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JEWISH PHILOSOPHY |
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by Baal Shem-Tov
"Had they but abandoned Me," says God, "and kept faith with My Torah!" This must be interpreted as follows: The end-all of knowledge is to know that we cannot know anything. But there are two sorts of not-knowing. The one is the immediate not-knowing, when a man does not even begin to examine and try to know, because it is impossible to know. Another, however, examines and seeks, until he comes to know that one cannot know. And the difference between these two -- to whom may we compare them? To two men who wish to see the king. The one enters all the chambers belonging to the king. He rejoices in the king's treasure rooms and splendid halls, and then he discovers that he cannot get to know the king. The other tells himself; "Since it is not possible to get to know the king, we will not bother to enter, but put up with not knowing." This leads us to understand what those words of God mean. They have abandoned Me, that is, they have abandoned the search to know me, because it is not possible. But oh, had they but abandoned me with searching and understanding, so keeping faith with my Torah! Why do we say: "Our God and the God of our fathers?" There are two sorts of persons who believe in God. The one believes because his faith has been handed down to him by his fathers; and his faith is strong. The other has arrived at faith by dint of searching thought. And this is the difference between the two: The first has the advantage that his faith cannot be shaken, no matter how many objections are raised to it, for his faith is firm because he has taken it over from his fathers. But there is a flaw in it: it is a commandment given by man, and it has been learned without thought or reasoning. The advantage of the second man is that he has reached faith through his own power, through much searching and thinking. But his faith too has a flaw: it is easy to shake it by offering contrary evidence. But he who combines both kinds of faith is invulnerable, That is why we say: "Our God," because of our searching, and "the God or our fathers," because of our tradition. And a like interpretation holds when we say, "The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," for this means: Isaac and Jacob did not merely take over the tradition of Abraham, but sought out the divine for themselves.
Excerpted from In Time and Eternity (Edited by Nahum Glatzer, 1946). |
The Legend of the Baal-Shem, by Martin Buber
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