2. Commentaries--rereading
3. Avot 4:2 3 parts.
4. Conclusion: Greenberg
(ג) אִם־בְּחֻקֹּתַ֖י תֵּלֵ֑כוּ וְאֶת־מִצְוֺתַ֣י תִּשְׁמְר֔וּ וַעֲשִׂיתֶ֖ם אֹתָֽם׃ (ד) וְנָתַתִּ֥י גִשְׁמֵיכֶ֖ם בְּעִתָּ֑ם וְנָתְנָ֤ה הָאָ֙רֶץ֙ יְבוּלָ֔הּ וְעֵ֥ץ הַשָּׂדֶ֖ה יִתֵּ֥ן פִּרְיֽוֹ׃
(3) If you follow My laws and faithfully observe My commandments, (4) I will grant your rains in their season, so that the earth shall yield its produce and the trees of the field their fruit.
אם בחקתי. תשמרו ועשיתם. מצוה ללמוד וללמד ולעשו׳:
(14) But if you do not obey Me and do not observe all these commandments, (15) if you reject My laws and spurn My rules, so that you do not observe all My commandments and you break My covenant, (16) I in turn will do this to you: I will wreak misery upon you—consumption and fever, consumption and fever which cause the eyes to pine and the body to languish; you shall sow your seed to no purpose, for your enemies shall eat it. (17) I will set My face against you: you shall be routed by your enemies, and your foes shall dominate you. You shall flee though none pursues.
ועשיתם אותם. ואז יהיה לכם זה השלמות בקנין באופן שתעשו אותם כמו פועלים הטוב ברצון נפשכם לא כמצווים ועושים מיראה אשר בזה יהיה העושה מתפעל בצד מה אבל תעשו מאהבה חפצים ברצון האל יתברך כאמרם (אבות) עשה רצונו כרצונך:
ועשיתם אותם, if you will carry them out in the above-mentioned manner, not as servants who are afraid of incurring the wrath of their masters, this will be the “finishing touch” of your establishing a total claim to the land of your inheritance. You would demonstrate that you perform His will as if it were your own will. (Avot 2,4)
(ב) בֶּן עַזַּאי אוֹמֵר, הֱוֵי רָץ לְמִצְוָה קַלָּה כְבַחֲמוּרָה, וּבוֹרֵחַ מִן הָעֲבֵרָה. שֶׁמִּצְוָה גּוֹרֶרֶת מִצְוָה, וַעֲבֵרָה גוֹרֶרֶת עֲבֵרָה. שֶׁשְּׂכַר מִצְוָה, מִצְוָה. וּשְׂכַר עֲבֵרָה, עֲבֵרָה:
(2) Ben Azzai said: Be quick in performing a minor commandment as in the case of a major one, and flee from transgression; For one commandment leads to another commandment, and transgression leads to another transgression; For the reward for performing a commandment is another commandment and the reward for committing a transgression is a transgression.
— Qal - גָּרַר 1 he dragged, towed, drew, pulled along; PBH 2 he involved, it involved, brought about.
— Niph. - נִגֽרַר was dragged.
— Pi. - גֵּרַר he dragged.
— Pu. - גֹּרַר was dragged.
— Hith. - הִתְגָּרֵר he swept along. [Aram. גּֽרַר, Syr. גַּר (= he pulled, he dragged), Akka. gararu (= he ran), Arab. jarra (= he pulled, dragged).] Derivatives: גָּרוּר ᴵ, גָּרוּר ᴵᴵ, גֵּרוּר ᴵ, גְּרָר, גְּרָרָה, גּוֹרֵר, גּוֹרֶרֶת.
In our lifetime, we are living through another major transformation of the covenant. The crisis of the greatest destruction of all time--the Holocaust--raises the question of the credibility of the covenant altogether, and whether God exists or cares." The overwhelming response of the Jewish people has been to take responsibility for the covenant. The primary response has been the re-creation of the state of Israel, which is the great Biblical symbol of the continuation of the covenant and its possession by the Jews. One might argue that so great was the assault on the Jews and so successful, that the Jewish people was by right and logic released from its covenantal obligations. The Jewish choice to go on with the covenant was an extraordinary act of voluntary commitment to the ultimate dream of redemption and to the past history of the covenant. The Jewish capacity for renewal of life represents an extraordinary reaffirmation of the ultimate dream of every human being in the image of God. In effect, the Jewish people has concluded that God has even further self-limited in order to call the human being--in this case, the Jews--to greater responsibility. This conclusion suggests that this generation is called to even greater achievements of movement toward perfection. In any event, the covenant process goes on; the covenant commitment of the Jewish people is firm, although for some living as a Jew is a conscious, and for some an unconscious, assumption of covenantal obligations.
To the modern man, religion can no longer be a matter of entering into a relationship with the supernatural. The only kind of religion that can help him live and get the most out of life will be the one that will teach him to identify as divine or holy whatever in human nature or in the world about him enhances life. Men most no longer look upon God as a reservoir of magic power to be tapped whenever they are aware of their physical limitation. It was natural for primitive man to do so... With the development of scientific techniques for the utilization of natural forces, and with the revision of our world outlook in a way that invalidates the distinction between natural and supernatural, it is only as the sum of everything in the world that renders life significant and worthwhile or holy-that God can be worshipped by men. Godhood can have no meaning for us apart from human ideals of truth, goodness, and beauty, interwoven in a pattern of holiness....To believe inGod is to reckon with life's creative forces, tendencies and potentialities as forming an organic unity, and as giving meaning to life by virtue of that unity...
Questions:
What does Kaplan's theology react against?
b. What makes up Kaplan's faith?
c. is such a faith possible today?
d.. What are the limitations of Kaplan's approach?
e. What dimensions of Kaplan's theology are worth preserving and what needs reconstructing?
As civilization advances, the sense of wonder declines. Such decline is an alarming symptom of our state of mind. Mankind will not perish for want of information; but only for want of appreciation. The beginning of happiness lies in our understanding that life without wonder is not worm living. What we lack is not a will to believe but a will to wonder.
Awareness of the divine origins begins with wonder. It is the result of what man does with his higher incomprehension. The greatest hindrance to such awareness is our adjustment to conventional notions, to mental clichés. Wonder or radical amazement, the state of maladjustment to words and notions, is therefore a prerequisite for an authentic awareness of that which is...
What fills us with radical amazement is not the relations in which everything is embedded but the fact that even the minimum of perception is a minimum of enigma. The most incomprehensible fact is the fact that we comprehend at all...(46-47)
Questions:
1. What does Heschel's theology react against?
2. How does Heschel define a spiritual personality?
3. What are the strengths and weaknesses of his approach?
4. Compare/contrast Heschel and Kaplan.
5. What kind of character or personality does Heschel seek to foster?
6. How do you get there?
7. Where are you in the debate between Heschel and Kaplan?