Q&A: Is Judaism Also About Improving the Individual
Is Judaism Also About Improving the Individual
Question
Your view is well known that there is no such thing as "Jewish philosophy," only philosophy written by Jews. Likewise, the view that faith is not based on, and its purpose is not, therapy for the human soul.
Do you therefore think, in general, that there is nothing at all in Judaism (for present purposes, things that were received at Sinai and/or developed from what was received at Sinai) that relates to improving the individual on a personal level? Things whose purpose, or a major and essential accompanying value, is a person's happiness, joy, peace of mind, "spiritual" stature, or the degree of the individual's connection to / love of God?
And if there are such things in Judaism, what are the specific sources that do this in a way that is actually "Jewish" (= received at Sinai / developed from what was received at Sinai), and not simply a general method invented / discovered / formulated / researched by some person at some point in history, who just happened independently also to be Jewish?
Answer
Indeed. More than that, there is nothing in Judaism beyond Jewish law. But I would not suggest testing this claim of mine on the declarative level, but rather on the "factual" one. Show me something else that could be called Judaism.
Discussion on Answer
Absolutely. To know and to love the Holy One, blessed be He.
Yes, but what does that mean? What are the details of the commandment? How does one know Him and love Him?
See Maimonides, Laws of the Foundations of the Torah.
Is this discussion going somewhere?
The discussion is going in the direction that, in order to fulfill the commandment of love, one must develop an emotional system toward God, and the matter requires its own literature (and I am familiar with the Rabbi's interpretation in Maimonides of "to serve Him out of love").
If you're familiar with it, then what do you want from me? And what does that have to do with this thread? Even if there were such literature, there would be nothing Jewish about it. You use psychologists in order to fulfill a commandment.
If such literature is attached to Judaism as an auxiliary tool for fulfilling a basic principle in Judaism, then of course there is something Jewish about it, even if it is not mandatory or binding.
It's like saying that there is nothing Jewish about Torah thoughts on the weekly Torah portion, since they are not halakhic or binding, and not necessary.
P.S. Regarding the interpretation of love, of course that is relevant, because the Rabbi argued (in Maimonides) that the commandment to serve Him out of love is not emotional, but rather commitment to the truth ("doing the truth because it is truth").
A Sabbath hot plate helps one keep the Sabbath. It's a technological means. Presumably there is no need whatsoever for the engineer to be a gentile. But you certainly do need a Jewish halakhic ruling to determine that it is in fact legitimate from a halakhic standpoint. And you certainly need to study that technology in order to understand whether it is in fact permitted on the Sabbath or not. Right?
By the same token, I am asking: how does one implement the commandments of loving God and knowing Him? Unfortunately, reading Maimonides in the original in order to get something out of it is not accessible enough for me to learn practical Jewish law from it. I tried looking in the Book of Knowledge; it isn't really terribly complicated, but it's still too much up in the air, at least for my ability to understand.
Is there some more concrete and more accessible halakhic work that explains how to implement this commandment, one that in your view is indeed convincing in substance as reliable halakhic guidance?
Jonathan, I don't know whether your aim is just to troll or to pester. I'm done.
Individual, Jewish law has nothing to say about this matter. If you're looking for advice, go to a psychologist. What is written in Maimonides, Laws of the Foundations of the Torah, is also not really Jewish law but advice. How does one implement it? One loves God and knows Him. That's all. Even if you find a work that gives more detail, it should not be seen as Jewish law in any sense.
Beyond that, I also explained that there would be nothing Jewish about it. It is an auxiliary tool exactly like a discussion with an electrician about a Sabbath hot plate.
What about commandments such as knowing God or loving God? From a halakhic standpoint, is there an explanation of what was intended?