[Avodah] RYBS TEEM Musings
Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer
ygbechhofer at gmail.com
Sat Jan 13 20:58:44 PST 2007
> *The Emergence of Ethical Man.(Book review).* Daniel Rynhold.
> */Religious Studies/* 42.3 (Sept 2006): p364(5).
> <http://find.galegroup.com/itx/publicationSearch.do?queryType=PH&inPS=true&type=getIssues&prodId=EAIM¤tPosition=0&userGroupName=newb77636&searchTerm=Religious+Studies&index=JX&tabID=T002&contentSet=IAC-Documents>
>
> *Full Text :*COPYRIGHT 2006 Cambridge University Press
>
> Joseph B. Soloveitchik The Emergence of Ethical Man, Michael Berger
> (ed.). (Jersey City NJ: Ktav Publishing House, 2005). Pp. xxii + 214.
> [pounds sterling]20.00 (Hbk). ISBN 088125 873 3.
>
> Feted as the figurehead of the form of Judaism that became known as
> modern orthodoxy, Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik (1903-1993) gained a
> reputation as one of the foremost Jewish thinkers of the twentieth
> century. This status, which transcended denominational and religious
> divides, was based on a relatively small number of philosophical and
> theological essays. Since his death, however, a number of
> Soloveitchik's unpublished manuscripts have entered the public domain
> through the MeOtzar HoRav series, under the expert stewardship of
> David Shatz and Joel Wolowelsky. The Emergence of Ethical Man (EEM),
> edited by Michael Berger from ten handwritten notebooks, is the fifth
> and possibly most significant volume of the series so far.
>
> EEM focuses on Soloveitchik's abiding interest in elucidating
> 'religious anthropology ... within the philosophical perspective of
> Judaism' (xii), as he himself describes it in a letter excerpted in a
> helpful editor's introduction. Part 1 utilizes the opening chapters of
> Genesis, a text Soloveitchik returned to many times, to put forward an
> account of man that emphasizes his continuity with the natural world.
> Part 2 begins with the central question of how man emerges as a unique
> ethical being out of these entirely naturalistic origins and continues
> with an account of the corruption of the ethical personality through
> sin. Finally, Part 3 deals with the rehabilitation of man through a
> description of the various manifestations of what Soloveitchik terms
> the 'charismatic personality' as embodied in Abraham and Moses.
>
> While naturalistic elements have always been present in Soloveitchik's
> work, they appear far more marked in EEM, and he is keen throughout
> Part 1 to distance himself not only from Greek and Christian views,
> but also from the widely held Jewish view that insists on a
> qualitative metaphysical distinction between man and nature. As Berger
> notes in his introduction, the work is 'revolutionary in that it
> breaks with traditional metaphysical categories that are the warp and
> woof of medieval Jewish commentary and philosophy, and instead bases
> its analysis purely on the categories of the natural and social
> sciences' (xxi), an observation that is entirely borne out by what
> follows.
>
> The basic point in Part 1 is that' man may be the most developed form
> of life on the continuum of plant-animal-man, but the ontic essence
> remains identical' (47). Indeed, in his account of the famous biblical
> idea that man is made in the image of God (tzelem elohim) he
> explicitly rejects what he takes to be the metaphysical and
> transcendental Christian reading of the term tzelem. Instead, in a
> description that surpasses even the strongly scientific elucidation of
> the term in 1965's The Lonely Man of Faith, Soloveitchik insists that
> tzelem 'signifies man's awareness of himself as a biological being and
> the state of being informed of his natural drives' (75-76).
>
Fascinating take on "Tzelem Elokim." One wonders what the zayde (in this
case, R' Chaim *Volozhiner* would have had to say about this. Is there
any precedent in earlier Jewish sources for this definition?
> The impression one gains that Soloveitchik's naturalism is more
> pronounced here than in his published writings on Genesis is probably
> in part down to the anthropological perspective from which he is
> writing. Thus, in his 1964 essay Confrontation where Soloveitchik
> takes his favoured typological approach, 'natural man' is derided as a
> hedonically minded pleasure seeker. The contrasting anthropological
> perspective of EEM means that 'natural man' is used as a descriptive
> anthropological category and thus there is no call for any such
> evaluative judgement. In EEM it is, for Soloveitchik, simply a true
> description of the nature of man.
>
> With the naturalistic context in place, Part 2 turns to the emergence
> of ethical man. Firstly, in order to experience the ethical norm,
> external divine intervention is necessary. Only through the divine
> command can man transcend his natural biological self and experience
> the ethical. This is because the ethical imperative has to be
> 'experienced as both a must and as something that may be resisted or
> ignored' (81), and this normative pull cannot derive from nature
> since, as Soloveitchik notes, 'biological motivation is neutral as far
> as ethical standards are concerned' (87). So, on the one hand
> Soloveitchik retains a fact/value distinction such that an 'ought' can
> never arise from an 'is'. He can only conceive of value emerging from
> a realm beyond the natural and given the religious framework of his
> thinking, God is naturally the source of value. Yet Soloveitchik
> insists on retaining his naturalism at the human level, concluding
> Part 2 by saying that 'the ethical personality is not transcendent. It
> only reconsiders its own status in a normative light, conceiving the
> natural law as identical with the moral law' (144). So man remains a
> biological rather than metaphysical being, but man's unique ethical
> perspective emerges through his encounter with the divine imperative.
>
"Natural law" sounds to me like Rousseau. Is RYBS suggesting that human
beings are "naturally" ethical? It seems that he is saying more than
that: That to be ethical is also not connected to being transcendent -
viz., a person who attempts to transcend this world is a priori
"unethical." Is this Ba'al Mussar's (!!!) deriding Chassidim/Mekubalim?
> What is most important about this divine imperative is its role as a
> condition of the freedom necessary for the emergence of the ethical
> personality. The divine imperative does not play a Euthyphro-like role
> of defining the good. Instead, we find in more Kantian fashion talk of
> the divine imperative as a necessary condition of freewill and the
> normative 'must'. Indeed, the echoes of Kant are unmistakable in much
> of what he has to say about 'universal natural morality' (154),
> whether when referring to the charismatic man who 'refuses to obey an
> external authority ... [but] discovers the ethos himself' (153), or
> when writing that 'the postulate of freedom is necessary ... for the
> legitimation of the very essence of the ethical experience' (77,
> emphasis added).
>
> The further stages of the emergence of the ethical similarly revolve
> around the 'postulate of freedom'. Thus, Soloveitchik's second stage
> requires that man conceive of himself as separate from nature, and
> through this consciousness of otherness, as a subject standing against
> an object, he understands that he is a free being (78). And in an
> interesting parallel with much contemporary Jewish thought from Buber
> through to Levinas, the full emergence of the free ethical personality
> requires the third stage of confronting the 'thou' through the
> creation of the other. Interestingly for Soloveitchik scholars, though
> Buberian elements have long been detected in Soloveitchik's writings,
> EEM is the first work to explicitly reference his works, albeit not in
> relation to this particular issue.
>
> Soloveitchik goes on in Part 2 to give an account of 'the Fall' and
> consistent with the naturalism of Part I, 'Man's sin consisted in
> betraying nature.... Naturalness is moral, unnaturalness is sin'
> (141). A close reading of the Genesis text yields for Soloveitchik the
> idea that sin arose as a result of the seduction of humanity by
> pleasure, causing a split in a once harmonious personality. In what is
> more than a nod to Kierkegaard, Soloveitchik describes how pursuing an
> unbridled hedonism that respects no boundaries causes man's ethical
> self to split from his esthetic self. This schism in man's personality
> means that repentance is achieved through the ' rebirth of a
> harmonious personality by returning to God and eo ipso to one's own
> selfhood' (136-7). EEM's detailed working out of his view of sin
> supplies us with a natural corollary for the similarly naturalistic
> view of repentance familiar from Soloveitchik's other works.
>
Olam hafuch ra'isi. Shouldn't that be: "Morality is natural, sin is
unnatural?" What is the different connotation of RYBS's formulation?
> It is in Part 3 of the book, probably its most original section for
> those familiar with Soloveitchik's writings, that we find him return
> to a more typological approach in his account of the rehabilitation of
> the ethical personality through 'charismatic man'. The 'charismatic
> personality' achieves the restoration of the human personality to its
> original unity through realizing the covenant with God in history.
> Soloveitchik traces his development through an analysis of the
> biblical personalities of Abraham, and in particular Moses, who moves
> through a number of stages of development. At this point, though no
> less rich and suggestive, the thread of the argument becomes more
> difficult to follow and it seems less completely developed to this
> reviewer. Though this can only be pure speculation, given that we are
> reading a work that Soloveitchik never published, one wonders whether
> this section of the text had been less worked through.
>
Charisma: *cha·ris·ma* (k?-ri(z'm?) n. /pl./ *cha·ris·ma·ta* (-m?-t?)
1.
1. A rare personal quality attributed to leaders who arouse
fervent popular devotion and enthusiasm.
2. Personal magnetism or charm: /a television news program
famed for the charisma of its anchors./
2. /Christianity/ An extraordinary power, such as the ability to
perform miracles, granted by the Holy Spirit.
/The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth
Edition/. Retrieved January 13, 2007, from Dictionary.com website.
How does this definition fit with RYBS's usage? Surely he means
something else by "charisma." But what?
> What is abundantly clear, though, is the characteristically
> Soloveitchikian conflict that we find in the attempt to realize the
> covenant, which is thwarted by a natural reality that does not simply
> yield to a covenantal teleology. In parallel to the redemption of the
> individual, therefore, the realization of the covenant requires that
> two orders, this time the natural human and the charismatic
> historical, are brought into harmony. And it fell to Moses, in his
> guise as the apostolic personality, to begin the process of redeeming
> the tension between the two. And again in characteristic style, we
> find man in this world at the centre of this covenantal history. Thus,
> 'God worked through Moses in order to introduce man into the sphere of
> historical creativeness. Let man himself attempt to realize the
> covenant' (184).
>
> As a number of writers have noted, this 'this-worldly' emphasis in
> Soloveitchik's work meant that he did not pay much attention to
> eschatological questions. It is particularly striking therefore that
> ultimately, with its talk of covenantal realization, Part 3 is all
> about a lengthy historical process of messianic redemption.
> Nonetheless, the 'this-worldly' approach retains its hold throughout,
> most notably in what is his lengthiest reflection on immortality.
> Thus, we are told that 'Abraham did not conquer death in the
> metaphysical transcendent sense. His immortality is through and
> through historical' (169). And again 'the first concept of immortality
> as coined by Judaism is the continuation of a historical existence
> throughout the ages.... The deceased person does not lead an isolated,
> separate existence in a transcendental world. The identity persists on
> a level of concrete reality disguised as a people' (176). While he is
> careful to note that this is only the 'first' concept of immortality,
> it is the only one that he discusses. Moreover, this is all given a
> messianic aspect when combined with the view that 'the realization of
> the moral goal is not to be found within the bounds of an individual
> life span. The individual may contribute a great deal to the
> fulfilment of the ethical ideal, yet he can never attain it. A moral
> telos is gradually realized in a historical process' (168). In a
> naturalized eschatology that owes much to one of Soloveitchik's most
> significant philosophical influences, Hermann Cohen, what begins as a
> view of immortality as continued historical existence culminates in
> the covenantal realization of a messianic moral vision.
>
Is man's drive to immortality then primarily the drive to enter history?
This might actually link up RYBS with Dr. Isaac Breuer - no coincedence,
considering the common influences on their thought.
> Of all the volumes to have seen the light of day so far in this
> series, this one is probably the greatest treasure trove for
> Soloveitchik scholars. It genuinely advances and refines themes
> familiar from his published works, and throws up all sorts of further
> questions for research, particularly regarding his intellectual
> influences. Though we are not informed of the dating of these
> manuscripts, much of the material in EEM obviously parallels that
> contained in the more 'existentialist' works of the 1960s. Yet we also
> see a continuation of his earlier fascination with Kant and Hermann
> Cohen, all of which should be of particular interest for Soloveitchik
> scholars. But in addressing general questions regarding the place of
> the ethical in the religious sphere and as an example of how a
> contemporary thinker committed to an orthodox religious tradition can
> attempt to make philosophical sense of it in a non-apologetic manner,
> it is also entirely accessible to the non-Jewish reader and would act
> as an excellent introduction to Soloveitchik's oeuvre.
>
> DANIEL RYNHOLD
>
> King's College London
>
>
>
> *Named Works:* The Emergence of Ethical Man (Book) Book reviews
>
> *Source Citation:* Rynhold, Daniel. "The Emergence of Ethical
> Man.(Book review)." /Religious Studies/ 42.3 (Sept
> 2006): 364(5). /Expanded Academic ASAP/. Thomson Gale. Ramapo Catskill
> Library System. 13 Jan. 2007
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