repeat and elaborate on what he has already said, without revealing more, expecting the reader according to his level, to question further and find the answer. He sees the masses, the women and children as he many times refers to them, as the beginners where each has the ability, if properly directed, to gather a deeper understanding of life and their role in it. They thus can contribute to the great mission of humanity; to know God and His ways and emulate Him doing good which is synonymous to promoting continuity of existence in Rambam’s parlance, as we have discussed many times.

I have digressed a little from my discussion of the verse in Devarim 6:19 and I will do so a little more in my next post to discuss Rambam’s presentation on Techyat Hametim and touch a little on the issue of miracles. Please indulge my wandering thoughts.

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.