Q&A: Between the Transcendent and the Immanent
Between the Transcendent and the Immanent
Question
In honor of the Rabbi,
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Rabbi Michael Abraham, may he live long and well,
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More power to you for the blog/site and for the words of wisdom you write there.
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I have a question on the subject of the transcendence of God.
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From the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in general, and from the Torah in particular, we see that God is involved in day-to-day life, for example by rewarding those who keep the commandments and punishing those who violate His words and commandments.
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And now most of us are also sitting down at the Passover Seder table and reading in the Haggadah that the Holy One, blessed be He, took us out of Egypt in His glory and by Himself He and not an angel, He and not a seraph, He and not another messenger.
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That, in my humble opinion, is immanence at its best. If so, our sages, beginning with Moses the master of the prophets, tried to instill in the world the immanence of God. So how does that fit with the line of thought that holds that God is transcendent?
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I would be glad to receive an answer.
a0Thanks, and more power to you for the site and all that it contains.
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Jacob a0 a0
Answer
Hello,
First, I very much prefer questions submitted through the responsa section on the site.
As for your question: the distinction between transcendent and immanent (surrounding and filling) is not unequivocal, and these discussions usually seem to me to be mere word games, with no real point in engaging in them. In fact, that is true of most discussions in Jewish thought.
Still, from what you write here it seems that in your terminology, “immanent” means involved in the world, and “transcendent” means not involved. That is, of course, not the accepted meaning.
I do not think there is any Jewish thinker who says that God is not involved in the world, so I do not understand whom your question is referring to.
True, I do in fact make that claim, but in my view this is a gradual process of God’s disengagement from the world over the generations. In the Bible He was involved, and afterward He became increasingly detached. I have elaborated on this in several places on my site and in the second book of the trilogy.
See, for example, here: a0https://mikyab.net/%D7%9B%D7%AA%D7%91%D7%99%D7%9D/%D7%9E%D7%90%D7%9E%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9D/%D7%97%D7%99%D7%A4%D7%95%D7%A9-%D7%90%D7%97%D7%A8-%D7%90%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%94%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%91%D7%A2%D7%95%D7%9C%D7%9D
All the best,
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