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Judaism and Nature (1)

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Shem and Japheth

Rational religious philosophy is the outcome of the fruitful marriage of two sources.  This is the union of Shem and Japheth, the biblical perspective and the Greek conceptual language.  The matchmakers lived in Alexandria, with the most outstanding of these being Philo of Alexandria.  To some extent one could claim that the Rambam was the wonder-child of this match.  And indeed, it seems to me that the Rambam himself was happy with the match, from the harmony that he felt existed between his two sources.

 

     However, this harmony was not complete.  Every so often there arose thinkers who wanted to bring about a divorce.  The greatest contestor for the dissolving of the relationship was Rabbi Nachman of Braslav, who wanted to free the Jewish spirit from the bonds of the synthesis with Greek thought.  Without going into this issue, we will discuss the relationship between the two sources and we will point out the two central foci which this pair shares from the start.

 

The Common Denominator: Philosophical Language

 

Philosophy helped Judaism in its fight against anthropomorphism.  This was the continuation and development of the prohibition against making graven images and creating physical images which describe God.  This common ground created the opportunity for Shem and Japheth to walk a long way together.  The expression of this is found in the theory of divine names, which we dealt with earlier.

 

     The pagans created gods in the image of man.  The outstanding expression of this is the fact that they created gods and goddesses.  The gods have human strengths and frailties, but on a larger scale.  The Scriptures negate any image and present us with a different ideal.  We must strive to become similar to God by ethical behavior and keeping the commandments.  Walking in God's ways is itself the image of God that we can reach.

 

     In the world of idolatry the imagination rules with no limits or boundaries.  The message of prophecy is the power to overcome this childish type of imagination.  This spiritual maturity is directly parallel to our scientific maturing process.  In science we slowly abandon our childish perspective, the world of legend built upon the forays of imagination, and we begin to achieve wisdom.  However, this process is ongoing.  We succeed in it with great difficulty, and it is possible that we will never completely abandon the imagination.  Let me give you a simple example.  Astronomy was one of the first sciences to develop.  As we saw earlier, Aristotle's approach assumed that the planets, or to be more exact, the mechanical systems of the astrological world, have souls and/or intellects.  Aristotelian astronomy still contained much of the naive and childish outlook which is based on imagination.  In this perception, there were dangerous remnants of idolatry.  Aristotle could not overcome these remnants in his philosophy.  Therefore, we had to wait for the new physics and particularly for Newton, who abandoned the Aristotelian concepts and spoke of the power of gravity.  And in our generation, Einstein appeared, and demonstrated that Newton's perception was also imaginative and primitive.  It spoke of powers, and the concept of power is itself a term which is anthropomorphological.  There seem to be powers, but Einstein shows that they are actually an expression of the fact that the geometry of the world is changing.

 

     Slowly but surely we purify the scientific language.  In this sense, both prophecy and Greek philosophy could have joined together to fight against the slogan "you shall not see any graven image."  The prohibition against the image is expected of us both in science and philosophy.  The sophisticated Greek astronomer, who sees the mechanical systems in the sky, despite all the scientific sophistication, has not overcome the trap of the human image.  His language has not been purified.  The need for constant purification of our language compels us to develop constantly.  Rabbi Nachman of Braslav calls this process "Repentance on the [earlier] repentance."

 

The Source Of The Conflict: Nature

 

Until now the common denominator was of benefit for both sides.  Many were the Jewish sages who, knowingly or unknowingly, benefited from the advantages that the philosophical language gave them.  However, Greece brought with it a very problematic dowry: the worship of nature that is at the basis of Greek thought.

 

     As we have already seen, the Scriptures teach us a truth that actually contains an "anti-nature" element.  This idea that the Rambam taught in his theory of divine unity, was explained well by the Jewish thinker Ezekiel Herman Cohen, and was developed by Ezekiel Kaufman, who made it the basis of his approach.  The concept of divine unity  is the focus of prophecy.  In fact, it is the focus of the Scriptural revolution.  But what is the idea of divine unity?

 

     The idea of divine unity is much more than a "numerical" claim.  True, the pagans believed in many gods, and we believe there is but one Father in heaven.  However, the Scriptural revolution is much more than a change from aristocracy to monarchy.  The idea of divine unity means a much more fundamental revolution: the common denominator between all idol worshippers is the idea that the gods exist inside the world and that they are governed by its laws, the laws of nature.  If, for example, we were to draw the world as a circle, we would have to draw the gods inside the circle.  It reminds me of those stories in which the protagonists are dogs.  In some of these stories, the dogs refer to the people as the gods.  If I were a dog, I would reach the conclusion that people were stronger than me, if not because of their muscles, then because of their sticks, particularly those who blow smoke out of their mouths!  In any case, although they are stronger than me, they are also limited by hindrances and weakness.  They, too, are subject to forces and laws.  I can bite the person or I can fawn on him.  I can act against him, since although he is stronger, he is not omnipotent.

 

     This was also the case with idolatry.  The gods are stronger than man, but they do not have absolute power.  They are under the power of the laws of nature.  There are many strings which move us about without asking our opinion, as though we were puppets in a theater.  But if I am a puppet who thinks a little, I know that if I myself pull at the strings that move me, I can move the finger of the one who is manipulating me.  Strings are a two-way street.  If I knew how to move the right strings, I could manipulate the gods; this movement is preternatural.  It is magic.  Magia means that the gods are not free.  To some extent magic is the father of science, because it claims that there are laws that govern the world.  But it is wrong when it believes that this system of laws controls God.  In contrast, the Scriptures teach us that God is beyond nature and outside of it.  The laws of nature do not place obligations on God.

 

     Divine unity does not only mean that God is one, but that He is unique.  God is totally different from everything that exists in the world.  The Scriptures teach us that we must believe not in magic, but in miracles.  Miracles are an expression of the idea that God is above nature.  This is the case with regard to prayer as well.  Rabbi Nachman writes: "Prayer is above nature because nature mandates and prayer changes nature."

 

     [To add just a bit of irony, when we ask for miracles, we are asking for nature to change.  However, do not fear, this won't cause many problems.  When the miracle does take place, we will find a way to explain it naturally.]

 

     In philosophical language, we could call this the principle of transcendence.  This is the philosophical position of the Rambam.  Chasidic thought teaches us that this is only a half-truth.  God is beyond nature, but we must not conclude from here that God is distant.  This idea is expressed in the Scriptures by the words  holiness and glory.  We proclaim, "Holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts, the entire world is filled with His glory."  Holiness implies the distance of the transcendent God, but on the other hand, His presence is near; that is the glory, the Divine Presence.

 

(This lecture was translated by Gila Weinberg.)

 

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