Q&A: Nefesh HaChaim and Kant
Nefesh HaChaim and Kant
Question
Good evening!
Nefesh HaChaim writes that unlike the external sciences, which lost their divine holiness when they descended into this world (olam, “world,” from a root meaning concealment), the Torah remained in its holiness, and when a person studies Torah he supposedly connects to the divine intellect (and similarly in Tanya).
Can this be compared—and perhaps there was even an influence—to Kant’s view, and say that all the sciences speak about phenomena and therefore have no access to actual reality, whereas through Torah there is contact and connection with the noumenon?
Answer
That is definitely possible. Several authors made a similar distinction regarding the holy tongue, saying that unlike conventional languages, it corresponds to the true nature of things (it is essential rather than conventional). Of course, it is also clear that the Torah as we study it speaks about phenomena, since we deal with oxen, thieves, and things from our world, not with abstract ideas. But the ideas are clothed in those things and become one with them. See my lecture series on Torah and Torah study, and the series on simplicity, and also here in column 379 and onward.
Discussion on Answer
1. I didn’t understand.
2. Assuming you have some way of knowing that a given language is not conventional. Wittgenstein probably wouldn’t accept that either (and about that too he would remain silent).
Thank you very much!
1. So can one say that through Torah, the commandments apply the noumenon to all phenomena?
2. Can one say that everything Wittgenstein says (especially the early Wittgenstein) is true only of conventional languages?