cellio | a small thought as Simchat Torah approaches

This weekend we'll read the end of the torah and then go right into the beginning again. As I noted in this morning's parsha bit, there is a rabbinic interpretation that Moshe wrote the whole torah (dictated by God), including the part that talks about his death, and that he cried while doing this. Moshe had complete knowledge of what was to come and was powerless to change it. That sort of knowledge is not generally considered to be a blessing. If we understand that this writing occurred while Moshe was on Har Sinai, then he lived with this knowledge for 40 years. (I'm not advocating that interpretation, just speculating about what it implies.)

After reading this ending that Moshe knew and couldn't avoid, we then go straight into B'reishit where we read about the first humans, Adam and Chava. They had no knowledge whatsoever at first; they were completely free of the burdens that come from knowing. But that, too, was not ideal; they ate from the tree and they had to eat from it in order to become thinking, functioning human beings.

The torah ends with perfect knowledge and begins with total lack of knowledge (when it comes to people). Neither is a desirable state and neither is sustained. (No one other than Moshe ever got that level of privilege.) The contrast struck me as interesting in a hard-to-articulate way. Perhaps a lesson is that while we should strive for more knowledge (especially certain types), we shouldn't wish for a complete understanding even if such were achievable. There are lines we ought not cross at both ends of the knowledge spectrum.

a small thought as Simchat Torah approaches

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