[Avodah] [WICT] Liberator > Creator

[Micha Berger]

Taken from https://whatiscalledthinking.substack.com/p/liberator-creator
by Zohar Atkins

His argument is a modern take on a point made by R Yehudah haLevi. The
Dibros command us to believe in the One Who took us out of Mitzrayim.
Not the One Who created heaven and earth. Leshitaso (and leshitas
Existentialism and all / nearly all? of the more recent schools of
philosophy) Emunah begins with our encounter with the RBSO, and not with
philosophical reasoning.

-micha

    What Is Called Thinking?
    whatiscalledthinking.substack.com

    Liberator > Creator
    Religion Begins with Encounter, Not Metaphysics

    Zohar Atkins

    If you only read one sentence read this: "Religion Begins with
    Encounter, Not Metaphysics."

    The Biblical God never says to the people, "I am the Lord your God
    who created the world," but rather, "I am the Lord your God who took
    you out of Egypt." Ok, yes, God does ask Job, "Where were you when
    I created the world?" But it's a rhetorical question, addressed to
    an individual prophet. And, moreover, the point of the question is
    to silence Job. You weren't there, so shut up. In the Five Books of
    Moses, God wants human participation and so the appeal is to the
    Exodus. You were there, therefore get involved. Love the stranger
    because you were a stranger. When God addresses the people as a
    people it's as the God who redeemed them, not as the God who made
    humanity in general. Why should ex-slaves care whether plants were
    fashioned by God ex nihilo, or came ready-made with the pre-fab earth?

    The Torah does link Shabbat/Sabbath to Creation, but on the whole
    the most common reason for following the law is "Because you were
    slaves in Egypt." God doesn't introduce Godself at Sinai as the God
    who made heaven and earth, but as the Liberator from slavery.

    The above point stands alone, but also profound is that Jews never
    say over everyday things, "Blessed is the Lord our God who took us
    out of Egypt," but rather "Blessed is the Lord our God who creates X."

    I'm aware that there are some exceptions, but the point is they
    are exceptions. The commandment to keep Shabbat is connected to God
    creating the world and then resting bears a direct link to Creation.

    But consider this: Does God say, "Love the stranger, widow, and
    orphan because I created the world"? No. God says do it because I
    took you out of Egypt. The national moral fabric is grounded in the
    Exodus event, not in Creation (with the exception of Sabbath).

    When God reveals Godself at Sinai in commandment 1 it's not as the God
    who made heaven and earth, but as the God who liberated from slavery.

    There are many teachings we could take from this observation, and
    I leave them to you.

    Here's one take: People want to know God in terms that are relatable.
    God's role as Creator is not as personal or compelling to people as
    God's role as Redeemer.

    In therapy, Irvin Yalom makes a similar point. The job of the
    therapist is not to impress the client with brilliant insights but
    to establish a connective relationship.

    If the therapist has an insight, but shares to show off or to
    self-gratify rather than to establish connection it backfires. A
    less insightful therapist who is better at establishing connection
    will be a more healing presence for the client.

    So too, God, doesn't lead with God's identity but with the aspect
    that establishes maximal connection. In Hegelian terms, it's not God
    in itself, but God for itself that concerns the meaning of covenant,
    law, morality, peoplehood.

    The other point, and this is really not mine, but rather common
    (we find it in Heschel, Sacks, Wyschogrod, Levinas, Buber,
    Heidegger, et al.) is that the Biblical God is a far cry from
    the God of medieval philosophy, which is chiefly focused on God as
    Creator. The reason medievals focus on Divine Creation is because of
    their debt to Aristotle and the need to show that God is causa sui
    (self caused). But as Heidegger writes, the God to whom people bow,
    the God before whom people sing and dance and sacrifice is not the
    God of philosophical metaphysics.

    Yes, God creates the world in Genesis. But God doesn't say to Moses,
    "I am the God who created the world." God says, "I am the God of
    your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." In contemporary parlance,
    God is very good at reading the room. It is the appeal to ancestors,
    not to metaphysics, that compels Moses to leadership.

    This essay (which started as a twitter thread) is my philosophical
    companion piece to today's theological-essay-sermon
    <https://etzhasadeh.substack.com/p/a-culture-of-narcissism>
    which reads the Lamentations and Numbers through the prism of
    Christopher Lasch's A Culture of Narcissism.

    (C) 2022 Zohar Atkins
    
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    -Micha

    -- 
    Micha Berger                 Zion will be redeemed through justice,
    http://www.aishdas.org/asp   and her returnees, through righteousness.
    Author: Widen Your Tent
    - https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF