The Ultimate Question: Are We Real? - Rabbi Yehoshua Simons

The Torah says that Hashem has a hand. But isn't this just a metaphor? The Torah also says that Hashem loves us, but how can he have an imperfect human emotion? And what has this got to do with our relationship with him? If you think you really love and Hashem doesn't, you've got it backwards. We are the metaphor. In this video series, my goal is to release your mind and soul to be able to freely think about Hashem in the way the Torah talks about him. Previously, we saw that all of Hashem's descriptions like his hand, his love, his regret, and his actions are described in the Torah, but they have been unfortunately reduced to empty metaphors in the public consciousness. And we brought many reasons to question this in statements of Rabonim polyizing against this. In this episode, we're going to begin resolving this contradiction by understanding how the philosophers and the Mikubim really explain what the Torah means when it speaks about Hashem's hand, eye, heart, and actions, etc. In this video series, my goal is to release your mind and soul to be able to freely think about Hashem in the way the Torah talks about him. In this video, I'm going to be doing so with no innovations of my own. In fact, I come from a Yibish background myself and I thought exactly the same as what I've explained above in the previous video. I was well convinced. I understand the argument very well and I only came to change my opinion after a lot of serious study of the sources I'm going to bring now. So, none of this is my own innovation. I'm going to be quoting and explaining highc caliber sources which provide very complete explanations and ties together all the opinions and accounts for all the issues and shows you how these notions that Hashem knows you deliberates you in your actions and your choices loves you vulnerably and infinitely that he needs you that he desires you like a father desires his son and needs him to be good and successful and be well and as a husband needs his wife are indeed the deepest of the deep truths of all reality. of Hashem himself. We will explain that these attributes are truly godly even as his essence remains transcendent and unchanged by them. But we will also explain how this connection between attributes and essence is also true of our own essence and attributes. And thus these teachings were never meant to be understood as implying that Hashem's feelings for us were in any way less or not real for Kurt. So to begin, let's return to those sources that I quoted in the original video I made six months ago on this topic. All of these sources deal with the Torah descriptions of Hashem. His hand, his eye, his will, his knowledge. I first quoted the Rambam himself who explains that these terms are not meant to be understood in a physical sense, but point to a higher truth. He has several dozen chapters dedicated to giving examples on how this works. Then I quoted the shar the shalah and the seamed of Mik Balim who teach that these descriptions reflect deep essential truths of Hashem with our physical versions being distant metaphors of him. So let's start with the Rambam. The Rambam has dozens of chapters in part one of the Mor where he gives a little bit of an understanding of high conceptualizations of these terms that lead us towards a closer understanding of what they truly mean when applied to Hashem. For example, physical sight. It's an appropriate and meaningful metaphor for a higher form of sight, namely intellectual sight, you know, the mind's eye, comprehension itself. This shows us that the Torah's use of such terms points us upwards, not downwards, towards deeper truths about Hashem. He calls them homonyms. Now, the shora next, it's an early cabalistic work by Arishan. In it, he explains, quote, hand, foot or ear, etc. point to Hashem's greatness and truth. Yes, we are made in his image and likeness. But don't get into your head that the Torah means that it is actually an eye in the form of an eye, like a physical eye or a hand in an actual form of a hand. Rather, these concepts are the deepest of the deepest of the deep truths about the existence of Hashem. May he be blessed. From which come the source and influence to all that exists according to Hashem's decree. May he be blessed. However, the very existence of that hand is not what this hand is. Their form is not alike. End quote. So again, the emphasis is not that Hashem does not have a hand, but rather he has the real hand, whatever it is. And that is a deep truth. Our hand is the metaphor, but it is a metaphor that directly descends from the divine hand as he goes on to explain in the next paragraph. See there? Now the shalah a musa work explains this even more clearly saying quote all the attributes mentioned with respect to hashem may he be blessed such as eye ear leg hand and so on as well as the concepts of union embrace kiss father and mother son and daughter father-in-law and mother-in-law and many such terms all of these are holy language their intrinsic names and holiness later through the process of descent they become borrowed terms to the point where even physical entities are called by these names as borrowed terms. So again, note no physicality is being attributed to Hashem Shalom. Yet certainly these are not empty phrases either shalom. Let's continue to understand what we do with all this. But first, just pause and reflect. Have you heard of these sources before? Have you ever seen them? Do they not sound heretical to you if you didn't know that they were from such great Rabbonim that certainly were not heretics? Many people are completely unaware of these sources. Those whom Rah Hersh was palemicizing against felt that these sources were not meant for the masses. Right? But that is far from the only approach. Maradim the shalah himself disagrees and that's part of the reason why he insisted that his work be called a Musla work in the introduction rather than a cabalistic work. He didn't want it to be hidden from everyone. And the nepheim another deeply cabalistic work was also published with that same intent. Rahim instructed on his deathbed as reported by his son in the introduction that the work should not be censored or hidden but taught openly to all completely all of it. This was also the opinion of the Zoha, the Ramach, the Ora, the BMT, the Vagawan, Rafkuk, the Bisulam, the Ishbeturay. The list is extensive. Kabad, of course, they took it even further. They made it their mission and goal to undo the damage of everything that has happened to depersonalize Hashem by explaining everything. So therefore, I quoted the strongest quote of all in the last video specifically where he says, quote, "And the Torah's descriptions of Hashem may be explained by the simple meaning of what is written." End quote. I chose this quote because it states exactly the goal of this video, which is enabling you by permission of a great saddic with Rohadesh to free your mind and heart from its shackles that prevent you from contemplating Hashem and getting to know him and feeling for him and believing that he truly feels for you too. You have permission to say, "Yes, he does love me. Yes, I do upset him when I sin. And yes, I do matter to himself at the highest level and his truest core. As the Rebi Rashab puts it in Kamitzvat right at the end, he says, quote, "My entire intent in teaching this was to convey this idea that everything affects Hashem in his essential self. When one understands with whom they are dealing, they develop a completely different type and kind of respect and reverence." End quote. Note how the seam doesn't say physical meaning. You can take the Torah in its simple meaning, not its physical meaning. He says simple meaning because of course nobody is saying that Hashem is physical, but he wants you to know that it's true. In whatever reality and existence it is, it is true. It's like we said the real truth. We are the metaphor. This video is certainly not here to go against the 13 ikarim which state emphatically that hashem is not physical. Even Raavad was not saying this. Rather when we describe hashem we have to know that the words we are using are simply and actually true. It's just that their truth is higher than the reality that we know. Like the example above on the difference between physical sight and intellectual sight brought by the raam but to the infinite degree much more lofty than even that. If you think that this disagrees with the Rambam, well, I want to point out something surprising. I agree with you. The Seamic agrees with you. But the surprise is though that only a few pages previously in the very same piece. The Seamic explains that the cabalists like himself, like the Maharal, all of them really felt that the Rambam didn't go far enough in protecting the essential unity and ineffibility and perfection of Hashem's essence. The Rambam said that he's the knower, the known, and the knowledge allin one. And that's already a limit on Hashem's essence. And they said that is not far enough. They took it further. So therefore, you should be startled. This is the proof that if the cabalist is saying that Hashem's expressions are real and true, then surely that's proof that Hashem feeling for us and his essence being one and unchanging and unaffectable are not contradictions. And we will learn why throughout this series. So stay tuned. So far we've learned that the Torah's descriptions of Hashem, his hand, his love, his regret are not poetic devices or educational symbols. They are the ultimate truths. Nonetheless, they are not part of Hashem's essence. In the next episode, we're going to begin to explain the difference between Hashem's essence and his expressions by understanding the concept of metaphor and the analog of a metaphor, otherwise known as the nimshell to the mashall. We are then going to compare these to our own moral reality and thus we're going to understand what so to speak really means.