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Linguistic Symbols and Normal Mysticism
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Yirah/Awe and Brachah/Blessing Linguistic Symbols and Normal Mysticism

Shabbat Shalom!

Big Picture

This morning I want to talk about:

  • symbols in general;
  • how words function as symbols;
  • how the Torah's vocabulary gives us sets of linguistic symbols, which form the core of Jewish life's vocabulary;
  • how the meanings of the Torah's vocabulary evolve over time as different commentators try to understand them;
  • and then see how one of the most common facets of Jewish practice: saying blessings, is a way to maintain one of the most fleeting of religious attitudes: Awe.

What is a symbol?

A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different concepts and experiences. Wikipedia

What do symbols do?

They symbolize.

George Lindbeck, The Nature of Doctrine

[T]he linguistic-cultural model is part of an outlook that stresses the degree to which human experience is shaped, molded, and in a sense constituted by cultural and linguistic forms. There are numberless thoughts we cannot think, sentiments we cannot have, and realities we cannot perceive unless we learn to use the appropriate symbol systems.

It seems...that unless we acquire language of some kind, we cannot actualize our specifically human capacities for thought, action, and feeling. Similarly, so the argument goes, to become religious involves becoming skilled in the language, the symbol system of a given religion.

This is related to the idea of linguistic relativity, which suggests that the structure of a language affects its speakers' worldview or cognition, and thus people's perceptions are relative to their spoken language.

Rabbinic Judaism includes such a system - a system of symbols: language, composed of a vocabulary (rooted in the Tanakh and their Greco-Roman environment), rituals and ritual objects. One of the ways to appreciate Judaism is to understand those symbolic systems, how they mean, and what they mean, and how the meaning of those symbols changes over time.

There is a pair of verses in this week's Torah portion that gives us a list of terms that have become part of the core of Rabbinic Judaism's system of symbols that help shape Jewish thought.

(יב) וְעַתָּה֙ יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל מָ֚ה ה' אֱלֹקֶ֔יךָ שֹׁאֵ֖ל מֵעִמָּ֑ךְ כִּ֣י אִם־לְ֠יִרְאָ֠ה אֶת־ה' אֱלֹקֶ֜יךָ לָלֶ֤כֶת בְּכׇל־דְּרָכָיו֙ וּלְאַהֲבָ֣ה אֹת֔וֹ וְלַֽעֲבֹד֙ אֶת־ה' אֱלֹקֶ֔יךָ בְּכׇל־לְבָבְךָ֖ וּבְכׇל־נַפְשֶֽׁךָ׃ (יג) לִשְׁמֹ֞ר אֶת־מִצְוֺ֤ת ה' וְאֶת־חֻקֹּתָ֔יו אֲשֶׁ֛ר אָנֹכִ֥י מְצַוְּךָ֖ הַיּ֑וֹם לְט֖וֹב לָֽךְ׃

(12) And now, O Israel, what does your God ה' demand of you? Only this: to revere your God ה', to walk in divine paths, to love and to serve your God ה' with all your heart and soul, (13) keeping ה’s commandments and laws, which I command you today - for your good.

This pair of verses begins with this provocative question, asked by Moses to a generation who mostly had grown up in the wilderness, with the Exodus and Sinai and many of the years in that wilderness either as a memory from long ago or a story they were raised with.

We have:

  • Yirah / Awe or fear of God (I prefer Awe)
  • Ahavah / Love of God
  • Service to God / Avodah
  • all of the above with all of one's Heart and Soul / B'khol levav'kha u'v'kohl nafshekha.
  • Keeping the mitzvot / commandments and the chukim / laws. (There are other terms in other places as well; edot / tesitomonies, mishpatim/case laws, torot/instruction.)

In many commentaries on these verses, this serves as a starting point for Jewish spirituality or practice. But let's just dive into one of these symbolic terms, the first one - Yirah / Awe

  • What does it mean to be in awe of God? (The meaning of this particular symbol)
  • How does being in awe of God relate to the rest of this verse? (How does this particular symbol relates to the other symbols in this list?)
  • Why might being in awe of God be first on this list? Does the order matter? (How are we to understanding the structure of this list and its possible meanings?)

I want to look at three particular voices on these questions, each with their own approach. Two are medieval (Rambam and Rabbeynu Bachya) and one is modern (the Netivot Shalom). And then seeing some related insights by 20th century Conservative Rabbi, Max Kadushin.

All of this is to give us insight into the rabbinic practice of brachot, the system of blessings that are the main building block of our liturgy, and which are a crucial part of the linguistic-cultural system that the rabbis create.

Rabbi Moses ben Maimon (Rambam) Contemplation of the Natural World+Cosmos -> Awe

(א) הָאֵל הַנִּכְבָּד וְהַנּוֹרָא הַזֶּה מִצְוָה לְאָהֳבוֹ וּלְיִרְאָה אוֹתוֹ שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (דברים ו ה) "וְאָהַבְתָּ אֵת ה' אֱלֹקֶיךָ". וְנֶאֱמַר (דברים ו יג) "אֶת ה' אֱלֹקֶיךָ תִּירָא":

(ב) וְהֵיאַךְ הִיא הַדֶּרֶךְ לְאַהֲבָתוֹ וְיִרְאָתוֹ. בְּשָׁעָה שֶׁיִּתְבּוֹנֵן הָאָדָם בְּמַעֲשָׂיו וּבְרוּאָיו הַנִּפְלָאִים הַגְּדוֹלִים וְיִרְאֶה מֵהֶן חָכְמָתוֹ שֶׁאֵין לָהּ עֵרֶךְ וְלֹא קֵץ מִיָּד הוּא אוֹהֵב וּמְשַׁבֵּחַ וּמְפָאֵר וּמִתְאַוֶּה תַּאֲוָה גְּדוֹלָה לֵידַע הַשֵּׁם הַגָּדוֹל. כְּמוֹ שֶׁאָמַר דָּוִד (תהילים מב ג) "צָמְאָה נַפְשִׁי לֵאלֹקִים לְאֵל חָי".

וּכְשֶׁמְּחַשֵּׁב בַּדְּבָרִים הָאֵלּוּ עַצְמָן מִיָּד הוּא נִרְתָּע לַאֲחוֹרָיו וִיפַחֵד וְיוֹדֵעַ שֶׁהוּא בְּרִיָּה קְטַנָּה שְׁפָלָה אֲפֵלָה עוֹמֶדֶת בְּדַעַת קַלָּה מְעוּטָה לִפְנֵי תְּמִים דֵּעוֹת. כְּמוֹ שֶׁאָמַר דָּוִד (תהילים ח ד) "כִּי אֶרְאֶה שָׁמֶיךָ מַעֲשֵׂי אֶצְבְּעֹתֶיךָ" (תהילים ח ה) "מָה אֱנוֹשׁ כִּי תִזְכְּרֶנּוּ". וּלְפִי הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלּוּ אֲנִי מְבָאֵר כְּלָלִים גְּדוֹלִים מִמַּעֲשֵׂה רִבּוֹן הָעוֹלָמִים כְּדֵי שֶׁיִּהְיוּ פֶּתַח לַמֵּבִין לֶאֱהֹב אֶת הַשֵּׁם. כְּמוֹ שֶׁאָמְרוּ חֲכָמִים בְּעִנְיַן אַהֲבָה שֶׁמִּתּוֹךְ כָּךְ אַתָּה מַכִּיר אֶת מִי שֶׁאָמַר וְהָיָה הָעוֹלָם:

(1) It is mandatory to love and fear this Glorified and Awe-inspiring God, for it is said: "You shall love the Eternal your God" (Devarim 6:5); and as it is said: "The Eternal your God: you shall be in awe." (Devarim 6: 13).

(2) But what is the path to love and be in awe of God? At the moment when a person reflects concerning God's works, and God's great and wonderful creatures, and will behold through them God's wonderful, matchless and infinite wisdom, they will spontaneously be filled with love, praise and exaltation and become possessed of a great longing to know the Great Name, even as David said: "My soul thirsts for God, for the living God," (Ps. 42:2);

and when they think on all these matters, they will be taken aback in a moment and stricken with awe, and realize that they are infinitesimal creatures, humble and dark, standing with an insignificant and slight knowledge in the presence of the All Wise, as David said: "For when I see Your heavens, the wonderful works of Your fingers, of what use is humanity that You may remember it?" (Ps. 8:4).

And, in harmony with these matters, I elucidate great, general principles of the works of the Master of the Worlds, so that they might serve as an opening for one who understands by which to love The Name, as some sages said on the subject of love: "From this, you will recognize the One who spoke, and the universe was."

  • What resource are available to us today to reflect on God's works, creatures, and wisdom?
    • Where do we turn for this experience? (open question)
      • Documentaries - e.g. Cosmos (Carl Sagan or Neil Lagrasse Tyson) or the like.
      • Being in nature itself
      • Any studying and learning about an aspect of the natural world, either on the macros or micro scale.
      • ???
  • For Rambam, how are love of God and awe of God connected or related to each other?
    • They are two side born from the same insight. This contemplation leads to a love of such a source of all things, and a feeling of being put in to one's place.
    • Two sides of the same coin.
    • The commandments to Love and Be in Awe comes from Torah, but the experience that one undertakes to cultivate those feelings comes from the natural world. Rambam sees here that the Sinai Revelation intersects with the Natural Revelation perceived in nature.
    • Experiences of the natural world are then framed by these verses. Radical amazement and awe and that feeling of anthropic love (the world supports human life) are framed as feelings about God, not just the cosmos or the universe.
      • Though I think if we insert Cosmos or Universe in place of God, we can often better understand what Rambam and other are getting at.

Rabbi Shalom Noach Barzovsky - The Slonimer Rebbe (Netivot Shalom)

Yirah is primary and foundational

Netivot Shalom on Parshat Ekev

The verse says And now, meaning what God is asking from you now, which is to say that awe is primary, but not the end; awe includes all of these, i.e. to walk in all of God’s ways, to love God, etc. In the introduction of the holy Zohar the first task of all tasks is having being in awe of God…, and it is the essence and foundation of all other tasks in the Torah. The quality of awe is the foundation of the entire Torah, and all of the commandments, for awe encompasses all of the commandments….

You can find someone who has learned every interpretation of Jewish law and lore - the whole Torah, but if that one has no awe of sin, they have nothing in their hand. That one can be compared to a person who says to their friend, “I have a thousand measures of grain, and a thousand measure of oil, and a thousand measures of wine.” The other one says, “If you have a treasure, share them for they are yours, but if not, you have nothing, because it will all rot.”

So too a person who learns everything; they say to that one, “If you have awe of sin, all is yours, as it is written, ‘Awe of the Eternal is one’s treasure," and that is what David said: “The awe of the Eternal is pure, standing forever.” For that one has a treasure of awe, that one has the means to gather and strengthen, and all that that one does will remain in their hand, but if not they have no treasure, then they have nothing.

  • How is the Netivot Shalom reading our first verse different from Ramabam?
  • Why does he think awe of God is so foundational?
  • How do you understand the analogy in his teaching to the person who has those stores of resources? What is he trying to convey through this analogy?
    • NS and Rambam are not in conflict, but even dovetail. NS makes elevates the cultivation of Awe from important to crucial and foundational. It is the bedrock upon which all other religious feelings rest.
Rabbeynu Bachya - Spain 13th century The verses are one long verse - all ending in "for your benefit" This all points to a system that helps cultivate these feelings: brachot

יאמר אע"פ שהכעסתם אותו פעמים רבות בחורב ובמדבר, הרי הוא מוחל לכם את הכל ובלבד שתיראו מלפניו מכאן ואילך.

(ב) וכתב הרמב"ן ז"ל כי פסוק זה כלו נמשך עד לטוב לך, יאמר איננו שואל מעמך דבר שיהיה לצרכו ולא לצרכך, כטעם (איוב ל״ה:ז׳) אם צדקת מה תתן לו, רק הכל הוא לטוב לך, ואמר הטעם כי לה' אלקיך השמים ושמי השמים הארץ וכל אשר בה, וכלם נותנין כבוד לשמו, אינו צריך לך, רק באבותיך חשק ה' ויבחר בזרעם בכם, שאתם מבחר זרעם לא בישמעאל ועשו. וטעם כיום הזה כי כן יהיה בכל זרעם עד כאן.

(ג) וידוע מה שדרשו רז"ל מן הכתוב הזה, שחייב אדם לברך מאה ברכות בכל יום, שנאמר מה ה' אלקיך שואל מעמך, אל תקרי מה אלא מאה, כלומר מאה ה' אלקיך שואל מעמך.

(ד) ויש בפסוק זה צ"ט אותיות ועם אל"ף שתשים במלת מ"ה ישלמו למאה אותיות ותחזור המלה מאה, כדי לרמוז בדרך אסמכתא שחייב אדם לברך בכל יום מאה ברכות. וכן יש אסמכתא לזה מפסוק (תהילים קכ״ח:ד׳) הנה כי כן יבורך גבר ירא ה', כי ירא ה' יש לו לברך מנין כ"י כ"ן. עוד (שמואל ב כ״ג:א׳) נאם הגבר הוקם על, קיים ע"ל ברכות. ואמרו כי דוד ע"ה יסד מאה ברכות, ואח"כ שכחום וחזרו אנשי כנסת הגדולה ויסדום.

(2) Nachmanides writes that this entire verse continues until the end of verse 13 in our text, i.e. including the words לטוב לך, “for your benefit.” The message is that God does not require obeisance, service, love, reverence for God's sake, but all of these requests are for your benefit. We have repeatedly explained the concept that seeing God owns the universe and all there is in it there is nothing that a creature can do to enhance God's well being.

(3) Our sages (Menachot 43b) use the words 'מה ה' to derive from here the requirement for each person to recite 100 benedictions daily. They read the words מה ה' שואל as מאה ה' שואל, “the Eternal asks for one hundred (blessings).”

(4) The verse contains 99 letters. If you add the missing letter א to make up the word מאה, you will have 100 letters. We have another verse (Psalms 128:4): This is the way a God-fearing person blesses the Lord.” The numerical value of the combined words כי כן is 100. David introduced the rule to recite 100 blessings a day. It had been forgotten in the course of centuries until the Members of the Great Assembly reintroduced the practice.

  • How does Rabbeynu Bachya read our verse differently than Rambam and Netivot Shalom?
  • What is the significance of his method of reading the verse and its neighbor?
  • What specific practice does Rabbeynu Bachya teach about based on this verse?
  • How is this practice related to being in awe of God?
תניא היה רבי מאיר אומר חייב אדם לברך מאה ברכות בכל יום שנאמר (דברים י, יב) ועתה ישראל מה ה' אלקיך שואל מעמך
It is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Meir would say: A person is obligated to recite one hundred blessings every day, as it is stated in the verse: “And now, Israel, what [ma] does the Lord your God require of you” (Deuteronomy 10:12). Rabbi Meir interprets the verse as though it said one hundred [me’a], rather than ma.

Max Kadushin, The Rabbinic Mind (pp. 252-253)

- Important Conservative Rabbi from the 20th century, noted in particular for scholarly commentaries on rabbinic midrash, and for the concept of Normal Mysticism.

“[T]hat which the Rabbis in general experienced, and the folk as well ... was the experience of God unaccompanied by psychic phenomena such as visions or locutions. Here, then, is another feature of normal mysticism. In order to achieve that kind of mysticism, a person must develop habits of action that are at the same time habits of sensitivity, but this is largely a matter of cultivation, of training. The psychological equipment required is only the sort called for also in ordinary, day-to-day living, not that of any unusual temperament ..."

Kadushin here is making some important points about Normal Mysticism:

  1. Being in awe is not about having an ecstatic or prophetic or visionary mystical experience.
  2. Being in awe is an intellectual state that one can cultivate over time with habituation.
  3. The rabbinic practice of 100 daily blessings is at the core of cultivating awe of God. Anyone could do this with practice.
  4. Which blessings?
    1. The blessings that are part of our daily liturgy (focusing on our bodies, Torah, being alive; focusing on singing psalms of praise to God; focusing in the ways in which God interacts with the world; in the Amidah, which invites us to contemplate God in 19 different ways as well, personal and national; the way in which God speaks to use through Torah and the prophets;
    2. The blessings for the food we eat and liquids we drink
    3. The blessings for the experiences we see and hear
    4. The blessings for the different kinds of people we encounter
    5. Blessings for commandments
  5. How do they share our experience of the world, ourselves and our place in it?
    1. Baruch - describes God as bountiful; source of bounty
    2. Atah - addresses God as You
    3. YHVH - intimate name; burning bush; through the Jewish people's particular experience
    4. Eloheinu - transcendent title; through our universal experience of being a human being alive in the world.
    5. Melekh - God as Source of the Cosmos
    6. Ha-Olam - Space and Time
      1. Kavanah - It's all about cultivating a particular attitude/frame/lens/feelings/view/heart-mind pointing-in-a-certain-direction.

שָׁנִינוּ: אֶחָד הַמַּרְבֶּה וְאֶחָד הַמַּמְעִיט, וּבִלְבַד שֶׁיְּכַוֵּין לִבּוֹ לַשָּׁמַיִם.

we learned: One who brings a substantial sacrifice and one who brings a meager sacrifice have equal merit, as long as he directs his heart toward Heaven.

Max Kadushin, The Rabbinic Mind

[Kavanah] in this phase amounts to nothing less than the deliberate cultivation of an inward experience. True, the other concepts involved in an experience of worship determine its idea-content, but it is [kavanah] which makes any experience of worship possible at all. In other words, without conveying the idea-content of an experience of worship, [kavanah] is as large a factor in such an experience as concepts which do express the idea-content.

Back to the Big Idea:

The Torah commands us to cultivate certain religious feelings, in particular Awe/Yirah.

Awe is often experienced during peak moments of life, or perhaps in nature or contemplation of the natural world. The feeling is often fleeting, and hard to re-capture.

Awe is foundational for the rabbis in creating the baseline attitude for a religious life, often putting our personal existence into appropriate perspective, namely infinitesimally small.

How does one maintain that feeling of Awe, that elusively fleeting feeling, from the mountaintop, the birth, the storm, the deep green of the forest, the celestial images from the Hubble and Webb telescopes?

For the rabbis, the system of blessings keeps pointing our hearts and minds towards this truth, that every single moment of existence and every experience in life is nothing less than a divine gift that we do not deserve and have not earned.

The system of blessings reminds us that though not every person has mind blowing mystical experiences or prophetic visions or life-altering moments, everyone can still use the rabbinic system of linguistic-cultural symbols to have a normal mystical experience of God at least one hundred time each day.

May we all bless those small moments each day where we can invite God in and feel God's presences.

May we all become Normal Mystics.

Shabbat Shalom

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