AVENGING
GOD'S VENGEANCE?
OR
AVENGING ISRAEL'S VENGEANCE?
WHY THE AMBIGUITY IN
THE TEXT?
“THEY TRAVELED ... AND
THEY CAMPED.”
PERMANENCE AND CHANGE
Rav Ze'ev
Haim Lifshitz
Translated from Hebrew by
DR. S. NAthan
l'ilui
nishmat Esther bat mordechai
L'ILUI NISHMAT
MAYER HIRSH BEN LAIBEL
Non-dependent
love – “the love that depends
on nothing” – derives from
the self, from that “part of God from on high” within the human
personality. Such love
does not recognize limitations of space and time,
nor does it recognize hatred, envy or
vengeance. When love is dependent, on the
other hand, when love does “depend
on something else”, then one is self-centered.
Such egocentric love merely expresses one's own
sensations, the sensations
aroused in oneself by the presence of the object of one’s love.
Arabic
love songs go to great lengths to describe the
lover’s feelings of rapture and suffering.
There is no admiring description of the object of their love. Their
love is a possessive one: Anyone
who harms the object of their love arouses their
animalistic survival mechanisms – their hatred,
jealousy and revenge – brute
force instincts in all their ugly nakedness.
Fear and anxiety are described, and rage at the
threat, at the sensation of the iminence of loss of
a beloved piece of property.
Love of
this sort can be categorized under
“the lovingkindness of the nations is
sin.” Christian love literature
as well focuses on the sensations of the
lover, all the while ignoring the object of
love. This love ends in the death of the
lover, who reaches a condition of
self-nullification, self-torment, and the agonies of
longing – which are eventually transformed into
hatred of the love object, and/or of the
environment that interferes with love, that
threatens to snatch away the love object that is
perceived as the private property of the lover.
No love
exists outside of the human boundary, just as there
is no love that is true, no “love that depends on nothing” anywhere within the
boundaries of ego. Only the
self can love – through transcending the
boundaries of its
abilities. One who loves the “love that
depends on nothing” grows greater and rises higher
through his love, which he discovers to be the
direct and ultimate expression of the Godly element
within him.
This
element is the element of infinite quality.
Love is the expression of the Godly in man.
Its source is in the Divine. Love of God
arouses love of man who is created in His image, who
is the Godly Presence found in tangible
reality. Therefore the love of man, when
it is sincere and altruistic, leads one on the march
toward the Godly track. Love of man brings to
love of God, and love of God is expressed by love
for those who are created “in His image and
according to His likeness.”
This love
does not retain bodyguards
from survival’s kingdom of darkness - such as jealousy,
revenge, and hatred. One who loves God may
experience sorrow. He will then express his
sorrow by jealousy for God, through jealousy for the
people of Israel, who constitute the real-world
expression of the Godly Presence. God’s
revenge against Midian does not deal with Midian at
all as a goal. Its goal is rather the repair
of a flaw that has formed – within an otherwise
perfect state of Godly kedusha – as a
result of sin.
Dealing with
the repair of the Godly Presence is the polar
opposite of dealing with
man’s negative dimension, which cultivates ego’s survival instincts, which
is weighted with feelings of destructiveness such as
jealousy, revenge and hatred. Moses therefore
changed nothing at all of God’s imperative to avenge
Israel against Midian [by instructing
Israel to avenge God] in that he saw no
substantive difference between avenging God and
avenging Israel. Both draw from the source of
sanctity and neither contains any trace of
hate.
In order
to teach this lesson, Moses
makes it clear to the people of Israel that avenging
Israel is the equivalent of avenging God. It
is the act of avenging a quality that is all
entirely sanctity, drawn from sanctity’s
source. A related distinction can be drawn
through the difference between a dispute for the
sake of Heaven and a dispute that is not for the
sake of Heaven. The latter is directed at a
person while the former deals with an issue.
The latter hates and the former is involved in repair.
“They traveled – and they
camped...”
Tractate Brachot 17: “The following saying was regularly heard from the [Talmudic] masters
at Yavneh: ‘I am a human
creature and my friend is a human creature. I - my work is in the town. He, his work is in the
field. I rise early to my work and he rises
early to his work. Just as he would not take
over my work, so I would not take over his
work. And lest you will say I do much and he
does little, we have taught: It is all the
same, whether one does much or does little, as long
as he directs his heart toward heaven.’”
Rashi:
“And lest you might say, ‘He is only right that he does not
take over my work, for were he to try to grasp my
art, he would not have a heart open enough to accomplish as much
in Torah as I do, and therefore
he would ultimately do little - and
he would have no reward.’ Thus we have taught: ‘That there
is reward for the one who
does little - just as much as for
the one who does much.’”
From the
simple meaning of the Gemara it appears that
everyone has his own path in God’s service.
One with Torah and another with activity in some
other mitsva – each according to his own talents, as
long as each directs his heart to an awareness that
his work is for heaven’s sake.
Along comes Rashi and overturns
the plain
meaning of this Talmudic
text, moving it from
one extreme to its opposite extreme.
He is telling
us: You may not say,
let everyone be satisfied with his own work.
Let the gifted alone deal in Torah, and whoever has
not been endowed with gifts of intelligence is
exempt from the study of Torah. Rather, also
one who has not been granted a high intelligence is
obligated to study Torah to the best of his
ability.
It is
difficult to explain how
Rashi appears to be overturning
the explicit wording of the Gemara.
It appears that Rashi intens to teach us that involvement with Torah is the
permanent occupation of every Jew per se`.
Every other involvement falls into the category of
all things fleeting and temporary -
activity that is appropriate to that moment
alone. Even one who is momentarily exempt from
the study of Torah because he is involved in another
mitsvah, let him not imagine that he is free of the
obligation to study Torah. Rather it is fit
that pangs of conscience should torment him, and
that he should long to learn as much as he possibly
can. This longing will preserve his connection
to Torah. He will then merit siyata
dishmaya, Heavenly assistance, and be granted
an increase of ability, talent, and time, to the
point that he will become capable of actualizing his
desire.
The Talmud’s innovative
message here intends
to convey that one should not
make his work out of study and neglect the work for
which he is suited, separating himself from it to
learn Torah exclusively, but should rather occupy
himself with his work on a regular basis and learn
Torah as much as he possibly can. For in such
case, even his limited learning will enter the
category of regular basis, and his work the category
of temporary, as long as he directs his heart to
heaven – that is, that he yearns and longs to learn
Torah, and this longing will be counted for him as
though he had learned, and it will be joined to his
humble learning. “Someone who thought about
how to do a mitsva and then did not do it - Scripture
considers him as if he had indeed done it.” (Brachot
6)
The root
of the matter lies in one's
subjective orientation.
That personal
connectedness, the personal
bond that preserves man as a
subjective entity – as a ‘micro’ of inner Godly
Presence, as a “miniature universe” – connected
constantly and substantively to the ‘macro’ of the
Divine. This connection is made
up of the initiative of free choice,
which has then awakened
a personalized Divine Providence, hashgaha
pratit. Its essence lies in the
value of the intention, the kavana.
“Anyone who learns the laws of sin offering - it is as if
he has sacrificed a sin offering.” Hence the
importance of anticipation, of longing and yearning
for attachment, for dvaikut to Torah - of viewing
Torah as the real and true reality and all the rest
of the unfolding of events as being merely the
expression of the reality of the Torah.
Reality is
determined by the Torah's rules and the Torah's
laws, in the sense of “He
looked into the Torah and created the
universe.” The Torah is the creation – reality
is only its soap bubble. The human creature in
the fields is required to view
himself as being bound to the
Torah no less than the human creature whose reality
is the one of the Torah scholar, whose exclusive
occupation is Torah study. If he will see
himself as being tied by his umbilical chord to the
Torah, if he will yearn for it, in the sense of
‘when might this Scripture come to my hand, that I
might learn it?’ If he will feel this way, then “the
Scripture will consider him as
if he had” indeed learned it.
This
teaches us that a reality separated from Torah has
no sustainable existence whatever. “Whoever
ceases from his study, forfeits his life,” for to
cease, to sever from Torah, to make peace with an
involvement that is separate from Torah, is to sever
from the umbilical chord that is the vital source of
his existence.
...teaching
you that there is no material situation that is
separate from a spiritual situation awaiting
actualization. This actualization is to be
found within the framework of Torah, for which it
serves as an expression. Torah endows reality
with permanence and realness. All the rest is
ephemeral. The permanence of a thing is
measured by its relationship to the Torah.
Yet,
“anyone who says ‘I have nothing else but Torah’ –
well, he does not
have Torah either.”
Furthermore, why was the
second Temple
destroyed? “Because they supported their views
by the law of the Torah.”
Rigidity
is the negative side of permanence.
Insularity, an aversion for the new, an inability to
see things with an open mind, these cause
atrophy. Routine sets in, with its
standardized and mechanical performance of mitsvot,
preventing personal development, progress, and
renewal.
“And they
traveled” signfies the
activity that imbues the state of rest, of Shabat,
with currents of vitality. Rest does not mean
zero action, but rather the period of consolidation, the pause, when the
raw materials that have streamed into it from the
days of action - are crystallized. “And they
camped” in order to provide an interval, a space to
pause between each Torah portion
that had been taught to Moses,
in order to digest what had been learned. A
human being’s thinking, like his body, requires
rest, for digestion and absorption.
People who are mentally obsessed evoke a physical imagery of someone
eating without digesting - alternatively ingesting
their food and vomiting it whole.
The Torah
and the commandments are the
containers that bestow meaning and value on the
actions that unfold within their framework.
Everything that is outside of this framework –
everything that is done as a response to the
fleeting stimulus of the outside – as it comes, so
it goes, and it leaves no mark. "The wicked,
in their own lifetimes, are called 'the dead'."
The Torah
and mitzvahs contain a vitally dynamic aspect that
derives from one’s wondering about them, from one's searching after their
meaning, from one's conquering new horizons and
including them within the framework of Torah and mitzvahs. Hence kavana
- the inner personal
intention - required during prayer. Perpetual
kavana rises to its climax as the imbuing of kavana
into life itself; life – that
self-renewing fount of difficulties and problems
that sprout anew every
morning. True kavana is
defined as attributing these to aspects
of serving God, and searching for the
element of Godly Presence reflected in them.
Tisha
B’Av - The Ninth Day of the Month of Av
“Whoever does not mourn over the
destruction of the Bet HaMikdash [which took
place on the ninth of Av] – it is as if the Temple was destroyed in
his days.” A personal connection to the
historical destruction transforms the historical
event into a permanent event of human existence, so
that it is not left as a petrified fossil but rather
becomes a living and vital happening.
Mourning, accompanied by the “afflictions,”
according to the commandments
specific to this day
(fasting, etc.) gives living tangibility to an
idea, which then takes on personal realness clothed
in flesh and bone and sinew. Whoever
grants it mere historical value, through words
alone, detached from the practical mitzvahs of this day, has abandoned it to the
bookshelf of history.
“Jacob had
sought to dwell in peace, [but then]
the rage about Joseph pounced upon him.” Jacob reasoned that he had
completed his public-historical role, and could now
return to rest and repose; he could now make the
transition from “they traveled” to “they
camped.” “Tsadikim, the righteous have sought to dwell in
peace. Says the Holy One to them: ‘Is it not
enough for you that you dwell in peace in the next
world? You seek to dwell in peace in this
world as well?’”
We see
from this that the greater one’s quality grows, the
more it prevents one from splitting,
from dichotomizing into
separate, antithetical components - such
as private versus
public. It blurs such distinctions, to the
point that the tsadik eventually belongs
wholly to the public. So with Jacob,
and so with Moses who attempts
to refuse his appointment as the savior of
Israel. “Send whoever else you might
send.” For a great
human being, life is comparable to a long journey
that knows no rest. His private life - he
hands over to the devoted care of the Creator of the
universe. Similarly with
the father of the Jewish people: “Get
yourself from your land and from your
birthplace and from your father’s house.”
Hence the command to sacrifice
his one and only son, his one and only private
space. For the sake of the public. His
wanderings prevent any
conditions of privacy. "Life on the road
prevents fame and fortune and [family]
children." Therefore the Creator who
sent him forth from his private home
- sees to these things. Abraham
does not toil. God’s blessing does what Abraham himself cannot do because
of his duty. Inner rest is attained by Abraham in merit of this
blessing. For the outer rest of atrophy and
stagnation, he has no need.
A
Reminder of Mourning, A Dream of Peace,
Teshuva-Repentance,
Bitahon-Faith, and Hope
Bitahon is the point of encounter between past and
future. Confidence and faith in the road that
one is traveling, as well as a genuinely felt
anticipation for the test of the result. Rest
is the period of consolidation, of taking inventory,
of introspection, of a return to the ideal situation
of harmony between inner and outer – in which outer
constitutes the exclusive and direct expression and
actualization of inner, in which no external
behavior is motivated by the passing stimulations of
the outside, nor by any dependency upon the passing
winds.
Openness
to innovation and change, viewing these as the
opportunity for an expression of creativity deriving
from one’s inner being: This
is the dream, opening the confines of the encampment
to dimensions above and beyond limited
reality. The sages of the
Talmud direct a worried gaze upon a man who
has not dreamed for seven days. They
considered it a sign of a damaged connection with
heaven! Dreaming plays the role of digesting
the new as well. The new is changed in order
to allow it to merge with the
essential substance
of the personality, to combine with the sedimentary layers of one's being
that have settled previously,
to form the foundations of the unique cup from which
one drinks of one’s existence.
The
merging of components is essential, else even
desirable components become harmful. Memory,
for example, when detached from the future, becomes
the first cause of depression. When one’s past
is not seen as a continuous line into the future,
the backward glance shows one’s past to have been a
mistake, a waste of time, an irreparable distortion
– bereft of teshuva, of the possibility of
repentance and repair.
Teshuva
is one of the optimistic foundations of Judaism,
giving human beings the sense of their own ability
to control a situation. A sense that existence
has been given over to human hands, a sense that
there is a future, that there is hope in the merit
of one’s openness to new horizons, to the possibility of coming forth
from the narrow straits of distress. Openness
to new hope, to a better future, to new
opportunities, to the actualization of abilities
that have never been given expression in the past.
A dream as
the cultivation of hope, as a new dimension, hovers
as the Spirit of God above the water, an infinity
beckoning invitingly to the stuck present,
trapped by space and time. Woe to the one who
has no dream. His lot is doom and
despair. The dream is formed in the flowerbed
of confidence and hope. Crystallization
creates the basis for the upward-soaring dash –
towards the dream, towards the horizon, towards
heaven. “The corner of the tsitsit, of
the fringed garment - is blue. Blue resembles
the sea. The sea resembles heaven, and heaven
resembles kisei hakavod, the Throne of
Glory.”
Dvaikut,
the concept of "attachment" to God, means
identifying with one’s own Godly source, with one’s
inner source of creativity, of renewal. Of a
better life – of life and love as a new creative
work, produced by the creative self. The more
creative one grows, the more distant
one grows from
Survival System’s
stranglehold of sorrow.
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