The Meraglim viewed Eretz Yisrael – and land itself – wrongly, maintaining that physical Earth could never be made divine. What is the remedy for their flawed sense of vision? How can we train ourselves to properly view this materialistic, temporal world?

The answer is hiding in plain sight: Tzitzis teaches us how to see. As the four corners of the Earth hide their Maker, the most inner and true reality, the four corners of a garment hide their wearer; Tzitzis guides us to penetrate the outer mask and always look for the inner world. 

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If, as Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi says, the Holy Land is the axis of all spiritual experience, then to spurn the Holy Land is the root of all evil.

Indeed, this idea lies at the heart of the Meraglim story. Commissioned not merely to see the land, but to see what a land could be, the Meraglim were on a mission to determine if it's possible to replicate Heaven on Earth. They erred, and that original error is the root of all the Jewish nation’s shortcomings.

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What is the most central aspect of a Torah life, the axis of all spiritual experience?

Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi gives a surprising answer which is foundational to his system of man's connection to the divine: the Holy Land.

If a land can be hallowed, then the dimension of holiness can be manifest in the physical world – heaven can be brought down to earth. This inspiring concept is the heart and motivation of all spiritual living.

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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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