Becoming a craftsman of life

The Torah, according to Ralbag, is “a regimen that orders those who practice it properly to true success”. A “regimen” is a prescription of behavior, a method or set of skills instrumental to the self being able to effectively operate in the external world. A soldier has a training regimen in shooting running and fighting skills that enable success of the self in war. So too an athlete has a regimen of stretching and practice and the artist works on technique that enable success of the self in the sense of championships or art shows- but is the study of Chumash part of a regimen? This classification of Chumash is a little difficult to understand, our experience of its stories doesn't seem to about ourselves effectively operating in the external world. On the contrary, Chumash seems to be about understanding the external world, not in enabling the self to operate upon it! In what way is asking questions about Yaakov and Esav similar to the regimen of a soldier? In what way is the answering of difficulties about the jealousy of the brothers to Yosef similar to the regimen of an athlete or an artist?

To understand this point, we must have a deeper sense of what a regimen is. Our problem arises from an overly material sense of the interaction a craftsman has with the world. It focuses upon the motor action, the way the craftsman's body interacts with the tangible material world. In reality the craftsman does not directly operate upon the tangible material world. He operates upon the world via his minds educated understanding of the theoretical opportunities for success in the world. The essence of being a soldier is not knowing how to shoot, it is recognizing the theoretical opportunity for victory. So too the essence of being an athlete is not the ability to do motor action, it is to see the opportunity for a play, the opportunity for expressing an idea in a medium. Michelangelo was asked how he created the famous sculpture of David. He responded : I took the marble and hammered away at anything that didn't look like David. To be Michelangelo then is not so much to know how to hammer, though of course skill in hammering is critical. It is to see a theoretical world of marble which is potentially David if properly hammered.

It is in this sense of regimen as fundamentally a perspective of mind that the Torah is “a regimen that orders those who practice it properly to true success”. We study Yaakov, not so much to know what he did per se, but rather to gain access the world of opportunity as he saw it. We wish to avoid the limiting world that let to the jealousy of the brothers, we want to adopt the world of opportunity that followed Yaakovs teshuva and meeting with Yosef. It is this sense of Chumash that gives us illuminating insights into the world of human opportunities in which Mitzvot technique operate. Like Michelangelo the Torah master does not so much know mitzva technique, as see a world of of opportunities in which Mitzvot are the best instruments. This is what Ralbag refers to when he speaks of the three parts of Torah

It is of necessity that the Torah regimen should be divided into these elements, since human excellence can not be fully realized, except by attaining excellence of both man's constitution and research to the most excellent degree. Now the element that encompasses the study of political /social affairs that are beyond command and prohibition, is a next step that builds upon what has already been attained by mitzvot in the domain of developing man's psychological constitution. The study of the wisdom of the universe is a next step that builds upon what has already been attained by mitzvot in the domain of developing man's soul...

In the development of man we begin the relationship to the world of opportunities via beliefs and Mitzva techniques. As in any craft we begin through the education from our system or mentors. We see a world of opportunity via Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov. We gain access to a craft of living via the techniques of Mitzvot. But this is the beginning of our development not its end. Once the craftsman sees the new world opportunity, he wants to delve deeper, to have an independence of understanding his world, free of authority of his masters. He wishes to see the political world, the complete possibility of opportunity not just the stories of the Chumash that exemplify this world. He wishes to become a craftsman of life not just one who follows the example of Masters.

Becoming a mind

The Torah, according to Ralbag, is “a regimen that orders those who practice it properly to true success”. This “regimen” seems to be divided into three stages- Mitzvot, political behavior and the wisdom of the universe:

A) The first element, mistakenly thought of by many as the entire mission of the Torah, are the Mitzvos which encompass what we have been commanded to believe and do as well as what not to believe or do. This category includes 613 Mitzvos according to the traditional method of counting.

B) The second element encompasses the study of political behavior and society generally. This area is a domain outside of legislative action, because it presupposes a level of human development well beyond the capacity of the standard citizen. To illustrate, let us consider if the Torah were to legislate that we must not be angry except for what one ideally should be angry about, and even then only to the ideal measure of anger, in the proper time and place. Or perhaps that one should not be happy except for what one ideally should be happy about, and even then only to the ideal measure of happiness, in the proper time and place…. All people would be in violation of the law continuously, excluding a minute few...

C) The third element includes what the Torah grants us of the Wisdom of the universe, that cannot be attained through human research, save by exhaustive effort, if a man should fail to avail himself of its prophetic stories that guide us to this hasaga (apprehension)

These three stages seem to be complementary elements of a developmental curriculum as Ralbag states later on. The core of the curriculum seems to be the Mitzvot, which the other two stages “build upon”.

It is of necessity that the Torah regimen should be divided into these elements, since human excellence can not be fully realized, except by attaining excellence of both man's constitution and research to the most excellent degree. Now the element that encompasses the study of political /social affairs that are beyond command and prohibition, is a next step that builds upon what has already been attained by mitzvot in the domain of developing man's psychological constitution. The study of the wisdom of the universe is a next step that builds upon what has already been attained by mitzvot in the domain of developing man's soul...

1) What does Ralbag mean by “attaining excellence of both man's constitution and research“ and how is this attainment accomplished through “building upon the Mitzvot” ?

2) In what way is this process of “attaining excellence of both man's constitution and research“ connected to Ralbag's previous tefilla?

To answer this we must understand something of Ralbag's concept of “becoming”. As mentioned in the previous post, Ralbag's first order of business was to awaken a reader used to thinking of himself as an independent power to the reality of Hashgacha as an external cause of his own ability. This Hashgacha is clearly an outgrowth of Chochmas Hashem that is behind the creation of the ecosystem of Earth of which man is part of

Praised be the Creator, who, because of His 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

It is an essential feature of the Earthly ecosystem that all members undergo a “cycle of life”. Minerals become vegetables and vegetables become animals. In due course the living tissue degenerates and returns to being mineral. This cycle of life or “becoming” is not limited to the animal kingdom but extends to man as well,both in terms of his animal character as well as his mind and education.

This hashgacha is not limited to the magnificence of man’s anatomy and physical abilities by which his physical existence is maintained. It extends to guiding man along the path of mental development- the one true fruit of human existence for whose sake alone the lowly material of Aretz 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.

The nature of the human condition is to be aware of a system of becoming of which he himself is a part. Unlike a chemical or vegetable or animal that mechanistically undergo a process which they are unaware of and are therefore incapable of controlling, man is aware of the very process he undergoes. As Rambam puts it

Every person is granted freedom. If he wants to steer himself toward the good path and be a Tzaddik-he has the freedom to do so. If he wants to steer himself toward the evil path and be a Rasha-he has the freedom to do so. This point is written in the Torah as its says” behold Man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil” (Brayshees 3, 22). What this means is that the species of man is unique in the material world, no other species is like it in the fact that Man himself, through his own thought and judgment, knows what is good and evil and acts as he wills with no one opposing him from doing good and evil...

It is our very awareness of the general process of becoming that gives us a choice of what we will become. We can choose to seek out the causes of the system we are part of and become minds that use our animal nature as a platform-or we can choose not to seek causes and become pure animals. It is this process of human becoming that Torah is an aid to. It is also within this process of becoming that we can understand the three stages of Torah education. In essence, the becoming of man revolves around the issue of re-engineering the animal platform away from being a tool of animal dominance and pleasure and towards being a tool of research. This re-engineering consists of two parts
a) creating a psyche that functions as an able platform for intellectual research b) creating an intellect that actually researches the wisdom underlying the Creations.

Both of these re-engineerings are begun in Mitzvos and “built upon” by later research. As Ralbag puts it “the Mitzvos ... encompass what we have been commanded to believe and do as well as what not to believe or do”. So long as we relate to our beliefs and actions authoritatively, ie without independent proof grounded in our intellectual understanding of “becoming”, they are rudimentary and need to be built upon. This building goes through two stages. The first stage is grasping the causes of Mitzvot as “political social” phenomena only, as instruments of maintaining order in society. The second level moves beyond, seeing mitzvot as part of order as seen throughout the “wisdom of the universe”.

We can now see the process of “attaining excellence of both man's constitution and research“. But what is the connection to the tefilla?

Man's challenge in recognizing his place in becoming is that we view the world through the lens of our animal eyes and psyche. Prior to re-engineering ourselves we do not see a world of “ becoming” governed by Chochmas Hashem of which we ourselves are part. We see a world of raw materials awaiting our own dominion and design. As animals we take our own internal drive to dominate as a given, an unquestioned premise whose good cannot be reflected upon let alone challenged. It is the Baal Mesorah who awakens us from this belief, helps us consider a new possibility. Ralbag's call to tefilla is therefore integrally involved in the “becoming” of his talmid the reader. To become aware of Hashgacha is not merely to leave a sense of power to know. It is to become aware of the animal material that was the source of our predisposition to believe we had this power and viewed the world as purely raw materials in which this power should be expressed.

One and the same realization is then the cause both of the need for tefilla as well as the order of limud Mitzvot. The special place of man in material becoming, the challenge of choosing to transform animality in the ways needed to embrace mindedness is the source of both.