October 8th: Noach
THIS WEEK IN THE TORAH
Rabbi David E. Ostrich
This is Rabbi Ostrich’s Yom Kippur Morning D’var Torah.
There is a notion—in both Jewish Tradition and ancient Greek legend, that all the knowledge we ever learn is actually already in our heads—that we already sort of know it, and that learning is actually remembering. There is even a Midrash about souls in heaven learning everything in the Torah before being put into human bodies at birth. Just before we are born, however, an angel presses an indentation on our upper lips and makes us forget everything we have learned. That is why babies cry when they are first born; we are grief-stricken at all the Torah we have lost.
These thoughts seem attempts to explain why things we learn often seem particularly familiar—as though they were lurking in the corners of our minds all along.
Add to this the insight from Ecclesiastes (1.9),
“Only that shall happen which has happened, only that occur which has occurred;
there is nothing new under the sun!”
When one considers the infinity of God—the true infinity, it follows that all possibilities are included in the limitless potential of Creation. If something happens or if wisdom is discovered, it is something that existed in possibility all along.
This is not to downplay the brilliance of authors or artists or scholars but just to observe the fact that whatever they compose or discover was, all along, composable or discoverable. The answer was there along along, just waiting for them to see it. Indeed, one often hears such an insight expressed by composers or artists. Rather than actually creating their art, they feel mere channels for its flow into the world.
This kind of thinking led my mentor, Dr. Ellis Rivkin, late of the Hebrew Union College, to speak of all intellectual growth and creativity as tapping the Mind of God. Our blessed situation is that we can gain access to the infinity of God’s mind and access some of the precious Divine Wisdom.
So, with this dynamic in mind, let us consider the poetic and pious words of a very familiar prayer, Ahavah Rabba, the second prayer after the Bar’chu, the one that immediately precedes Sh’ma in the morning service.
Here is the text which you may follow on page 81 of our Machzor:
With a great love have You loved us, O Lord our God, and with enormous and overflowing
compassion have You cared for us.
It begins with the acknowledgment that God loves us and shows us love. It also speaks of the overwhelmingness of God’s blessings to us.
We then get to the prayer’s theme of how God shows that love.
For the sake of our ancestors, who trusted in You and to whom You taught
the laws of life, may You also grace and teach us.
There is a tradition—between our God and our families—of instruction in חֻקֵּי חַיִּים / the laws of life, the information necessary for living in a meaningful way. One could even say that teaching and learning are the ways that our relationship with the Divine takes place:
O compassionate One, have compassion upon us and help our minds to know, understand, listen carefully, learn, teach, guard, observe, and lovingly maintain all the words and teachings of Your Torah.
We are not just talking about book learning; we are talking about encountering Divine Wisdom at every level.
The next passage is often chanted in a very popular musical setting by Reb Shlomo Carlebach:
Enlighten our eyes with Your Torah; cause our hearts to cleave to Your mitzvot;
unite our hearts and minds to love and revere Your Name.
We are speaking to an even deeper involvement, one in which contact with God affects and improves our humanity.
We then sing of faith:
We shall never be shamed because we trust in Your great, holy, and awesome Name,
and we rejoice and find happiness in Your salvation.
It is a hallmark of our faith that our relationship with God is ultimately trustworthy, and we are urged to invest ourselves in this certain and secure and eternal connection.
Finally, we are reminded that our participation in God’s Wisdom—in tapping the Mind of God—helps not only us but also the Divine Itself.
For You are God Who brings deliverance and Who chose us,
drawing us near to Your great Name in utter truth
so that we may give thanks to You and unite You in love.
Our role is to actualize God in the world—to be a channel for God’s wisdom and godliness, and, in doing so, we can actually help לְיַחֶדְךָ בְּאַהֲבָה /unite God in love, that is, fix the divisions in the cosmos.
Learning and intellectual activity are second nature to us. We are curious and analytical and thrilled when we find clarity or understanding or profundity. What we may not realize, however, is that our minds are an access point to the Infinite, and that thinking is a way of participating in the Divine.
We celebrate this dynamic—this blessed process—in our tradition of Torah and in our sacred rituals: they are at the heart of our relationship with the Holy and Infinite One.
We praise You, O Lord our God, Who imparts of Your wisdom to flesh and blood,
Who lovingly teaches Torah to Israel, and
Who gives special wisdom to those who live in reverence.