Q&A: Emotion in the Service of God and in Torah — Your Approach
Emotion in the Service of God and in Torah — Your Approach
Question
In the Torah there is a central motif of love of God, and also “and these words shall be upon your heart”…
I would be glad to understand your approach to this subject,
because from your writings and from various statements by your students, it sounds as though this area in Judaism—which in my opinion is very important—is less dominant, and even suppressed, by the style of your writings.
Discussion on Answer
2. Correction: egocentric. Completing words…
1. I didn’t understand the question. He doesn’t need to do anything. The commandment is not about emotion.
2. A collection of words in Chinese.
3. Same as above.
4. I didn’t say he is the only one, nor did I say that I rule this way because he wrote so. I think this myself, and I brought support for it from Maimonides. It seems to me as obvious as an egg by pure reasoning.
1. Small correction: if he is lacking in understanding, then the solution is very simple. He should study more. It is an intellectual matter, not an emotional one. If the problem is only in the emotion, then I wrote that there is no need to do anything.
Why Chinese?
“And He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” — “one who blows, blows from himself”; and likewise, the body is from the lower realms and the soul from the upper realms, and the soul, since it is part of Him, longs for its Creator and for the Torah because they are one.
And that is the commandment, to love, and “upon your heart” — through the human soul.
These are not my ideas…
You also ignored the verses in Psalms about “as a deer longs…” and likewise “my soul thirsts for You,” etc.
What you wrote—that if he is lacking in intellectual understanding he should study more…
that doesn’t help… intellectually it strikes me as reasonable philosophy from which one can reach different and even opposite conclusions.
That is why I emphasize the Jewish soul, and the intellect only as reinforcement for the natural emotion.
If that doesn’t help, then let him take a pill, undergo hypnosis, or go to a psychiatrist. Emotion has no value whatsoever. And souls and the like are empty slogans with no content. A Jew is also a human being, and a human being has only the intellect in order to reach conclusions. Emotions are biases or an expression of intellectual recognition. That’s all.
Perhaps you mean intuition, which some people call emotion. I have discussed this at length in many places. But intuition is not connected to experiences and emotional excitement, but to immediate cognition (that is the source of our basic assumptions, in other contexts of thought as well).
Right, soulful intuition—and that is also the way to connect to God and His Torah, and that is what the commandment “and you shall love…” is about.
Where can one read in your articles about religious intuition?
There is no such thing as religious, soulful, or hyperbolic intuition. There is intuition, which is a faculty between cognition and thought. I elaborated on this in Two Carts, and even more in Truth and Stability.
How do you connect this intuition to the aspect of connection to God and to the Torah?
It seems to me that we are talking about consciousness or awareness.
Please address in your answer the context of the uniqueness of the creation of man: “and He breathed into him the breath of life” — “one who blows, blows from himself,” and likewise body from the lower realms and soul from the upper realms.
Next time, if possible, divide the exam into sections, note the points next to each one, and add at the end, as is customary:
Explain, elaborate, clarify, and prove.
Good luck.
I don’t know how many points I’ll get for this answer, but it is what it is:
Before I write my answers to the exam, please state what “connection” (to God and to the Torah) is. Why is the uniqueness of man interesting? And what is the connection to all the irrelevant expressions you listed at the end?
Explain, elaborate, clarify, and prove.
Good luck.
I only wanted to focus the discussion…
so that we wouldn’t scatter.
I’d appreciate a serious response. With love.
When there is a serious question here, I may perhaps think about a serious answer.
Following your writing about intuition: how do you connect this intuition to the aspect of connection to God and to the Torah?
It seems to me that we are talking about consciousness or awareness, as is written about the creation of man and his soul.
I would appreciate your response; I’m writing again:
Following your writing about intuition: how do you connect this intuition to the aspect of connection to God and to the Torah?
It seems to me that we are talking about consciousness or awareness, as is written about the creation of man and his soul.
It doesn’t help to write the same thing again. The first message too is just a repetition of the same vague and unclear formulations from before. I see no point in answering a question I don’t understand. I asked for clarification, and you keep repeating the same thing again and again. I will not answer anymore unless I see a question here that I understand what it wants from me.
In your view, does there exist in man a spiritual consciousness that is unique to man, that is part of God, and therefore is drawn to and finds satisfaction in closeness to God, prayer, and Torah observance? Is this what we refer to with the words “the holiness of man”?
Man has a spiritual component, a soul. Apparently animals do too. Though in their case thought is more limited, and it is doubtful whether they have consciousness and free choice.
Which of this is part of God, and what it means to be part of God—I have no idea. Nor is it very interesting.
Satisfactions are a psychological-emotional matter, and therefore valueless and not very interesting.
What does all this have to do with the discussion here? I haven’t the faintest idea.
A soul is not expressed only in choice, and what does it have to do with intellect?
And why apparently also in animals?
The connection is clear, because this is the consciousness of the service of God in man.
In addition, how do you connect the intuition you wrote about to the aspect of connection to God and to the Torah?
I’d appreciate your response.
Michi, your last response seems really strange to me. The questioner’s conclusions are based on premises that you yourself share:
1. God is an abstract, spiritual entity and as such perfect.
2. Man too has an abstract and spiritual side (soul, etc.), a side that was also created by God.
Therefore, man strives for that perfection in order to draw close to God. The actualization of such a striving—which, it is reasonable to assume, God implanted in man from the outset—is exactly what the questioner means by being part of God.
And your statement about the psychological issue (satisfactions) also seems arbitrary to me. Presumably, if God implanted in man the potential for self-perfection (in order to “imitate” God, to come close to Him), then He designed it so that the act of drawing close would yield psychological benefit to man. Do you have a more plausible explanation?
Doron, you phrased it nicely.
I’ll just add “part of God” on the basis of the Zohar: “one who blows, blows from himself,” translated from Aramaic into Hebrew on the verse “and He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.”
Uri,
I already explained that I will not respond to collections of words that say nothing and ask nothing. Especially if you repeat them again and again without doing a drop of work to clarify them.
Doron,
You phrased the nonsense above you wonderfully. Bravo.
1. God is abstract and spiritual, and also perfect. Not “as such.”
2. Indeed. Both our spiritual side and our physical side were created by God.
“Therefore”? Why? Man strives because that is how he is built. That striving does not necessarily say anything.
“That striving is to be part of God”? You are going deeper into the realms of nonsense.
In short, decide whether there is a question here to discuss (I don’t see one), clarify the vague terms you are using, and then maybe it will be possible to conduct some kind of discussion. A question like “what is the connection” asks nothing at all. First one has to decide and think whether there is really something one wants to discuss, and only afterward write—not the other way around.
I clarified extensively from every possible angle.
It is simply factually incorrect that I did not clarify.
If you write about intuition regarding my words, then please clarify the connection and complete the line of thought.
There is a structured and accepted doctrine here at the level of consciousness among many people, and there is still much more to be read in a very broad literature, from the day man was created in the image of God until our own time, that is accepted.
Michi, is it possible that where you live in Lod they use the word “nonsense” with a different meaning? Maybe they mean “air conditioner,” or “sweet potato,” or something else?
Uri,
I already clarified to you my opinion about quotations and reliance on supposed authorities and “Jewish literature.” I do not see such declarations as clarification. You repeat in the same words the same “question” and think that by doing so you clarified something. That’s it. I’m done.
Doron,
As far as I know—no.
With God’s help, eve of the holy Sabbath, “for man is a tree of the field,” 5782
The literal translation of non-sense is “not grasped by the senses.” That is, “the thing in itself,” God, “no thought can grasp Him at all,” the blessed Infinite.
The “air conditioner” and the sweet potato are manifestations that reveal the greatness of God in a harmonious combination of opposites. In the case of the air conditioner, solid iron joins with burning electric current and specifically creates a cool and refreshing breeze. And the sweet potato has stable, firm rootedness together with a sweet taste and an awakening orange color.
The “non-sense” is “the thing in itself,” which cannot be grasped by the senses, whereas the air conditioner and the sweet potato are its wondrous expressions in the world!
This is also the secret of the Sabbath: the encounter with the infinity of the Creator, which refreshes and adds stability and sweetness to body and soul, to the individual and the family, to society and the community!
With blessings for a peaceful Sabbath, goodness and blessing,
Emanuel Chai Kliningerdsky, Tur-Malka
Paragraph 1, line 2:
… the blessed Infinite.
Paragraph 2, line 1:
… in a harmonious combination of…
There, line 4:
… with a sweet taste and a color…
Shatzal, watch out!
Lod is on fire in your wake! Let’s just hope you don’t suddenly air-condition us.
A person needs cold intellect to provide objective judgment, but no less he needs emotion to move him to seek the good and the truth so that the intellectual clarification will be correct; and likewise after the judgment, there must come emotion to spur a person to implement the insights of the intellect despite the obstacles and difficulties. Intellect and emotion are both essential, and neither should be neglected.
Best regards, Shatzal [= both are needed by a person]
I read it, thank you.
1. What should a person do if he does not have a deep intellectual awareness that causes him to love God emotionally?
2. An emotion of soulful awareness, as appears in the creation of man, is not an egocentric emotion as you wrote. It is on the level of awareness.
3. Awareness of truth, as Maimonides writes, may very well be awareness through emotion and consciousness, or a combination; there is no contradiction, because it is a combination.
4. Maimonides is not the only thinker, although as we explained, even he does not disagree. And there are also Psalms and other clear verses about man’s yearning for God.