Ki-Tavo Torah Portion (5761)

With God’s help, on the eve of the holy Sabbath of the Ki-Tavo Torah portion, 5761

Divine Hiddenness and Redemption

The prophetic reading of the Ki-Tavo Torah portion deals with redemption. Various components of redemption are enumerated in it (the ingathering

of the exiles, the attitude of the nations toward us, and more). The description concludes: “No longer shall the sun be your light by day,

nor shall the brightness of the moon shine for you,” and the alternative is: “but the Lord shall be your everlasting light, and your God

your glory.” And as a result: “Your sun shall no longer go down [i.e., set], nor shall your moon withdraw itself, for the Lord shall be

your everlasting light” (Isaiah 60:19-20). In place of the natural means that govern our lives, which by their nature are temporary

and ever-changing, God Himself will shine upon us. In many respects, nature, which God created,

constitutes a screen that hides Him from our eyes. Light is attributed to the sun and moon, growth to rain,

healing to medicines, and so on. God, who operates all these mechanisms, is not seen, and a person

generally does not attribute these things to Him. This is the phenomenon of ‘the hiding of the divine face,’ which accompanies

us throughout history. The essence of redemption will be the renewed revelation of God

in the world. The way to bring about that redemption is to clarify for ourselves the nature of this hiddenness,

and to cultivate within ourselves an awareness of its existence.

Part of that hiddenness is that religious (theological) explanations of phenomena are often perceived

as an opposing and contradictory alternative to scientific explanations. If the laws of nature did something, then

God did not do it, and vice versa. The Christian Church, at least until the Renaissance, maintained that every

scientific explanation displaces God, for if some natural force is indeed acting, there is no

room for divine action in that context. For this reason the Church persecuted various scientists

(Copernicus, Galileo, and others), because it thought they were displacing faith. Even

in the Jewish world there are at times those who believe in this contradiction, and therefore they long for a redemption

in which it will become clear that all scientific conclusions are false, and that in truth God directs all the natural

processes. Opposite them, though on the same platform, stand secular people, among them also

scientists, who agree that a contradiction exists between the two explanatory systems, and therefore they reject

the religious explanations on the ground that they do not accord with scientific insights. Both these and those

believe that such a contradiction exists between the systems. From such conceptions there follows a way of thinking that sees

God’s place only in those areas that science has not yet succeeded in explaining. Among such people,

the ‘proofs’ of God’s existence are based on phenomena that do not fit the scientific explanation

(miracles), just as for their counterparts the refutations of His existence are these very scientific explanations.

An error by the weather forecaster in his predictions, or a failure of some other human system, constitutes an inexhaustible source

of proofs for the existence of God and the worthlessness of science, just as human success constitutes a refutation of

His existence.

The conception of both sides is marked by superficiality. The fact that science finds a good explanation for many phenomena,

and generally works well, is the best proof of the existence of an ordering force in creation.

A creation that functions in a disorderly fashion does not testify to an external force that governs it. The existence

of orderly laws is precisely the best testimony to the existence of a governor. The more we

understand the laws of nature, the more our amazement should increase, and consequently our faith too should

grow stronger, and certainly not weaker.

A fine illustration of this can be found in a well-known Hasidic tale about a certain Moshe from a small town who argued with

the nobleman and told him that he believed God was the one who gave him his livelihood. The nobleman laughed

and told him that were it not for him, the nobleman, paying his wages, Moshe would not survive for even a single moment

one. When Moshe persisted, the nobleman decided to teach him a lesson, and sent him to the forest to show him

that God would not provide his livelihood. Once Moshe was in the forest, the nobleman decided to send meals to certain points

in the forest, so that Moshe would think his God had sustained him, and when he returned to him

the nobleman would prove to him that it was he who had sustained him. Moshe, who prayed to God every day for a livelihood,

was amazed that God had indeed arranged abundant food for him in the forest. When he returned to the nobleman and told him

how God had answered his prayers, the nobleman burst out laughing and told him that he was the one who had hidden

those meals in the forest, just as he was always the one who paid the salary on which he lived.

The nobleman’s error lay in thinking that his explanation was an opposing alternative to Moshe’s claim.

The truth is that God did indeed answer Moshe’s prayers and sent him, through the nobleman, his

meals. He did so by implanting in the nobleman’s mind the idea of trying to confuse

Moshe. God always uses some means to help us, and that means is usually

a natural one. We must ‘keep our heads on straight’ and understand that behind all natural processes there is

an overall director.

Next week, on Rosh Hashanah, we will pray to God to give us all our needs. They need not descend

to us from heaven in a cloud of fire and water; rather, they may come in the form of a salary that requires hard

and steady work. Even so, it is incumbent upon us to understand that these too depend on our prayers on the coming

Rosh Hashanah.

In the time to come, in the era of redemption, we will not even sense a contradiction between these two levels of perspective.

When we see God behind the workings of the sun and moon, as behind all the other laws of nature,

they will never set. We will not feel lost, or handed over to an arbitrary and blind fate,

and therefore there will be no cause for the pessimism so widespread among us today. “I am the Lord; in its time

I will hasten it” (Isaiah 60:22).

Have a peaceful Sabbath

This may be deposited for ritual burial in any synagogue or academy of Torah study. Comments and responses are welcome.

Biton104.doc

With God’s help, on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, 5762

Farewell: ‘It Is Not in Heaven’ (Deuteronomy 30:12), but How Does One Nevertheless Draw Near?

The coming Rosh Hashanah, may it bring blessing, is also the end of the previous year. As always. A structure of this sort

dictates for us a life in which every ending is a new beginning, yet every beginning is also an ending.

This connection between ending and beginning, and vice versa, is necessary in a finite world. Every finite object has

an edge, and when one reaches the edge one encounters its neighbor there, that which lies beyond it.[1] On the time-axis, the neighbor

is the next unit (year, month, day). An entity that has a beginning that is not an ending, or an ending

that is not a beginning, is infinite; it has no edges at all.

At first glance it seems that in the overall course we move in a circle, but that is not the whole picture. As

I have already mentioned in this column in the past, the time-axis has two components: a linear component, which advances

from past to future, and a cyclical component, which repeats itself throughout the calendar (and also the day and the month).

The time-axis is constructed like a spiral, of which the two projections are the aforementioned components (the linear and the cyclical).[2]

If we learn to relate to the time-axis as such, we will see that we are not circling in some infinite

and futile loop, but in the end are also moving forward. We are all familiar with the phenomenon that in order to ascend

a steep mountain, we must climb along a circular path that turns but also rises upward. On a very steep mountain

this is the only way we can succeed in reaching the top. This is the reason the world was built

in such a spiral form.

The myth of Sisyphus describes an eternal process of ascent followed by a descent back down, whereas in our case:

a circuit around the mountain, all the while at the same height. In the cyclical course of our lives we must ensure that we

are not acting in a Sisyphean manner. That our ascent, even if at times it is frustrating, results

in improvement, whether of ourselves or of our surroundings.

This progress toward the ‘above,’ toward improvement, can be made only in the direction of the entity without

edges, the infinite-that is, in the direction of God. The nature of spiritual life is a

paradoxical advance: around the mountain, on a created axis, seemingly Sisyphean, circling the mountain toward

the infinite, the Creator. After every circuit we need to examine ourselves: have we indeed advanced

in the linear component of time as well, or have we returned to the same point?

Over the past two years I have had the privilege of writing a weekly Torah-portion column in ‘Atid.’ I assume it did not

have enormous ratings, yet not infrequently I was surprised and pleased to receive responses, even

from places I did not expect. This column is the last I will write for the time being, and I hope it

will be an ending that constitutes a new beginning, both for me and for the editorial staff and readers. I also

allow myself to assess that I am not at the same point at which I began writing two years ago,

but have also had the privilege of making some progress, however slight, over the past two years. Or perhaps this is an illusion (see

illustration)?!

On the threshold of leaving the present stage, I would like to thank the editorial staff for the opportunity to write the column,

and the readers for their reading and their responses. I wish all of us, together with the whole House of Israel, a good

and happy year. A year of prosperity materially and spiritually, a year of listening and genuine dialogue… and also a year of

peace.

Have a peaceful Sabbath

I believe that this column too may be deposited for ritual burial in any synagogue or academy of Torah study, although

I am not sure that it is necessary to do so. In conclusion, it only remains for me to add that even on this last

occasion, and perhaps even more than on previous ones, comments and responses are welcome.

Caption beneath the picture: M. C. ESCHER claims that there are also ascents that are Sisyphean!

———————–

[1] It seems to me that there is no one who has not at some point wondered what happens at the edge of the universe. What is

there beyond the edge? Is it possible to sit on the edge and dangle one’s legs outward?

[2] It should be noted that Jewish law too treats these two components differently. A commandment

that is relevant only to part of the cyclical time-axis is considered a positive time-bound commandment, whereas a commandment

that is relevant only to part of the linear time-axis is not.

Biton881.doc