[Avodah] Just One HaShem in Heaven

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Dec 10, 2010 at 06:58:02AM -0500, Rich Wolberg wrote:
: With the establishment of the State of Israel, the prayer for its
: welfare beginning with Avinu Shebashamayim was composed and approved by
: the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and incorporated into the service. It is
: obviously a metaphor, but it is not alien to our theology.

It was written by SY Agnon and approved (with editing) by the then-CR R'
Yitzchaq haLevi Herzog. And there are members fo the chevrah who wouldn't
assume that has the authority to prove it's within their theology.


There are two seeming conflicts that most O Jews are taught in preschool
and never think about long enough to notice that there is an apparent
conflict to address. The resolution for each could be found trivially
in seconds. I'm not saying these are paradoxes -- at most they are
dialectics. (By which I'm trying to say: Two ways of looking at things
due to the richness and complexity of the human condition.)

What bothers me is the lack of consideration of the two most fundamental
questions in Judaism. And actually the chassid - misnagdic split is
primarily about which side of each dialetic is emphasized.

1- Transcendence vs Immanence
    G-d is in heaven.
    G-d is everywhere.

BTW, I named this thread "Just One Hashem in Heaven" because that was a
line in a song I learned in nursery school. My kids' generation learned
from Uncle Moishy (R' Moshe Tannanbaum, who is a Belzer (?) Chassid,
which might be relevent) that "Hashem is here, Hashem is there, Hashem
is truly everywhere." Thus, to me the quote reflects this dialectic.

(Tangent: the song rhymed heaven with the commandments being "10 but
not 11". The modern version has "Hashem who can't be seen" -- preserving
transcendence as a lesson to our youth -- which then rhymes "613".)

2- The ideal state of man - Sheleimus vs Deveiqus
    Mitzvos provide a path to completeness, to wholeness, to making one's
	Tzelem E-lokim manifest.
    Mitzvos are the route to cleaving to G-d, they allow us to connect to
	Him.

And historically, there were other definitions of the ideal state. The
Rambam's focus on Knowing G-d, rather than a passionate / experiential
cleaving. The Ramchal's notion that the goal in this world is to become
someone capable of the most deveiqus he can obtain in the next. Etc...

The two dialectics are related -- if one focuses on Transcendance, one
can't realy provide a Deveiqus oriented approach to mitzvos. G-d can't
both be primarily viewed as removed and as approachable.

There is also a pragmatic difference, eg when assessing the relative value
of kavanah in prayer (deveiqus) vs praying in its proper time (sheleimus).

But in any case, it's easy to resolve both dialectics, at least on the
intellectual plane. What bothers me is the lack of thought demonstrated
by my having to point out that the apparent conflicts exist. That a rav
can say either one in a derashah and get knowing nods from the audience,
who aren't thinking critically enough to recall the other.

Thus the machashavah side of AishDas's mission statement.

So, is "Hashem is in heaven" in our theology? Yes, but within dialectic
tension with "Hashem is in everywhere." The question we were discussing,
though, was when shamayim split in meaning, since "Hashem is in the sky"
in particular (except as part of His being everywhere) is not.

A number of us suggested that from day 1, "shamayim" was a general
concept that had two existing instances. As I put it, "shamayim" is very
plausibly translated "there-ness" -- and both the sky / space and the
spiritual heaven are unreachable "There"s.

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             We are great, and our foibles are great,
micha at aishdas.org        and therefore our troubles are great --
http://www.aishdas.org   but our consolations will also be great.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                        - Rabbi AY Kook