Hashem Is Here? Hashem Is There? (No Seriously Where Is Hashem)

Chag sameach everyone. Now I'm coming in with a warning - there will be two activities in this shiur. We'll start with one:

In The History and Varieties of Jewish Meditation (1996) Mark Verman mentions a particular custom, now obscure, described in Rabbi Abraham b. Isaac of Narbonne’s Sefer ha-Eshkol (ca. 12th c.) of nodding one’s head in the six cardinal directions while reciting the opening verse of the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4) ... In the instructions for the song, pointing is an essential part of its performance. I had forgotten this! In searching for the original recording of the song and its accompanying story I not only rediscovered (for myself) these instructions, but also learned that along with the six directions, it was integral to recognize a seventh direction by pointing inward towards one’s self. In so doing, one explicitly affirms the idea of the divine within ourselves and implicitly, in each other....

The instructions for framing the song are as follows:

What a nice story. But it's actually quite complex - what questions might you have as a four year old?

But maybe we're overthinking it. The four-year-old is supposed to feel protected, sheltered. Hashem is in the sky! Hashem is in the birds, Hashem is the trees and the grass...wait.

🚨 Spinozan Alarm Courtesy of ChatGPT 🚨

Careful, chaver—you're teetering on the edge of a Spinozan precipice! That innocent-sounding children’s song, “Hashem is here” might just be smuggling in some suspiciously panentheistic vibes. If you’re not careful, you’ll end up confusing the Creator with the creation, flattening the infinite transcendence of HaKadosh Baruch Hu into an all-pervasive divine soup! Watch those metaphysics before the Rambam starts rolling in his grave.

All of this is a lot to process, so let's take a step back. Two inquiry questions for this evening:

Where is G-d is supposed to be? In case you aren't familiar with the Year 12 Studies of Religion syllabus, let's define some terms:

immanence: the state of being present as a natural and permanent part of something. (Cambridge)

transcendence: existence or experience beyond the normal or physical level (Oxford)

So which is Hashem? Let's look at Kedushah, which appears throughout our tefillot, and forms the apex of holiness during Shacharit - literally the dialogue of angels. And they say:

Now if you're thinking, okay, it's both, hold your horses. There are far reaching theological implications for either, from Divine Providence (i.e. the extent to which G-d intervenes in the world) to theodicy (i.e. why do good things happen to bad people and vice versa). What we are touching on has been the intellectual battleground for Jewish rationalists and spiritualists for centuries. Because according to the RaMbaM, in the rationalist view:

In other words, there is no conceivable corporeal nature of G-d outside of revealed miracles. G-d isn't physical - any attribute, which he goes on to list, can be explained at a metaphor. But G-d can scarcely be truly known. May the Almighty be praised, whose design and wisdom cannot be fathomed - concludes the RaMBaM.

Spiritual and kabbalistic thinkers (from whom the tradition of Tikkun Leil derives) do not take the same approach - and view all parts of the physical world as inherent G-dliness. As is written in Tikkunei Zohar (57):

(a.k.a. Hashem is truly everywhere)

Rabbi Norman Lamm characterises this divergence in worldview between the Mitnagdim and Chassidim:

Judaism posits both the transcendence of and immanence of G-d - His closeness to and withinnness in the world, and His total otherness and infinite remoteness from the mundane spheres...

For Mitnagdism, man relates to God primarily through His transcendence. In His transcendence, He spoke to Israel and gave them the Torah and the comandments. Because of this, it is possible for man to grasp the divine will, both intellectually and spiritually; whereas divine immanence, which is uniformly present in all creation, and which man must be aware of and acknowledge, is uncognizable. We can know about it, but cannot know it.

Hasidism, however, took the diametrically opposite view. It placed the greatest emphasis on divine immanence and on our relating to Him through that immanence ... We must acknowledge divine transcendence but can have no personal relationship with it. Torah and mitzvot are the expression of divine immanence as they deal with this-worldly matters. Thus, while transcendence is inaccessible, this material, phenomenal world is the stage on which the drama of man's encounter and dialogue with his Creator takes place.

So are we any closer to finding G-d? The problem is that we are searching for G-d as either or. If G-d is both, we must seek G-d in both ways. There can be no split between the two concepts of transcendence and immanence - what Lamm calls His word (Torah) and His world (nature). Proper consideration, understanding and participation within both is the basis of Modern Orthodoxy. And what better festival than Shavuot - where Sinai brought together, in great drama, the immanent and the transcendent?

There are many times in our lives when we prefer that G-d be immanent. We want G-d to play a very active role in our world - in great moments in our life, we want to feel G-d is there. The Jewish people wanted desperately to receive the Torah directly from G-d at Mount Sinai (tomorrow morning) - but failed.

Other things offend us - we want to feel that G-d is as far from them as possible.*

But Judaism's synthesis of transcendence and immanence is core to its journey of seeking G-d. For this, I can think of no more perfect encapsulation of the synergy than Yehuda HaLevi's piyyut Ana Emtsaekha (early 12th century, Al-Andalus):

It is the deeply personal nature of this poem that I want to emphasise - because too often, we search for G-d in a collective - but that is not how the Torah was received from G-d. After the failure of immanent revelation, it took the ascendancy of one person in Moshe to interpet G-d's will, and then the collective transfer of that knowledge to the people. No-one can be the intermediary of our actual relationship with G-d. So if you're lacking one or the other, what do you do?

Now, we know G-d is not especially in a triangle. Why would G-d be in two triangles? Because we are ever searching for the taboo, the Divine and the sacred. Deep within us is a consciousness of kedushah - the holiness that is within our world that we bring.

Human beings have the unique capacity to make things holy. Shavuot is known by many names - among them Chag HaKatzir - the Festival of Harvesting. But the same root קצר can also refer to the shortening of distance - the closing of distance between us and G-d. As we read in Devarim:

What we do in this world can close our relationship with G-d. Every time we make kiddush, or do a mitzvah, we are making space for the Divine - acknowledging G-d's active role in the world, and mirroring it.

Don't oversimplify G-d. Hashem is not merely everywhere, all around. Too often I feel this description, beyond being theologically complicated, just causes the young to throw up their hands and say well I guess it's beyond me. It leaves educators afraid to speak about the G Word. And from such a position, how does one address other fundamentals of Judaism - namely, to build a relationship with G-d - love G-d with all your soul, your means and your might, as we say every morning and evening?

We must keep learning. We must keep searching and wrestling. Just because G-d is transcendent does not mean we cannot connect with Him. To understand G-d as transcendent, we must also try to transcend, as Moshe did, beyond the limits of what is right in front of our eyes. We have been given at Sinai an accord of G-d's will - and even if you are unsatisfied by this:

My son, so long as you are engaged in studying the Mathematical Sciences and Logic, you belong to those who go round about the palace in search of the gate. When you understand Physics, you have entered the hall; and when, after completing the study of Natural Philosophy, you master Metaphysics, you have entered the innermost court, and are with the king in the same palace. You have attained the degree of the wise men, who include men of different grades of perfection. There are some who direct all their mind toward the attainment of perfection in Metaphysics, devote themselves entirely to God, exclude from their thought every other thing, and employ all their intellectual faculties in the study of the Universe, in order to derive therefrom a proof for the existence of God, and to learn in every possible way how God rules all things; they form the class of those who have entered the palace, namely, the class of prophets. One of these has attained so much knowledge, and has concentrated his thoughts to such an extent in the idea of God, that it could be said of him, “And he was with the Lord forty days,” etc. (Exod. 34:28); during that holy communion he could ask Him, answer Him, speak to Him, and be addressed by Him...