Early this week my son Avi came to me with an interesting question. Why don’t you tell Ima what to do? I responded that I did not think it was a good idea but I began to wonder where the question was coming from. So I asked him- “Avi why did you ask me that question?” His response was equally fascinating. He had just learned the story of Adam and Eve, Adam and Chava, in school and after they are banished from the Garden of Eden they are punished as well.
Genesis, Chapter 3:
16. To the woman he said, I will greatly multiply the pain of your child bearing; in sorrow you shall bring forth children; and your desire shall be to your husband, and he shall rule over you.
You see said Avi, you should tell Ima what to do. Then he stopped, thought and said, “you know that Savta always tells grandpa what to do. Why is that?”
I ended the conversation by telling him that was not exactly what the Torah meant.
Of course his question is a really good question- the Torah says that “he will rule over you!” Taken literally it raises two important questions:
1. Is this an idea that fits within our worldview?
2. This was Avi’s question- the Torah’s promise does not seem to fit with our reality and experience. This punishment does not seem to be occurring.
This conversation captured one of the great difficulties faced in writing, teaching and understanding the Torah. It is a book read and learned by both eight year old children and aged scholars and it needs to be understood by both of them. Our Torah is a book of great depth and profound truth yet one that needs to be generally accessible and applicable to all people; even those who cannot yet comprehend the deeper ideas contained within in and do not yet have the ability to understand its many levels of interpretation. This at times leads to confusion and complications and even wrong ideas but it could be no other way.
Maybe the most famous example of this phenomenon can be found in today’s Torah reading.
Take the following two verses from our parsha:
Chapter 6:
6. Therefore say to the people of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you from their slavery, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments;
Chapter 7:
5. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch forth my hand upon Egypt, and bring out the people of Israel from among them.
Taken literally this would imply that God has a body. We now know this to be not true. Yet that was not always the case. The responsa of the rishonim testify to a perception amongst some that God did have a body. The Raavad in his famous critique of the Rambam’s position that labels anyone who believes that God has a body a heretic, writes the following: “they are mistaken and not heretics”. Raavad then adds-“ people better and greater than you (i.e. the Rambam) have entertained such a belief.” We even have manuscript evidence of a Tosafist who believed that God was corporeal.
This past week I spent a fair amount of time unpacking boxes that had been in storage for the last 2 & ½ years. There was one box that I knew was there that had a number of books that I really liked and missed. I am still angry at the movers for misplacing it. In addition to those I had small volume, a manuscript from Rabi Moshe Taku, a French Tosafist from the 13th century who claimed that God had a body!
Where does this mistaken belief come from? It emanates from the text itself- “the arm and hand that are outstretched.” These are some of the verses used to support Rabbi Taku’s position.
To properly understand the text you would need to know two things:
1. Why can’t God have a body?
2. If that is indeed what we believe, than why does the torah use this language?
I am not interested in the answer to the first question right now, although it is not as simple as one might think. As to the second question, why does the torah then use this terminolog?
There is a general consensus that the Torah needs to be written in a way that everyone can understand and relate to. The rabbis captured this idea with the phrase “dibra torah kilshon bnai adam” –the Torah speaks in the language of man.” The Torah uses language that can be easily understood even though it is not 100% accurate.
Yes, it can be confusing and difficult, but the upside is that the Torah provides you with an opportunity for continued learning and challenges.
I will admit to schepping real nachas after my conversation with Avi as I began to see him trying to apply the Torah’s text and come to an understanding of them that matches his reality.
Each of us should face that challenge, no matter our level of knowledge at the moment.
As you grow and learn, new and deeper meanings reveal themselves to you and that is part of the fun of Torah study. If it is not fun, God forbid, then you simply have not been doing it right!
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