Torahs place in redemption and the quest for Malchus Shamayim #4

Yiras hashem reeshis das:
To understand this we must go one level deeper into the story of yetzias mitzraim and the educational role of the makos and of Moshe Rabbenu. The Geulei Mitzraim had a very different life experience than ours as Western Jews. Like most people who have not experienced tyranny, the Western Jew instinctively accepts his group's civilizational vision of reality conveyed by Pharoah without question. This vision is so dominating that it determines the very framework through which he interacts with the external world.

The Westerner's very identity can only be formulated in terms of this vision of the world. If asked what he does the only response is in terms of his function of human attainment - whether professional: actors, professors, accountants, students - or familial: mothers, fathers, children, etc. Of course, we are continuously measuring our own success in these functional roles. The artificial seperation into scientist and humanist makes sense only in this civilization of human attainment. One whose talent lies in abstract reasoning competes for fame and fortune within the artificial vision of the state by competing with others of like talent in science/math departments, universities or industry. Those whose talent lies in aesthetics compete for fame and fortune in the humanities departments or in the arts or theater. Neither seeks the natural development of their soul within the overarching order of Malchus Shamayim. To the contrary, they have contempt for the very notion that they should distract themselves in order to seek their natural purpose - “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; but the foolish despise wisdom and discipline.” We rarely question or even consider the natural basis of this social vision. Is our societally centered vision reflective of man's true place in the universe? Such questioning distracts us from single-minded pursuit of our social vision of success. It feels to us at best boring and annoying, at worst a threat. Socrates paid with his very life for questioning the place of human vision in the natural order. Avraham escaped this fate by miraculous intervention only, as did the Jews during Channuka and Purim. Generations of Jews following the destruction of the Temple have not been so blessed. Millions and millions have been slaughtered fro daring to raise this question. Our animal psyche precludes any shift of focus from the small picture of the world of society seen with the eyes, it will protect itself from this even at the cost of mass murder and genocide.

This would necessarily have been the fate of human civilization for all time if not for a unique observation made possible through hashgacha and the redemptive educational agency of Moshe Rabbenu.

In contrast to the Westerner, the "Yotzei Mitzraim" were more like Holocaust survivors. In accordance with the divinely inspired process of Brit bayn ha-betarim they had observed the dark side of "the state" and the political vision of its Fuhrer – Pharaoh. Like the Holocaust survivor they had seen first hand the transition from a welfare state attending to the material needs of its hungry citizens to a murderous regime. They experienced how the centralization of state power, the dream of Pharaoh aided by the able wisdom of Yosef ha-tzadik, had turned into the nightmare of enslavement of a Pharaoh who did not remember Joseph. What a cynical use Pharaoh/Hitler made of the organization of all Egypt around Joseph's vision! Rather than coordinating his people for their benefit, to rescue them from the divinely decreed famine as Joseph had done, Pharaoh/Hitler used his absolute power to manipulate all of Egypt into the genocidal enslavement of the Jewish people. Rather than using his rhetorical ability to clarify a vision beneficial to Egypt, he convinced his people of the snake oil of a nonexistent threat from Jews for his own insatiable power needs.

The Jews were, therefore, in a unique position to be taught about the terrible danger of a society founded upon visions of Pharaohs rather than upon kabbalas ole Malchus Shamayim. They had felt on their own flesh the fantastical character of such visions.

The makos and Yam suf were designed to create a textbook case of this danger, for the Jews to observe and memorialize for all humanity. Pharaoh led Egypt to ruin, during the makos and then again at Yam Suf. So extreme was Pharoah's fantasy of his own divine right that he could not see what was manifestly obvious to his own magicians: “the finger of God is involved.” So too, he could not stop exhorting his people to his own vision and spin even in the face of utter disaster, even as his own people cried out “have you not noticed that Egypt is lost?” The Shiras Hayam specifies the evil spin of Pharaoh, describing his fantastical belief that he could destroy the servants of God, just as Hitler attempted - to his ruin. “The enemy said, ‘I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide the spoil. My desire shall be satisfied on them. I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.’”

The Shiras Hayam was Moshe Rabbenu's education of the Jewish people to the meaning of Malchus Shamayim. Witnessing Pharoah's defeat at Yam Suf, in the height of his rhetorical spin, concluded this foundational process:

14:30 Thus the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.
14:31 Israel saw the great work which the LORD did to the Egyptians, and the people feared the LORD; and they believed in the LORD, and in his servant Moses.
15:1 Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the LORD, and said, “I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.
15:2 The LORD is my strength and song. He has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise him; my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
15:3 The LORD is a man of war. The LORD is his name.
15:4 He has cast Pharaoh’s chariots and his army into the sea. His chosen captains are sunk in the Sea of Suf.
15:5 The deeps cover them. They went down into the depths like a stone.
15:6 Your right hand, LORD, is glorious in power. Your right hand, LORD, dashes the enemy in pieces.
15:7 In the greatness of your excellency, you overthrow those who rise up against you. You send forth your wrath. It consumes them as stubble.
15:8 With the blast of your nostrils, the waters were piled up. The floods stood upright as a heap. The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea.
15:9 The enemy said, ‘I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide the spoil. My desire shall be satisfied on them. I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.’
15:10 You blew with your wind. The sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters.
15:11 Who is like you, LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?
15:12 You stretched out your right hand. The earth swallowed them.
15:13 “You, in your loving kindness, have led the people that you have redeemed. You have guided them in your strength to your holy habitation.

Such a Jewish people would indeed be in a different position to make judgements about the reality of Malchus Shamayim. Their ability to sustain the fantasy of absolute human sovereignty cast in artificial 'Pharoahic' visions would be shattered. People who are comfortable do not have the energy to seek to understand the place of man in Creation. We do not question the established social order, we are overcome by our snake like psyche. But an oppressed group thinks very differently. As the oppressed Jews of Purim, as the oppressed Jews of Channuka, as the oppressed Jews of the Holocaust, as the oppressed Europeans in Royal Europe, the Jews of Egypt were in an opportune position to question the natural place of man in the Universe and the proper place of the enticing rhetoric of the sovereign. Their bitter experience with tyranny made them ready to wonder: Where is human leadership's proper place in the natural order of Creation? A reality-based yirah of divine power awakens interest in understanding how their own powerful instinct to follow their leader, the very natural tendency to follow an appealing vision, could have led them so astray. Prompting them to ask their parents this question at the seder, as they were told the story of the makos and redemption: How do we find the educational path (mussar) to avoid such disastrous fantasies in the future?

It is just this foundational seeking of guidance from our parents which Shlomo HaMelech intends to build upon in the first pesukim of Mishlei:

1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;
2 To know the instruction of wisdom; to comprehend the words of understanding;
3 To receive the discipline of wisdom, justice, and judgement, and equity;
4 To give prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion;
7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; but the foolish despise wisdom and discipline. {P}

The two stories of Creation are the starting point for the formal education of a child whose identity is forged in the civilization of Yirah ( one who has awe) born of vi-higadita li-vincha. “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; but the foolish despise wisdom and discipline.”

Such a one is liberated from the artificial seperation “scientist” and “humanist”. The child taught Yiras Hashem realizes that life is not about the pursuit of fame and fortune in Pharoah's state. All talents are meant to naturally develop into one unified pursuit of the beauty of Malchus shamayim! Bichol derachecha daey-hu- in all your ways you should know Him! He pities the slave whose talent for abstract reasoning is wasted on competition for fame and fortune within the artificial vision of the state. He equally pities the humanist whose talent for rich description is wasted on competition for fame and fortune in the humanities departments or in the arts or theater. This perspective of mind is well described by Rambam:
[ב] והיאך היא הדרך לאהבתו, ויראתו? בשעה שיתבונן האדם במעשיו וברואיו הנפלאים הגדולים, ויראה מהם חכמתו שאין לה ערך ולא קץ--מיד הוא אוהב ומשבח ומפאר ומתאווה תאווה גדולה לידע השם הגדול, כמו שאמר דויד "צמאה נפשי, לאלוהים--לאל חי" (תהילים מב,ג).
ב וכשמחשב בדברים האלו עצמן, מיד הוא נרתע לאחוריו, ויירא ויפחד ויידע שהוא בריה קטנה שפלה אפלה, עומד בדעת קלה מעוטה לפני תמים דעות, כמו שאמר דויד "כי אראה שמיך . . . מה אנוש, כי תזכרנו" תהילים ח,ד-ה.
What is the proper path to love and awe of Him? When a person gains insight into His actions and His great and glorious creations, seeing in them His wisdom that is without measure or limit, he immediately loves, glorifies and is filled with an enormous desire to know the great name... When he applies these very same principles, he is immediately overwhelmed, is filled with awe and fear knowing that he is but a small and lowly creature...

In his intro to Chelek, Rambam discusses the need to take great care in developing the psyche into an instrument of mind. Educating a child to accept ole malchut shamayim is hazardous. The reality of an all encompassing Malchus Shamayim must be presented honestly, yet in a way that is not too disruptive to the animal psyche. How is this true education accomplished?

It is precisely this education that we see realized in the two introductory Mashalim of B'raishis that introduce the soul of the Yareh to its true place in creation. Each Mashal deals with one of the insights that the soul needs to make. Since the principles are embedded in a Mashal, the psyche can absorb them at the rate it is able. While the general outlines of the story are made known to every Jew, there are many details that are hidden, doled out as the psyche becomes ready to handle them. These general themes are pointed out by the Baalei Mesorah - most potently I believe by the Rambam and his school. Let us use the Ralbag's approach to these two mashalim as a case in point.
Mashal 1) The first story introduces the abstract scientific mind to its intuition of God's design in his Creation. It depicts this design according to the Mashal of an artist who expresses a beautiful design through the medium of a "world" comprising the entire universe (Shamayim Va-Aretz). The creations of God grant us a glimpse of the beauty of the "design" of the divine "craftsman" that is pointed to by the order of His Creation. The Yareh realises that he must not use science and craft in a vain attempt to remake his world into a new product. Rather we must make make a civilized living space instrumental to knowing His craft, His wisdom. Yet how much science is used in this way? How much more is used in never ending pursuit of a divine human dominion?
This point can be seen in the very first paragraph of the introduction of the Ralbag to the Torah:
Blessed and most revered be the tzur ("rock"), foundation of all existence, whose “insight” (T'vunaso) , “wisdom” (chochmaso) and “knowledge” (Da’ato) bring into being, a system of existing things, whose existence exhibits a wisdom and grace which none but He can completely apprehend.

Mashal 2) The second Creation story alerts us to the difficulty of harnessing the animal instincts of the psyche to be instrumental to the research needed for realizing the natural capacity of the soul to gain these glimpses of His Chochma. How difficult it is to direct our ability to observe and describe to mature purpose! How much literature and art is truly honest - creative in the sense of seeking to provide material to the soul seeking a mature vision of malchus shamayim? How much more are we driven to provide art and literature that is merely entertaining, useful for making money and gaining creativity in a fantasy sense of being like “gods knowers of good and evil”, giving people the comfort they desire in an immature attempt to escape malchus shamayim. It is for this reason that the Creation story of Adam is more humanistic, depicting "order" according to the Mashal of a benevolent Sovereign whose coaxes Adam into the ideal educational environment of Gan Eden. It is in Gan Eden that the divine sovereign teaches Adam the Mitzva/law that guides Adam HaRishon through the unique struggle of developing his soul in the face of the animalistic temptation to being “like gods knowers of good and evil” as portrayed by the snake. This dimension of soul is the second point noted by Ralbag in his intro:
Praised be the creator, who, because of the desire to benefit the creations and facilitate their maturation, directed His hashgacha upon these lowly beings, developing them through the appropriate stages climaxing with the emergence of mankind. This hashgacha is not limited to the magnificence of man’s anatomy and physical abilities by which his physical existence is maintained, but rather extends to guiding man along the path of mental development - the one true fruit of human existence for whose sake alone lowly material reality is endowed with tzura to the extent that it is. We refer of course to the divine Torah, which is a regimen that orders those who practice it properly to true success.

Far from being confused, the Yareh sees a deep unity in the two stories of Creation, a new pathway to Torah through these two dimensions of himself. He realizes that the aim of the Torah is to research life in a way that reconnects his experience of the world to the intuition of Malchus Shamayim. Far from ending, the first theme is omnipresent, ever awaiting man's ability to see himself, his surroundings and civilization as part of the great hierarchy of Malchus Shamayim. This quest begins, of course, with understanding the causation of the fall of man to the force of the evil snake - the ego driven psyche. It moves through the redemption of Egypt where man observed the evil effect of this egotistical world. It then moves on to the prospect of a new civilization of Israel fulfilling man's original promise of living a unified life of mind in a Mitzva governed life in Israel. Far from departing from the first theme, the path of Torah yearns to return to it. The ticket to return is overcoming our psyche's predilection for fantasy visions of grandeur. The measure of readiness to engage in seeing the complete Malchus Shamayim is undergoing the regimen that orders those who practice it properly to true success. This is also the meaning of Rambam:

When a person gains insight into these d’varim (first principles), recognizing (the entire hierarchy) of the creations, from angel and galaxy all the way to man (and his environment), and therefore sees the chochmas Hashem in all the creations, he adds to his love of the Makom, and his soul thirsts and his flesh yearns to love the Makom baruch hu. Simultaneously, this person feels a great awe and fear resulting from his smallness and inconsequentiality ...

Now I say that it is inappropriate to tour the pardes except for he who has filled his belly with bread and meat. “Bread and meat” refers to knowing the assur and mutar (i.e. the applied principles) in that which is not first principles. Even though these principles are called davar katan... they come first educationally, since they cultivate (meyashvin) the mind and additionally are the great good by which we develop this world (yishuv Aretz) and attain the world to come.

May we all merit to be redeemed to see the true problem of the pitfall of the psyche and avail ourselves of the one true guidance, the path of Torah by which we remake ourselves to be ohavei shmo! Deracheyha Darchei noam, vichol nesivosayha- Shalom.