blessings: on whose authority?
Nov. 15th, 2001 04:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cellioThis isn't the first time I've wondered about this, but the first relevant Torah portion just came around again so it's now fresh.
(For those following along, we're in Parsha Toldot, Gen 25:19 - 28:9.)
Rivka and Yaakov engage in a bit of trickery to enable Yaakov to "steal" Esav's blessing from Yitzchak. (Yaakov disguises himself as Esav, Yitzchak blesses him as the first-born, and then Esav shows up and says "hey, where's my blessing?".) Later, we will see Yaakov bless all of *his* children. And the content of these blessings is about future fortunes -- who rules over whom, who will have plentiful harvests, who will receive riches, and so on.
There's just one problem with all of this: why do *men* have the power to hand out these blessings? Blessings of this sort are in God's jurisdiction, not man's. *We* can't control who will be rich vs. poor, satisfied vs. hungry, and so on. At best, Yitzchak is making a *prayer* for Yaakov's future (and so on for the others who hand out blessings in the Torah).
The author of one of the parsha commentaries I read every week (Rabbi Mordecai Kamenetzky) just sent his out for this week, and he talked about the blessings. (Not on this point -- something else about the whole exchange.) So I took the opportunity to write and ask about this.
His response was interesting: just as we need physical additives for some aspects of life (God makes the grain but *we* make the bread -- we have to add our work), we also need spiritual additives (prayer augments God's actions). In other words (this is me talking now, not the rabbi), we can through our actions enhance God's actions, and our participation is at least sometimes actually *necessary*. We can't just sit back and wait for God to bail us out or whatever.
This resonates. A few years back when I was just starting to "get religion", it felt as if God was trying to get my attention but it would have stopped if I hadn't then turned around and reached out to Him. My active participation was necessary to build the relationship that eventually grew from those first tentative steps (when I wasn't even sure God existed).
And as an aside, rabbis who answer email from random strangers within minutes are pretty darn cool. :-)
(For those following along, we're in Parsha Toldot, Gen 25:19 - 28:9.)
Rivka and Yaakov engage in a bit of trickery to enable Yaakov to "steal" Esav's blessing from Yitzchak. (Yaakov disguises himself as Esav, Yitzchak blesses him as the first-born, and then Esav shows up and says "hey, where's my blessing?".) Later, we will see Yaakov bless all of *his* children. And the content of these blessings is about future fortunes -- who rules over whom, who will have plentiful harvests, who will receive riches, and so on.
There's just one problem with all of this: why do *men* have the power to hand out these blessings? Blessings of this sort are in God's jurisdiction, not man's. *We* can't control who will be rich vs. poor, satisfied vs. hungry, and so on. At best, Yitzchak is making a *prayer* for Yaakov's future (and so on for the others who hand out blessings in the Torah).
The author of one of the parsha commentaries I read every week (Rabbi Mordecai Kamenetzky) just sent his out for this week, and he talked about the blessings. (Not on this point -- something else about the whole exchange.) So I took the opportunity to write and ask about this.
His response was interesting: just as we need physical additives for some aspects of life (God makes the grain but *we* make the bread -- we have to add our work), we also need spiritual additives (prayer augments God's actions). In other words (this is me talking now, not the rabbi), we can through our actions enhance God's actions, and our participation is at least sometimes actually *necessary*. We can't just sit back and wait for God to bail us out or whatever.
This resonates. A few years back when I was just starting to "get religion", it felt as if God was trying to get my attention but it would have stopped if I hadn't then turned around and reached out to Him. My active participation was necessary to build the relationship that eventually grew from those first tentative steps (when I wasn't even sure God existed).
And as an aside, rabbis who answer email from random strangers within minutes are pretty darn cool. :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2001-11-15 02:10 pm (UTC)Everyone has a function that determines what they'd do in all possible circumstances--this is free will, that the creature picks the possible decisions, limiting possible outcomes to the range of this function. God simulates this perfectly using omniscience, to the extent that it is identical to the real thing. God then chooses a circumstance, usually from within those possible under natural law (which restricts the function's domain), such that a certain outcome occurs.
Since one man's actions are another's circumstances (plus or minus an inspiration modifier), the amount of God's control is further limited, mostly down to presence or absence of inspiration. So, there would seem to exist some number of things which God cannot do without a human's consent, or without breaking the laws of the universe.
Presumably this consent would imply action, thus providing the reference to Monica's original post that makes this comment pseudo-germane rather than commpletely off-topic. :P
Does this sound overly weird?
(no subject)
Date: 2001-11-16 06:18 am (UTC)