The Path to Mitzvot V: awakening to Shechina

אֶשָּׂא עֵינַי, אֶל-הֶהָרִים-- מֵאַיִן, יָבֹא עֶזְרִי ?
עֶזְרִי, מֵעִם יְהוָה-- עֹשֵׂה, שָׁמַיִם וָאָרֶץ

I would like to summarize the gains we have made in “Shechina” as a critical step on the "awakening" needed prior to beginning the path of Mitzvot. The easiest way to do this will be to retrace the steps we made in thinking about Shechina. First of all let us define Shechina as the cause of human development into a mind as expressed by conforming to truth in thought and action. This process of coming to this definition began with Matt's question and reached its conclusion with the spectrum of development caused by Shechina , beginning with the absolutely mindless "hewer of wood" and ending with the absolutely mindful Yehoshua. What we need to note in this process are two things:

1) The need for a paradigm, an educational mesorah by means of which the light of "Shechina" is made conscious to the people so that they can research natural sciences like Physics and act wisely through the application of natural science to crafts like medicine. We see because we sit on the shoulders of giants.

2) The formulation of "Shechina" as an ideational force, organizing society in a cultural direction of actualizing mind. This social revolution begins with a fundamental transformation in mentality of the people regarding the model of the world in which they see themselves. The boor is locked in the darkness of a model of the world limited to personal tangible space. As we saw in the zoom this formulation of the world is useful only for focus on pleasures / pains one recognizes with the senses (attractive people,foods,possesions) -this model must be overcome. Because of this anti insightful world the boor is absolutely mechanistic, like a material body, acting on the basis of a physical law of attraction he is unconscious of and cannot change. In the place of the boors imprisoning dark age model there must arise a renaissance model full of light of knowledge. This model allows for "Shechina" a dynamic mindful awareness of ideas that illuminate man's place in the world and facilitates research in all areas, from natural sciences like physics and chemistry to human sciences like medicine, art and psychology.

Now to the path to Shechina.

Part 1 Matt's question about “Shechina"

The question

Rabbi Sacks,

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.

The answer

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 "lawfull 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.

Part 2 Matt's elaboration on “Shechina"

The term "shechinah" refers to chochmas Hashem as a dynamic, organizing force in human society. The Chochmas Hashem which governs the all of the motion and change in the universe is the same Chochmas Hashem which governs human life-motion and development.

The difference is that whereas Chochmas Hashem governs the rest of the universe mechanistically (i.e. through the systems of natural law), man's life-motion and development are governed through knowledge and bechirah to live in accordance with that knowledge (i.e. through the system of Torah law - the regimen that develops man from a potential mind into an actual mind).

Man's development from an animal to a tzelem Elokim is caused by and proceeds in accordance with his knowledge and bechirah. In order to develop, man must know what a human being is, what his developmental path consists of, what developmental tools are at his disposal, and how to implement them; then he must choose to do so. All of this knowledge is contained in the Torah, for those who know how to understand and implement it correctly.

Part 3 Comment on Matt's elaboration on “Shechina"

I would like to reiterate the two points I made in the introduction before building upon Matt's excellent elaboration.

Point #1
It is critical to note the "mesorah" dimension of Shechina. We do not relate to Chochmas Hashem directly, rather this Chochma dwells among us via the communicated insight or "paradigm" of the Masters, in our case- Moshe Rabbenu and Rambam. We see because we sit upon the shoulders of giants.

Point #2
As in the case of the Renaissance, there is not an infinite continuum to knowledge-rather there is a distinct "beginning" to Shechina. Ayn Boor Yireh Chet refers to the fact that a "hewer of wood" is not guided by Chochma in any fundamental aspect of conducting his life and has no connection with Shechina whatsoever. Indeed this was the case in pre Renaissance Europe. Far from being organized around Chochma awareness, all thought centered around either superstition and magic or dead Scholasticism.

Rabbi Sacks gave an excellent analogy to Shechinah: the Renaissance. During the Renaissance, chochmah-awareness pervaded all of Europe and transformed all aspects of the culture. People became aware that the entire universe is governed by Chochmah. The scientific revolution of the renaissance overturned long-time assumptions about the way the world works; religious dogma was held to rational scrutiny; politics was reexamined and subjected to rigorous analysis; medicine was approached as a science, rather than a mass of superstitious remedies; even art was transformed through the application of mathematical principles. This awareness of Chochmah was not limited to the elite scholars, but extended to the common man as well. All people recognized Chochmah as an organizing force in the society, and it is this type of community-wide recognition of Chochmah as a dynamic, organizing force which Chazal refer to as "Shechinah."

The boor has not yet begun the path to Mitzvot, because he lacks the fundamental experience of seeing Chochma in any aspect of his life. The boor is locked in his personal space, he sees a world of opportunities to pleasure or pain himself. At most he can arouse himself from his preoccupation with immediate pleasure pain by the threat of death of a power real or imagined. the hewer will cut wood to buy beer or bow to his idol to gain a cure for a disease. To do Mitzvot is to choose to increase the application of Chochma to more and more areas. Lacking any experience with Chochma and therefore without Yiras Hashem the boor is stuck. Given a world of boors then, how does the path to Mitzvot begin? How does an awareness of a Chochma centered universe arise in a psyche absolute committed to an opposing model centered around ones boorish pleasures and pains? How do eyes which see not and ears that hear not get turned on? How does a nefesh screen utterly focused on a world of women, beers and football see the apple of Newton in a new light of Chochma? How does the redemption of the boor occur? These questions were already answered in my post on Tuesday, July 31, 2007 Torah's place in Redemption and the Quest for Malchus Shamayim part 1-4.

In short, it was Makot Mitraim which shattered the boorish attachment to personal space. The people "saw" a new phenomenon- Yad Hashem- a causal force, understandable through the paradigm of Moshe, that governed the big picture of Shamayim va-aretz including their part, zooming in to the time and place of Yam Suf.

The question we need to ask is what does the path look like? What is the experience of actualizing as a mind once one is no longer a boor. What is it like to begin the process of moving through the stages of closeness to the palace, once one is awakened to the reality of Yad Hashem? This requires a theory of education, one that at least outlines the process of transformation. This is the next post.