WHO IS A GOD LIKE YOU, FORGIVING ANY INIQUITY AND REMITTING

TRANSGRESSION; WHO HAS NOT MAINTAINED HIS WRATH FOREVER AGAINST THE REMNANT OF

HIS OWN PEOPLE, BECAUSE HE LOVES GRACIOUSNESS! HE WILL TAKE US BACK IN LOVE; HE

WILL COVER UP OUR INIQUITIES, YOU WILL HURL ALL THEIR SINS

INTO THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA.

(Micah 7:18-19)

Recitation of the Tashlikh by a River

The point of the custom of reciting the passage Who is a

God like You next to a river on Rosh HaShanah

is that the Master, may He be blessed renews the existence of all things on

Rosh HaShanah, aiming for the good amongst them to

survive eternally while rejecting the bad amongst them until creation is

purified of them and will become worthy of being illuminated by the light of

His face for all eternity. He in His mercy, may He be blessed, forgives

iniquities and remits transgressions as far as possible in keeping with his

just law, while rejecting all of the evil that had grown in creation, removing

it from existence. This matter is contained in the verses Who

sea. Indeed, it is always proper to use the things of this world in giving

Him praise, in as much as the forms and laws of the existents allude to the

mysteries of His wisdom. That is why we go to the water. Its form shows us the

sinking of those which sink in it, and alludes to a secret of the mysteries of

His providence, may He be blessed, that He submerges evil and removes it from

His creations in such a manner that it leaves no impression behind it

what-so-ever, as the prophet himself made clear with his words, You will

hurl all their sins into the depths of the sea.

(Rabbi Mosheh Hayyim Luzzato,

Ma'amar Hokhmah)

Choose Life

Danny Statman

We read the parasha

of Nitzavim a few days before the New Year begins. In

it, Moses tells the people:

I call heaven and earth to

witness against you this day: I have put before you life and death, blessing

and curse. Choose life – if you and your offspring would live. (Devarim 30:19)

The command Choose life, and the two words from which

it is formed, will serve as the focus of our attention.

Let us begin with the matter of choice. After repeatedly warning

against transgression of the commandments and repeatedly mentioning the rewards

promised to those who keep them, Moses gives voice to the notion that at the

end of the day everything depends upon the people's freely made choices. Indeed,

our verse served as a main proof-text for the common view within halakhah and Jewish thought according to which a person's

behavior is not determined by factors outside of his control – including Divine

decrees. Rather, it depends upon the person's own will. The RaMBaM

offered a well known formulation of this principle in the eighth chapter of his

Shemonah Perakim:

In reality, the undoubted truth

of the matter is that man has full sway over all his actions. If he wishes to

do a thing, he does it; if he does not wish to do it, he need not; no external

compulsion controls him. Therefore God commanded man, saying, I have put

before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life... (Devarim 30:19) …It is also necessary to take all the precautionary

measures laid down in the Torah, such as You shall make a guardrail for your

roof, that you bring not blood upon your house (Devarim 22:8),

lest he die in battle (ibid. 20:5, 7), wherein shall he sleep? (Shemot 22:26),

and no man shall take to pledge the lower or the upper millstone (Devarim 24:6),

and many other passages in regard to precautions found in the Torah and the

Prophets. (Following

Gorfinkle translation)

The notion that a person's

actions are determined by his free choice could have led to the conclusion that

there is no place for activities – especially educational activities – aimed at

influencing people to behave in one way or another. After all, if people were

completely free, such activities could not really affect them. Our parasha's warnings promises would be pointless; either they

influence human behavior or they do not influence human behavior.

If they do influence behavior, human choice cannot be entirely free. If they do

not

influence behavior, then what good are they? It would seem that we cannot be

saved from this dilemma by saying that education "influences" but

does not "coerce." Again, if "influence" does not in any

way restrict the student's choice, what good is it? And if education does

involve such restrictions, how can we say that it does not impair the student's

freedom of choice? Philosophically speaking, it is indeed difficult to solve

this problem. In any case, our source texts point to a firm belief in both positions.

On the one hand, they express powerful faith in the claim that, "Man has

full sway over all his actions" while on the other hand , they also

express a powerful faith in the importance of education and in the necessity of

creating a social and political climate that will strengthen observance of the

commandments. In a way that seems paradoxical, we do not act as if the actions

of our children and students are dependent entirely upon them, as would be required

by Judaism's strong formulations of the principle of free choice. Rather, we

act as if we have the ability to influence their choices – and it is difficult

to deny that we actually do have some influence.

The fifth drush

of Drashot HaRaN expresses this kind of mixed position:

Man is free to choose his deeds,

and permission is granted him to choose whatever path he

desires, as He said, I have put before you life and death, blessing and

curse – Choose life! One who denies this denies the entire Torah, and will

not only uproot the Torah, but will reject the observable nature of reality…despite

all of this, it cannot at all be denied that a person's

character is predisposed towards certain good and evil qualities.

According to the above, human

life is a continual attempt to steer between being "predisposed towards

certain qualities," (genetically and environmentally determined character

traits) and being "free to choose" ("permission is granted him

to choose whatever path he desires"). This approach constitutes a kind of

compromise between two antithetical views, and it differs from both regarding

one central point. One view holds that all human action is predetermined, while

the other claims that a person's actions are completely dependent upon his own

choice. Both views are alike in that they imply that we should remain passive

in the face of reality. If everything is predetermined, there is no point to

investing in education or in attempts to reform the real world – after all, all

human actions are predetermined, as is everything that happens in the world in

general. However, the assumption that humans are absolutely in control of their

own choices leads us to the same passivity. If people are in complete control

of their choices, then it is impossible to influence their behavior in any way.

There is no point to education, no point to promises of reward or to threats of

punishment. Only the intermediate approach described above by the RaN encourages activism. On the one hand, everything is not

predetermined, while on the other hand, human actions are not born of an

arbitrary will that is disconnected from the state of the world and from social

and cultural conditions. The educational and legal systems maintain their

importance, since their function is to improve the world and lift up humanity.

The belief that our fates are

not predetermined also works against passivity in worldly affairs. One who

believes in fate will not bother to protect himself from weapons fired at him,

since "every bullet has an address written on it." If there is no

such thing as fate we must plan our actions wisely, taking the actual state of

the world into account. This demands a cautious and realistic appraisal of the

real odds for the achievement of our goals, both worldly and religious. It is

not accidental that in our opening quote from Shemonah

Perakim the RaMBaM

connected his opposition to determinism with the demand for taking the "precautionary

measures" necessary for proper human existence, such as the construction

of guardrails on rooftops, and the like. This demand jibes with the famous precept,

"Do not depend on miracles." One who depends upon miracles and who

does not plan his deeds in accordance with his understanding of the nature of

the world believes that he can do without these "precautionary measures,"

thanks to some heavenly decree that will take effect in any case.

During the past few months we have

been witness to the statements and deeds of religious leaders which expressed

dependence upon miracles and a refusal to act in accordance with a realistic

appraisal of the situation. Even when it became clear that the disengagement

plan was an accomplished fact, they encouraged the community to invest money in

settlements that were scheduled for destruction, "to continue the

construction drive" and to desist from any preparation for the day after. According

to those leaders, a person can react with passivity to an on-coming misfortune

thanks to a supernatural guarantee that it will not materialize; "It shall

not be." The result of this irresponsible policy was the waste of much

money, unnecessary difficulties for the reorganization of displaced families,

and strengthening of the ideological and religious crisis.

The RaMBaM

also mentions the principle of free choice in texts other than Shemonah Perakim. He

brings it up in Hilkhot Teshuva,

in order to counter the claim made by "the fools from among the nations of

the world and most Israelite idiots" (5:2) that the Holy One blessed be He decrees whether a person

will be good or evil at the first moment of his creation. "It is not so,"

says the RaMBaM. Responsibility for a person's moral

and religious development rests on his own shoulders. So it is with worldly

matters, be they political, economic or whatever. One is literally responsible

for one's own life. This returns us to the second

word of the expression with which I began, Choose

life. In context, it is easy to understand that the word life here

refers to religious life, since immediately in the next verse we read, to

your life and the length of your days. That is to say: choosing the

way of Torah is choosing life, just as it is choosing the blessing.

However, a much worldlier interpretation of the word life can be found

in the words of the Sages:

The school of Rabbi Yishmael taught: Choose life – that is a craft. From

here the Sages said: A man is required to teach his son a craft. If he did not

each him, he [the son] must teach himself. What is the reason for this? It is

written: So that you might live. (Yerushalmi Kedushin 1:7)

A similar precept is related in

the name of another Tanna:

So that you

might live. From here, rabbi Akiva taught: A man is required to each his son to swim. And

if he did not teach him, he must teach himself. (ibid)

Observance of the

commandments and clinging to God will not be of help to someone who has not

learned a craft, nor to someone who has not learned to swim, nor in general to anyone

whose actions do not take into account the natural course of worldly events. The

duty to choose life is not only a duty to cling to the Torah, which is the

elixir of life; it is also the duty to cling to life itself in the literal

sense of the expression. It is the duty to raise one's eyes to heaven while

taking care that one's feet remain thoroughly grounded in reality.

Rosh HaShanah invites a new choice of

life, in both senses of the expression mentioned above; both life in the

spiritual and religious sense as well as life in the sense of a responsible

approach to our private and public deeds, springing from acquaintance with

existing reality and eschewing dependence upon miracles. May the old year pass

with its curses, and the new year begin with its blessings.

Prof. Danny Statman teaches in the department

of philosophy of Haifa University.

It is not in Heaven… but in your mouth and heart to observe it

And [the reason for] concluding the preceding

chapter on Redemption with the words to observe it is to compare the

subject of Redemption to the act of Creation, which concludes with the words that

by creating, God had made. [trans. note – the

Hebrew la-asot can be translated as to

observe, to make, and to do]. The association of the end of

time with the beginning of time teaches us that the two are similar respecting

the natural processes and the natural order; in the time of the Messiah, nature

will be as it was at the time of Creation. They [the Sages] explicitly said: "There

will be no difference between the current world and that of the days of the

Messiah, other than that of subjugation to other nations."

(Rabeinu Bahayeh

on Devarim 30:15)

…in other words, that 'creation' which man

supposedly 'creates' and forms in his struggles and efforts to be redeemed from

evil, is the equivalent of the creation of heaven and earth…

It is worth noting that both the Rambam and Rabeinu Bahayeh teach the concept of Messianic redemption – the Geula – as the great and momentous mission of perfecting man within the framework of the

world as it is. Man's willingness to invest effort and to

strive constantly to rule over his inclinations, these are the intent of the

Torah as it states figuratively: In your mouth and in your heart, to observe

it.

(Leibowitz, Sheva Shanim shel Sihot

al Parashat HaShavua,

pp. 913-914)

The

Sound of Teruah – Sob or Sigh?

The Holy One,

Blessed Be He, Does Not Differentiate Between One Cry and Another

Throughout the

years and in most of the Diaspora, there have existed doubts regarding the

nature of the teruah mentioned in the

Torah. Is it the wail of wailing women? Or is it a sigh, such as that which a

person sighs again and again when his heart is greatly troubled? Or is it the

two together, the sigh and the sob which usually follows it, for this is the

nature of one deeply worried, first he sighs and then he wails. Therefore we

execute all three.

(RaMBaM,

Hilkhot Sofar

3:2)

You shall

observe a day of teruah – and we interpret this: You shall

observe a day of sobbing. It is written in connection with the mother of Sisera (Judges 5): Through the window peered Sisera's mother, behind the lattice she whined. One

 (Rosh Hashana 33b)

Rabbi Elazar said: From the day the Temple was destroyed, the

gates of prayer have been shut, as is written (Eicha 3:8) And when I cry and plead, He shuts

out my prayer.

But even though the

gates of prayer were shut, the gates of tears were not shut, as is written (Psalms 39:13) Hear my prayer, O Lord; give ear to my cry; do not disregard my tears;

for like all my forebears I am an alien, resident with You.

(Bava

Metzia 59a)

Man Comes from Dust

At

first glance, this is a low view of man, to say that "man comes from dust

and ends in dust", but in truth these words denote praise of man, who was

hewn from a holy source, from our father Abraham, peace be upon him, as is

written (Bereishit 18), I am but earth and ashes, and

he ends in dust – this refers to the Days of Messiah, about which David said (Psalms 44) For

our soul is bowed down to the dust.

(Rabbi Yehoshua of Ostroveh; Sefer Toldedot Adam. Quoted by S. Y. Agnon in Days of Awe,

p.86)

Individual Prayer and Communal Prayer; Prayer's

Differing Intentions

You will surely arise and take

all His glory. He has turned

to the prayer of the destitute and

nations gather together, the kingdoms, to serve the Lord.

(Tehillim 102:14-23)

The grammar is clear; [this passage] begins in the singular the

prayer of the destitute [one] but it ends in the plural and has not

spurned their prayer. Similarly [we read] to hear the groans of the

prisoner,

to release those condemned to death. Vayikra

Rabbah (Emor 23) has already explained the

doubled language, For He looks down from His

holy height; the Lord beholds the earth from heaven…

The point is that the Psalmist saw through the Holy Spirit

that in the final generation, all of Israel will pray on Rosh HaShanah for the restoration of

the kingdom of Heaven to Jerusalem, and He shall reign over the entire world. However,

that prayer is not appropriate for every individual. There is one who loves the

Lord with all his heart and prayers for the magnification of His glory, may He

be blessed. There are those who pray that Israel return to its land, for [the

fulfillment of] the promise made to our father Abraham when he received the

commandment of circumcision…and there is one whose is insensitive to the

misfortune of exile in his personal life. Such a person's prayer is completely

heartless, a matter of sheer rote. Inspired by the Holy Spirit he said, He

has turned to the prayer of the destitute, to that individual in the crowd

who arouses the mercy of heaven from the depths of his heart for the glory of Heaven,

yet despite this He does not despise the prayers of the masses, even though

they only pray for their own benefit, or without intention altogether, in any

case the Great Lord does not despise the communal prayer that joins that of the

destitute.

(HaNaTziv MiVolzhen: Harhev Davar Devarim 26:15, note 1)

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