What is the essence of lashon hakodesh? Why is it inextricably linked with prophecy and prayer?

Chazal hint that perfect knowledge depends on words. With the correct words for things, we have proper mental representation and accurate knowledge: we know what the world really is like from Hashem's perspective, and we can affect it through word, through prayer. That is the holy tongue of the prophets who gave us images of reality. The 70 languages, on the other hand, are 70 ways to misrepresent reality. 

With true word came prophecy and the power of prayer; when the era of the true word ended prophecy ceased, and even prayer would have no longer been possible if the last remaining prophets wouldn't have founded a new way of relating to Hashem for the post-prophetic era, beyond word and beyond mental representation. 

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At the same point in history, both prophecy and the impulse for idolatry ceased, changing the face of Judaism and its struggles. Can these two things – one of the greatest godliness, the other of the greatest wickedness – somehow be related?

Yes, says Reb Tzadok, prophecy and idolatry have the same root: God's immanence and visibility. In the era that God made Himself known through prophetic image, there was a concomitant passion to concretize Him, to represent the divine with physical form and direct our worship to that. Prophecy ended and now God is hidden, to be approached through intellect alone.

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The trajectory of Judaism seems to be a downward one: the era of prophecy and revelation in the Holy Land is past, while the current era is one of divine concealment. Indeed, according to Rabbi Yehudah HaLevi – whose opinion accords with Resh Lakish – we should be focused now on recovery, on regaining our lost glory.

But there is an alternative, diametrically opposite approach to this matter. According to Rabbi Yochanan and others, exile itself has a positive purpose, and Judaism was always supposed to be transformed and enriched by it. Hashem's complete revelation can be attained only subsequent to His concealment; the early years of glory were really an advance, early sense of what will be fully realized after the historical process of exile and redemption.

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Judaism as we know it is incomparable to the one that was, when Hashem communicated through prophets and dwelt among Yisrael. How are we to relate to this absence? Can we consider our religion complete in its current, diminished state?

No, we cannot, says Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi, and this incompleteness must always inform our religious feeling. In his monumental work, The Kuzari, HaLevi gives a magical sense of the Judaism of old. Prophecy, the Holy Land and the nation of Yisrael are central to this theology of yearning; we, today, have mere impressions of a divine system unlike anything familiar, glimmers of godliness, and our spiritual focus must be centered on recovering this lost glory.

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Man was created "in the image of God." What does this mean? How could the form of man be identified with the formless and shapeless God?

Shaarei Orah teaches that the human being is the symbolic representation of the divine. God is formless, shapeless – and utterly unknowable. We can know Him only indirectly, through an image that represents Him: the human being.

According to this teaching, man's perfection is to properly represent the divine, to actualize it in this physical and limited world. When perfecting himself, man is perfecting God's representation and actually embodies the divine.

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The Torah commands us to walk in the ways of Hashem: to be as He is and do as He does. But what does it mean for a mortal being to go in the ways of Hashem – can we truly define Hashem's character traits and emulate them?

No, says the Rambam, we cannot. Hashem and His ways are in fact utterly unknowable. The terms and images that the prophets use to describe Him and His ways are actually a facade, a guise that Hashem takes so that we have a representation of a Godly image to emulate.

This cosmic idea lies at the heart of the Rambam's whole system of theology and ethics.

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What are shedim? Are these monstrous beings real?  

Explore the conflicting perspectives of two Torah giants about these issues, and learn how they provide a window into two divergent systems of religious thought.

The dispute is based on fundamental questions about the focus of avodas Hashem. According to the Rambam, avodas Hashem is rooted in the world of the intellect; according to the GR"A, in the world of action and experience.

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Could a perfect God who lacks for nothing have a motive for creating the world? If He has no needs, what impetus is there for Him to create? 

Ramchal teaches that creation does indeed have a clear and specific purpose: goodness. God is good and therefore does good. Not out of need but out of pure beneficence, God created a world of goodness, which is identical with godliness.

This profound idea is the crux of Ramchal's system of theology and is also the basis of his great ethical work, the Mesillas Yesharim.

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Can we speak of creation's purpose? Can we fathom a perfect God needing something from this world?

Indeed we can understand the objective of creation, says the Avodas HaKodesh. Our worship serves Heaven's needs, actualizing the unity of God. This astonishing and wondrous idea – known not through logic but through tradition – lies at the heart of a complete system of religious theory and can give meaning to everything we do.

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Whyever did God create the world? Can we even give a reason for a perfect God to be motivated to act? This most fundamental question about our existence has occupied many of the greatest Torah thinkers. 

This lecture explores the Rambam's unique and profound opinion about the purpose of everything.

The Rambam asserts that creation has no purpose in the usual sense of a motivating reason to do something. Rather, the purpose is God Himself: His will or His wisdom, which are His essence.

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