‘Why’ has no Answer
Beginning again.
Exactly two years ago, this column was written only days after the October 7th Massacre. The focus of my column was the essence of the second verse:
וְהָאָ֗רֶץ הָיְתָ֥ה תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ וְחֹ֖שֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י תְה֑וֹם וְר֣וּחַ אֱלֹהִ֔ים מְרַחֶ֖פֶת עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הַמָּֽיִם׃
“the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water—”
Our hearts, souls and minds bent under this darkness — and at least mine have been bent under it ever since.
I’d like to think that in this Simchat Torah some of that darkness may begin to lift. The journey towards healing is long and complicated, but I pray that we are standing at the beginning of it.
“Dignity is discovered at the summit of success; redemption, in the depth of crisis and failure."
This line is taken from “The Lonely Man of Faith” a philosophical essay written by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (1903-1993), first published in 1965.
Soloveitchik, who is mostly associated with the formation of Jewish Modern Orthodox movement in the US, served as the head of Yeshivah University in New York from 1941 and until his death, and contributed the most unique and powerful voice of Jewish existentialist thought coming from an Orthodox Rabbi.
Our Torah portion this week, the first portion in the Torah - Bereshit, holds in it, not one, but two different accounts of the creation of man.
The first version which appears in Chapter one, begins like this:
וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֔ים נַֽעֲשֶׂ֥ה אָדָ֛ם בְּצַלְמֵ֖נוּ כִּדְמוּתֵ֑נוּ וְיִרְדּוּ֩ בִדְגַ֨ת הַיָּ֜ם וּבְע֣וֹף הַשָּׁמַ֗יִם וּבַבְּהֵמָה֙ וּבְכׇל־הָאָ֔רֶץ וּבְכׇל־הָרֶ֖מֶשׂ הָֽרֹמֵ֥שׂ עַל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃
‘And God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness. They shall rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the cattle, the whole earth, and all the creeping things that creep on earth.”’
The second, which appears in chapter two, begins like this:
וַיִּ֩יצֶר֩ יְהֹוָ֨ה אֱלֹהִ֜ים אֶת־הָֽאָדָ֗ם עָפָר֙ מִן־הָ֣אֲדָמָ֔ה וַיִּפַּ֥ח בְּאַפָּ֖יו נִשְׁמַ֣ת חַיִּ֑ים וַיְהִ֥י הָֽאָדָ֖ם לְנֶ֥פֶשׁ חַיָּֽה׃
‘God יהוה formed the Human from the soil’s humus, blowing into his nostrils the breath of life: the Human became a living being.’
Biblical criticism explains this multiplicity of versions by attributing them to different sources, stemming from different periods, the second one being the older version. The two versions which hold theological differences were combined by the author.
Of course staying away from this explanation and turning toward Torah commentators, brings up multiple teachings and ideas.
In “The Lonely Man of Faith” Soloveitchik attributes the two versions to the creation of two different types of people. The first he calls the Majestic Man and the second The Man of Faith.
The Majestic Man, which was created in version one, was created Betzelem Elohim, in the image of God. That, according to Soloveitchik, is to mean that just like God, humans were given the ability to create. “Adam the first who was fashioned in the image of God was blessed with great drive for creative activity and immeasurable resources for the realization of this goal, the most outstanding of which is the intelligence, the human mind, capable of confronting the outside world and inquiring into its complex workings.”
The majestic man was given intellect, and reason, and was differentiated from the animal kingdom in their ability to control and manipulate nature. “They shall rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the cattle, the whole earth, and all the creeping things that creep on earth.”
The majestic man is the man who selfishly works to better themselves, with one precise goal, to be who they are — to be human, and to be human means to live with honor and dignity.
“Man of old who could not fight disease and succumbed in multitudes to yellow fever or any other plague with degrading helplessness could not lay claim to dignity. Only the man who builds hospitals, discovers therapeutic techniques and saves lives is blessed with dignity.”
In order to achieve this dignity through betterment, man needed companions, needed to work in cooperation. That is why in the first version of creation, man was created together with woman.
וַיִּבְרָ֨א אֱלֹהִ֤ים ׀ אֶת־הָֽאָדָם֙ בְּצַלְמ֔וֹ בְּצֶ֥לֶם אֱלֹהִ֖ים בָּרָ֣א אֹת֑וֹ זָכָ֥ר וּנְקֵבָ֖ה בָּרָ֥א אֹתָֽם׃
‘And God created humankind in the divine image,
creating it in the image of God—’
Now let's look at the second version, the one which created the “Man of Faith.” While the Majestic Man was created with the task to dominate and control nature, the man of faith was tasked with the opposite - to work it.
וַיִּקַּ֛ח יְהֹוָ֥ה אֱלֹהִ֖ים אֶת־הָֽאָדָ֑ם וַיַּנִּחֵ֣הוּ בְגַן־עֵ֔דֶן לְעׇבְדָ֖הּ וּלְשׇׁמְרָֽהּ׃
‘God יהוה settled the Human in the garden of Eden, to till it and tend it.’
This man was created alone - lonely; only later was woman created from their own actual being.
“While the cosmos provokes Adam the first to quest for power and control, thus making him ask the functional "how"-question, Adam the second responds to the call of the cosmos by engaging in a different kind of cognitive gesture. He does not ask a single functional question. Insteàd his inquiry is of a metaphysical nature and a threefold one. He wants to know: "Why is it?" "What is it?" "Who is it?"
Richard Faynman (1918-1988) the 1965 Nobel prize laureate in Physics, the theoretical physicist who made advances in the worlds of quantum mechanics and nano technology and was Jewish, spoke famously in a 1983 BBC interview about the futility of asking Why.
According to Feynman, science was only occupied with “How” questions. As soon as one asks “Why,” one has to assume several given truths, otherwise one would keep asking “Why” in perpetuity.
That is exactly the difference between Soloveitchik’s two Adams. The one who is here to dominate the earth asks “How,” and the Man of Faith asks “Why?” Out of the two, according to Soloveitchik, the harder and most lonely form of being is that of the Man of Faith. He is condemned to an existence of asking questions which have no answer and making commitments which only an internal dialogue can be accountable for, being left lonely and confused.
With apologies for the spoiler, Soloveitchik eventually reveals to us that these are not two different people, but rather different aspects of being which exist in each and every one of us.
“Dignity (that is the Majestic man) is discovered at the summit of success; redemption, (the task of the Man of Faith) in the depth of crisis and failure."
In this series - Philosophy on the Parasha, I’m hoping that we can all, together, turn the task of asking “Why” into being a little less lonely and combine redemption with dignity.
