Skip to main content

Thought for the Day: HaShem Has No "Has To"s, We Have Only "And Therefore"s

I happen to be a Calvin & Hobbes fan.  The strip uses the vehicle of a six year old (my guestimate) and his imaginary (or is he?) tiger to explore all sorts of philosophical issues.  (At this point I know with certainty that many, if not most, of my friends and acquaintances are wondering why I can't just enjoy the comics like a normal person; 'cause I can't.)  Free will, in particular, is addressed from many different angles.  The sport known as Calvin Ball (only rule: can't do anything you've done before), in particular, is a thrilling romp exploring free will at its most unfettered.

However, there is something even beyond free will, and that is will itself.  One of the seminal points in my journey to Orthodox Judaism (aka Reality) was a full appreciation of Pascal's wager.  (In case you need a refresher, my summary is here, Making a Rational Choice to Embrace Orthodox Judaism; feel free to google if you think you need more, but I really believe that covers the essentials.)  I find Pascal's Wager so compelling that I don't really understand how one can come to any other rational conclusion.  Of course one can ignore the whole question of "why do I exist?", but that, of course, is irrational.  I appreciate that many, many live their lives that way, but their (irrational) lack of interest in that most fundamental of all questions does not make the question go away nor does it offer an alternative with which I feel logically compelled to reckon.

I once looked to find serious and reasoned challenges to Pascal's Wager; and I found some!  They all came to the conclusion that the christian view of god/creator is not a rational alternative to atheism.  One commentator noted, "If one were to use Pascal's Wager to come to be religious, one would have to give up certain fundamental facts [sic] about the {christian, my emendation} god; one of which being that he is just and good."

Excellent!  I could not agree more!  Becoming Christian, Mormon, or Muslim is certainly not a rational conclusion from Pascal's Wager.  Of course, neither is atheism.  There are oodles and oodles of falsehoods; there is only one Truth.  HaShem is not "forced" to be good nor just.  The statement doesn't even make sense.  HaShem created both justice and goodness, they therefore can't possibly be traits that describe the Ein Sof -- that real essence of the Creator that is absolutely beyond our ability to grasp at all.  HaShem has not "has to"s, no "must respond"s; He is simply and utterly able to do (or not do) whatever He Wills.

That means that I also have no "have to"s; except one: therefore.  Every moment is perforce a new creation; fundamentally unrelated to anything that came before or that will come after.  That being the case: what's a person to do?  There is only one rational choice: look in the instruction manual and learn what the appropriate response is to each stimulus.  I didn't create this world, but I am living in this world.  I don't know the grand scheme, I only know what is happening to me.  Anything but using the manual makes no logical sense.  I may do the wrong thing, but at least I have a frame of reference to know right from wrong.

Now it's easy.  There is exactly one group who even claims to have instructions straight from the Creator and Author of Reality.  There are many who argue that we made a mistake or that (their version of) god changes his mind.  None, however, offer a G-d given replacement.  They offer their own version of what they think good and evil is all about, but none offer a statement from god.  (The New Testament, for example, has zero quotes from the father.  The Book of Mormon claims to be copied from gold plates brought by an angel; not god.)

There is only one Toras Chaim; Instructions for Life.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thought for the Day: Love in the Time of Corona Virus/Anxiously Awaiting the Mashiach

Two scenarios: Scenario I: A young boy awakened in the middle of the night, placed in the back of vehicle, told not to make any noise, and the vehicle speeds off down the highway. Scenario II: Young boy playing in park goes to see firetruck, turns around to see scary man in angry pursuit, poised to attack. I experienced and lived through both of those scenarios. Terrifying, no? Actually, no; and my picture was never on a milk carton. Here's the context: Scenario I: We addressed both set of our grandparents as "grandma" and "grandpa". How did we distinguish? One set lived less than a half hour's drive; those were there "close grandma and grandpa". The other set lived five hour drive away; they were the "way far away grandma and grandpa". To make the trip the most pleasant for all of us, Dad would wake up my brother and I at 4:00AM, we'd groggily -- but with excitement! -- wander out and down to the garage where we'd crawl
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: אוושא מילתא Debases Yours Shabbos

My granddaughter came home with a list the girls and phone numbers in her first grade class.  It was cute because they had made it an arts and crafts project by pasting the list to piece of construction paper cut out to look like an old desk phone and a receiver attached by a pipe cleaner.  I realized, though, that the cuteness was entirely lost on her.  She, of course, has never seen a desk phone with a receiver.  When they pretend to talk on the phone, it is on any relatively flat, rectangular object they find.  (In fact, her 18 month old brother turns every  relatively flat, rectangular object into a phone and walks around babbling into it.  Not much different than the rest of us, except his train of thought is not interrupted by someone else babbling into his ear.) I was reminded of that when my chavrusa (who has children my grandchildrens age) and I were learning about אוושא מילתא.  It came up because of a quote from the Shulchan Aruch HaRav that referred to the noise of תקתוק
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: David HaMelech's Five Stages of Finding HaShem In the World

Many of us "sing" (once you have heard what I call carrying a tune, you'll question how I can, in good conscience, use that verb, even with the quotation marks) Eishes Chayil before the Friday night Shabbos meal.  We feel like we are singing the praises of our wives.  In fact, I have also been to chasunas where the chasson proudly (sometimes even tearfully) sings Eishes Chayil to his new eishes chayil.  Beautiful.  Also wrong.  (The sentiments, of course, are not wrong; just a misunderstanding of the intent of the author of these exalted words.) Chazal (TB Brachos, 10a) tell us that when Sholmo HaMelech wrote the words "She opens her mouth Mwith wisdom; the torah of kindness is on her tongue", that he was referring to his father, Dovid HaMelech, who (I am continuing to quote Chazal here) lived in five worlds and sang a song of praise [to each].  It seems to me that "world" here means a perception of reality.  Four times Dovid had to readjust his perc
Post a Comment
Read more