| Rabbi’s Corner –
Does it matter if we believe in One God? Does God really care about the seeming trivial insignificant aspects of human life? Is it not enough to believe in God in my heart? Why do I need to prove that through rituals that seem totally alien to me and irrelevant to my life?
These and many other questions are not new but I think they are particularly relevant to our current times when not only religion has been marginalised but religious language itself has regressed into the “shadows of the human soul”. Religious faith is not just a set of beliefs and behaviours that support and embody those ideas. Religious faith gives a person a whole new vocabulary with which to think about and frame reality.
For example the narrative of our origins that is promulgated through the mainstream media is one that through the lens of evolution sees humans as just a sophisticated animal that shares 98.8 percent of their DNA. I think such a reductionist perspective is not only blind to the phenomenological aspects of our existence, but is dangerous for the individual and society in the long run as if man is essentially no different to animal then why can the “law of the jungle” be our guiding principal to life?
Judaism has no objection per say with the evolutionary model of the origins of life and humans (In the Torah known as Adam). In fact according to the great kabbalist and first chief Rabbi of Palestine Rabbi Avraham Hakohen Kook, the evolutionary model in many ways parallels the mystical understanding of the spiritual evolution of worlds (in Hebrew hishtalshelus olamos) which deals with the problem of how an infinite God can make “space” for a finite world where man can perceive him/herself as a separate conscious identity (see https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/evolution).
The Torah though though is more concerned that when we conceive of our origins we understand that homo-sapiens are not just physical cousins with primates (as exquisite as the discovery of DNA may be.) The Torah narrative conceives of man having a soul that is imparted to him from “outside the physical system”- a purely spiritual entity that interfaces with our mind/body system. We call this the soul. “And He blew into him a soul of life” (Genesis 2:7). The verb employed by the Torah -blow- implies a deep and intimate link between the soul and God. The origin of the Soul is rooted in God Himself as the Zohar describes metaphorically “One who blows, blows from His deepest self and Essence”.
So Does it matter if we believe in One God? Absolutely! If we are to believe the narrative sold to us that human beings are really just blobs of meat that randomly developed the quirky property of self consciousness and that we are are part of a vast universe that has no intrinsic meaning or purpose- then I would suggest we have a serious problem in trying to justify morality. The very verb “to justify” can only originate in the religious imagination that has a deep faith that their lies outside of our physical universe a force and energy that directs everything.
There is a fascinating comment from Rashi (1040-1105 France), our classic commentator on the Torah that relates to the above. The opening verse of the Parsha states “And the Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying”. The subsequent verses outline the general Mitzva of the Sabbatical (Shemittah) cycle where the land of Israel is left fallow every 7th year.
Rashi writes as follows:
“on Mount Sinai”: What [special relevance] does the subject of Shemittah [the “release” of fields in the seventh year] have with Mount Sinai? Were not all the commandments stated from Sinai? However, [this teaches us that] just as with Shemittah, its general principles and its finer details were all stated from Sinai, likewise, all of them were stated-their general principles [together with] their finer details-from Sinai. This is what is taught in Torath Kohanim (25:1).
Here Rashi is quoting from an earlier more ancient Midrashic work. The principal is key to our acceptance of the Torah as binding. In a word we believe in Godly revelation- that God the author of creation also reveals His purpose to man. All of the details of the Torah are God given.
So, does God really care about the seeming trivial insignificant aspects of human life? Is it not enough to believe in God in my heart? Why do I need to prove that through rituals that seem totally alien to me and irrelevant to my life?
The question of course is based on a false notion of What or Who God is. We tend to construct God in our own image and therefore project human qualities onto Him when in fact the reverse is true. Man is created in the image of God. Torah (literally teaching) is about adjusting our perception of reality to allow finite man to reach out to infinity. This requires us to become sensitive to who God is as He reveals Himself to us! That requires a number of qualities that we must choose to develop: listening, being open and vulnerable to what God wants, desiring a relationship and so on.
God is unlimited and therefore has infinite capacity to love all aspects and every particle of His creation. In fact seeing as creation is finite, it follows that in relation to God’s infinity great and small are alike. And so it is a function of God’s infinity that He loves and cherishes every gesture we make towards Him.
This is what the Torah and Mitzvot are all about – developing an intimate bond. We are unique beings in that only we have both bodily consciousness and the potential for God consciousness enmeshed in one body. Our bodies and much of our conscious activity may be a product of our DNA and physical environment, but we also have the unique capacity to think beyond the world itself towards out infinite creator. It is this capacity that the Torah and Mitvzot nurture. We marvel at humans capacity to delve into deep outer space and we have made incredible advances in this area. Yet the hidden recesses of our souls – our inner space- in many ways remains unexplored. The Torah argues that we have the capacity to explore this inner space but it depends on our own will!
Science is incredibly important and helps us understand the stuff that makes up our physical world but it does not deal with the inner world of consciousness. If we erroneously reduce man to a product of something (that could be Genes, environment) then we rob him of his greatest dignity and stature – his freedom to choose to act against. Even the developments in psychology/psychotherapy (mainstreams theories) as important as they are to helping people function better, do not set out to address the core spiritual makeup of the human being. This is the mandate of the Torah.
Of course we are limited beings which necessarily constricts our choices, but God places us in a particular set of circumstances unique to us so that we can choose how we wish to act or respond. Each choice we make either reveals our Divine core or conceals it.
In a world that promotes (through mass media marketing and advertising) a philosophy of “worship of self”, is it any coincidence that we ask questions like “Does it matter if we believe in One God?”. By definition a relationship requires diminishing and constricting myself to make room for another.
Parshat Behar teaches us that God DOES care about every minuscule detail of Halacha because every particle and subatomic particle is brought into existence pulsating by a loving god who desires a relationship with us.
To deny the spiritual core of who we are can only cause personal and societal dysfunction as the alienation from self plays out in all manners of dysfunction.
What I love about our Torah is that it is NEVER too late to choose to connect to it, top breath in its message and start to see reality and your life through the lens of Torah – with love, empathy and compassion for self and others.
We are only a couple weeks away from Shavuot which we refer to in our teffilah as “the time of the giving of the Torah”. The phrase is not in the past tense but the present to indicate our ongoing dynamic relationship with the Torah. In fact we talk about “Kabbalat Hatorah” receiving the Torah because whilst the Torah is our eternal heritage we have to turn towards it and ready and open to receive its Divine message if we are to truly benefit from it.
In our “Inner space” lies our Godly spark and the potential for greatness. This is the true final frontier which guided by the wisdom of the Torah and a life of Mitzvot we can final access.
When I think of the Torah in these terms I cant wait for Shavuot the countdown begins!
Shabbat Shalom
Shabbat Shalom |
I don’t see a contradiction in accepting the essential premise of evolution, adaptation, to leading a spiritually fulfilling life. Science provides insights into the complexity of the universe, offering rational man explanations that go beyond mythology, but I accept there is more to man than just mind, although that is an essential part of comprehending, within our limitations, knowledge of G-d. The soul, however one defines it, is part of our being, and as the psalmist puts it, “thirsts for G-d”, the giver of that which distinguishes man from the rest of creation. Just as we have moved from a state of ignorance and barbarity, allowing for a number of lapses in our moral progress, so has our perception of G-d changed. He may not have evolved in a Darwinian sense, but the way we view Him has, and will continue to “evolve” because G-d is not static; He renews creation everyday, and it is this dynamism that is echoed in the performance of mitzvot.