"The market is on the rise!" "We will win the playoffs!" "As President, this nation will be rebuilt." Whether it is politics, business, medicine or sports, there is little news that we read every day that doesn't propose certainty of belief. In the news, we hear politicians and analysts speak with surety about world events, the effects of proposed policies, and the potential outcomes of war. We have been plagued in all sectors of society by a surfeit of confidence and certainty.
The Torah takes a very different approach to human knowledge.
We learn in Parshat Chukat (Numbers 19:1-27:1) that there are commandments that have rational explanations (mishpatim) and those that appear to lack any rationale whatsoever (chukim). Rational laws, such as prohibitions against killing and stealing, teach us moral imperatives. Laws without rational explanations inspire humility, reminding us that we are limited and cannot understand everything.
While we must continue to interpret the tradition and make our own meaning of it, we must also remember that we never possess absolute truth. While we aspire to bring God into our lives through our active engagement with Torah, we must always remember that we are human and not divine.
The quintessential chok (law without rational explanation) in the Torah is the red heifer. In this week's reading we learn about its use in an ancient purity ritual. While it is challenging as a modern Jew to imagine how this act might be efficacious today, I try to stretch myself and understand its sacred power for my ancestors. In so doing, I am reminded that my own spiritual practices might not be as powerful for others as they are for me. This humbles me.
People of true wisdom embrace the importance of uncertainty. Is there anything in this life of which we can be absolutely certain? In short, we must cultivate an epistemic humility, a deep understanding of the limits of our knowledge. This idea is said to originate with Socrates (Plato, "The Apology," 20e-23c). The great Greek thinker was puzzled by how others in his community were so sure of their wisdom, while he regularly experienced uncertainty.
In the early 19th century, Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin (the Netziv) explained the importance of humility in our approach to the Torah:
Just as it is not possible for the wise student of nature ever to boast knowledge of all of nature's secrets....and just as there is no guarantee that what his investigations do accomplish will not be invalidated in this generation or the next, by colleagues who elect to study the same things differently, so it is not possible for the student of Torah ever to claim that he has attended to each and every point that claims attention, and even that which he does explain--there is never proof that he has ascertained the truth of the Torah!
From the place where we are right flowers will never grow in the spring.
The place where we are right is hard and trampled like a yard.
But doubts and loves dig up the world like a mole, a plow.
And a whisper will be heard in the place where the ruined house once stood.
To be sure, we all hold different levels of certainty and doubt about different issues. I tend to have more skepticism about theological and scientific principles than moral ones. I am confident that certain moral values are fundamental to living a good and upright life. Even still, when moving from general principles to specific lived situations, things always become more complicated.
This is why it is so important to engage in rigorous and open discussion with others -- including those we disagree with -- about matters of consequence. None of us understands our religions, contemporary affairs, or even our own souls perfectly. We must humbly join intersecting communities in which we can reflect, be challenged, and learn together.
To change the world, we must have strong convictions and act on them effectively, but we must not forget the importance of our doubts. The role of faith is not to move us toward an opiate but to inspire more questions and conversation.
ON Scripture -- The Torah is a weekly Jewish scriptural commentary, produced in collaboration with Odyssey Networks and Hebrew College. Thought leaders from the United States and beyond offer their insights into the weekly Torah portion and contemporary social, political, and spiritual life.
Rabbi Yael Levy: Tending the Fire of Spiritual Practice
Just one note: every one of the procedures of the red heifer ritual is based on practices current among other peoples inhabiting the Holy Land at the time.
I don't have time or space to go into it here--but just think about it. Consider it. If what I say is true, does it still make sense to hold it up as an example of an irrational law? It was rational at the time. We just forgot what the rationale was--as with so much of Torah.
"Laws without rational explanations inspire humility, reminding us that we are limited and cannot understand everything."
No, if the laws have no rationales, if you can't defend the existence of a law, it should not be law. Laws are not there to be blindly obeyed, laws are there to serve society.
Do you really think he performs the ritual of the red heifer in his community?
He was trying to make a different point.
Bruce Feiler wrote an entertaining but informative book titled “AMERICA’S PROPHET - Moses and the American Story.” “Even a cursory review of American history indicates that Moses has emboldened leaders of all stripes” (Feiler)
“The man Moses was very meek, more than any man upon the face of the earth.” (Num. xiii, 3) The greater the leader the more humble they will be. We are granted success or authority as a gift from God to be used for the benefit of the community. “Let all who occupy themselves with the community do so for the sake of heaven” (Avoth ii, 2)
Nice imagination you have there.
A good point
All people have ego. The author recognizes this. “…(W)e must cultivate … humility…understanding…the limits of our knowledge….” (Yanklowitz)
We also have the ability to cultivate traits that don’t always come naturally. I agree however, that for some “humility” can be ego driven. It has been said that everything contains within it its opposite. Dialectical?
The same thing can be said for charity. That is why it is said that the truest charity is given anonymously and without any expectation of reward. Giving charity can also come with reward to the ego through social recognition. Still it is better to give than not to give.
We must cultivate nothing. By letting go, there is this possibility of seeing who one really is. And only by reaching this core, understand that nothing is completely grasped. When cultivating a positive attribute such as epistemic humility, one is merely concealing arrogance, pride, self assurance and conceit. When one confronts this and ultimately understands that none of this is fully known or understood then real epistemic humility commences.
What I have learned from Judaism and it is very well presented in possibly in all of the Abrahamic religions is to emote positive attributes, that is, pretend that you are humble, happy, generous, etc. and eventually you acquire these attributes. Well, I am sorry to relate that from my experience and understanding it just doesn't work that way.
Shalom
Peace
That which is created or manifested from the Real is itself real and therefore divine.
We are expressions of the infinite Absolute how can we not be divine?
The human ego's misguided desire to be separate from the Absolute has created religions that are made in the image of man.
Therefore if every human is unique but separate from this infinite Absolute of vitality and intelligence and god is made in a human image then likewise we are a separate entitiy which the ego craves to be separate from all others. that simple that complex.
Because there is sin and evil does not mean we are not divine, our original unawareness is a necessity for every soul to be a unique expression of this infinite Absolute that most call God.
Stated another way all sin and evil have one culprit: ignorance, yes that same ignorance the buddha realized was the origin of our suffering. a synonym for ignorance is unawareness.
Plants?
I would hope so. Because either we're all just living creatures together here on earth, or we're all divine. I don't go for this "humans are divine" stuff.
I don't think that's true. What you're witnessing is a media bias that favours pundits and commentators who speak with confident certainty. I think humans have a tendency to confuse confident certainty with competence. For news media this also has the added virtue of appearing as though you're presenting both sides of an argument.
"Laws without rational explanations inspire humility, reminding us that we are limited and cannot understand everything."
Laws without rational explanations are generally reactionary. Most of the irrational Biblical laws I'm aware of do not inspire humility but compel group conformity and posit cultural norms as ethical and moral imperatives. By recasting a cultural norm as a moral law in a religious context, one binds cultural ideas, both good and bad to the dispensation of existence (in this case the existence is a post-mortem system of reward or punishment).
But I agree, humility is very important.
I don't know what your belief system is, but this is an article about Judaism, which makes a distinction between cultural norms/ritual and ethics/morality. Your comment about "a post-mortem system of reward or punishment" also comes from some other religion. Instead of saying “I refuse to do that unless I understand why I’m doing it,” Judaism says sometimes you have to do something before you can understand.
I remember one election season when many Christian clergy decided publically to endorse one particular candidate from their pulpits. My rabbi spoke out against their stunt, not only because it violates the U.S. Constitution and tax code, but because it’s arrogant, and arrogance is one of those things religion should eradicate.