More than Revelation

Many times growing up, I can recall hearing folk tales which sounded something like: A king had a problem, he called the kingdom’s best to solve it, many failed, and eventually it was the small clever Jew who figured it out…

This is in fact, not just a folk tale, but also one of the most important books ever written on Jewish thought. The Kuzari, written by the medieval Spanish Jewish philosopher, physician, and poet Judah Halevi, was completed around the year 1140 CE. 

The background for the book is the conversion to Judaism of an Asian tribe, the Khazars, around the 8th century (a historical event which is debated by researchers today).

The Kuzari - the King of the Khazars, tried his best to fulfill all the worship duties and requirements of his people. Despite that, he experienced a recurring dream in which an angel told him: "כַּוָּנָתְךָ רְצוּיָה אֵצֶל הַבּוֹרֶא אֲבָל מַעַשְׂךָ אֵינָנּוּ רָצוּי". “Thy way of thinking is indeed pleasing to the Creator, but not thy way of acting.” 

The king summoned different people he could learn from so he could discover what the "right way of acting was.” He first consulted a philosopher who attempted to explain metaphysical principles. Not satisfied, he decided to call a Christian and a Muslim (not a Jew because they were of a “low station” and “despised by all”). When both explanations were also not satisfactory,  he reluctantly called the lowly Jew.

Throughout the five chapters of the book, the Jew defends all the King’s challenges to Judaism.

One of the challenges set forth by the king involved our Torah portion today, Ki Tisa. 

Ki Tisa recounts, among other things, the ordeal of the Golden Calf. When Moses did not come back from his ascent to the mountain for forty days and nights, some of the Israelites asked Aaron to help them create a Golden Calf to worship. Aaron ordered them to bring their gold to him to melt and they did so. Famously when Moses came back with the Tablets and saw them worshiping the calf, he broke them.

The Kuzari challenges the Jew by asking: “Take care, O Rabbi, lest too great indulgence in the description of the superiority of thy people make thee not unbearable, causing thee to overlook what is known of their disobedience in spite of the revelation. I have heard that, in the midst of it, they made a calf and worshiped it.”

The Jew (called Rabbi or Chaver - Friend) had a beautiful and lengthy defense of the Israelites. He first alluded to their greatness and to the fact that they were chosen despite their sin, and that even after their sin, they remained chosen. He further explained that even the great and the righteous sinned. In addition to these, he had a few more pointed arguments:

First - The Israelites never meant to worship a different God. God WAS revealed to them in different shapes, such as the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud. They were expecting Moses to bring a tablet and an ark from God with physical objects that they could hold sacred. Since Moses didn’t come, they sought to create those objects themselves, but the intention was to worship God and no one else.

Second -  There were only three thousand out of six hundred thousand who participated, and even those were tricked by Aaron, who only agreed to help in order to expose the sinners.

Third - in our world and reality there is NO worship which is imageless. Even those who recognize the one and only God, use earthly words to describe him (vengeful, merciful, etc.) and assign other physical traits to him such as “who sits up in heaven.”

If I was the Kuzari, I would consider converting to Judaism just so I could learn the art of argument… 

Finally, the Jew admits that the only issue concerning what the Israelites did, was that they took it upon themselves to decide the way of worship instead of waiting for instructions. He compared it to a patient who takes medicine without consulting a doctor or a pharmacist. 

The Kuzari's explanation, which defends the Israelites, was adopted by many commentators and centuries later it is still used as a source of reference.

In her book Eyunim Besefer Shemot (Studies in Shemot) Nechama Leibowitz offers my favorite defense of the Israelites:
 

לכן לא נתמה אלא נלמד ונשים על לב, ששלושת אלפים איש מבין אלה אשר עמדו רגליהם בתחתית ההר ושמעו קול אלוהים מדבר מתוך האש הלכו אחרי ארבעים יום ועשו עגל ורקדו. כי לא השמיעה החד־פעמית היא ההופכת אדם ומשנה אותו מן ההפך אל ההפך, ואף לא שמיעה מפי הגבורה תשנהו בבת־ אחת מעובד עגלים לעובד ה', כי אם תירגול ממושך בחיי תורה ומצוות, בהדרכתה המתמדת של תורת ה', המקיפה אותו מכל צד, המסדירה את יומו ואת לילו, את חולו ואת מועדו, את חייו בבית ואת חייו בחוץ, את שיחו ושיגו עם בני משפחתו ואת משאו ומתנו עם הבריות, את עבודתו בבית ואת עבודתו בשדה, המדריכה אותו יום יום, שעה שעה - רק היא עלולה לשנותו ולשמרו מפני נפילה לתהומי מחשכים ומפני נסיגה אחורנית.

“Therefore, we cannot but learn and take to heart that three thousand of those who stood at the foot of the mountain and heard the voice of God speaking out of the fire went after forty days and made a calf and danced. For it is not the one-time hearing that transforms a person and changes him from one extreme to the other, nor does hearing from the mouth of a hero change him all at once from a worshiper of calves to a worshiper of God, but rather prolonged practice in a life of Torah and commandments, with the constant guidance of the Torah of God, which surrounds him on every side, regulating his day and night, his sickness and his feast, his life at home and his life outside, his conversation and his dealings with his family and his dealings with people, his work at home and his work in the field, which guides him day by day, hour by hour - only this is capable of changing him and protecting him from falling into dark abysses and from retreating backward.”

I think Nechama Lebowitz here, didn’t just give a wonderful, relevant and truthful defense. She supported the Kuzari by answering the King’s question and solving his dream. 

In his dream the king was told by the Angel: “Thy way of thinking is indeed pleasing to the Creator, but not thy way of acting.” 

Living as an authentic and free ethical human being does not happen after one reads an article in a newspaper or listens to a speech from a politician. It takes much more than a dramatic moment of revelation to become a true believer. It is the daily, persistent practice of ethical law which, over time, leads us to the “right way of acting.”