Q&A: Some Epistemology in Judaism
Some Epistemology in Judaism
Question
In honor of Rabbi Michael, hello,
I study philosophy at Tel Aviv University, and in our philosophy studies we deal a lot with epistemology, and I’m always trying to formulate my own view, including from a Torah perspective.
I’m pausing for a moment at the end of the semester and wondering whether there is room for “solipsism” in Judaism. A theory of knowledge that I’m trying to formulate, namely—
Only what I pay attention to exists.
Hillel the Elder says at the Celebration of the Water-Drawing: “If I am here, all is here; and if I am not here, who is here?”
And in the Zohar, in Patach Eliyahu, that God is like a spring watering the group of trees through the Keter, and if He departs from them, all their names remain like a body without a soul. From here it follows that there is no place for metaphysics without the vitality that flows from the root of the will—and by will I mean directing attention to things: sensing them, imagining them, feeling them. Without the vitality that begins in Keter and continues to wisdom, which is the beginning of thought, we can say words (“names”), but they have no meaning.
So too Israel and the Holy One, blessed be He, are one, because the Keter is the beginning of the coming-into-being of the human being, and through it God creates the world. And “The Lord founded the earth with wisdom,” and “who formed man with wisdom.”
(And thus one can know God through recognizing the inner voice that comes from the root of the will, through which the world was created, and “He is the Knower, He is the Known, and He is the Knowledge…” And when it says “He is the Knower,” the intention is the root of the human being; and when it says “He is the Known,” I do not fully understand, but perhaps the intention is the vitality—the attention—that allows the known to exist in consciousness; and when it says “He is the Knowledge,” the intention is the act of knowing. And the fact that sin comes into the world is also from sparks of holiness from a higher place, except that a person does not sin unless a spirit of folly enters him. That is, sin too comes from attention, which comes from God, and through it, through the voice that instructs one to sin, one can know God, at least after the fact. And consequently, a person who listens to the inner voice knows God.)
And the main point of the question is whether, in the Rabbi’s opinion, this conception can be accepted in Judaism, and whether I brought sources from Kabbalah appropriately.
Thank you very, very much, and Sabbath שלום!
Answer
Hello A.,
I don’t think this is a good way to clarify ideas like these. Either you’re convinced or you aren’t. The sources are not supposed to decide an issue like this. And from another angle: if you’ve arrived at a solipsistic conclusion, then the sources you cite don’t really exist either (and neither does the Holy One, blessed be He, and of course neither do I).
Beyond that, I don’t accept the phrase “a conception accepted in Judaism.” Either it’s true or it isn’t, and it really doesn’t matter whether it is “in Judaism.” If you write it now, it will be written by a Jew, and that itself will make it a conception accepted in Judaism.