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:
- By
directing our material resources towards gaining knowledge by supporting
people and institutions which help us do so.
- By
understanding reality to the degree we are able
- 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.
[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]
[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)
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