Mystical Moments
A Message for Parashat VaYesse 2016
There are moments, and it is only a matter of a few seconds, when you feel the presence of the eternal harmony...A terrible thing is the frightful clearness with which it manifests itself and the rapture with which it fills you...During these five seconds I live a whole human existence, and for that I would give my whole life and not think that I was paying too dearly. (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
* * * *
There were no visions, no
prophetic voices or visits by totemic animals, just this blazing everywhere.
Something poured into me and I poured into it … It was a furious encounter with
a living substance that was coming at me through all things at once, too vast and
violent to hold on to, too heartbreakingly beautiful to let go of.
The
experience inspired Ehrenreich to set forth a broad agenda for the enhanced
scientific study of mystical experiences and encounters.[1]
A few days later, Ross Douthat responded by pointing out the near impossibility
of Ehrenreich’s suggested mission. He noted that since the field of cognitive
science has a great enough difficulty explaining what happens during non-mystical
states of consciousness, shedding light on the “moments of encounter” does not
stand much of a chance. He instead suggested a shift in scientific focus, from
one of dependence on brains scans and fMRI machines to the revival of
philosophically-informed psychology and anthropology.[2]
* * * *
As
Yaakov set out from Be’er Sheva for Haran, the setting sun forced his stop and
subsequent sleep in Bet El, where he dreamed:
…And, look, a ladder was
set against the ground with its top reaching the heavens, and, look, messengers
of God were going up and coming down it. And, look, God was poised over him… (28:12-13)
God
then promised Yaakov the inheritance of Canaan, abundance offspring and
continued protection (13-16). Yaakov awoke from his sleep, took note of God’s
presence in that place, and said:
“How fearsome is this
place! This can be but the house of God, and this is the gate of the heavens.” (17)
Several
scholars have noted a connection between this ladder scene in Yaakov’s dream
and the terraced towers traditionally built as temples in ancient Mesopotamia,
known as ziggurats. The sight of a stairway connecting heaven and earth
is strikingly similar to the ziggurat, with its external ramp linking
each stage of the tower to the other.
Indeed,
the description of Yaakov’s dream employs many similarities to the scene of the
tower of Bavel (11:1-9), which seemingly detailed the failed mission of the
construction of a ziggurat.[3]
The tower had “its top in the sky” (11:4) just as the stairway’s “top reached
the sky” (28:12). Each episode furthermore focused on “stones”: the creation of
bricks “in place of stones” at Migdal Bavel,[4]
and the erection of a stone pillar following Yaakov’s dream and his declaration
that the stone be “a house of God” (28:22).[5]
What was the significance of this connection?
* * * *
…And Yaakov awoke from his
sleep and he said, “Indeed, God is in this place, and I did not know.” And he
was afraid. And he said, “How fearsome is this place!” (17)
Yaakov’s
response of fear and wonderment to his first encounter with God stands out as
unique among the patriarchs. God’s promises and concurrent lesson to him on
this occasion notwithstanding, Yaakov’s intense emotional response demands our
attention.
Let
us first consider the Torah’s narrative of the early life and actions of
Yaakov. It consists of two stories: (1) the cunning purchase of the firstborn
rights from Esav, and (2) the deception employed to receive Yitzhak’s blessing.
Each event is underscored by Yaakov’s ability to manipulate the situation with
his wits and cognitive perception. Indeed, the Hakhamim similarly
highlighted Yaakov’s intellectual depth, interpreting his occupation as a “tent
dweller” (25:27) as reference to Torah study,[6]
and describing his 14-year halt to study upon leaving home.[7]
Imagine
now the probable approach to knowledge of and faith in God for a person imbued
with the smarts and tendencies of Yaakov. It would probably consist of
something along the lines of an attempt to prove His existence, an effort to
perceive His ways of governance, or the study of His created world. And yet,
contrary to man’s historical attempt to approach God by building ziggurat
temples or a tower in Bavel, Yaakov’s vision consisted of a ladder that he
did not erect, upon which he could not ascend and whereupon God’s presence unapproachably
loomed. It replaced rational man’s attempt to approach of God with God’s
incomprehensible approach of man.
Leon
Kass similarly described the situation:
Jacob’s dream turns out to
be a perfect (not to say heaven-sent) device for confronting the rational man
with the limits of his rationality…Yet the substance of the dream shows
precisely the limits of the human mind’s ability to discern the truth about the
world and to provide for a man’s most urgent needs. The sharp-eyed man – and
also the sharp-eyed reader – is invited to see the limits of his own sharp
-mindedness.[8]
Yaakov
encountered God in this instance in a fashion reminiscent of Rudolph Otto’s
description of the “numinous” – when man encounters the Almighty by means of an
essentially irrational and unconscious feeling.[9]
Alternatively referring to this sensation as “mysterium tremendum,” or a
“creaturely feeling,” Otto’s association of religion with an internal feeling
of “awe” may similarly describe Yaakov’s unexpected experience at this time.
We
have all experienced it at some point of our lives. Even the most
rationally-minded individuals can relate to an emotionally-rich and
difficult-to-describe encounter at some point in their life. Consider, for
example, R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s description, in his early work Halakhic
Man, of the way that his grandfather and role mode R. Hayyim of Brisk would
overcome his fear of death through cognitive means, such as the study of the
laws of ritual defilement (tum’ah and taharah). R. Soloveitchik
provided this account as a primary instance of halakhic man’s insistence that
“objectification triumphs over the subjective terror of death.”[10]
Years later, however, R. Soloveitchik reflected upon death and noticed:
…The cognitive gesture
points toward the unknown, towards the mysterium magnum, which escapes
our comprehension. Man’s knowledge rests upon substitution of the known for the
unknown, the comprehensible quantity for the qualitative phenomenon; the
immediate sense experience will remain an eternal enigma.[11]
William
Kolbrener suggested that this shift in R. Soloveitchik’s thought, from an
insistence on strict rationalization and objectification to a submittal to the
subjective experience, reflects his ongoing engagement with the legacy of the
Holocaust, personal tragedies and his perception of American Jewish life in the
1950s.[12]
* * * *
The
lasting effects of Barbara Ehrenreich’s mystical encounter led to her desire
for the study and objectification of all such experiences. Russ Douthat’s
response, however, rings true to reality. Admitting that “I did not know,”
Yaakov could not possibly objectify his encounter with God and was instead
overcome by the moment’s intensity of fear and awe.
The
moments during which we “do not know” provide us with an emotional
strength inaccessible through cognition. Setting out on a journey that would
lead him far from the comfort of his family and home, Yaakov’s dream taught him that his own rational perceptions couldn't singularly guide him through
the difficulties that lay ahead. His emotional experience at Bet El, albeit mystical
and indescribable, continues to inspire.
Shabbat shalom!
Rabbi Avi Harari
[1] Barbara Ehrenreich, “A Rationalist’s Mystical Moment,” The New York Times, Apr. 5, 2014.
[2] Ross Douthat, “How to Study the Numinous,”
The New York Times, Apr. 9, 2014.
[3] Recall our analysis of Parashat Vayera,
several weeks ago, Cities & Human Progress.
[4] “And they said to each other, ‘Come, let
us bake bricks and burn them hard.’ And the brick served them as stone, and the
bitumen served them as mortar” (11:3).
[5] “And Yaakov rose early in the morning and
took the stone he had put at his head, and he set it as a pillar and poured oil
over its top” (28:18), “…And this stone that I set as a pillar will be a house
of God…” (28:22). For the various parallels and extensive analyses, see, among
others, Nahum M. Sarna, Understanding Genesis (New York, 1966), pg.
193-4; Yair Zakovitch, Mikra’ot be-Eress ha-Mar’ot (Tel Aviv, IS, 1995),
pg. 60-2); and Yehudah Elitzur, Yisrael ve-ha-Mikra (Ramat Gan, IS,
2000), pg. 44-8;
[6] See Rashi’s commentary ad loc.
[7] See Rashi’s commentary to 28:11
(s.v. va-yishkav).
[8]
Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom (Chicago, 2006), pg. 415.
[9] Rudolph Otto, The Idea of the Holy
(Oxford, EN, 1958), translated by John W. Harvey.
[10] R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Halakhic Man
(Philadelphia, 1984), pg. 73.
[11] R. Joseph B. Solovetichik, “The Crisis of
Human Finitude,” printed in Out of the Whirlwind (Jersey City, NJ,
2003), pg. 156.
[12] William Kolbrener, “Review Essay: Into the Whirlwind: The Persistence of the Dialectic in the Works of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik,” Tradition 40:2, pg. 81.