Lesson #16 Rabbi Dennis Beck-Berman Nature of Revelation: Overview & Terminology

Revelation = God + Torah + Israel (+ Humanity) How preserve revelation as concrete communication? [seed > sapling > tree] How effectively & creatively apply revelation to changing circumstances? Inspired writings > Scripture/canon > authoritative Commentary > expanded Tradition Why God provides revelation? Reasons for commandments; “refine” people; Heschel: What does God demands of humanity? Chosen People: God chose to reveal to Israel; Jews chose God; Rabbinic universalism - Torah proffered to all humanity; God revealed paths to other nations

Torah - direction/sacred instruction: (1) Pentateuch/Chumash (Sefer Torah), (2) Bible/TaNaKH = Written Torah, (3) Talmud (Mishnah & Gemara) = Oral Torah (Rabbinic interpretations /amplifications/additions), (4) products of Jewish genius, (5) all wisdom, (6) natural law; (7) permutations of God, preexistent blueprint of creation (cosmic spiritual DNA) Aspects of Theology Traditional, rational, mystical approaches God is suprarational, transcendent (Traditional/Rational) & immanent (Mystic) Panentheism; ineffable mystery of life; God & Big Bang Rational proofs of God’s existence; Anthropic Principle; finite/relative human reason cannot prove ultimate reality Authority of Divine revelation; authority of human experience of revelation Torah (Pentateuch) is divine Law, Mosaic authorship (all/most/Decalogue); Moses wrote some (Balaam, Deuteronomy) on his own Torah speaks in human idiom; anthropomorphism; Day of Creation 1 million years Documentary hypothesis (J-E, P, D); historical/redaction criticism; complex whole PaRDeS: Plain meaning (Peshat); allegory [& gematria] (Remez); midrash, deeper meaning [homiletic] (Derash); mystic [metatext existing within God] (Sod)

Torah miSinai / Matan Torah - Giving Torah is historical event; unbroken chain of prophetic & rabbinic authorities who elaborate implicit meaning of divine Word

Torah min hashamayim (Ex 20:19) / Kabbalat HaTorah - continuing, creative/inspired, transformative individual process; dialogue with God

Process: Scripture - prophecy: inspiration/holy spirit (ru’ach hakodesh); intellectual debate/decisions of Torah, spiritual connection, mystical guides

Verbal inspiration vs. verbal communication. Ex 19:18 f; cf. I King 19:11 ff. Maimonides (RaMBaM): Moses interpreted unintelligible divine sound, only first 2 commandments Israel

“heard” (ideas accessible to human reason).

Content: Decalogue/Ten Pronouncements; Pentateuch (all; minus ending; minus glosses); Mitzvot (sing. mitzvah = command or connection) > Halakhah/divine legislation, not divine Aggadah (non-legal) [Thou shalt do, not Thou shalt believe]; Ineffible flash (Aleph) at Sinai; Sefat Emet: divine light, vision of infinite love > hearts stamp with cultural forms.

Orthodox: enormous range of views; elusive process is divine mystery; not merely human spiritual genius; direct supernatural communication of content; generally Pentateuch is literal, verbal, Mosaic; crucial element halakhah (incl. Oral Torah), which is eternal, immutable, but historically develops

Conservative: divinely inspired; non-literal; dynamic, ongoing process; authority in historical acceptance by Klal Yisrael (Jewish people [not heretics]); immutable not immobile

Reform: non-literal, non-verbal, progressive; only ethical mitzvot divinely revealed; halakhah matter of personal acceptance insofar as spiritually fulfilling

Reconstructionist: God did not reveal Torah, Torah reveals God to Israel, discovery arising out of natural religious impulse; record of striving for salvation; Torah is complete Jewish civilization; prophetic discovery of moral law is principal self-revelation of God; mitzvot are sancta (revered folkways)

(]) "The words of the wise are as goads ... they come from one shepherd"(Eccl 1211 )

What is (the meaning of) "like goads"/kadorbonot? Rabbi Berekhia said:

kadur shel banot, "a girls' ball," like that ball of the maidens whichthey intercept, one tossing here and one tossing there. Similarly, thesages enter into study and are occupied with the Torah, one states his

reason and another his reason, one gives his opinion and another his opinion,

but the words of these and those were all given from the shepherd, Moses,

from what he received from the Unique One of the world - "they come from

one shepherd." Since this one gives one opinion and the other gives another

opinion, lest (you think) there words are floating, the verse teaches -

"and like firmly fixed nails are (the words of) the masters of the (rabbinic)collections" (ib.). Pesikta Rabbati 3.2

~ R. Meir ... would declare clean the ritually unclean and show (plausible)arguments for it, and declare unclean the ritually clean and show (plausible)

arguments for it . ..• It was taught: There was a distinguished student at

Yavneh who could declare a creeping thing clean by 150 reasons • .•. R. Abbasaid in the name of Samuel: For three years the schools of Shammai and Hillel

disputed. These said: The halakhah is according to us; those said: Thehalakhah is according to us. A (divine) echo issued saying: These and those

are the words of the living God, but the halakhah is according to Bet Hillel.

But if "These and those are the words of the living God" why did Bet Hillelmerit to have the halakhah fixed according to them? Because they were kind

and humble and studied their words and the words of Bet Shammai; moreover,

they (recorded) the words of Bet Shammai before their own. TB Erubin 13b

~(R. Abiathar and R. Jonathan disagreed over the specific cause for theconcubine to flee her husband, the Levite (see JUdges 19), who, according

to rabbinic tradition, was a browbeating martinet.) R. Abiathar met Elijah.

He said to him: What is the Holy One, Blessed be He, doing? He replied:

He is occupied with the (matter of) the concubine in Gibea. And what does

He say? (Elijah) said: My son Abiathar says such-and-such; my son Jonathan

says so-and-so. (Abiathar) said: God forbid! Can there be any doubt before

heaven!? (Elijah) replied: These and those are the words of the living God.(Both were partially right.) TB Gittin 6b

QD "Then the Lord gave me the two stone tablets written with the finger of God,and upon them (was written) according to all the words the Lord spoke to you

out of the fire upon the mountain" (Deut. 910) - Rabbi Joshua ben Levi said:

(Scripture could simply have stated) 'upon them' (but it states) "and upon them";

'all' (but it states) "according to all"; 'words' (but it states) "the words."(This teaches that) Scripture, Mishnah, Talmud and aggadah -- even that which

a distinguished student is destined to deduce before his teacher -- it wasalready spoken to Moses on Sinai. What is his point? "There is a matter ofwhich one shall say: See, this is new!" (Eccl 110); his companion responds

saying: "It's been around for ages" (ib.). TP Peah 2.4

@ Another interpretation of "And God uttered (instantaneously) all these wordssaying" (Ex. 20 1 ) - Rabbi Isaac said: That which the prophets were destined

to prophecy in each and every generation they received from Mount Sinai.

For so Moses says to Israel: "For those who are here standing with us today

before ADONAY our God those who are not here with us today" (Deut. 29 14).

It is not written here '(not) standing here with us today' but rather "(not)

here with us today" - These are the souls who are destined to be created,

who have no corporeality, hence 'standing' is not stated regarding them.

Even though they were not there at that time, every single one received his

own (revelation) • ... And not only did all the prophets receive their prophecy

from Sinai, but also the sages who stand in each and every generation, every

single one received his own (revelation/Torah) "from Sinai. And so it states:

"These words ADONAY uttered to all your assembly ... in a great voice that

did not continue" (Deut. 519 ). Exodus Rabba 28.6

~ (Discussing whether an oven of a particular construction was liable tolevitical uncleanness) R. Eliezer declares it clean but the sages unclean.

On that day R. Eliezer brought all the proofs in the world, but they would

not accept them. He said to them: If the law is according to me, let this

carob tree prove it! The carob tree was uprooted from its place (and

moved) one hundred cubits; and some say: four hundred cubits. They said tohim: A proof cannot be brought from a carob tree. He retorted: If the lawis according to me, let the aqueduct prove it! The stream of water flowedbackward. They said to him: A proof cannot be brought from an aqueduct.He retorted: If the law is according to me, let the walls of the House of

Study prove it! The walls of the Bet Midrash began to topple. R. Joshua

reprimanded them: If scholars are prevailing over one another in halakhah,

what business is it of yours!? They did not fall down out of respect for

R. Joshua, and they did not straighten up out of respect for R. Eliezer,

and they still stand inclined. He retorted: If the law is according to me,

let the heaven prove it! A (divine) echo issued saying: What do you have

against Rabbi Eliezer? The law is according to him in every case. R. Joshua

rose to his feet and said: "It is not in heaven" (Deuto 30 12 ).

What does "It is not in heaven" mean? R. Jeremiah said: That the Torah

has already been given on Mount Sinai; we do not consult a (dinine) echo;

for You have already written in the Torah on Mount Sinai: "Incline after the

majority" (Ex 23 2).Rabbi Nathan met Elijah. He said to him: What was the Holy One, Blessed

be He, doing at that moment? He replied: He was smiling and saying: My

children have prevailed over me! My children have prevailed over me!TB Baba Metzia 59b

~ Rabbah bar Shila (end 4 c.) met Elijah. He said to him: What is the HolyOne, Blessed be He, doing? He replied: He utters traditions from the mouthsof all the rabbis.... TB Hagigah 15b

The revelation at Sinai embraced both what was explicit and whatfuture generations would consider to be implicit in the Torah given toMoses at Sinai. As the following midrash dramatically indicates, the To­rah communicated to Moses at Sinai transcends what was literally given

at Sinai:

Rav Judah said in the name of Rav: "When Moses ascended on high,he found the Holy One, blessed be He, engaged in affixing coronets tothe letters [of the Torah]. Said Moses, 'Lord of the Universe, who com­pels Thee to do that?' He answered, 'There will arise a man, at the endof many generations, Akiva ben Joseph by name, who will spin out ofeach tittle heaps and heaps of la~s.' 'Lord of the Universe,' said Moses,'permit me to see him.' He replied, 'Turn you round.' Moses went andsat down at the end of the eighth row [and listened to the discoursesupon the law]. Not being able to follow their arguments, he was ill atease, but when they came to a certain subject and the disciples said tothe master, 'Whence do you know it?' and the latter replied, 'It is a lawgiven to Moses at Sinai,' he was comforted." (Mena!l.Ot 29b)

Although based on divine revelation, the Torah became inseparablefrom the vast body of material generated by talmudic interpretation.The rabbinic scholar rather than the prophet became the mediator ofthe Torah; his intellectual skills of analysis and interpretation elevatedhim to an unprecedented position of importance in determining thecontent of revelation.

This theme has been presented in various formulations. Striking is theone attributed to Rabbi Isaac, commenting upon Exodus 20: 1, "And God

spoke all these words, saying ... ," i.e., both upon the apparently emphatic"all these words," and perhaps as well on the word saying, which was some­

times interpreted as "to say later on"):

That which the prophets were later to prophesy in every subsequent age, theyreceived here at Mount Sinai. For thus did Moses report to Israel [Deut. 29:13­14]. "Not with you alone do I make this covenant, ... but with both those whoare standing here among us today, and with those who are not here among ustoday." Now "not standing among us today" is not written [in the last clause]. butonly "not among us today"; for these are the souls that were yet to be created,who have no substance, and of whom "standing" could not be said. For thoughthey did not exist at the time, every one of these received his portion.... Andnot only did all the prophets receive their prophecies from Sinai, but also thesages who were to arise in every generation-each one of them received his[teaching] from Sinai, as it is written [Deut. 5: 19]. "These words the Lord spoketo all your assembly on the mountain amid the fire, the cloud, and the darkness,with a great noise, and did not cease."

(Ex. R. 28:6: cr. Mid. Tan. Vitro 11)

Once I was on a journey, and I came upon a man who went at me afterthe way of heretics. Now, he accepted the written, but not the oral law.He said to me: "The written law was given us from Mount Sinai' theoral law was not given us from Mount Sinai." I said to him: "But ~erenot both the written and the oral law spoken by the Omnipresent? Thenwhat difference is there between the written and the oral law? To whatcan this be compared? To a king of flesh and blood who had two ser­vants, and loved them both with a perfect love; and he gave them eacha measure of wheat, and each a bundle of flax. The wise servant whatdid he do? He took the flax and spun a cloth. Then he took the 'wheatand made flour. The flour he cleansed, and ground, and kneaded, andbaked and set on top of the table. Then he spread the cloth over it andleft it so until the king should come. But the foolish servant did no;hinga: all. After some days, the king returned from a journey and came intohiS house and said to them: My sons, bring me what I gave you. One~ervant showed the wheaten bread on the table with a cloth spread overIt, and the other servant showed the wheat still in the box, with a bundleof flax upon it. Alas for his shame, alas for his disgrace! Now, when theHoly One, blessed be He, gave the Torah to Israel, he gave it only inthe form of wheat, for us to extract flour from it, and flax, to extract agarment." (Seder Eliyahu Zuta 2) .

The intellectual freedom to go beyond the strict literal meaning ofthe biblical text, and to develop a viable legal system by reasoning andthe application of hermeneutic principles, expresses the intellectual au­

tonomy of the student to create and innovate and not simply to acceptthe past blindly. When students feel sufficiently confident to interpretthe implications of what they have received from their prophets, whenthey are not overwhelmed by their teachers' superiority and do notsimply repeat their lessons verbatim, when the content of revelationdevelops into an ever-expanding corpus of law and commentary, only

then do covenantal Jews reveal their maturity and full partnership with

God.

Not in heaven

On that day Rabbi Eliezer [in dispute with other sages]brought all the proofs in the world [in support of hisopinion], but the sages would not accept them.33

He said to them: If the law is according to me, let this locusttree prove it.

The locust tree moved a hundred cubits. (And some say: fourhundred cubits.)

The sages said to him: The locust tree cannot prove anything.Then he said to them: If the law is according to me, let this

stream of water prove it.The stream of water turned and flowed backward.They said to him: The stream cannot prove anything.

Then he said to them: If the law is according to me, let thewalls of the House of Study prove it.

The walls of the House of Study began to topple.Rabbi Joshua reprimanded the walls:If scholars are disputing with one another about the law, what

business is it of yours?They did not fall down out of respect for Rabbi Joshua, and

did not straighten up out of respect for Rabbi Eliezer,and they are still inclined.

Then Rabbi Eliezer said to them: If the law is according tome, let the heaven prove it.

A voice came forth from heaven and said:Why do you dispute with Rabbi Eliezer? The law is according

to ,him in every case.Thereupon Rabbi Joshua rose to his feet and said:"It is not in heaven" (Deut. 30: 12 ) :

the Torah has already been given once and for all from MountSinai;

we do not listen to voices from heaven.For Thou hast already written in the Torah on Mount Sinai:"After the majority must one incline" (Exod. 23:2).

[Later on] Rabbi Nathan came upon Elijah [the prophet].34He said to him: What was the Holy One, blessed be he, doing

at that moment? .Elijah said to him:He was smiling and saying: My children have defeated me,

my children have defeated me!

-There is a well-known aggadic story involving a dispute among tal-

mudic sages concerning the ritual status of the "oven of Aknai." RabbiEliezer declared it ritually pure; the sages argued that it was impure.After failing to convince the sages through rational arguments, RabbiEliezer then invoked supernatural miracles to convince his colleaguesthat he was right.

Seeing that the sages were not moved to accept his position as a resultof the miraculous "hints" of divine support, Rabbi Eliezer tried to pre­sent what might be considered the final blow in any argument con­cerning the interpretation of the Torah: he appealed directly to God toconfirm his view.

This rich midrash can be interpreted in many different ways. But itdecidedly favors the orderly procedures of legal adjudication above thenonrational intrusions of miracles and heavenly voices in the academiesof Torah study. Allowing for such supernatural intrusions would un­dermine the central role of study and rational debate in the develop­ment and elaboration of the law. Apart from the social and institutionaljustifications for rejecting supernatural intrusions, one may understandthis text in the light of the covenantal emphasis on human responsi­bility.

God's defeat-"He laughed, saying: 'My sons have defeated Me, Mysons have defeated Me' "-signifies God's self-limiting love for the sakeof making His human covenantal partners responsible for intellectuallydeveloping the Torah. "The Torah is not in heaven" captures the feelingof intellectual competence of talmudic rabbis who no longer requireprophecy or divine intervention by signs and wonders in order to dis­cover how to apply the living word of God. II For serious rabbinic schol­ars, extrarational miraculous signs are unnecessary in order to confirmthe validity and cogency of a legal argument. '

The core of the commandments

Six hundred and thirteen commandments were given toMoses, three hundred and sixty-five prohibitory laws,equaling the number of the days of the solar year,

and two hundred and forty-eight mandatory laws,corresponding to the parts of the body.David came and brought them down to elev~n;

as it is written:"Lord, who shall sojourn in Thy tabernacle? : . .He that walketh uprightly, and worketh nghteousness, and

speaketh truth in his he~rt; tha.t hath no slander uponhis tongue, nor doeth eVil to his fellow,~or taketh uL

a reproach against his neighbor; in whose eyes a vileperson is despised, but he honoreth them that fear theLord; he that sweareth to his own hurt, and changethnot; he that putteth not out his money on interest, nortaketh a bribe against the innocent" (Ps. 15: 1-5).

Isaiah came and brought them down to six;as it is written: ."He that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly; he that

despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh hishands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his earsfrom hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes fromlooking upon evil" (Isa. 33: 15 ) .

Micah came and brought them down to three;as it is written:"It hath been told thee, 0 man, what is good ... : Only to

do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly withthy God" (Mic. 6:8).

Isaiah came again and brought them down to two; .as it is said:"Thus saith the Lord,Keep ye justice, and do righteousness" (Isa. 56: 1) .Amos came and brought them down to one;as it is said:"For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel:Seek ye Me, and live" (Amos 5:4).Or:Habakkuk came and brought them down to one;as it is said:"But the righteous shall live by his faith" (Hab.2:4).

The entire Torah on one footA certain heathen came to Shammai and said to him:Convert me provided that you teach me the entire Torah

while I stand on one foot.Shammai drove him away with the builder's cubit which was

in his hand.He went to Hillel who said to him:What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor: 5

that is the entire Torah;the rest is commentary;go and learn it.

In thy heart

"For this commandment which I command thee this day, it isnot too hard for thee, neither is it far off. It is not inheaven.... Neither is it beyond the sea ..." (Deut.3°:11-13)·

They said to Moses:Our master, 10, you say to us it is not in heaven and it is not

beyond the sea;then where is it?He said to them:In a place that "is very night unto thee, in thy mouth, and in

thy heart, that thou mayest do it" (v. 14)­It is not far from you, it is near to you.

What animals teach

Had the Torah not been given us, we could have learnedmodesty from the cat, the command not to rob fromthe ant, chastity from the dove, and propriety fromthe cock.

No~r

M,()(1110J1/IP~/ Cd{JE

The Seventh Fundamental Principle is the prophecy of Moses ourTeacher. We are to believe that he was the chief of all other proph­ets before and after him, all of whom were his inferiors. He wasthe chosen one of all mankind, superior in attaining knowledge ofGod to any other person who ever lived or ever will live. He sur­passed the normal human condition and attained the angelic. Thereremained no veil he did not rend and penetrate behind, nothingphysical to hold him back, no deficiency, great or small, to confusehim. All his powers of sense and fantasy were repressed, and purereason alone remained. This is what is meant by saying that he spoketo God without angelic mediation.

The Eighth Fundamental Principle is that the Torah came fromGod. We are to believe that the whole Torah was given us throughMoses our Teacher entirely from God. When we call the Torah"God's Word" we speak metaphorically. We do not know exactlyhow it reached us, but only that it came to us through Moses whoacted like a secretary taking dictation. He wrote down the events ofthe time and the commandments, for which reason he is called"Lawgiver." There is no distinction between a verse of Scripture like"The sons of Ham were Cush and Mizraim" (Gen. 10:6), or "His

wife's name was Mehetabel and his concubine was Timna" (Gen.36:39, 12), and one like "I am the Lord your God" (Ex. 20:2), or"Hear, a Israel" (Deut. 6:4). All came from God, and all are theTorah of God, perfect, pure, holy and true. Anyone who says Moseswrote some passages on his own is regarded by our sages as an atheistor the worst kind of heretic, because he tries to distinguish essencefrom accident in Torah. Such a heretic claims that some historicalpassages or stories are trivial inventions of Moses and not DivineRevelation. But the sages said that if one accepts as Revelation thewhole Torah with the exception of even one verse, which Moses him­self and not God composed, he is referred to in the verse, "he hasshamed the Word of the Lord" (Num. 15:31), and is heretical.

Every word of Torah is full of wisdom and wonders for one whounderstands it. It is beyond human understanding. It is broader thanthe earth and wider than the sea. Each man must follow David,anointed of the God of Jacob, who prayed: "Open my eyes that Imay behold wonders out of Your Torah" (Ps. 119: 18).

The authoritative commentary on the Torah is also the·Word ofGod. The sukkah we build today, or the lulav, shofar, fringes, phylac­teries, etc. we use, replicate exactly those God showed Moses whichMoses faithfully described for us. This fundamental principle istaught by the verse: "And Moses said, 'Thus shall you know that theLord sent me to do all these things, and that they are not productsof my own mind'" (Num. 16:28).

The Ninth .Fundamental Principle is the authenticity of the Torah,I.e., that thIS Torah was precisely transcribed from God and no oneelse. '!'O the Torah, Oral and Written, nothing must be added noranythl~? taken from it, as is said, "You must neither add norde~ra:t (Deut. .13: 1). We have already sufficiently explained thispnnclple In our Introduction to this Commentary on the Mishnah.

HOW TO LOOK AT TORAH

RABBI SHIM'ON said,

"Woe to the human being who says

that Torah presents mere stories and ordinary words!If so, we could compose a Torah right now with ordinary

words,and better than all of them.To present matters of the world?

Even rulers of the world possess words more sublime.If so, let us follow them and make a Torah out of them.Ah, but all the words of Torah are sublime words, sublime

secrets!

"Come and see:

The world above and the world below are perfectly balanced:Israel below, the angels above.

Of the angels it is written: 'He makes his angels spirits.'But when they descend, they put on the garment of this

world.

If they did not put on a garment befitting this world,they could not endure in this world

and the world could not endure them. ~ CoNT,

Zohar 3:152a (thirteenth century); see Matt, Zohar, 43-45, 204-207.

better than all of them Than all the stories of Torah, than all its or-dinary words.

rulers of the world possess words more sublime Apparently referringto collections of moral fables and wisdom compiled for royal edifica­tion; see Matt, Zohar, 204.

all the words of Torah ... secrets A basic hermeneutical principleof the ZohaI; d. Zohar 2:55b: "There is no word in the Torah thatdoes not contain many secrets, many reasons, many roots, manybranches."

'He makes his angels spirits' Psalms 104:4, whose plain sense is "Hemakes winds his messengers." Rabbi Shim'on reads' the verse hyper­literally to introduce his teaching.

they put on the garment of this world They appear as physical be­ings, for example, to Abraham; see Genesis 18:1-2.

CO,NT

rf this is so with the angds, how much more so with Torah,who created them and all the worlds,and for whose sake they all exist.In descending to this world,if she did not put on the garments of this world,the world could not endure.

"So this story of Torah is the garment of Torah.Whoever thinks that the garment is the real Torah

and not something else-:-may his spirit deflate!He will have no portion in the world that is coming.That is why David said:'Open my eyes, so I can see wonders out of your Torah,'what is under the garment of Torah.

"Come and see: There is a garment visible to all.When those fools see someone in a good-looking garmentthey look no further.But the essence of the garment is the body;the essence of the body is the soul.

"So it is with Torah.She has a body: the commandments of Torah,called 'the embodiment of Torah.'This body is clothed in garments: the stories of t~is world.Fools of the world look only at that garment, the story of

Torah;they know nothing more.They do not look at what is under that garment.Those who know more do not look at the garment,but rather at the body under that garment.The wise ones, servants of the King on high,those who stood at Mount Sinai,look only at the soul, root of all, real Torah.In the time to come, they are destined to look at the soul of

the soul of Torah.

"Come and see: So it is above.There is garment, body, soul, and soul of soul.The heavens and their host are the garment.The Communion of Israel is the body,who receives the soul, Beauty of Israel.So she is the body of the soul.

The soul we have mentioned is Beauty of Israel, real Torah.,The soul of the soul is the Holy Ancient One.All is connected, this one to that one.

"Woe to the wicked who say that Torah is merely a story!They look at this garment and no further.Happy are the righteous who look at Torah properly!As wine must sit in a jar, so Torah must sit in this garment.So look only at what is under the garment.All those words and all those stories are garments."

G-J

Torah, who created them and all the worlds According to the Mish­nah (Avot 3:14), Torah is the "precious instrument by which theworld was created." See Harry A. Wolfson, Philo, 4th rev. ed. [Cam­bridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1968), 1:243-45; and BereshitRabbah 1:1: "The Torah says, 'I was the instrument of the BlessedHoly One' ... The Blessed Holy One gazed into the Torah and cre­ated the world."

'Open my eyes ... ' Psalms 119:18. According 'to tradition, thePsalms were composed by King David.

. 'the embodiment of Torah' Hebrew, gufei torah, "bodies of Torah."In rabbinic literature this term denotes the essential teachings ofTorah; here the category is broadened to include all the command­ments.

garments: the stories of this world Several of the Torah's command­ments are clothed and conveyed in story; see Genesis 32:24-32;Numbers 9:6-14; 15:32-36; 27:1-1 I. Furthermore, biblical narrativeoften transmits moral teaching.

do not lo'ok at the garment, but rather at the body. .. Such readerspenetrate the narrative layer and concentrate on the commandmentsof Torah.those who stood at Mount Sinai According to the Midrash (ShemotRabbah 28:41, the souls of all those not yet born were present atSinai. Here the Zohar implies that only mystical souls were present.To be a mystic is to remember the primordial revelation.

look only at the soul, root of all, real Torah The mystics see throughthe outer, physical layers of Torah-both her garment of stories and,her body of commandments-into her soul, real Torah. The nature ofthis soul soon becomes clear. The Jewish philosopher Philo, theChurch father Origen, and the Sufi mystic Rumi convey similarideas; see Matt, Zohar, 206.

The Communion of Israel Hebrew, keneset yisra'el, "community ofIsrael." In rabbinic literature this phrase denotes the people of Israel,the Ecclesia of Israel. In the Zohar, keneset yisra'el refers to the sefi­rah of Shekhinah, the feminine divine presence, the divine counter­part of the people, that aspect of God most intimately connectedwith them, with whom they can commune. Here Shekhinah is de­scribed as the divine body clothed by the heavens who receives thesoul, a higher sefirah.

the soul, Beauty of Israel The masculine aspect of God is the sefirahof TiE'eret Yisra'el, "the Beauty of Israel" (d. Lamentations 2:11, theHoly One, blessed be he. Shekhinah receives him as the body re­ceives the soul.

So she is the body of the soul This is not redundant. Rabbinic litera­ture (Babylonian Talmud, Yevamot 62al describes a cosmic body con­taining all souls. In Kabbalah this body is identified with Shekhinah.By receiving the soul of Tif'eret, she carries all human souls, whichare engendered by the union of these two sefirot.

The soul we have mentioned. .. This refers not only to the imme­diately preceding lines but to the preceding paragraph: "The wiseones ... look only at the soul." The mystics gaze into the soul ofTorah, none other than the sefirah of TiE'eret, the Holy One,blessed be he. One of the names of this sefirah is the written Torah,while Shekhinah is the oral Torah. The hidden essence of Torah isGod. The ultimate purpose of study is direct experience of the di­vine, who is real Torah; the search for meaning culminates in reve­lation.

The soul of the soul is the Holy Ancient One Aramaic, attiqa qad.dlsha. The Holy Ancient One is the primal manifestation of Ein Softhe Infinite, through Keter, its Crown, the first sefirah-beyond botl~Shekhinah and Tif'eret.

As wine must sit in a jar. .. C£' Mishnah, Avot 4:27: "Do not lookat the jar, but rather at what is inside." .

Isaiah Horowitz (ca. 1565-1630), whoprese~ted an unexcell~d synopsis of rabbinic and kabbalistic Juda­ism in his great work, The Two Tables of the Covenant. Drawingupon the disquisition just quoted, he develops the religious dignityof the creative tradition by proceeding from the explanation of aparticularly pointed Talmudic saying which states: "The Holy Oneblessed be He, speaks Torah out of the mouths of all rabbis."9Horowitz comments:

"Some interpret this saying in reference to the petition which weexpress in the prayer 'Give us our share in Thy Torah,' which istaken to mean: Give us a share in the Torah which God Himselfstudies; or else: May we become worthy of having Him say ateaching in our name. And this is the situation: the scholarsproduce new words [in the understanding of the Torah] or derivethem through the power of their insight. But all of it was containedin the power of that voice that was heard at the revelation; and nowthe time has come for them to bring it from potentiality intoactuality through the efforts of their meditation. But God is greatand mighty in power, and there is no limit to His understanding.His potentiality permits no interruption [in this voice]; rather, it isboundless and endless, and all this [that the sages hear in thevoice] is guided by the measure of renewal and the origin of soulsin every generation as well as the ability of man to arouse thehigher power. It thus follows that while we say of God that 'He hasgiven the Torah' [in the past], He can also be designated at thesame time [in every present time] as 'the One Who gives theTorah.' At every hour and time the fountain gushes forth withoutinterruption, and what He gives at any time was potentially con­tained in what He gave [at Sinai]. Let me explain the essence of

this matter further. We know that the domain of what is made morestringent [in the law by the rabbis] becomes enlarged in everygeneration. In the days of our teacher Moses the only prohibitionswere those which he had expressly received at Sinai. Nevertheless,he added ordinances here and there for special purposes as theyarose; and so did the prophets after him, and the scribes, and everygeneration with its scholars.

"I must reveal further secrets which are related to this matter inorder to make plain that all the words of the wise men are words ofthe living God [and thus have religious dignity]. The words of theTalmud in Tractate 'Erubin (f. I3b) will thereby become under­standable: 'Rabbi Akiba said in the name of Rabbi Samuel: Forthree years the school of Shammai and the school of Hillel engagedin argument. The one said the halachah is according to us, and theother one said the halachah is according to us. A Divine voice thensounded forth and said: Both these and those are the words of the

living God, but the halachah is to be decided according to the schoolof Hillel.' Rabbi Yomtov ben Abraham of Seville reported in hiscommentary that the rabbis of France had raised the question: Howis it possible that both are the words of the living God when oneprohibits what the other one permits? Their answer was that whenMoses ascended the heights in order to receive the Torah he wasshown forty-nine reasons for a prohibition and forty-nine reasonsfor a permission for every problem. He asked God about this andwas told that this would be left to the sages of Israel of everygeneration, and that the decision was theirs to make. And this-sosays the scholar from Seville-is correct according to the Talmud;but according to the Kabbalah there is a special reason for this.

The verse in Ecclesi­astes 12: 11: The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails wellfastened are those that are composed in collections, they are givenfrom one shepherd' is interpreted in the Tractate Chagiga (f. 3b)as follows: "Composed in collections, this refers to the Biblicalscholars who sit in assemb,lies and occupy themselves with the

Torah; some declare a matter unclean, and others declare it clean;some prohibit, others permit; some declare it unusable, and othersdeclare it usable. Someone might say: If this is so, how can I studythe Law? Therefore Scripture continues: 'They are given by oneshepherd; One God gave them, one spokesman [Moses] said themout of the mouth of the Lord of all actions, praised be He, as is said'(Ex. 20:1): 'And God spoke all these words.' You, too, turn yourear into a funnel and fashion for yourself an understanding heartin order to understand the words of those who declare as uncleanand the words of those who declare as clean, the words of those whoprohibit and the words of those who permit, the words of those whodeclare as unusable and the words of those who declare as usable.We have here the affirmation that all differences of opinion andviewpoint that contradict one another were given by one God andsaid by one spokesman. This seems to be very alien to humanunderstanding, and man's nature would be unable to grasp it wereit not for the help given to him by the prepared way of God, thepathway upon which dwells the light of the Kabbalah."12

In the Jewish conception, therefore, genuine tradition, like every­thing that is creative, is not the achievement of human productivityalone. It derives from a bedrock foundation. Vegh's quotation ofMax Scheler is relevant here: "The artist is merely the mother ofthe work of art; God is the father." The tradition is one of the greatachievements in which relationship of human life to its foundationsis realized. It is the living contact in which man takes hold ofancient truth and is bound to it, across all generations, in thedialogue of giving and taking. The poet's word applies to it:

The truth that long ago was found,Has all noble spirits bound,The ancient truth, take hold of it.

4:22

"On the day of the first-fruits, as you offer a new gift to theLord .. .ff (Num. 28:26).

God created the world through Torah. Therefore, the innerlife of all creatures is the power of beginning that derives fromTorah. Thus the sages taught: "[God created the world] for thesake of Torah, which is called 'beginning'." Or, as Scripturesays: "He declared to His people the power of His acts" (Ps.111:6), for Torah is the original power of creation. Creationwas in such a fashion, however, that this inwardness was hid­den. Now, with the giving of Torah, it was revealed, and every­thing became joined to its root.

This is the meaning of "Face to face [or 'Facing inward'] God

spoke to you" (Deut. 5:4). So, too, their statement: "Withevery word the whole world filled up with spices." This alsoexplains [the verse:] "Torah was divided into seventy lan­guages." It is all as we have said, for then the life-force ofTorah was drawn forth and revealed to all creatures.

The Ten Commandments (lit.: "words") are parallel to theten utterances [of Creation], as the holy Zohar says. But the"utterance" is silent and secret, while the "word" is revealed."The king's word" is his rule. Then it was revealed that thepower of Torah gives life to all and rules over all that is. Themost essential "receiving of the Torah" was this revelation.That is why the Targum translates "The Lord descended uponMount Sinai" (Ex. 19:20) as "was revealed." God fills the en­tire world but until then it was hidden.,

That is why this day is called "the day of the first-fruits."Everything now becomes attached to its beginning and is inthis way renewed. Thus, too, it says: "He renews in His good­ness each day the work of Creation." "His goodness," the rab­bis explain, is Torah, since the inner life-force of Creationcomes from Torah. Each day, to be sure, Creation is renewed,but in a hidden way. On Shavu'ot it is more revealed. The evilurge is negated on this day, since it is revealed that even thelife-force that animates the demonic side comes from thatinner point....

The real revelation of Torah is the uncovering of the great se­cret of existence: that everything is animated by the singlelife-force that derives from the word of God. We are not givena Torah that is in any way separate from that which we aregiven in Creation itself. Torah is the key that unlocks the hid­den meaning of all existence. As such, Torah has to be mani­fest in seventy languages and accessible to all God'screatures. While this interpretation of revelation is offered ina deeply Jewish context, its understanding of revelation's truemeaning gives it an inevitably universalist tone. The SefatBmet shows us once again that these two values do not haveto stand in conflict with each other.

This way of thinking about Torah and revelation shouldprovide the way for going beyond the challenge to Jewishfaith posed by biblical criticism and historical study. To theseemingly crucial and vexing question: "Is the Torah of di­vine or human origin!" the Sefat Bmet encourages us to an­swer: "Yes!" All the rest proceeds from there.

WITHOUT VOWELS

THE SCROLL of the Torah is written without vowels, so youcan read it variously. Without vowels, the consonants bearmany meanings and splinter into sparks. That is why theTorah scroll must not be vocalized, for the meaning of eachword accords with its vowels. Once vocalized, a word ~eans

just one thing. Without vowels, you can understand it incountless, wondrous ways.

Bahya ben Asher (thirteenth-fourteenth centuries), Commentary on theTorah, Numbers n:ISi see Ide!, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, 213-14.

splinter into sparks The words sparkle with new and unforeseenmeanings.