Modern Jewish Philosophy - Assignment Example

Modern Jewish Philosophy Whilst reading or watching the news many of us feel that our hearts get torn apart when we see the horrors of war and dearth. Every day we observe blameless people, many of whom are helpless children, having their innocent lives taken away or ruined. Closer to our homes, no matter in what countries we live, we witness how violent crimes destroy many lives and how alcoholism, drug addiction and child abuse demolish many families. It seems that there is simply no ending to the overpowering evil people do to each other. Assassinate, rape, war, thievery, depravity, impiety, fraud, cruelty of every kind, style, and size seems to be the order of our lives. There is a profound question that often appears in minds of people. This question is that if G-d is good and righteous and has created humans in his own image, how can people be evil and do so much harm to each other. This question is probably as old as religions themselves. It is simply a tentative lump for some of us, and for many more at given moments of misfortune and despair. In my paper I would like to touch upon this subject and try to discover some possible explanations of why the evil and evil people persist in our world if the Almighty has the powers to stop them. Furthermore, I would like to explore the thesis of humans being created in G-d’s image, according to the principles of Judaism. To begin with, I would like to turn to the words of the holy Torah (Bible) and see the event of the man’s creation. In Genesis 1:26 it is said “On the last day of creation, God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”. This verse, even though being short, is in fact a contradiction and has been arising arguments for centuries already. Lower, I would like to present my understanding, that I have formed having read much literature on this subject, of the two concepts “image” and “likeness”. Having the “image” or “likeness” of God means, that we, the humans, were created to resemble G-d. The words "image" and "likeness" convey the idea of the whole man being created in this way. Of course, we know that man's physical body is not patterned after the physical appearance of the Divinity, because G-d is a Spirit and does not dwell in a physical body. However, this does not exclude the fact that the physical body is some part of the image of God (Man Created in the Image of G-d). The “image” of G-d refers to the immaterial part of man. Having the G-dly image and likeness inside of us, means having a reflection of G-d’s intellect and freedom, as well as the freedom of choice (Man Created in the Image of G-d). Yes, it would be easier and more understandable for us, if the Almighty had created the humanity to be all righteous and decent, though that was not his intention. Further in my paper this concept will be explained in more details. In order to make the paper more clear lower I would like to refer to the works by two great Jewish contemporary philosophers Martin Buber and Abraham Joshua Herschel. In his famous work I and Thou (Ich und Du, first published in German in 1923) Buber suggested that human life could be defined by the way in which they engage in dialogue with each other, with the world, and with the Almighty. As said by Buber, “human beings adopt two attitudes toward the world: I-Thou or I-It”. I-Thou attitude is a relation of subject-to-subject, at the same time as I-It attitude is a relation of subject-to-object. In the I-It relationship individuals recognize each other to be consisted of explicit, secluded characters, as well as they view themselves as part of a world, which, in its turn, consists of many things and characters as well. I-Thou is a relationship of “mutuality” and “reciprocity”, while I-It is a relationship of “separateness” and “detachment” (Buber). The main emphasis of Buber that is still relevant today, though being proposed decades ago, is that the only way to prevent the evil between people is to form a real I-Thou relation with G-d, then the individual would have a real I-Thou relation with the world and the fellow men (pp. 15-19). Thus, witnessing the sinfulness of the today’s world, we should understand that we all are simply lacking the I-Thou attitude towards G-d that is the foundation for all other relations. Another Martin Buber’s work that I would also like to use in my paper is On Judaism. In this collection of philosophical essays, Martin Buber suggests that goodness in Judaism, like moral code according to Kant, is within the concept of “unconditionality”: According to Buber, all the deeds that are performed, understanding that there will be some reward obtained after committing them, or even making the projections of the deeds, planning out the future beneficial outcomes is impure and immoral. As Buber mentions in his book “While actions certainly have consequences, these consequences are so intricately woven within the vast fabric of causality that man cannot hope to fathom them (On Judaism, pp. 12–13). On the other hand, when man cleanses his goals and intentions and ignores or tries not to consider the possible conditions, outcomes, and consequences of the world, his actions “affect deeply the world’s destiny” (p. 14). The principles of Judaism state that the true meaning of life is revealed in the deeds.  As I have implied earlier that there is a free choice for every person, as well as every deed or every person, a righteous or a wicked one, can be performed as evil or virtuous. Thus, there is nothing that is evil in itself, every craze can become a virtue, as well as every preference is a ‘vehicle of G-d’.  Consequently, the Almighty does not simply overlook the evilness committed by people to each other occurring in the world. He just chooses to give us, humans, and our present and future deeds a chance. This proves us that it is not the matter of any act of any person that is crucial, but its “sanctification, and only the soul of the doer alone determines the character of the deed” (Buber, p. 47).  Parallel statements are found in the writings of Abraham Joshua Herschel, even though he takes a different from Buber’s position on a vast amount of matters. Like Martin Buber, Herschel emphasizes the importance of ethical action to be taken in “wholesomeness” of intention as the focus of the religious life in the Jewish understanding. Herschel’s vision is also not guided and supported by the weighing and predicting of the possible consequences, but by an ideal of “godliness”. These “godliness” and piety, in their turn, focus on intentions rather than results as the benchmark for moral validity (Herschel, p. 309). As stated by Herschel, “Goodness is the orientation of human inwardness toward the holy, and our life takes place under wide horizons, horizons that range beyond the span of an individual life or even the life of a nation, of a generation or even of an era” (Herschel, p. 277-278). Thus, as it can be understood from the description of Herschel’s work, the humans, and not the Devine, are creating their destiny and choosing whether to be righteous or wicked. Consequently, there is no contradiction in the creation of evil people by image and likeness of G-d, as explained by Herschel, people are born with the same potential for evil or love but are simply helped or hindered through contact with society. That is the explanation of why people maltreat and harm each other. To conclude the paper I would like to say that, yes, there is evil on earth, and yes, it is reasonable to wonder why the Almighty who has created the humanity in his image and by his likeness, being lenient and kind created the evil. Though, the main conclusion that must be drawn from my paper is that the God "who spoke on Sinai" was not addressing himself to angels, machines or robots who could not do evil even if they had a desire to. He was speaking to each and every of us, the real people, who have real choices to make, and are ready for the real consequences that follow up from those choices. Auschwitz and Birkenau were not G-d's blunder or will. It was not G-d who failed during the Holocaust or in the Gulags, on 9/11, in Lebanon, or in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It does not mean that, creating people by his image, G-d is evil, when people do horrible things to each other. Moreover, Holocaust and genocides is not what happens when the G-d who says "Thou shalt not murder" and "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" is hushed (Sorko-Ram). It is what happens when men and women refuse to listen, understand, and make right choices out those offered by the Almighty (Sorko-Ram). Thus, it is the duty of us, the people, to establish our connection with G-d, and create a real relationship, as well be responsible for every deed we do, and remember that even if the evils of this world seem to be succeeding, their time to get the punishment will come… it definitely will. Work Cited 1. Buber, Martin, On Judaism, New York: Schocken, 1967, pp. 15-16, 47. 2. Buber, Martin. I and Thou, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1958, pp. 15-19. 3. Heschel, A. J., God in Search of Man, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1976, p. 17, p. 309. 4. Heschel, Abraham Joshua, Man Is Not Alone, New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1979, pp. 277-278. 5. Man - Created in the Image of G-d, 1998, retrieved from < http://www.ldolphin.org/studynotes/man_nat.htm> on November 29th, 2007. 6. Sorko-Ram, Shira, I Became As a Jew, Maoz, Inc., Box 763100, Dallas, Texas 75376-3100. Read More