Michael el Chayil

More on the Kuzari's rejection of Christianity and Islam. Synopsis To the Christian Scholar: The flow of your argument is not logical and I didn't grow up with it. [...] To the Islam Scholar: The record of the miraculous events surrounding Mohamed is in Arabic, and I don't read Arabic. [...] The Talmid Chocham: We believe in the G-d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; Who took the Isralite nation out of Egypt, sustained them in the wilderness, bequeathed to them the Land of Canaan. And that was after He brought them thought the sea and across the Jordan River with outstanding wonders. He sent Moses with His Torah, and after that many thousands of prophets who all exhorted us regarding that Torah and who promised reward to those who keep the Torah and punishment for those who rebelled against it. We believe in all that is written in the Torah according to the received interpretation. The Kuzari: Shouldn't you have said you believe in the Creator the of the world ...

In ma'amar 3, paragraph 21, the Chacham explains to the Kuzari king the order of our brachos in shmone esrei.  I always like to find new insights into shmone esrei, as it helps me to keep some semblance of focus on my davening.  I also found this interesting because the ordering seems so logical that I can have it in mind while davening... helping me to remember where I am, how I got here, and where I am headed. The first three brachos are simply (hah! simply, he says) to get our attention as we realize before Whom we are standing and making our petitions.  Then we are ready to make our supplications. Our purpose of being in this world is to establish, strengthen, and deepen our relationship with the Ein Sof -- the One who presents Himself as HaShem/Elokim/HaKodosh Baruch Hu in this world.  That relationship is built and mediated by our seichel (intelligence/common sense), so the first supplication is for intelligence, understanding, and knowledge (chonein ha'da'...

Continuing in his description of the Torah Jew, the Chacham tells the Khuzari (Ma'amar 3, 11-17) that the fully developed Torah Jew lives a life that is always  "עריב" -- pleasant/engaged/involved.  I find that word decidedly difficult to translate into English, but we say it at least thrice daily after shmone esrei: v'ar'va la'Shem minchas Yehuda v'Yerushalayim, ki'mei olam u'ch'shanim kadmonios -- HaShem should find pleasant/be interested in the mincha offering of Yehuda and Yerushalayim.  In any case, it does not mean pleasant in the sense of always running around with a silly grin on your face.  Rather, it means a life filled with meaning and importance, being engaged and interested every single moment. How does he do that?  First, he looks around the world.  He observes and studies the incredible balance, structure, and inter-dependencies of the ecosystem.  Two examples he gives is that the fly is food for the spider and the rabbit for b...

Synopsis Having rejected the arguments of the philosopher/scientist, the king of Kuzar turns toward the "organized religion" -- Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He rejects Judaism immediately because is practitioners are few and despised. The king decides to start with the Christian scholar and gets a quick overview: G-d revealed Himself to the Jews and gave them His Torah. On this point there is no argument; it is an accepted historical fact. At some point G-d decided to put Himself into human form and masquerade as a prophet; this was the messiah. Most of the Jews rebelled against the messiah, so G-d rejected them; leaving the messiah with only twelve followers. Those twelve followers became the replacement for the twelve tribes. Now everyone who follows after the messiah and his original followers are the real Children of Israel, even though none of them are actually descendants of Jacob. And even though we call G-d three, He is really one. The king has a very...

These are my notes on learning the Kuzari. This is not a translation nor even a commentary, simply my notes and thoughts. Synopsis The Kuzari begins by giving a background story. The king of the Kuzars had dedicated himself to exacting service to G-d according to the strict dictates of his religion. One night an angel came to him in a dream to tell him that G-d was pleased with the king's intentions, but not with his actions. The dreams were persistent, and eventually the king decided that he would have to seek the true path to service of G-d. With that as a background, the king first turns to a scientist/philosopher. (In those days anyone who pursued a career that was not involved in day to day living was called a philosopher. That eventually divided into natural philosophy -- which became science -- and supernatural philosophy. Hence, my use of the term scientist/philosopher.) The scientist tells him that of course there is a creator; but the creator is not involved i...