Q&A: Correct Yourself First — How Does the Holy One Judge Us?
Correct Yourself First — How Does the Holy One Judge Us?
Question
With God’s help,
Hello Rabbi, first of all thank you very much for the new series on dogmatics; as usual, very interesting.
The Talmud in Sanhedrin limits the ability of a king or a priest to judge only if he himself can be judged, by force of the commandment / reasoning of “correct yourself first, and only afterward correct others.”
If so, how does the Holy One, blessed be He, judge us if He Himself does not stand trial?
Of course, according to those sages who hold that the Holy One does not keep the commandments, there is no question here at all (and I too think so).
However, according to those who maintain that the Holy One fulfills the commandments, He cannot fulfill this commandment, and therefore ostensibly He should be forbidden to judge.
If we say that this is only a piece of reasoning on the moral level, even then we face a problem, because it would come out that the Holy One acts, Heaven forbid, in an immoral way.
Another point: in my humble opinion, this cannot be answered by saying that we judge the Holy One when we come before Him with complaints or judge His actions, since our act of judgment has no real punitive force against the Holy One, and therefore it is meaningless.
I apologize in advance if the question is in any way offensive.
Best regards
Answer
Why did you think the question could be offensive? Requires further consideration.
If you want, why can’t you say that He judges Himself too (and always comes out innocent? Even that isn’t certain, since it is written that He regretted things He did).
But these are just dialectical quibbles. You’re taking too seriously the claim that the Holy One fulfills commandments. He also doesn’t eat or recite a blessing before eating, can’t honor parents, doesn’t separate terumot and ma’asrot, does not become impure or purified, and does not wash hands. This is aggadah, and there is no reason to take it too literally.
Discussion on Answer
Have you already found the solution for how He honors parents? Why are you asking me about other people’s nonsense? Ask them.
Thank you for the reply. My view, as I noted in the question, is the same as the Rabbi’s. It is clear to me that these are aggadic statements probably meant to reinforce a particular commandment (such as tefillin or prayer), but according to those who hold that even aggadic statements are to be taken literally, on their view one needs to think through how to solve this.
With fear and reverence I’ll say that I wasn’t able to find a good solution, except for the (bad) solution that the Holy One would clothe Himself in a body and accept judgment upon Himself (and כביכול the punishment as well), but that is already the Christian approach (and for Chabad too that is possible). And I have no desire to go there.