Nahmanides comments on Genesis 18:19:
FOR I HAVE KNOWN HIM
('YEDATIV'), TO THE END ('LEMA'AN') THAT HE MAY COMMAND HIS CHILDREN
… The correct interpretation appears to me to be that the word
yedativ literally means "knowing." He is thus alluding that G-d's
knowledge, which is synonymous with His Providence in the lower
world, is to guard the species, and even the
children of men are subject despite it to the circumstantial
evil occurrences (that happen sometimes, Z.H.L.) until the
time of their visitation comes. But as he regards His
pious, He directs His Providence to know each one
individually
so that His watch constantly
attaches to him, His knowledge and remembrance of him never departs[!!]
(Chavel, 1971, 242)
As surprising as this may seem, the difficulty that people have of believing in the Creator
of the world, His providence, and His management of the world does not stem from their
ways of looking at the world. It is not a manifestation of the limits of religious or
philosophical thought. Rather the difficulty arises from the gap between abstract,
theoretical knowledge and the sense of the divine actualized and present in the physical
world.
The gap between theoretical knowledge of G-d and the sense of divine actualization
exists within every human being who carefully walks the tight rope between them. We
are not speaking of unbalanced individuals whether they be intellectuals disconnected
from sub-lunar reality or those who can not distinguish man's advantage over the beasts.
The trials undergone by Abraham, our forefather, also turn upon the axis of faith wherein
at one end pure, perfect faith overlaps with the divine presence governing creation while
at the other end the vector is solidly grounded in the stuff of reality.
Abraham, through his
own exertions, created the miracle of the fiery furnace. This
miracle functions as a symbol of the axis of faith where faith is
actualized, comes to fruition in the physical world. As if at the
other end of the theoretical [vector] there is reality that can be
actualized, which actually came to fruition by way of the miracle,
theory brought to life. Abraham hears the voice of G-d commanding
him to realize the theoretical understanding he has reached, a
concept which almost completely lacks a solid grounding [in
reality]. Abraham uproots himself from his dwelling place and
journeys towards the unknown, as if he knew where he was going and
was equipped, as it were, with maps and precise directions.
Furthermore, Abraham is assailed by a reality that stubbornly denies
the theoretical promise. However, Abraham does not grope in the
darkness or proceed with closed eyes. His role is that of
bridging
between theory and
reality. He must traverse this distance step by step, with caution, as he conquers his
enemies, purchases land and delineates the steps on the path to actualization for future
generations; all the while educating his children so that they will follow in his path, the
path of Hashem.
Therefore, the
verse speaks of a derekh (path) and not a concept, command
or specific matter enforced upon them. Abraham teaches his children
how to create out of their own selves
real emotional behavior, not that found on the spiritual, intellectual,
theoretical level; not just accepting, with subservience to the most high, a path and
components which did not come from the furnace of existential human experiences; and
not just undergoing a process of mimicry (mimesis). This path is different and even to
this very day stands out as novel in comparison to the approaches of other religions.
The
regnant conception of religion calls, quite literally, for man's
acceptance of the yoke of heaven. Man's role is to subserviently
accept Divine dominion and to exist. According to this perception,
religion does not call for individual initiative or questing,
experiencing what life has to offer and combating difficulties or
doubts, warring with one's self, failing and repairing the damage
done. This is the inheritance of the masses, those of little faith.
The righteous and pious individuals free, as it were, of any doubts,
of the constant quest for the truth and of stubbornly, untiringly
taking the path of the righteous (mesillat yesharim
). For the righteous one, as it were, all is clear; his path is well illuminated.
From the Torah's description of Abraham's approach, it seems absolutely clear that his
faith was unwavering; he asked no questions and had no doubts. However the path to
realizing this faith in the real world raised doubts caused by the gap between
humankinds' earthly perception and the attempt to understand and identify with -- not
blindly accept -- the divine decree, plan, and intent from above. The picture of a
confrontation, stemming from a mutual responsibility to jointly rule characterized by a
covenant established between a mortal, composed of flesh and blood, but also created in
the image of G-d, granted him in order to create a constantly renewing reality
establishing a complementary union of the dynamic matter of reality and meaning, contents and
values derived from the heavens.
Perhaps we should view Abraham's test as
composed of two unequal parts, not Abraham's and Sarah's, but rather
parts differing in their essence and character. Sarah, with her
human and practical wisdom represents the role of actualization
while Abraham represents the notion and theory of faith. The
collision of these two antithetical positions is expressed in the
disagreements, of course ones for the sake of heaven, between Sarah
and Abraham concerning various issues described in the Torah
portion. The descriptive narrative's goal is to concretize the
entire human experience, the totality of human needs in play at an
event where the Self and the Ego, opposing mechanisms including
Creativity and Self-preservation, Being and Doing
, and other antithetical interests, are
brought to life in the person of creation's most complex phenomenon, mankind.
Three angels, with
three different missions, related to three different spheres. What
unified them? For what reason do they enter the stage as a group?
The common denominator linking them was that each one functioned as
a representative of one of the three dimensions of human reality.
Raphael who came to heal Abraham represents the attempt to actualize
the faith concept upon the human body. Man's grappling with
the issues surrounding his physical survival usually lead him to
place more of his trust in flesh and blood doctors, and in their scientific
or trial and error research methods, and less in "the healer of
all flesh, who acts wondrously." Not to mention the hypochondriac
whose life seemingly depends upon his frantic visits to specialist
after specialist. In our parsha, the Master of the World orders
Abraham to cut the flesh of his orlah, he a helpless old man. He is
not overjoyed to perform this mission. He consults with his
acquaintances: Aner, Eshkol and Mamre. Eshkol and Aner, however, are
not supportive of this astonishing course of action; only Mamre
recommends it. Mamre holds the minority opinion. Abraham, who never
concerned himself with the majority opinion, for his very essence
was of the minority (the minority of quality
) in contrast to the majority of
quantity, circumcised himself. Notwithstanding, Rashi cites the Midrash Tanhuma which
records that Abraham was hesitant and fearful due to his advanced age, so HaKadosh
Baruch Hu held his hand.
From this event we
learn that Abraham had to grapple with and overcome his own concerns
to realize the divine fiat's actualization with his very own
hands. The mission of the healing angel is designed to
express the meeting between the divine initiative and its counterpart, the
necessary, awakening of the lower realm
, accomplished by the man of
faith who devotes himself to actualizing the concept.
Let us be
clear: The path of faith is composed of many different levels.
Even those of little faith perform the commandments because they
were commanded to perform these specific acts, qua
individual acts stemming from the demands of the
system. In like manner, the Shulkhan Arukh records
the halakhot without providing reasons for them, goals actualized by
following them, their intent or the spiritual matter behind them;
herein is to be found the matter of fact observance of commandments
as they have been learned. Even those of little faith are part of
the community of believers and receive a reward for their actions.
The reason for doing
may boil down to habit,
tradition or mimesis; individuals may feel that everyone acts in this way, and acting in
contradistinction to the rest of community would cause personal discomfort. They may
even feel that acting this way is fashionable.
A
step above this level of belief belongs to one who observes out of
fear of punishment
.
Herein there is no performance of an individual act isolated and cut off from the concept
of faith. The performance is predicated upon and supported by a relationship with the one
who ordered it, with the source of the commandment, with the Creator – the one who
dictated the commandments.
A step above this level is that of one who performs the commandments in order to receive
a reward, not the reward of being enabled to perform another commandment or of reward
in the World to Come, but rather a this-worldly reward. Our Sages of blessed memory
directed particularly harsh criticism at those whose observance was ascribed to this level:
Rav Amram said: There are three transgressions which no man escapes from
committing each day:
- Sinful thought
- Contemplation of one's prayer
- Evil speech
Some explain that contemplation of one's prayer means that after completing his prayers,
the individual comes to the conclusion that HaKadosh Baruch Hu will grant him his
reward, address his needs and hear his prayers, since he prayed with intent." (Rashbam,
Bava Bathra 164b) The individual believes that he deserves a reward for having prayed.
This commandment observer acts neither out of devotion and identification with the
commandment nor, to be sure, out of devotion or identification with the supreme
Commander. He perceives himself to be the central reason, the very purpose, for his
existence. HaKadosh Baruch Hu, in his eyes, functions as a tool meant to aid in the goal
of prolonging his existence. Our Sages, of blessed memory, compare this transgression to
those of sinful thought and evil speech, an astonishing and frightening proposition.
The pious individual (he-hasid
), as defined by Nahmanides, does not accidentally "bump
into" HaKadosh Baruch Hu:
and even the children of men
are subject despite it to the circumstantial evil
occurrences until the time of their visitation comes
[during the course of their lives, Z.H.L.]. But as he
regards His pious, He directs His providence to know each
one individually so that His watch
constantly attaches to him
, His
knowledge and remembrance of him never departs. (Chavel, 1971, 242)
That is to say, the
pious individual performs his Creator's commandments based upon an
identification, an empathy, stemming from the depth of his
being, from his divine quality. However, even the pious individual
is forced to undergo the gauntlet of trials and tribulations. The
first: the need to bridge the two human tendencies so that they can
achieve a perfect unity. The first: to clasp the truth to himself as
he quarried it out of the bedrock of his heart during the awakening
of the lower realm, the very expression of the divine quality in the
depths of the Self
. Struggling painfully on the rack, the
commands from above forcing upon him certain rules of behavior in the guise of divine
commands, his being forced to accept them with subservience and the willingness to curb
his own initiative. Two antithetical conditions, constructed of different components,
obeying different axiomatic laws, and possessing different dynamics.
The pious individual also advances in various different
ways: sometimes having difficulty taking steps; sometimes, the limping, treading
lightly: sometimes moving quickly, and sometimes even performing a kefitsat
ha-derekh (a miraculous shortening of the way) to skip over
some of the rules. However not all the rules are rules which can be
passed over, for they are rules established by HaKadosh Baruch Hu.
The pious individual ruled by his enthusiasm, whose passion to
attach himself to the supernal light burns within him, has
difficulty slowing down and accepting the rules of production that
are not in keeping with the enthusiastic pace erupting from the
depths of his pure and holy well-springs. He must humbly and
subserviently accept the rules of the game which are an expression
of the Creator's will and divine fiat. In the earthly realm the
temporal laws of nature rule, while in the supernal realm the
spiritual ein-sof
(literally, never-ending, or infinity)
encompassing the qualities rules. Below the rule of power. Above the rule of the spirit.
The second stumbling block in the path of the pious is the difference, itself,
between the complexity and nature of the physical world governing the laws of existence and
the spiritual realm. The two conditions obey different rules and codes of behavior. Both
satisfy different needs for the same individual. When abstract knowledge descends and is
actualized; its actualization completely surprises. Abstract knowledge's appearance
dressed in physical garb may unbalance man who reacts similarly - with shock - to good
news as well as to bad when it is arrives unexpectedly and is far from the realm of his
concrete imagination. These difficulties, especially the latter one, haunt the life of any
believer in the abstract Creator of the world who finds it difficult to discern his abstract
knowledge and cognition of the Creator in the form of the divine presence clothed in
flesh and blood.
As Nahmanides wrote:
"even the children of men are subject despite it to the
circumstantial evil occurrences." Man is managed by or, to put it
more accurately, is carried away by the current of physical laws
until divine intervention stops the routine flow. Not expecting
divine intervention, the astonished man will cry out: Miracle of
miracles! Man stuck in his normal routine did not expect divine
providence to involve itself in his "minor," unimportant affairs;
affairs caught up in the current, the track of existential survival
. When the two tracks suddenly intersect, the physical one with the
divine one, man finds it difficult to absorb this unexpected involvement and tries to
ignore or deny the phenomenon by attempting to rationalize it or by trying to completely
ignore its existence.
Upon being commanded
to attach himself to the divine fiat, man tries to look backwards.
When he has difficulty envisioning continued progress ahead, and he
perceives his progress to contradict what he left behind, he is
concerned that in his devotion to the concept he has sacrificed --
he has lost -- the very basis for his existential survival. At this
point he departs from the creative track and enters the lower track of
physical self- preservation
. "And she became a pillar of salt"(Gen 19:26). Salt preserves but it prevents
development.
The angel's three
missions were intended to train Abraham for dealing with the three dimensions of the dual reality that
meet and unite in man's worship of his Creator. The goal being to
bring the two separate tracks closer to together and cause them to
meet, one threaded upon the axis of abstract theory brought to
fruition in the real world and the other threaded upon the axis of
human initiative thrusting toward the divine in a process of the
awakening of the lower realm; the force of the divine self within
man restrains its desire for actualization in order to make room for
the principles of the divine fiat descending to earth from above in
the process of the awakening of the upper realm .
The mission to heal Abraham leads to the encounter between the
concept, "For I am Hashem your healer," and the practice of medicine
based upon science and human knowledge. Raphael's mission
demonstrates the attention given to the physical dimension of
existence by the Divine.
The mission to annunciate the news regarding Isaac's impending birth forces an encounter
between the existential condition, limited to space and time, and the apparently
"impossible" condition where the intervention from above through divine providence
voids the rules of the limited physical reality and replaces them.
The mission to destroy Sodom is intended to
force an encounter between the religious- ethical conception of the
world bursting forth from the depths of the quality heart
of the
Self and the apparently contradictory heavenly rules and laws. The pious one, as stated
above, must minimize his world embracing enthusiasm so that it can fit into the
framework of the divine fiat and divine ethics. Following, on the one hand, the credo of
"one who is commanded and observes [the commandments] is greater than one who is
not commanded and observes [them]" and, on the other hand, the apparently antithetical
credo of "It [the Torah] is not in the heavens".
Sarah, as stated
above, is closer to reality than Abraham is. For Abraham is closer
to the world of ideals. Perhaps the difficulty Sarah had in
absorbing and internalizing the news concerning Isaac's impending
birth is similar in nature to the difficulty she had in absorbing
news of the Akeidah. As recorded in Midrash Tanhuma, Vayera
23: "for the cause of her death was that when she was informed about
Isaac's akeidah, and the fact that he had almost been
slaughtered, her soul left". The Or Hahaim on the first verse in
Parshat Chayye Sarah comments that the same difficulty [that
occurred when Sarah heard the news concerning Isaac's
akeidah
] plagued the perfectly righteous woman when she
received the news of Isaac's impending birth.
"And Sarah
laughed"(Gen 18:12). HaKadosh Baruch Hu himself interrogates Abraham
asking: "Why did Sarah laugh? … Is anything too wondrous for
Hashem?"(Gen 18:13- 14) The assumption of this question, that Sarah
had difficulty believing in the Creator's ability to perform this
miracle, was justifiably rejected by the righteous woman: " And
Sarah denied [it], saying 'I did not laugh'"(Gen 18:15). That is to
say, I did not laugh because I doubted HaKadosh Baruch Hu's
capabilities; rather, I laughed out of surprise, shock, a mixture of
emotions. Excited admiration of the divine intent and existential
angst that did not allow the excited admiration to conquer her soul
"for she was frightened"(Gen 18:15); happiness awakening a whirlpool
of spiritually qualitative emotions mixed with fear at the novelty
of the news, for she was not yet ready to face the incomprehensible
confrontation. Sarah needs an adjustment period, time to digest the
news. In the report of the Akeidah the
material world overcomes the
spiritual one. In the annunciation of the birth of Isaac the spiritual
realm overcomes the physical one. The role in or contribution
of Abraham to Sarah's distress [during the Akeidah
parsha] is unclear
from reading the text, apparently because Abraham himself was busy grappling with the
unprecedented, awesome and glorious trial.
The meaning of the surprising debate
between Abraham and HaKadosh
Baruch Hu concerning Sodom may be understood based upon this
principal wherein the sanctified spiritual world confronts the material one.
Unimaginable questions hurled at the source of wisdom and of
absolute justice, the Creator of the world, by a man of flesh and
blood! "Will you sweep away the righteous man along with the
wicked?"(Gen 18:23); and most inconceivably, "Far be it from you to
act in such a manner"(Gen 18:25), and, again, "Far be it from you!
Shall not the judge of all the earth deal justly?"(Gen 18:25) These
questions uttered by a mortal in defiance of the Creator of the
world. And most wondrous is the response of the Creator free of any
resentment, lacking a tone of coercive authority. This is just an
argument among friends in a spirit of mutual reciprocity; a
phenomenon unparalleled in the annals of religion since Creation.
Abraham who gained access to divine truth understood absolute
justice just as a mortal capable of embracing human morality would,
even though he is created in the image of G-d; morality completely
contingent upon only two dimensions: good and bad. Traits reflecting
human behavior lacking in the supernal dimension, encompassing the world
and its fullness (place) and constrained by the limitations of time,
existing in the present, lacking the concept of the ein-sof
that embraces the past and the future.
Notwithstanding this human limitation,
and perhaps specifically because human ethical judgment lacks an all-encompassing perspective, man
may perceive his own judgment to reveal the complete picture, so he wraps himself up in
the mantle of the omniscient being who rejects any possibility of moral judgment
disagreeing with his own. Accepting a yoke of heaven, not grown out of the seed in his
own mind, is difficult for Abraham. (And perhaps for this reason he asked Eliezer to
"Please place your hand under my thigh"[Gen 24:2] to teach us that Abraham envisioned the
concept of the world that he formed from his own source to be qualitative value
in its only possible instantiation.) So the Creator of the world, out of his immense love
for Abraham, who loved Him, employs extraordinary patience to educate him; educate him, but not
limit him. As the saintly Or Hahaim writes:
and we have also found that
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai stated that 'the righteous man is the
foundation of the world' (tsadik yesod olam) (Zohar 1, 82a)
this may be true when he is a wondrous righteous man (presuming that
there is a developmental process leading to future perfection,
perhaps [reached by Abraham] after the trial of the
Akeidah
) and perhaps if Abraham had lived in the
midst of Sodom, he would have provided refuge for [that is, saved] the entire city.
According to this interpretation, apparently, man does have the power to cast the deciding
vote and ward off the Almighty's decree, if his righteousness has reached the level of 'the
righteous man is the foundation of the world'. Thus, Abraham was correct in believing in
his own spiritual power, for in principle this goal of effecting creation can be achieved by
mere flesh and blood.
See too the Or Hahaim on Parshat Chayye Sarah, s.v. "and Sarah died" (Gen 23:2):
And the reason is that since
they (the righteous) in this world transmute the essence of the
matter of the four foundational elements into the essence of the
spiritual holiness in the nefesh [the
foundation of human vitality] via good deeds and
outstanding Torah scholarship which they attempt [to gain] in this
world. And to learn further of this matter, go forth and learn what
Maimonides wrote in the fourth chapter of the Laws of the
Foundations of the Torah: 'the law of Hashem dictates that one
foundational element will change into the other which is close to
it'. So earth will turn into water. And similarly
it will be found that through man's deveikut [close
attachment] to his Creator, all of the foundational
elements will turn into the foundational element of fire, and the
foundational element of fire will transmute into the foundational
element of the fire of the soul. ve-Haven
[and the
enlightened man will grasp this]. |
