Worshiping Mercury and teaching an unworthy student - breaking people down

One who teaches an unworthy student is like one who throws a rock at Mercury, as the verse states "One who gives a fool honor is like one who wraps a stone in a sling (Mishlei 26:8)", and 'honor' is a reference to Torah as the verse says "the wise will inherit honor (Mishlei  3:35)" (Hilchot Talmud Torah 4:1)

The Rambam is discussing the prerequisites for a person to study Torah. The primary requirement is not intellectual but moral, he must be living on a good path (applying his knowledge), or at least be open to such a life, a person who is on a bad path should not be taught Torah, but rather first must be guided to return to the proper path. However the comparison with Avodah Zarah in general, and Mercury in particular is strange.

Mercury is an unusual form of idolatry since its worship entails throwing stones at it. A person might mistakenly think that throwing rocks at Mercury is a good thing since, objectively, it is disgracing an idol. However the opposite is true. Since its worshipers have redefined the act as a method of worship, they have twisted an act which shows the powerlessness of an idol, into a sign of respect. Therefore by throwing a rock at it you play into their propaganda.

Similarly a teacher might think that teaching Torah to a fool would serve to disprove his wrong ideas. By seeing truth he will turn to the good. The Halacha teaches that the opposite will happen, by teaching him, he will twist the Torah's wisdom into a support for his distorted lifestyle. Instead of disgracing him, the Torah will be used to honor him.

This issue is also the issue in the surrounding verses in Mishlei (26:1-11), we must be careful in how we interact with and respond to fools. Even a logically valid break down of his position can strengthen him since even engaging in dialogue gives him credibility. The only possible way to help such a student is to actively redirect his lifestyle before granting him entrance to the Beit Midrash.

Elohai, Neshama

The first thing we say in the morning is the bracha of ‘Elohai, Neshama’. This short Bracha directly continues our thoughts from the night before, which we expressed in the Bracha of Hamapil - thus immediately starting the transition from the fantasy world of sleep to the real world of thought. In this Bracha we reconsider our self-identity and meditate on God as the source of our ongoing existence.

My God, the life-force[1] which you gave me is pure, you created it, you formed it, you blew it into me and you protect it within me, and you will take it from me in the future, and return it to me in the distant future. As long as the life-force is within me I recognize[2] you Hashem, my God, and the God of my fathers, master of all actions, lord of all life, Blessed are you Hashem the who returns life to dead bodies

My God

First we address God; by entering into a dialogue with Him we are able to rethink our identity in light of His existence and our dependence upon Him.

The life-force which you gave me is pure

The first step of reconceiving ourselves is to identify the Neshama as pure. Note, the neshama is not the metaphysical soul (the Tzelem Elokim), which has actual knowledge. Rather it is the life force which is the biological source of all of our abilities, including thought. This force is pure and allows us to direct it where we will. If we direct it properly it remains pure and becomes guided by ideas. As human beings we are born have free-will and are born with the possibility of following our minds onto any path we choose. We are not predestined for good or evil (by our genes, our environment, the stars or anything else).

You created it, you formed it, you blew it into me and you protect it within me

The second step is to realize that we are created[3]. Psychologically we like believing that we are independently powerful. In reality this is a fantasy and our very existence is a dependent one. All of our actions are transformed when done through the lens of being dependent creatures. Creation is not just a historical fact about the world, but rather is an ongoing reality[4]. Our ongoing existence is also dependent on God.

You will take it from me in the future,

Third is to realize our mortality. In spite of our fantasies, we will not live forever. As material beings we cannot exist eternally. This mentality forces us to ‘seize the day’ since we don’t know when we will die. Our mortality also encourages us to be humble by realizing our limitations.

And return it to me in the distant future

Lastly we reflect on Techiyat hametim. Namely that even though our physical lives are temporal, we partake of eternity insofar as we focus on knowledge. Thereby we truly live and are subject to resurrection[5]. Waking up reminds us of this since sleep is reminiscent of death in that it is a state of inactivity.

In summary, in the first part of this Bracha we define ourselves as dependent and mortal rational, living creatures, who have the ability to become knowing.

As long as the life-force is within me I recognize you Hashem, my God, and the God of my fathers, master of all actions, lord of all life

With this new self-concept we must choose what to do with our lives. In answer we immediately choose to recognize and thank God for giving us existence. The last line of Elohai, neshama takes this focus. We now recognize God as the master of all life, and we recognize the need to live our life with this system in mind.

Blessed are you Hashem the who returns life to dead bodies

Finally we summarize with the idea of techiyat hametim. We recognize that we aren't our body; rather our body is a piece of flesh which is animated by a life-force. Throughout the bracha we were ambiguous about who the ‘I’ is. We naturally tend to think of our bodies as ‘I’, through this reflection we start seeing the flaw of this view and the practical implications of rethinking of ourselves as a harmonious living creature which aspires to develop as a nefesh[6].

This final concept of Techiyat Hametim brings all of the diverse themes together. It emphasizes the idea that God is the creator, and we are therefore created since only the creator could bring the dead back to life. Similarly it points to the true purpose of human existence since evil people don’t participate in techiyat hametim. Only a person whose life is animated by knowledge can be reanimated after the body corrupts and dies [5]. Someone whose whole life was about the physical has nothing left to reanimate since they were their body.

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[1] The meaning of Neshama  is subject to some debate, I am following Rambam in Hilchot Yesodei Hatorah 4:8-9

[2] This could also be translated as “thank”

[3] Note that (as we will see in the conclusion of the Bracha), the neshama is not the ‘I’ who is speaking, through this meditation we transform our sense of the ‘I’ by realizing that the body which I naturally identify as ‘me’ is on its own merely dead flesh, and that the ‘I’ is the harmonious whole of Neshama with a body.

[4] God is not like a carpenter who can make a self-sustaining house, such that even if the carpenter dies the house continues to exist without him.

[5] The righteous even in death are called alive and the wicked even in their lifetimes are called dead (Brachot 18a-b) See Moreh hanevuchim 1:42 and the Rambam's introduction to Chelek

[6] The soul in the metaphysical sense, that which actually perceives knowledge and therefore can survive the death of the body (unlike the neshama)

The true honor of God

We observed yesterday Avraham's hesitancy to use worship as a method of honoring God and instead to focus on coming to recognize Him. However through Moshe's prophecy the Torah restored Kavod Shamayim to having a role in the Mitzvah system. However it does so by completely redefining what honor of God is, changing its meaning from the immature religious idea to a new definition explained in the mishna:

Anyone who is unconcerned with his creator’s honor… (chagiga 2:1)

The intention here is someone who is unconcerned with his mind, since the mind is God’s honor (Rambam’s commentary)

This idea of honoring God directly builds on the recognition that we cannot truly give him honor, instead we must recognize that the only honor we show is by respecting the limits of our intellect and not chasing imaginations and fantasies. Such an honor directly results in the goal of service being to recognize him, since it is based on the idea that honor of God is by knowing Him and therefore points to the goal of knowing Him and not merely doing acts of service to Him.

This idea of honor is developed in Mishlei:

Honor God with your wealth, with the first of your crops (Mishlei 3:9)

In other words, you show honor to God by providing the Trumot and maasrot to the Kohanim who are the teachers of His Torah while simultaneously overcoming the strong desire to maintain ownership of the first of our crops.

This idea is also the basis for the various mitzvot of honor. Even though we must show respect to something created (our parents, our teachers, the Mikdash, the Sabbath etc.), this is not because so doing is a direct honor of God (which would be Avodah Zarah), but rather because they are vehicles of coming to recognize God and having a respectful attitude towards them will allow them to influence us. For example, we must honor the Torah scholar since he guides us in studying God’s wisdom, and we must show respect to the Mikdash since it functions to make the idea of God real to us. None of these assume that we can truly provide God with honor.[1]

The honor of God is to conceal the principle while the honor of kings is to investigate the principle (Mishlei 25:2)

The honor of God is completely unlike the honor of the king, for a king one can completely express his honor, and therefore it is respectful to do so [2]; God, on the other hand, is not like a king in that we cannot express His greatness, and therefore recognizing the limits of our minds and concealing the great matters is how we honor him[3].

In addition to pointing to the limits of our ability to know God, this pasuk also points to the need to seek knowledge in the areas available to us. When it comes to matters of the king we must engage in careful investigation. Understanding Justice and how wisdom applies to society is completely within our ability [4].

Respecting the mind God gave us means neither overestimating our abilities and chasing fantasy notions of God, nor using those limitations as an excuse to abandon a life of knowledge.

From the above we see that the Torah replaces the immature idea of honoring God through acts of worship with honor expressed in 3 ways which directly build on the insight of Avraham Avinu:

1. By directing our material resources towards gaining knowledge by supporting people and institutions which help us do so.
2. By understanding reality to the degree we are able
3. By recognizing the limits of our mind and not trying to exceed those limits, recognizing that any attempt at truly understanding God will be merely the product of our imagination and therefore false and idolatrous.

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[1] Rabbi Sacks pointed out in a comment to the previous post that this pasuk (Mishlei 3:9) is also the basis for the mitzva of kibud av v'em and its role as a mitzvah bein adam lamakom, see hilchot mamrim 6:1

[2] Furthermore, hiding the actions of a human king is a sign of scandal and impropriety; the ideal kingdom has transparent government

[3] Metzudot

[4] This distinction points to the issue of the difference between Devarim Gedolim and Devarim Ketanim (Yesodei Hatorah 4:13) and the relation between knowledge and action (see Moreh Henevuchim 1:54, 3:54)

the mistake of avodah Zara - honoring God

In the beginning of Hilchot Avodah Zarah the Rambam discusses the history of Avodah Zarah.

Their mistake was as follows: They said that since God created stars and spheres to control the world, and placed them on high and gave them honor, and they are servants who minister before Him. therefore, it is proper to praise and glorify them and to treat them with honor and that this is the will of God, blessed be He, to magnify and honor those whom He magnified and honored, just as a king desires that the servants who stand before him be honored. And this is the honor of the king. (Hilchot Avodah Zarah 1:1)

These people wanted to show honor to God, what was their mistake? A comparison with the methodology of Avraham starts to clarify this issue:

After he recognized and knew , he began to formulate replies to the inhabitants of Ur Kasdim and debate with them, telling them that they were not following a proper path. He broke the idols and began to inform the people that it is not proper to serve anything other than the God of the universe, and to Him it is proper to bow down, sacrifice, and offer libations, so that all future creatures would recognize Him, and it is proper to destroy and break all the images, lest all the people err concerning them, like those people who thought that there are no other gods besides these. (Hilchot Avodah Zarah 1:3)

In defining Avraham’s worship the Rambam leaves out the goal of honoring God. Unlike the idolaters whose initial objective was to honor God, Avraham focused on something much more basic, recognizing God. The mistake of the original idolaters wasn’t only in the method of honoring God by honoring the stars but in their very goal of honoring God!

This is strange. What is wrong with honoring God? Isn’t this the whole purpose of worship and religion?

The problem with honoring God is that it presupposes that we know what God is and therefore we know how to honor Him. However, because God is completely incomparable to anything else[1], even coming to know Him is a long and slow journey. Rushing to honor Him encourages us to remain with our preliminary and immature concept of God, which will necessarily be coarse and tied to the physical.

We seek concreteness in our service in order to make it more relatable, since we are physical and intuitively the more physical something is the more real it seems to be. Enosh and His generation thought that they could give the people a form of worship which would speak to this need for concreteness, but in so doing they underplayed the difficulty of even recognizing God as a completely abstract existence. It allowed God to remain merely a word which the people used, while their focus was on the concrete acts of worship and the bodies their worship was directed to; until ultimately God was completely forgotten.

To solve this problem, Avraham instituted a new kind of worship. The purpose of this worship was helping people overcome the feeling that the nonphysical isn’t real, and that therefore a God completely outside of the creation does not exist. Through concrete acts of worship, the idea of God enters our lives. For most people the concrete acts of worship are real and the ideas they represent are ignored (even among the idolaters the masses lost sight of the stars and were focused only on the statues which were the object of their service.) Through using such concrete acts in direct service to God, We maintain a minimal focus on Him, and can slowly go up in levels of knowing Him[2].

Additionally, this focus on recognizing God rather than honoring Him is important because in truth God has no need for our service and its purpose is only for our benefit, namely as a method of coming to recognize him.

This idea is the basis of the Torah’s entire educational path[3]: ‘The Torah speaks in the language of man”. The Torah uses many descriptions which when understood literally are very far from truly describing God. The purpose of all of these descriptions of God is for us to recognize His existence in spite of the difficulty of accepting the reality of something completely removed from the physical[4].

These descriptions are used in spite of being denigrations of God in reality; since in the common perception they are viewed as perfections. The Torah allows us to use those terms which are not generally recognized as flaws since they will help us come to recognize Him.

Furthermore, even though we use them for study, for prayer we are restricted in their use, since we must recognize that we cannot truly praise God[5]. This means that we must recognize that we are unable to honor God in fact and that all of our service must be directed only towards recognizing Him[6] and overcoming our strong attraction to idolatrous thinking.  

(Thanks to Rabbi Sacks and Avi Garelick for a great learning session on Yom Tov in which we worked out these ideas)

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[1] Yeshaya 40:18, 40:25 Moreh Henevuchim 1:55

[2] Moreh Hanevuchim 3:29

[3] And part of why Avraham’s call ‘Beshem Hashem El Olam’ is the starting point for all of the Rambam’s works. Of course the Torah went further than Avraham was able to go and ultimately reintroduced the concept of Kavod shamayim but in a subtle and careful way related to introducing the possibility of a mikdash, also see the Peirush hamishnayot on Chagigah 2:1 ‘anyone who is not concerned with the honor of His creator’. I will discuss this point more tomorrow

[4] Moreh Hanevuchim 1:26, 1:33, 1:46

[5] Brachos 33b Moreh Hanevuchim 1:59

[6] This is also why Kavana is so significant to Tefillah; the essential purpose of Tefillah is to help us focus our thoughts on God. Moreh Hanevuchim 3:51