Knight of Faith

 “Some take the broad road of overweening ambition; others that of mean and servile flattery; others that of deceitful hypocrisy, and some that of true religion; but I, led by my star, follow the narrow path of knight-errantry, and in pursuit of that calling I despise wealth, but not honour.’’

This part of a monologue belongs to no other than the Knight of La Mancha, who is Don Quixote.

“The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha” was published in two parts in 1605 and 1615 and was written in Spanish by Miguel de Cervantes.

It has earned the very respectful description as the first Modern Novel or the first European Novel and is definitely a foundational work in Western Literature.

It tells the story of a nobleman named Alonso Quijano, who after reading too many books, especially books about journeys and adventures of knights, loses his mind and decides to become one and embark on a journey of his own. He names himself Don Quixote.

This of course leads to tragic-comic situations where Quixote fiercely fights figments of his imagination (like the famous fight against windmills which he thinks are giants), but he also encounters true situations of social injustice which he chooses to fight bravely and without shame. 

Quixote is joined by Sancho Panca, a poor family man who at first seeks to take advantage of Quixote but learns during the course of time to appreciate and even admire Quixote’s actions.

Today’s Torah portion Vayera tells the story of the Akeidah, the binding of Isaac. A Hasidic commentary on one of the verses in it sent me thinking about Don Quixote.

Rabbi Yehuda Leib Eiger (1816-1888,) the founder of Lublin Hasidic dynasty student of the Kotzker Rabbi and Mei Hashiloach and teacher of Rabbi Tzadok Hakohen, commented on the following verse in his book Sefer Eimrei Emet.

"וַיָּבֹ֗אוּ אֶֽל־הַמָּקוֹם֮ אֲשֶׁ֣ר אָֽמַר־ל֣וֹ הָאֱלֹהִים֒ וַיִּ֨בֶן שָׁ֤ם אַבְרָהָם֙ אֶת־הַמִּזְבֵּ֔חַ וַֽיַּעֲרֹ֖ךְ אֶת־הָעֵצִ֑ים וַֽיַּעֲקֹד֙ אֶת־יִצְחָ֣ק בְּנ֔וֹ וַיָּ֤שֶׂם אֹתוֹ֙ עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּ֔חַ מִמַּ֖עַל לָעֵצִֽים׃"
 

“They arrived at the place of which God had told him. Abraham built an altar there; he laid out the wood; he bound his son Isaac; he laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.”

Here in this dramatic verse, the moment in which Abraham actually binds Isaac before killing him, we pay attention to a strange grammar. Why did the author use the word Mima’al (beyond the wood) instead of Aal (above the wood?) That curious choice also draws attention to the word Eytzim (wood) which also means Trees.

Rabbi Eiger writes:

״ממעל לעצים היינו למעלה מעץ החיים ועץ הדעת״

"Beyond the wood, (beyond the trees,) is to mean the Tree of life and the Tree of knowledge.”
 

"וַיַּצְמַ֞ח יְהֹוָ֤ה אֱלֹהִים֙ מִן־הָ֣אֲדָמָ֔ה כׇּל־עֵ֛ץ נֶחְמָ֥ד לְמַרְאֶ֖ה וְט֣וֹב לְמַאֲכָ֑ל וְעֵ֤ץ הַֽחַיִּים֙ בְּת֣וֹךְ הַגָּ֔ן וְעֵ֕ץ הַדַּ֖עַת ט֥וֹב וָרָֽע׃

‘‘And from the ground God יהוה caused to grow every tree that was pleasing to the sight and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and bad.”

Eiger of course refers to this verse from Genesis describing the trees in the Garden of Eden.

At the moment when he commits to the impossible act of sacrificing his own son, Abraham was in a state of mind which was beyond the Trees, beyond the knowledge of right and wrong. 

In his Guide for the Perplexed, Rambam explains that before eating from the Tree of knowledge, Adam and Eve dwelled in the Muskalot, meaning they only knew what was true or not. They only experienced the universe for what it is, without the ability to cast any judgement on it. After eating from the tree of knowledge they transitioned to the Mefursamot, meaning, they were able to view the Universe from a place of judgment of assigning values and aesthetic to it, from the ability to choose how to engage in it.

Being beyond the trees Abraham lacked this judgement.

Machon Meir Rabbi Eyal Vered, explains that Abraham lacked that Tree of knowledge awareness throughout his whole life. He had an innocent blind faith in justice which caused him to commit brave acts without thinking about their consequences.

Some examples are his illogical rescue operation, where he embarked to fight four kings with only a band of warriors in order to rescue his nephew Lot. His unawareness of his wife’s beauty (as the Torah states it), his lack of awareness of his status and reputation as he runs to serve strangers who come into his tent, and of course, the ultimate sacrifice where he dwelled not only beyond the Tree of knowledge but also beyond the Tree of life.

In his book from 1945, Phenomenology of Perception, French philosopher Merleau Ponty, suggests that our experience of the world is first oriented and only then objective.

What it means is that we experience the world from a first person view which creates the world that we live in as we experience it. Only then can we gain the objective perspective of the world, the scientific one if you will, that of understanding our experience externally, like looking at a map or a grid. Here Ponty reverses the order of the Torah and the Rambam by making it so that we were first created with the ability to judge the world and only then we understood it. I thought it was interesting because by removing the egocentric view of the world which we all have, we become Abraham or Don Quixote. 

The lack of awareness is the lack of ego, and the lack of ego allows us to do the impossible without hesitation, like little kids believe that everything is possible.

Perhaps this was what was so captivating about Don Quixote, one of the most successful novels of all times. He was beyond the trees, like Abraham, and his innocence led him to become the way Kierkegaard would later call Abraham - the Knight of Faith.

“I have redressed injuries, righted wrongs, punished insolences, vanquished giants, and crushed monsters…. ….My intentions are always directed to worthy ends, to do good to all and evil to none….

….If gentlemen, great lords, nobles, men of high birth, were to rate me as a fool I should take it as an irreparable insult; but I care not a farthing if clerks who have never entered upon or trod the paths of chivalry should think me foolish. Knight I am, and knight I will die, if such be the pleasure of the Most High.’’

-Don Quixote

(Watch in Hebrew below)