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Judaism and Nature (2)

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Nature And Beyond

 

The Rambam felt that the position which views nature as a necessary framework concurs with the Scriptures.  We will illustrate this here, and will discuss his dispute with Rihal.  However, we will try first to place ourselves, modern people, in the context of this issue.  It would seem that we are closer to the position which sees nature as the highest judge.  Rihal and his successors protested against this view.  Yet, some interaction exists between what is beyond nature and nature itself.  We have not totally erased our consideration of nature; yet, we believe that this is not enough.  We will bring three examples which will help us clarify the matter.

 

The Messianic Age

 

The first example focuses on the question: how are we to  understand the concept of the Messianic era?  The Rambam, since his philosophy is the offspring of the union between Shem and Japheth, was a realist, or in less positive terms, a captive in a particular conception of nature.

 

     Nature is not merely a conglomeration of mathematical formulas.  Nature also has a non-mathematical reality - the law of the jungle, of continuous warfare.  One of the outstanding expressions of this war is the fact that the lion devours the lamb.  Yet, we are told of the prophet's vision "and the lion shall lie down with the lamb."  How are we to understand this verse?  Should it be taken literally or figuratively?

 

     The Rambam believed that this verse should not be understood literally.  Fundamental changes in nature were impossible in his view.  Nature is a reality so basic that one cannot even conceive of the possibility of change within its realm.  Therefore, the Rambam felt that the prophet could not possibly have been saying that in the Messianic era the lion will undergo a hormonal change and he will no longer attack the lamb.  What, then, is the meaning of the verse?  It is a parable.  It does not speak of nature but of history, and it refers to the place where future changes will take place, in society.  Civilization will no longer be based on warfare, and the lion, Russia/Germany and the lamb, Poland, will live together in peace.

 

     Viewing the messianic era through normal historical eyes was one of the Rambam's important contributions to our modern  philosophy.  Religious Zionism was nourished by this approach.  However, Rav Kook teaches us that the hope for a normal historical redemption and social utopia ought not to make us forget the utopia in nature: and the lion shall lie down with the lamb.  The vision of the end of days judges nature according to divine criteria, which are beyond nature.

 

Reality and the Ideal

 

Another example of the enslavement to nature is found in Spinoza's theory of ethics.  One of the central distinctions in his theory of ethics is that made between what is and what ought to be, between the reality and the ideal.  Morality is not built on the power of dominion, nor on social norms, but on our perception of the ideal state.  This is one of the important messages of the  Scriptural revolution, and it means that we must perform certain acts although we are at times in a state of conflict with nature.  Sometimes, we are in conflict with the nature that is outside and sometimes we are in conflict with desires and certain psychological structures that are inside us.

 

     When we defy the law of the jungle, and we do so not out of fear but from conviction, we express the fact that we are guided by ideals that are not in nature.

 

Nature As An Idol

 

And now for a final example.  How must I act in my financial affairs?  Should I let nature take its course, or ought I to defy the natural course of the world's economy, and give charity?  The nature of the business man is to act only on the principle of his own good, and no more; while I must act according to a vision.

 

The Rambam and Spinoza

 

Spinoza was consistent in his approach to nature.  He believed that God is nature.  This approach is called Pantheism.  The formula has metaphysical significance, but it also has practical and moral importance.  The Rambam, on the other hand, believed in the middle road between Pantheism and Aristotelian philosophy.  He claimed that miracles are within the bounds of possibility, and they are dependent on the idea that the world was created.  In other words, since the world was created and has not always existed, miracles are possible.  The Rambam explains, that if the world had always existed and God had not created it, He would not even have the power to clip a fly's wing.  We will explain this, and through it we will see the basic difference between the Rambam and Spinoza.

 

     One of the games that television programs for small children use, is this: they take two objects, such as an elephant and a fly, and switch their traits.  They make the fly big and the elephant small, switch the ears, and so on.  We will not continue till the last stage, which hides within a very paradoxical question: what are we left with at the end of the process?  We will stop after the first stage, where we change the size of the fly.  This is one of the examples, the Rambam explains, where imagination plays a part, but logic must reject it.  Why?  Because the person who changes the size of the fly's wings and thinks that the fly will continue to fly, doesn't understand a thing about aerodynamics.  We must understand the fly in the context of the relationships between its various parts.  The possibility of flying is a function of size.  Here, the Rambam asks whether a miracle can take place.  Is another reality possible, in which the fly could fly using longer or shorter wings than the current fly has?  It depends, says the Rambam, on our fundamental belief.  If we believe that the world was created by God, then the world could have been different.  The world is not God.  It could have been different.

 

(This lecture was translated by Gila Weinberg.)

 

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