Is the devil really in the detail?

“The devil’s in the detail” has become a popular and oft-quoted way of indicating that (per Wikipedia) "something may seem simple, but in fact the details are complicated and likely to cause problems". 

For Jews who attend synagogue this Shabbat, the Torah reading appears to be little other than a double dose of detail.  From Exodus 35:4 to 40:33 we read of the manufacture of the components of the Tabernacle and its accoutrements, of the materials used for those purposes and of their weight and dimensions. The message is clear: every detail is of crucial importance and all materials must be accounted for. This is the message that we are to internalise and carry with us in all our dealings with God.

What does Pirkei Avot have to say about this? On one level, Rabbi Akiva
teaches (3:19) הַכֹּל לְפִי רוֹב הַמַּעֲשֶׂה (“…everything is an accordance with the generality of action”) that our assessment of events, and of our own conduct, is ultimately not focused on minutiae but on a wider perspective. On the other hand, the importance of what we may regard as small details is recognised too. Thus even the smallest of mitzvot are regarded as being of great value (4:2) and the loss of just one item of Torah learning is described as being akin to spiritual suicide (3:10). We are also taught that we should not think lightly of any material item, since there is nothing in the world that does not have its place, that is to say, its use or function (4:3).

We can see from this that, in our daily lives, we must bifurcate our view. We should recognise the potential significance of even the smallest and most apparently trivial detail while retaining a sense of proportion and not letting go of the bigger picture.

Keeping the details and the big issues simultaneously in our sights is a challenge, but this is part of the challenge of Avot itself. How we respond to others is a matter of middot, of measuring our response. As parents, employers or colleagues, there are times when we sense that it is important to overlook even something that is of major importance but that, on other occasions, we should take a firm line when even a small issue erupts. We may not always get the balance right, but Avot at least gives us some guidance as to how we might just do so.

 Postscript: If the devil is in the detail, what happened to God?

It is only since the 1960s that “the devil’s in the detail” has become the prevalent version of this saying. Earlier versions refer not to the devil but to God. A French version, "Le bon Dieu est dans le détail" ("the good God is in the detail") is generally attributed to the nineteenth century novelist Gustave Flaubert, while a German version, “Der liebe Gott steckt im Detail”, has been in circulation since the 1920s.

How, or why, did the devil displace God? I doubt that this shift was caused by post-War anti-God sentiment or, to opposite effect, by a reluctance to make any allusion to the Deity that was not motivated by awe or deep respect. More likely, I feel, is the widely-shared sentiment that details are a nuisance and that their presence in great quantity obscures the bigger picture. As such, they should be attributed to the mischievous machinations of a malign figure, this being designated “the devil”.