Every so often I receive a short piece from Avot Today Facebook
group member Jonathan
Frey. Here’s the latest:
We may have had some tough breaks in life, but at the end of the day Hashem
has recreated us every morning in order for us to appreciate that very fact and
give thanks to Him for that fact alone—if for nothing else.
We all have our individual challenges, but Hashem doesn't make it so
hard that we can't triumph. After all, the challenges come from Him himself and
are designed to enable you to grow in spirituality if you make the correct
choices.
The challenges are in fact opportunities, and this is the attitude you
need to have.
- Change your attitude and you will go far with His help.
- Work with Him not against Him.
- Carry out His will rather than your own.
- Strive to perfect yourself as a person and to help make the world a
better place in the process.
Remember importantly: Ba Chabakuk veHemidan al achas, veTsadik
beEmunaso Yichye. This means, the prophet said, that all mitzvot are based
on one overriding principle, i,e. that a righteous person lives by his emunah,
his faith. Have complete total and utter Faith in Hashem and demonstrate it
through your thoughts, speech and deeds. In return He will raise you up to
spiritual levels and fulfilment more than you could dream of!
This piece very much resonates with the ethos of
Pirkei Avot. “Carry out His will rather than your own” is advice that comes
straight from Rabban Gamliel ben Rebbi at Avot 2:4 and the lion’s share of the
content of the fifth and sixth perakim is aimed at perfecting ourselves
as human beings.
Jonathan cites the prophet Habakkuk on the
importance of living by one’s faith, this being essentially faith in God. One might
have thought that faith in God was so basic that it was bound to feature
somewhere in Avot, but it does not. Avot has very little to say about emunah,
and what it does say is not specifically about faith in God at all. We should
not have faith in ourselves, Hillel teaches (2:5), till the day we die.
A baraita (6:6) adds that emunat chachamim—faith in our Sages—is one of
the 48 ways one can acquire Torah. And that’s it.
So why does Avot keep off faith in God? One obvious
reason is that belief in God is a mitzvah de’oraita—a Torah commandment—while
Avot addresses middot, personal behaviour and character, not mitzvot (In
his famous list of the 613 Torah commandments, Rambam places emunat Hashem,
in the sense of knowing God, at number one). In other words, faith in God lies
outside the tractate’s aims and objectives.
Another reason may be that the mishnayot of Avot are
actually neutral as to whether an individual has faith in God or not. Why?
Because it addresses the way we behave towards others and indeed ourselves:
these are externals. What matters is the ma’aseh, our actions, not our
knowledge, belief set or frame of mind (see Avot 1:17). If this is so, a
non-believer can still act in accordance with God’s will because what God wants
is set out in a detailed set of rules that govern Jewish domestic life,
commerce and dispute resolution. God is a divine legislator and the law is the
law.
While in the realm of speculation, it is also worth
looking at Habakkuk’s one-liner: that a tzaddik, a righteous man, lives
by his faith (Habakkuk 2:4). We always assume this we mean man’s faith in God.
But the same words can equally mean God’s faith in man. It is only because God,
having given us free will, has faith that we will justify His creating us by
serving Him in an appropriate manner. This
is not as implausible as it seems. The Bereshit narrative of the Flood illustrates
how Noach is kept alive on account of God’s faith in him—and, barring modern
scientific developments and euthanasia, we have no control over whether we live
or not. That is entirely up to Him (Avot 4:29).
The idea of emunat Hashem being God’s faith
in man rather than the other way round is not mine alone. I found this passage
in R’ Lord Jonathan Sacks’ Arguments for the Sake of Heaven (first
published as Traditional Alternatives), near the beginning of chapter 5:
Faith in the messianic age is, Maimonides ruled, one of the essentials
of Jewish belief. “The Torah has already promised”, Maimonides further
explained, “that ultimately, at the end of their exile, the people of Israel
will return to God and immediately they will be redeemed”. The sages
interpreted the biblical phrase “the God of faith” to mean “the God who had
faith in the world He was about to create” (my italics).
R' Sacks’ text lacks source references. If any
reader can pinpoint which sages he indicates, and where their interpretation
can be found, will they please let me know.
What can we conclude from all of this? It is difficult
to know. Pascal’s Wager seems to apply here: a person has everything to gain by
believing in God. If God exists, well and good. If not, he or she has lost nothing
and, at least in terms of how they behave towards others, will have made a
positive contribution to society as good friends, neighbours and citizens.
Thoughts, anyone?
For comments and discussion of this post on Facebook, click here.
