A question that has drawn my
attention for some time:
שמות לד:י
וַיֹּאמֶר, הִנֵּה אָנֹכִי כֹּרֵת בְּרִית, נֶגֶד כָּל-עַמְּךָ אֶעֱשֶׂה נִפְלָאֹת, אֲשֶׁר לֹא-נִבְרְאוּ בְכָל-הָאָרֶץ וּבְכָל-הַגּוֹיִם; וְרָאָה כָל-הָעָם אֲשֶׁר-אַתָּה בְקִרְבּוֹ אֶת-מַעֲשֵׂה יְהוָה, כִּי-נוֹרָא הוּא, אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי, עֹשֶׂה עִמָּךְ
Sh’mot (Exodus) 34:10
[Translation, initial understanding]:
He
[God] said: “Behold, I, enact a covenant: in the presence of your entire nation:
I will make wonders that were never created[1] in
all the lands, nor in any of the peoples – It will see, the entire nation - that you [Moshe] are amongst, the makings of
God - for He is Incredible – that I do for you.
What
bothered me was this: Covenants, both in the world at large as well as those
between God and Israel, always have some obligations on each party, or at least
a symbolic gesture to ratify the agreement. It is exceedingly odd for there to
be a covenant unilateral in both ratification and clause.
I
came across some statements of the Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim[2]
wherein he comments on the two requests Moshe makes of God earlier on in their
discussion[3]:
"Make know to me Your Ways" אֶת-דְּרָכֶךָ הוֹדִעֵנִי נָא
"Show me Your Glory" הַרְאֵנִי נָא אֶת-כְּבֹדֶךָ
The Rambam states that the former statement is a request to understand Nature, the physical universe (i.e. laws of physics),
and the latter is a request to ascend to understand God’s perception and
reasoning for the Universe in its entirety, which the Rambam understands to be
equivalent to being God (or at least not being a possibility without
being Him in the first place).
In
response to the latter request, God tells Moshe that he cannot do so – which
makes perfect sense to we who understand the vastness of the cosmos – to see in
the greatest detail the state of the entire universe, Moshe would need a brain
with at least the number of particles in the universe – he literally cannot do
this thing and exist in the universe as he is! Given this, an argument could be
advanced that the issue with the request of Moshe is not that there is a theological
issue, but a practical physical impossibility.
To
the former – the Rambam states that God granted his request. But, according
to the Rambam: Where does God give over this knowledge? Why does Moshe not
teach it? Why did the Industrial Revolution, the age of Science, not start from
that moment?
This can be answered by understanding the
Pasuk in a different way:
He
[God] said: “Behold, I, enact a covenant: in the presence of your entire nation:
I will do wonders that were never created in all the lands, nor in any of the
peoples – all the people[s] will see- that you [The Nation of Israel, singular denoting unity] are amongst, the doings
of God - for He is Incredible – that I do with you [The Nation of Israel].
עִמָּךְ is
not ‘for you’, it is ‘with you’! That single word changes the
entire covenant! This covenant
is a promise that God will do these things with us – that we, the Nation of
Israel, will have the privilege of being amongst the forefront of humanity as we
build the glorious future by the light of our minds, by the skill of our hands –
and we will feel the touch of the hand of God on our works. This is a covenant we have merited to see fulfilled for the first time - that we continue to fulfill - in the last centuries!
Thus,
this is a promise from God to his beloved Nation of Israel, that whenever they accept
upon themselves the Great Mission to delve into the workings of universe, to perceive
its beauty, to give names to its components – God will be with them, delighting
in the discoveries of His Children[4] – and
that by these discoveries, humanity will attain the capacity to create new
wonders[5], in
full realization of our Tzelem Elokim.
[1] It is
very interesting to note that the root ברא,
here translated as ‘create’ always denotes a truly new or unique creation (ex
nihilo). A promise of such in the future is a very big deal, especially in
light of the first-order understandings of ‘nothing new under the sun’.
[2]Moreh
Nevuchim, 1:54, as explained in Maimonides and the Book that Changed Judaism,
by Micah Goodman.
[3] Fragments
of Sh’mot: 33:13 and 33:18, respectively.
[4] See
“The Tree, The Naming, and Eyzer k’negdo”
[5] Including
a way around the Big Whimper, I hope.
Oh wow.
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