Man searches for absolute truth, a precise system of God’s ways. But is there one definitive solution? What if our opinions themselves affect nature and determine how God acts?

It may sound like science fiction, but Chazal state it clearly: God modifies His ways according to human opinion. His connection with man is absolutely imperative, but the specific methods of that connection are flexible.

The idea of God’s flexibility redefines the concept of machlokes. Two contradictory notions can both be true; different realities can exist for different people. 

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How did the city so full of people become so alone?

So begins the great lament, with a question that also hints – in coded language – to an answer. What made Israel a godly nation and what led to their downfall? Seen through the lens of Moshe’s parting speech to his people in the Book of Devarim, the opening cry of Eichah answers this with a complete theology of a holy people, its land and exile.

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How did the city so full of people become so alone?

So begins the great lament, with a question that also hints – in coded language – to an answer. What made Israel a godly nation and what led to their downfall? Seen through the lens of Moshe’s parting speech to his people in the Book of Devarim, the opening cry of Eichah answers this with a complete theology of a holy people, its land and exile.

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You can email Rabbi Burton with questions or comments at [email protected]

What do we know about God?

This is the most central dispute between the rival philosophic and esoteric schools of Jewish thought. Armed with ink and quill, the opposing camps have waged impassioned and heated battles throughout the centuries.

Rabbeinu Sa'adiah Gaon, Rambam and others assert that it is impossible to understand Hashem's essence. We know only that He exists, or, more accurately, that He doesn’t not exist. Nothing else.

R’ Chasdai Crescas and others, including the Mekubalim, reject that philosophy as antithetical to the Torah. We can know that Hashem is mighty and all-knowing and merciful. However, attributes that pertain to God are entirely unlike attributes that pertain to humans. God's attributes, like God Himself, are infinite.

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Why was one nation chosen from among the seventy – are all human beings not equal before the one God?

No, says Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi, most emphatically not. In the sublime system of the Kuzari, the nation of Yisrael alone is a metaphysical, divine people. Only its members can be prophets, and only in their Holy Land; the Torah is decidedly nationalistic.

Others are not as exclusive. Rambam maintains that even non-Jews can attain prophecy, and the Shaarei Orah delineates a unique spiritual role for all nations of the world; universalism is the Torah's ultimate goal.

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Rabbeinu Sa'adiah Gaon considered it preposterous. 

Mekubalim attributed it to Eliyahu HaNavi. 

Abarbanel and others adduced the authority of Pythagoras in its support.

Hotly debated for thousands of years, the mystical doctrine of gilgul is given cogent form by Ramchal. The recurring rules of reality are based on divine attributes that appear and reappear throughout history and the lives of men; more than one individual can actualize the same divine rule, and in that sense they truly share the same essence, the very same soul.

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After completing each creation God saw “that it was good” and after completing the whole of creation “that everything He made was very good.” All was complete and perfect – except for just one thing: “It is not good for man to be alone.” Cosmic goodness was in jeopardy, hinging on the rectification of this problem, and indeed, Rashi teaches, man’s very relationship with God depended on this matter. Why?

The relationship between the sexes has a secret purpose of the highest order: knowledge of God. For only through knowing another person – a completely separate, other consciousness – can the mind expand to know the Ultimate Other, God. Without another person, man would remain trapped forever in the narrow confines of his own mind; only seeing things from his limited, selfish perspective, he would never see God and His goodness.

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The Torah's message differs from the prophets': the former focuses on law, the latter on morals. Concomitantly, the prophets taught knowledge of God, while the Torah indicates that this is an impossibility: He is utterly unknowable. If you can know Hashem, then you should emulate Him; if you cannot, then you should obey the fixed, inflexible, and sometimes inscrutable law.

Explore how these contradictory teachings are both true – on different levels of consciousness. Together, these diametrically opposed philosophies comprise one great system that allows for both negative theology and anthropomorphism.

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The Torah's message differs from the prophets': the former focuses on law, the latter on morals. Nowhere is the difference starker than in regard to sacrificial worship; when the prophets insist that God does not desire animal sacrifice and wants only kindness, justice and righteousness, the discrepancy becomes outright contradiction.

But on close analysis we find that there is no true contradiction. Rather, this divergence encapsulates the essential nature of the Torah and the prophetic books, respectively. The Torah is the law with which to worship the unknowable, transcendent God, and the prophetic books are the framework by which He makes Himself known to man.

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Of major focus in the Torah, idolatry is the subject of numerous commandments, warnings and punishments; but what, precisely, is it? And who are those "Other Gods" that the Torah forbids to worship? Are there more gods than the One God?

According to Rambam, idolatry is, essentially, a forbidden practice. While it is theoretically fitting to venerate the heavenly servants of Hashem – the sun, the moon and the stars, actions resembling worship are nonetheless prohibited because they lead to erroneous beliefs.

Ramban explains the matter differently: idolatry is an expression of faithlessness. It is the deification of the other divine beings – the angels. These lesser divinities are actually appropriate, in a sense, for other nations to worship, but for Hashem’s unique people, only He is truly God.

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