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The relationship of miracle to reason
Translated
from Hebrew by S. NAthan
l'ilui nishmat Esther bat mordechai
“And Paro
said:…‘After God has informed you…of all this, there is no one as
insightful and wise as you.’” (41:39)
How is ruah
hakodesh, the holy spirit of prophecy, connected to wisdom and
insight? On the surface it would seem that there is no direct
connection. After all, what one can attain through ruah hakodesh,
one cannot attain through insight.
On the
other hand, “the wise one is preferable to the prophet.” The response of
the Hazon Ish to the businessman who asked for his counsel in business
matters is well-known: The businessman received an in-depth analysis of
business issues based upon purely economic logic.
When the
merchant pointed out that what he had hoped for was advice based on
ruah hakodesh, since he himself was capable of thinking through issues
of economic logic without the rabbi’s help, the Hazon Ish replied that he
had no ruah hakodesh, and if he ever had the good fortune to merit
it, he would certainly not waste it on business or affairs of this world.
From
Yosef’s counsel – “It is not with me. God will answer for Paro’s peace” –
and from Rashi, “The wisdom is not of my own, but rather ‘God will
answer’, He will put an answer in my mouth for Paro’s peace” – it appears
quite clear that the supreme insight is not in need of human insight. “It
is not with me.”
Yosef
concludes his interpretation: “And now let Paro see to an insightful and
wise man, and let him set him over the land of Egypt.” Paro puts the two
character traits together. “A man in whom there is the spirit of God” as
well as “there is no one as insightful and as wise as you.”
We should
also investigate the question of how Paro knew to favor Yosef’s
interpretation over his sorcerers’ interpretations of the seven daughters
Paro would have, the seven provinces he would conquer, etc.
The
relationship of Divine reason is as the relationship of the coal to the
flame, of the light to the flame, and of physical matter to the spirit.
To separate between these is the root of all evil. The Torah does not
teach spiritual separation that ignores the physical. Such spirituality
has no existence, just as the physical without the spiritual has no
value. The former has no realness and the latter has no meaning.
Yosef
suggests a solution that is directly bound to the economic situation. It
is a rational solution that derives logically from the dream. He is “an
insightful and wise man”– for such is the man of God in his fullest
realization in tangible reality. He constitutes an example – a sign, a
wonder – of God’s presence. It is for this that Paro blesses Yosef: Wise,
insightful, honest, and a tsadik too. Is there a greater combination?
Can kidush Hashem be more fully realized?
like the light of the candle
“And we
have no permission to use them, but rather only to see them.”
Miracle and
reason are bound to one another. The rational – the utilitarian, the
instrumental, when it has no quality – no beauty which symbolizes quality
– is an instrument devoid of any value of its own, in that its value is
not inherent but rather only taluy badavar, dependent on something
else, by the extent to which it is needed by its user.
This need
is a fleeting and arbitrary one, deriving from the ephemeral, egoistic
illusion of the user.
Therefore
the miracle, the ness – as in ness lehitnosess, a sign and a
banner waving high – does not come to fill a deficiency that is lacking in
nature, but rather to testify to God’s tangible presence, which is
continuous and perpetual.
“For Your
miracles that are every day with us.” Miracle and rational reason
intermingle. There is no nature without a miracle, without a Godly
Presence hidden within it in the form of hester panim.
The miracle
of the candles on Hanuka comes to emphasize this intermingling. Therefore
“we have no permission to use them” as we would an ephemeral instrument,
but rather only to see them, to see the light, the Godly quality that is
present in every natural reality.
This
Presence finds its expression in esthetics. The esthetic aspect is an
expression of the Godly quality in everything that is found, and that is
found in everything – and that is found first and foremost in human
beings. The esthetic in nature is not actually in nature but in the
quality of the human being who senses its beauty – and the greater one’s
Godly/spiritual quality, the greater one’s sensitivity to this aspect of
creation, to its face of majesty and beauty.
The quality
that is in creation finds its expression in Shabat – in the Shabat candle,
in the Hanuka candle, in mitsvat re’iya, “the mitsva of seeing” in
the Bet HaMikdash, in the “you shall see them” of the tsitsit on
the corner of the garment. For the tsitsit of the garment are
utterly superfluous in terms of utility, and are designated for nothing
but beauty – beauty that comes to awaken one’s Godly quality:
“Blue,
resembles the sea. The sea resembles heaven,” – which is reminiscent of
the place of His grandeur – “which resembles the throne of grandeur.”
We see that
one must examine quality’s effect on rationality and tangibility, for
tangibility has a utilitarian aspect to it, and this aspect causes a
limiting and diminishing of the [Godly] image.
Quality is
expressed in an understanding at the most profound level, in being able to
reach to the very roots of an issue, in penetrating to the primary cause,
to the original source, to the foundation, on the one hand, and to the
dimension of conceptual height, on the other hand.
The
dimension of conceptual height encompasses and embraces and enables
categorical distinctions, avoiding the sweeping superficial
generalizations that blur and obscure uniqueness.
A
utilitarian conception prevents an understanding of quality, and reduces
matters to their merely technical, speculative path. Such a path leads to
a distortion of what is essential, and it blurs one’s ability to discern
that particular essential over any other reality. It prevents any
experience of existence, any connecting to any personally identifying with
the action one takes.
Here we see
that one must not view avodat Hashem as a ritual than is no more
than an external activity defined and restricted by a specific time and
place. Rather one must view the ritual side as the aspect that gives
expression to esthetic spirituality.
The
difference between Yosef and his brothers is expressed in the bond that
unites the qualitative with the rational, the rahamim with the
din, the humanness – woven into a Divine tapestry that encompasses the
assets and the weaknesses of all things human, without which a qualitative
reality is not possible.
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