S Schechter JQR 6:3 April 1894 pg 415-16 Some Aspects of Rabbinic Theology
“The theology of the Rabbis may not be perfect; but what theology is perfect? Is there any theology of long ago which does not stand in need of an apology when the tests of the nineteenth century are applied to it? Every theology has its mythology, its legends, its fables and its folk-lore. All these paraphernalia of religion, valuable as the service may be which they have rendered and are still perhaps rendering to some minds, cannot stand the searching tests of history and modern criticism. These tests have only too often been applied to Jewish theology. But has not this theology a centre of its own, which is God and nothing but God, elements of eternal truth and vital principles, which enabled it to withstand all hostile powers tempting it to remove or to destroy this centre which made it what it is?"
God who is removed from us is also close to us. We can reach him. We can approach him. He is accessable to every generation. “God is near in every kind of nearness and when a man comes to the synogogue to pray, God listens to him, for the petitioner is like a man who talks into the ear of his friend” (Yer. Berachos 13a)
“The freshness with which the Biblical stories are retold in the Agadic literature, the living way in which they are applied to the oppressed condition of Israel, the future hopes which are based on them, create the impression not only that in this one Revelation at Sinai the whole scriptural history was included, but that the Rabbis and their followers, through their intense faith, re-witnessed it in their own souls, so that it became to them as a personal experience. Indeed it it this witnessing, or rather re-witnessing, to revelation by which God is God; without it he could not be God. Peo0ple who would doubt his existence and say “there is no judgment and no judge” belong rather to the generation of the deluge, before God had entered so openly into relations with mankind (Gen Rabbah 26). To those who have experienced him through so many stages of history, such doubt, was simply beyond the region of possibility.” Pg 419
Let this all sink in and well discuss soon.
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>God who is removed from us is also close to us. We can reach him. We can approach him. He is accessable to every generation
ReplyDeleteHehehe sounds nice but doesn't actually mean anything
http://modernorthoprax.blogspot.com/2010/04/how-is-your-relationship-with-hakodosh.html
Thanks for posting. This is a response to both of your comments. I felt that Schechter meant that comment in the most Kabbalistic way. That God is removed from us, "in heaven" if you will but at the same time he is "karov hashem lokol korav", he hears us and we can connect to him.
ReplyDeleteThats what I thought he meant. I dont know if that actually explained anything.
Also, you are completely right about Orthodoxy with a conservative ideology. When i read Louis Jacobs books, I am so connected to it, but if I ever said that out loud in shul, someone might murder me. Keep rocking that guy on the orthoprax blog. Love seeing people "hear what they want to hear." ie Assuming the Rambam says the mesorah was forgotten just because thats what he thinks or read when that is actually rav sherira gaon which the rambam was completely against. keep posting.
>he hears us and we can connect to him.
ReplyDeleteKabbala or not i don't understand how its a reciprocal concept as far as i can tell one can perhaps reach some sort of understanding of God through Kaballa (just maybe) but as far as I can tell God rarely answers. (But hey what do i know about kaballa)
not connected but check out my blog
Shiltonhasechel.blogspot.com
I also need to get discovered ;)