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OUR KNOWLEDGE IS
ALSO LIFE
by Rabbi
Shimon Silman
In honor
of the 54th yartzeit of Kvod Kedushas HaRav Levi Yitzchok Schneerson on 20
Menachem Av, and with thanks to Hashem for the miracle He did for my son
Levi Yitzchok ben Netel (whose birthday is 20 Menachem Av) and his friends,
Sheyichyu, this summer in Eretz Yisroel.
Among the
ideas one hears expressed these days is one that goes, "You have to
rely completely on emunah and forget about intellect. The Rebbe Melech
HaMoshiach said that we are in the Era of Moshiach and that the Geulah is
here. We must accept this on faith. If you start thinking about it
intellectually you won't be able to reconcile it with the darkness in the
world and you will become confused." Then at the other extreme there's
one that goes, "I am an intellectual. I believe only what I see and
all I see is darkness in the world. I see only golus and I don't see any
Geulah." While the first approach is certainly closer to the truth,
both approaches are wrong and the error is due to a disconnection between
emunah and intellect.
Actually,
the issue of the relationship between emunah and intellect is one of the
oldest and most basic issues in Jewish philosophy. For example, Rav Saadia
Gaon's famous sefer on Jewish philosophy is titled "Emunos
V'De'os" which basically means "Things to believe and things to
know." In our present discussion we will focus on Rambam and Chassidus
with special emphasis on the connection with Rabbi Levi Yitzchok and his
writings.
In
several places, especially in the Hadranim on the Rambam (5746 and 5750),
the Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach discusses the fact that Rambam begins Mishneh
Torah by saying that "The foundation of all foundations and the pillar
of all wisdom is to know that there is a First Being" rather than by
saying "...to believe that there is a First Being." Similarly,
Rambam ends Mishneh Torah by discussing how the world will be filled with
the knowledge of Hashem in the Era of Moshiach, without mentioning emunah.
To explain this the Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach identifies various levels in the
relationship between emunah and intellect.
Firstly,
there is a basic emunah which is a prerequisite to the observance of the
mitzvos, including the mitzva of Yedias Hashem - intellectual knowledge of
Hashem. To do a mitzvah, which is a commandment, you first have to believe
that there is a Commander who commanded the mitzvah. The Abarbanel, quoted
by the Tzemach Tzedek in Derech Mitzvosecha, makes this point to explain
why Rambam mentions only the mitzvah of Yedias Hashem and not emunah:
Emunah is a prerequisite for Yedias Hashem.
The
connection between emunah and intellect goes beyond that, however. We are
already at the point where we have the emunah in the existence of Hashem -
we believe that there is One Who commands the mitzvos - and we are fulfilling
the mitzvah of Yedias Hashem. But being that we are finite beings there is
a limit to how much we can know about Hashem who is not only infinite, but
beyond infinite. As much knowledge and understanding as we may have about
Hashem, it is finite. Thus where intellect leaves off emunah has to take
over. This is discussed by the Tzemach Tzedek in Derech Mitzvosecha who
explains that this is a continuous process. As one progresses and knows
more and more about Hashem, things that he accepted previously based on
emunah come to be understood intellectually, and then emunah will apply to
something even higher than that. This process continues indefinitely since
as much knowledge as we may obtain - it is only finite. Beyond that, the
rest - the infinite - we accept with emunah. This is the second stage of
the interplay between intellect and emunah.
A third
level can be identified. This is a bit more complicated, however, and
requires an introduction. We turn to the Kuntres Chai Nisan, 5751, the
ma'amar that the Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach gave out for Rabbi Levi Yitzchok's
birthday. In the ma'amar the Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach discusses the concept
of chatzer - a yard. There are two kinds of yards designed to contain
animals. There is a yard that has a fence around it but no roof, and there
is a yard that has both a fence around it and a roof. What is the
difference between them? A very practical difference. The yard with the
fence around it alone is good enough to keep an animal in it - a cow, a
bull or something like that but it is not good enough to keep a bird. The
bird will fly out. To keep a bird contained in a yard, you have to have not
only four walls around it - a fence - but you need also a roof. It may seem
surprising that a bird which is such a flimsy and weak animal needs such a
strong protection while the bull, such a powerful animal, needs only four
walls without a roof. In the ma'amar the Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach explains
that this has a parallel in the nefesh of a Yid and when we understand the
parallel we will be able to understand the significance of the roof. What
is the parallel of an animal and of a bird in the nefesh of a Yid? An
animal, a behema, is the nefesh habehamis, the animal soul. It is an
animal. It is interested only in physical pleasure, in what is down below.
Therefore it needs to be watched and confined but a regular confinement -
four walls, a fence, is adequate. A bird, however, is different. The bird
corresponds to the intellectual soul, the nefesh hasichlis. The
intellectual soul is the intermediary between the G-dly soul, (nefesh
HaElokis) and the animal soul. It's function is to communicate and explain
the concepts of G-dliness from the G-dly soul to the animal soul. The
intellectual soul by its nature is not interested in lower things,
animalistic things. It's interested only to going to higher and higher
things. This is not because of G-dliness but simply by the nature of human
intellect which always wants to know something higher and when it attains
that it wants to go higher again - like a bird which is always attempting
to fly higher and higher.
Because
of this tendency of the intellectual soul to go higher and higher, it needs
to be watched very carefully because when it starts to understand matters
of G-dliness it will run into the error of thinking that what it
understands is the whole story. What it has come to understand about the
Hashem is all there is to know. It doesn't realize that it only understands
a finite subset of the infinite knowledge of Hashem. Therefore the
intellectual soul needs a special confinement, a roof over it to tell it,
"You are only finite, and what you understand is only finite, it's not
the whole story. Don't make the mistake of thinking that what you understand
about the unity of Hashem is the whole story. It goes way beyond
that." Thus the Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach explains in the ma'amar that
even in those matters where we have a very clear understanding, it's not
sufficient to rely on our intellect but we must have emunah in those areas
also! The point of this third level is that we need emunah not only to pick
up where intellect leaves off (as in the second stage), but even in things
where we already have the knowledge we still need to have emunah there too.
Based on
all this, our original question becomes stronger. How is it when Rambam
talks about awareness of Hashem, he only mentions knowledge but he doesn't
mention emunah? In the Hadronim the Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach explains this.
The ultimate goal of dira b'tachtonim, Hashem having a "place" in
the physical world, is to have matters of G-dliness come down to the lowest
possible location i.e. to come down within the definitions and confines of
intellect. Thus emunah which is higher than intellect is not the ultimate
objective.
In the
Era of Moshiach, however, emunah and intellect become one. In general, the
Era of Moshiach is characterized by the paradoxical combinations of
opposites, made possible by the revelation of Atzmus, the essence of
Hashem, which is removed from all definition and description. Relative to
Atzmus all opposites are equal. (Just as one might say that relative to a
point in distant space, the top and the bottom of a building here on earth
are equal.) For example, in Kuntres Achron Shel Pesach 5750 the Rebbe
Melech HaMoshiach explains how the natural order and the miraculous order
fuse to become one world order in the Era of Moshiach. While this is self
contradictory and logically impossible, it comes about as a result of the
revelation of Atzmus. The same thing happens with emunah and intellect. All
those concepts which are higher than intellect and which we now have to
rely on emunah for, will be understood within the confines and definition
of human intellect. In the Kuntres Chag HaGeulah 12-13 Tamuz, 5751 the
Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach says that the barrier between emunah and intellect
was actually broken with the Geulah of the Previous Rebbe on 12 Tamuz, 5687
(1927).
Thus we
see that the correct path lies not in choosing between emunah and intellect
but in combining the two. It is of the utmost importance, however, that
emunah be the foundation and intellect be built on it, not the reverse.
This is clearly illustrated by a quote from the Rebbe Rashab contrasting
Rambam with Aristotle. Both Rambam and Aristotle were philosophers and they
both worked on theology. What was the difference between Rambam and
Aristotle? Rambam first fixed a central point and then drew the circle
around it. Aristotle first drew the circle and then groped to find the
center. What does it mean? Rambam started his investigations of G-d founded
on emunah as the central point. Then he was able to successfully draw the
circle of intellect around it. But Aristotle did the reverse. He started
with human intellect - his own philosophical investigation. This was his
circle. After becoming entangled in the results of his research he started
groping to find the center.
Along the
same lines, the Tzemach Tzedek in Derech Mitzvosecha says that both Rambam
and Aristotle tried to find proofs of the existence of G-d. What was the
difference between them? Whenever Aristotle would find a proof for the
existence of G-d he would become more arrogant because his new found proof
made him a greater philosopher. But Rambam was the opposite. Every time he
found a new proof for the existence of Hashem he became more humble because
of his new awareness of Hashem.
At this
point it would be instructive to mention an event which occurred recently
in the world of intellect, in the area of mathematical logic, which
"puts a roof" on intellect and shows how it is limited in a novel
way. The story goes back to the 1930's when there was a mathematician named
Herbert Robbins. He formulated a certain statement (theorem) in
mathematical logic and challenged the mathematical world to determine if it
was true or false. This was called the Robbins conjecture (see sidebar).
What was required was either a proof that the statement is true or a
counterexample to show that it is false. The amazing thing with his very
simple sounding conjecture was that for 60 years nobody was able to prove
it one way or the other, true or false. The best mathematical minds of the
generation, such as Alfred Tarski, worked on it and gave up. No one came
close. About a year ago, some mathematicians working with a computer wrote
a program and the computer program was able to solve the problem and
concluded that the conjecture was true. Now this is not the first time that
a computer solved a problem. But it is the first time that a computer
discovered a proof of a mathmatical statement of this type. And this was
something that had stumped the greatest minds of the mathematical world for
60 years. Nobody could get a grasp on it. And this computer got a grasp on
it and solved it. What does this tell us? In the scientific world
mathematics is called the queen of the sciences. Within mathematics, it is
probably safe to say that mathematical logic is the most refined and
delicate area of all mathematics, especially because it itself is the foundation
of all the other areas. In the terminology of the Kuntres Chai Nisan quoted
above (which compares the intellect to a bird) we might say that
mathematical logic is the eagle of mathematics - the bird that soars higher
then all the other birds of mathematics. For those who may have thought
that science replaces Torah in determining the truth about life and the
world, for those who may have idolized science and made a religion out of
it, this event shows that there is nothing divine about science. It shows
that a question in the most refined area of science - the "eagle"
- which baffled the best mathematical minds, was answered by a machine!
This puts a roof on the eagle and shows that it is not divine but rather
mechanistic. In my opinion, this is a major step closer to the awareness
from within intellect, that intellect itself is limited. This bitul makes
it possible for intellect to coexist and combine with emunah.
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SIDEBAR: The Robbins Conjecture
Mathematical
logic deals with propositions and their truth or falsity.
If P represents any proposition, it is intuitively clear that not(not(P)) =
P
The Robbins conjecture is that this equation can be derived from the
following three equations:
P or Q = Q or P
(P or Q) or R = P or (Q or R)
not(not(P or Q) or not(P or not(Q))) = P
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