Matt sent me the following email:
The question I wanted to ask you is: What is shechinah? Specifically, what does the Rambam mean by the requirement of "ki'ilu omeid lifnei ha'shechinah" in hilchos tefilah?
The question I wanted to ask you is: What is shechinah? Specifically, what does the Rambam mean by the requirement of "ki'ilu omeid lifnei ha'shechinah" in hilchos tefilah?
I remember discussing this idea during the summer. I also remember it having something to do with chochmas Hashem as an organizing force in society. I also remember your analogy to the Renaissance. But that's about it. Any help would be much appreciated.
Yes Matt, Shechina is Chochmas Hashem as known by man in a way that it creates a living dynamic mesorah in thought and action. This is known generally as the idea of a "paradigm" the insight of a great man that illuminates the community. Einsteins thought created the community chochma experience of Physics. PHD students guide their intuition for research via this illuminating thought. They depend upon Einsteins thought for a sense of what "thinking" and "thought" and "lawful universe" are.
In that sense Einstein enabled shechina, a state of relationship of mind to the world of idea, to have concrete meaning as a phenomenon and end we can organize our lives around. It is for this reason we think of Shechina resting in the camp. The "camp" is the community mind. In a dark age the wisdom of the wise is lost, therefore our connection to Shechina is obscured and the value of our research wanes becoming mere scholastic pedantry. It is for this reason I compared Shechina to the renaissance, a time when scholasticism ended and a new dynamic mesorah of chochma was born.
Please ask questions so we can clarify this further.
4 comments:
So when we say " Omed Lifnei Hashechina" we mean that the person views himself as part of a paradigmatic system of chachamah?
Not quite Jake. Paradigm is the instrument of Shechina -it isnt Shechina. Aristotle has his paradigm which allows dynamic mesorah. This is followed by Newton who again allows dynamic mesorah then Einstein. The camp is dynamically pursuing chochma regardless of whether it does so via Aristotle Newton or Einstein. Shechina then is the relationship to the world of ideas enabled by paradigms- it isn't any particular paradigm.
Lifnei Hashem then, is the state of being focused on the ideational "force" behind paradigm. The paradigm is the shem hashem, the sense of dynamic intuition of being part of the geulah process taught to us by the vision of Avraham. As the graduate student in physics guides his sense of dynamic inquiry via Einstein, the biologist via dna we are guided by the idea of Geula.
This is why there is Semichat Geula litefilla.
RS,
Thank you for the explanation.
I remember you pointing out that the requirement of kavana is not to be omeid lifnei ha'shechinah but to be ki'ilu omeid lifnei ha'shechinah, but I don't remember the idea.
Is it ki'ilu because tefilah is, in a sense, artificial? In order to be mispaleil, a person must first yifnei libo mi'kol ha'machshavos. In other words, he must withdraw from the associated world of his own pursuits and see himself in light of the shem Hashem.
Also, what is the mashal of lifnei?
Thanks for the clarification,
it makes more sense than my original reading of your idea.
Post a Comment