Torah: Ahead of the times

Rabbi Ilan Herrmann

Lions Doornfontein Congregation

The “lifting of the head” is precisely what the relationship is between the Jewish people and the Torah. This is because the Torah is a perspective that transcends all others. It therefore “lifts” one’s understanding (“the head”) to a deeper and broader appreciation of things. 

The second way is in the reverse, namely that in order to approach Torah, one needs to “lift one’s head”. To see the Torah in the same vein as other philosophies or belief systems is an error that risks reducing the sublime, holy and sacred, to something secular and ordinary.

To understand this idea better, the Midrash Eichah Rabbah states: “If a person tells you there is wisdom among the nations of the world, believe him. If a person tells you there is Torah among the nations of the world, do not believe him.”

G-d bestowed humanity with the gift of intellect, and gave mankind access to wisdom and spirituality. One therefore is able to feel and be both wise and spiritual. Hence, we take pride on the philosophical genius of Plato and Aristotle, the poetry of Dickinson, the writings of Shakespeare, the mathematics of Einstein and the insights of many lofty thinking spiritualists. But as deep, profound, mystical and brilliant as these may be, they are not Torah.

One corollary of this is that just because man’s intellect, even at its best, may conclude something to be a certain way, the Torah’s view may differ. We sometimes trumpet our disappointment and vent our indignation, that the Torah doesn’t share our view. But considering it is G-d’s wisdom, is that not being presumptive and haughty?

History can also testify to man’s limitation. Celebrated initially as systems to solve the world’s woes, human invented structures, such as communism, socialism and democracy, have been shown up for their flaws.

As carriers of the Torah, there is a far more complex paradigm that needs to be held together in order to preserve it. There are matters concerning things that the intellect or human sensibility cannot fully appreciate.

These are matters such as purity; hierarchies in creation, such that for example, man and beast are not equal; the assertion of moral, sexual principles that may run against the grain of societies’ norms; defining roles within the sexes; an emphasis on Torah study in a world that prioritises fundamentally the secular; laws pertaining to food, not motivated from a hygienic standpoint, but by something called “kosher” and so on.

Torah equilibrium is very fine, because the elements are many and subtle. It incorporates the world of the soul, reincarnation, plan and purpose, absolute morality, spiritual forces and energies and it maps a structure in which the cosmic puzzle of all things is addressed.

The modern secular mind, with all its enlightenment, may smugly assume it is light years ahead and may decry the Torah with the claim of antiquity.

Nothing could be further from the truth and quite to the contrary, it is Torah, that reservoir of potent Divine wisdom, that is progressive, pioneering and forward-thinking.

The analogy is told of the great scientist who climbs the Mountain of Knowledge. Thinking he is the first to reach the summit, he is stupefied upon arrival, to see a rabbi quietly sitting on the peak.

“What are you doing here?” asks the scientist.

“Nu, what took you so long?” responds the rabbi.