The Human Ideal (2)

 

Optimum and Maximum

 

            In his third essay, Rihal begins his exposition of the ideal worshipper of God.  The Rambam developed these concepts in his "Eight Chapters" and in his "Guide For the Perplexed."  In the second part of the Guide (2:39) the Rambam speaks about the Jewish human ideal against the backdrop of the ideals extolled by other religions.

 

            The Rambam describes Moshe's prophecy and mission.  In this context, he writes about the conflict between Moshe's mission and that of those who present themselves as the messengers of a new religion, or as the last prophets.  Moshe's secret strength lay in the fact that his message was God's word, utterly and completely.  His very being expressed the statement, "God's Torah is complete."  Moshe's Torah was the optimum.  And we must remember that optimum does not mean maximum.  All other attempts to create a system based upon the original create some deviation from it, either by adding or subtracting from it.  The Torah's commandments exist in a state of equilibrium; every change departs from the equilibrium, thereby creating a lack or an excess.  This is how the Rambam interprets the phrase "just laws and statutes."  "Just" means with the correct balance between opposing forces.  Thus the Torah has always stood between two possibilities.  One group errs on the side of excess of commandments to follow, "such as the worship of the person who secludes himself in the mountains and abstains from meat and wine and many of the body's needs."  The other errs by lacking commandments, and causes "gluttony and dissipation, to the extent that the individual deteriorates in his character and his intellect."

 

            The Rambam refers to two positions, to two groups.  On the surface, he appears to be referring to Edom and the idolatrous nations which preceded the rise of Islam.  However, if we compare his words here to what he writes in other places in the Guide, we can perhaps conclude that the Rambam simply employed a political maneuver; he is in essence accusing the nations that existed before Islam of the same deficiency which he saw in the Ishmaelites of his own time.  This could not, of course, be safely stated openly; however, the implication was clear to anyone who had read the Guide and other writings by the Rambam.  This is clearly a part of the Rambam's ongoing dispute against Islam.  Islam incorporated much from the principles of Jewish lore and law.  However, these principles underwent a dramatic change through the interpretation of Islam's prophet and his successors.  Thus, we find that on one hand the Jewish motifs are clearly recognizable in Islam, and on the other, there were times when they underwent so radical a change, as to become unrecognizable.

 

            In light of these realities we can understand the meaning of the statement "God's Torah is complete."  It is very hard to achieve the optimum, and the possibilities for deviation are very numerous.  Judaism exists between the two extremes and tries to remain on the middle road.

 

The Chasid and the Nazir

 

            At the beginning of the third section, Rihal presents us with a conflict of ideals, and he denounces the approach which tried to imitate and "improve" the Jewish halakhic ideal.  Conflicts of ideals, Rihal felt, can be resolved by focusing on different points.  In the next section we will speak about one of these focal points, love and sexuality.  Here Rihal focuses the discussion on a different topic, the topic of seclusion.

 

            Christianity and Islam both extol the ideal of the person who leaves his society and secludes himself in the wilderness.  This practice is particularly common in Christian sects in the East.  In the West we find monasteries, but ones which possess their own communal life as well.  In the East, in contrast, we find many more examples of monks who live in absolute solitude, and see this as an ideal of devotion to God.

 

            This reality compels us to try and distinguish between authentic religious phenomena, and pathological religious phenomena.  The difference between these two phenomena lies in a concept which Rihal upheld as central to understanding man and his role in this world.  Judaism does not sense any contradiction between this world and the next.  Seemingly, the Jewish principle that this world is a corridor to the next one, which, in turn, is viewed as a palace, implies that this world is secondary to the next.  However, perhaps the passage through the corridor is a prerequisite to entry into the palace.  If we prepare ourselves in the corridor, we will reach the palace.  And in our case, the existence of society and community are one of the experiences which man must cultivate to reach his ultimate destiny.

 

            Rihal presents us with three examples of seclusion, two of them positive and the third negative.  In both philosophy and prophecy we have found praise of seclusion.  Rihal sees the ideal example of seclusion in the cases of Chanoch and Eliyahu.  They lived and functioned as normal people, reached the highest possible human level, and used their position for the common good.  Thus, they completed their walk through the corridor.  They had no more need for this world on their spiritual path.  For them, death was a natural continuation of life.  It is interesting that in the biblical narratives regarding these two personalities, we explicitly see the meaning of the World to Come in the Scriptures.  They are taken by God.  This "removal" means existence after death.

 

            The second type of seclusion is the seclusion chosen by the philosopher.  This is the seclusion of the person who desires to delve into the world of intellectual wisdom, and wishes to remain undisturbed by society.  He exists within the community and does not negate society altogether; although, he chooses a select community, the society of scholars.  Our Sages clearly felt the need to find the synthesis between seclusion and communal life; they express it beautifully in the statement, "I have learned from all of my teachers, and from my students most of all."  This is precisely the idea of the yeshiva, which, according to Jewish lore, continues to exist in the World to Come.

 

            Rihal now addresses himself to the monk, and does not spare him criticism.  He maintains that absolute religious seclusion expresses arrogance and self-deception and is the hallmark of the individual who believes he has reached a level which he has actually not yet attained.  These are phenomena which stem from an attempt to imitate the prophetic phenomenon, a miserable and illusory attempt to re-experience the encounter of Mt. Sinai.  We too must be cautious in our judgment in both directions.  The opponents of the prophets considered the prophets foolish and deranged, yet the truth was on their side.  On the other hand, sometimes certain people are viewed as holy, although their behavior is actually not a religious phenomenon, but a pathological one.  Rihal maintains  that this idealized seclusion causes pathological phenomena, which people sometimes perceive as signs of holiness: "such a person will exhibit the dejection of mental illness, but people will consider this the dejection of humility and submissiveness, and thus he becomes a prisoner who loathes life because he abhors his confinement and his suffering, not because he find pleasure in seclusion."  The idea which Rihal develops here is reminiscent of certain modern psychological experiments, which examine the responses of a person who has been deprived of human contact for an extended period of time or has been deprived of sensory stimulation.  These situations  impair psychological health.  Rihal's criticism gives us a different perspective.  We must realize that sometimes the psychological criticism of religious phenomena is justified.  It is justified with regard to those positions which cause one to escape from life.  A religion which encourages this type of behavior is unsound, and results in a disgust for life.  Judaism forges a path between this aberration and the opposite pole, idolatry.

 

            The danger of the ascetic approach was twofold.  Both to itself, and because of the reaction which it aroused.  As Rihal said, this type of seclusion caused the person to "systematically distance himself from the Divine essence to which he wished to draw near."  Rihal's criticism was far-reaching, and it heralded the reactionary phenomenon against Catholicism; however, this reaction produced a return to idolatry and the deification of nature.  As Rav Kook realized, the lowest streams of modern idolatry and the appearance of Nazism were also the result of a similar reaction.

 

            Rihal calls our attention to the fact that some types of seclusion are actually the manifestations of psychological illness which others may interpret as manifestations of holiness.  The prophets were not diseased; they lived within the community.  Rihal teaches us that Jewish religiosity does not mean running away from the world, but rather living within it.  This is the approach of mental health against a religion which has struck a covenant with mental illness.  The Torah is the human ideal, which contains respect for the body and the senses as well as the soul.

 

            The Chaver, the representative of Judaism, is fighting a battle on two fronts.  He is battling religious Christianity, but at the same time he is also contending with those who feel that the search for pleasure necessitates the removal of the yoke of the Torah.  Paradoxically, the obligatory blessings "bring pleasantness into the life of the Chasid and strengthen it, and add pleasure to his pleasure" [3:13].  Here, Rihal teaches us a very basic chapter in what one might call the laws of pleasure, and he puts this lesson not in the mouth of the Chaver, but in the mouth of the Kuzari [3:17].  Human  enjoyment is connected with awareness.  If we enjoy ourselves when we are drunk, we do not consider it meaningful or significant.  In fact, the opposite is true, and one generally considers that enjoyment as "a loss and not a gain, since these pleasures did not come to him when he was in full consciousness and complete feeling."  This is the reason that we attribute pleasure to animals "more than to plants, although the plant constantly receives nourishment" [3:16].  Thus, the blessing of "she-hecheyanu," a prayer of thanksgiving to God for keeping us alive until the present time, teaches us to enjoy the greatest pleasure, life itself, and the hundred blessings which we recite daily compel us to notice, feel and respect what we experience through our hearing, our sight, our speech, and our intellectual pursuits.

 

The Corridor and The Palace

 

            The parable of the corridor and the palace teaches us about the transitory nature of the corridor; however, it also shows us that man must pass through the corridor in order to enter the palace, and that he should not fool himself into believing that he can jump into the palace without passing through the corridor.  Chanoch and Eliyahu are examples of people who reached the end of the road, the corridor.  But human life is a fruit which must ripen.  At the end of the path man must reach the level in which he sees all of his previous life as mere preparation.  This is the experience of the World to Come.  Whoever has reached this level has experienced the World to Come already is his lifetime, just as Eliyahu did.  We can illustrate this with the example of dolls and marbles.  It is clear to us that playing with dolls and marbles is very important in the development of each person.  They are appropriate for a certain age.  It would be a terrible tragedy if the dolls and marbles were taken away from us.  But we get older and leave these toys behind, but we understand that they served an important function.  They were not only a foolish diversion coming from our evil inclination, (although of course this inclination was also involved, judging by the wars which broke out between us and our friends about a paltry marble, or actually because of pride and the drive to win).  Maturity is the possibility of seeing the earlier stage as important only as a preparation.  Possibly, it is important that we keep something of those feelings which we developed in our games.  However, it is clearly infantile to remain at that earlier stage.  When we are in the middle of a stage, we cannot be convinced that these things which are so important are merely marbles.  We cannot see this because we must play the game seriously, since that is the essence of the corridor.  Yet, despite the importance of the corridor we must also take the palace into consideration.  Only then will we understand our own true needs.

 

            We will further discuss the concept of the World to Come later on.  Here, I would like to emphasize that in our discussion of the ideal man, Rihal refers to the relationship between this world and the World to Come.  Awareness of the World to Come can sometimes endanger the health of this world.  In the name of faith in the World to Come many injustices are done.  Many of the exploiters of this world allied themselves with those who promised a glittering World to Come.  This is the essential difference between mysticism and prophecy.  We are familiar with the Gurus, the great mystics of the Far East who look down at man from the height of their mountain top and invite him to ascend.  They view human struggle and strife, the pains of child-raising, the struggle for food, and claim that it is all a game of marbles, and therefore meaningless.  Many of these mystics are impostors, who are actually after our marbles themselves.  Others are honest people, who promise to redeem us from our troubles through mysticism by removing both our sensitivity to suffering and our love of marbles.  But I cannot accept their therapy.  I protest against a reality of mysticism and spirituality which lives alongside immeasurable poverty, without the improvement of society becoming a religious issue and responsibility.  And this is because the mystic thinks that the improvement of society healing sickness, finding a roof for the heads of the homeless ,and saving the sufferer, are worthless pursuits.  Prophecy, on the other hand, teaches us that in order to reach God we must care not only for our personal sublimation, but also improve our society.

 

            Rihal mentions that together with the needs for food, sex and economic activity, one must also involve himself in "the improvement of his home and helping the poor."  Economic activity is sublimated when the person is honest in his business dealings, and when he uses them to give love to his children and assistance to the needy.

 

            In Judaism, mysticism maintained a connection with Jewish law.  Jewish mysticism did not advocate separation from society, as did other religions.  We must stress that the concept of mysticism is used by many different people in many different ways.  However, there is one meaning which all the groups share.  Mysticism claims that man can enter a different state of consciousness.  When we dream, our consciousness is in a different state.  We seem to be in a different reality.  When we awaken, we return to the "normal" state of consciousness, to alertness.  Mysticism is based on the idea that there is another state of consciousness, beyond alertness.  It claims that when we awaken from alertness, we will discern the world as it truly is.  The mystic claims that another state of consciousness exists and that he has reached it.  When man reaches this state he perceives the world differently, he sees the true reality; his experiences are much deeper, and they bring him great joy.

 

            Mysticism contains both a promise and a danger.  As we have seen, the danger is that a large part of the mystical tendency is expressed in an escape from reality.  On the other hand, many of the ideologies of drugs tried to connect drugs with mysticism.  This attempt is illusory and deceptive.  Drugs are one of the greatest dangers threatening humanity.  They do grant man a true mystical experience; they merely furnish an imitation of the real thing.  As Rihal has told us time and again, the impostor always builds his ideology using elements taken from the realm of holiness.

 

            The mystics described the perception of the truth as the knowledge of the Tree of Life.  If we allow ourselves a modern interpretation, we might suggest that the flashing sword of the Keruvim which guard the path to the Tree of Life, is none other than the drugs which blind man with their light but do not give him life.  Drugs have become a dangerous and destructive pseudo-mysticism.

 

(This lecture was translated by Gila Weinberg.)

 

Copyright (c)1997 Prof. Shalom Rosenberg, Yeshivat Har Etzion.  All rights reserved.