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G-d Does Not Want Obedience
Last week there was a terrible fire in a home in Israel. Two children, ages 2 and 5, were killed. Three older children in the same family, all girls, escaped. But at what cost? Can you imagine their lives going forward? How many times will they ask themselves: What could I have done? What if I had…? Why didn’t I try ….? The mere thought of it shakes me to my core. Can you imagine going through your whole life with these kinds of regrets?
The psychological name for this is “survivor’s guilt,” and it can be crippling enough when you know there was nothing else to be done. But if you even imagine there was some other way you might have saved a life, but did not, it would be crushing. Survivor’s guilt is what hammered Noah after the ordeal of the Flood – it led him to drunkenness and disgrace. Because the truth is that he actually should have felt guilt: he dropped the ball.
The Torah tells us that G-d did not merely tell Noah to build an ark. He told Noah why he was building it. More than once. Which means Noah was given an opportunity to protest, to question, to try to talk G-d down.
And then G-d even gave Noah one final opening, “In seven days I will cause it to rain.” (Gen. 7:4). This was Noah’s last chance to try to change G-d’s mind!
What does Noah say to G-d? Nothing. Not a peep. “Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him.” (Gen. 6: 22 and 7:5)
In other words, Noah did what he was told. He did not argue, or plead or negotiate. He did not go out to other people and try to get them to change their ways. His very name, meaning “repose,” suggests passivity, and so while Noah did what he was told, he did not do anything more.
Noah paid for it with survivor’s guilt – guilt that he had earned. Noah was righteous, in himself. And he saved his family and the animals, as G-d had commanded. But Noah was not willing to take on the responsibility for other people. It was a huge failing.
The great leaders in the Torah argued with G-d. Avraham negotiated to try to save Sodom, and his conversations with G-d were seemingly always pushing for more – asking, querying, and even demanding.
Moshe’s first conversation with G-d started with a divine commandment (“Go talk to Pharoah”), but Moshe (Moses) was not having it: he rejected G-d’s command outright. Moshe was not prepared to do it. Even more incredibly, Moshe won the argument – and went on to become our greatest prophet. He went one to argue with G-d, on more than one occasion, that G-d’s desire to destroy the Jewish people was an error. He won these arguments, too.
G-d does not want obedience. If we read the Torah carefully, G-d wants engagement. As Rabbi Sacks points out, Torah Hebrew does not even have a word for obedience. G-d wants us to hear, to consider and think – but not to obey.
Avraham and Moshe did not blindly obey. They engaged: they prayed and questioned and tested. This has formed the model for the Jewish people ever since: in the Torah G-d is not primarily a father or a king; as the Torah makes it abundantly clear, the closest analogue is G-d as spouse.
Noah did not see it or act in this way. And he had to live with the guilt, with the “what if?” questions, for the rest of his life.
Our task is to learn, and not make the same mistakes: we are responsible for other people, even if that responsibility means questioning G-d’s plan. G-d Himself does not want us to merely do what we are told: He wants us, as full partners, to pull our own weight in the decisions about how to combat evil, and what to do with the world we inhabit.
Published in Religion & Philosophy
G-d is omniscient and omnipotent. But there is no way to know what G-d thinks or why He acts as he does in every situation. Remember that Moses “changed his mind” about killing the Jews at Mt. Sinai. Did G-d see that coming and choose to see how Moses would respond to his threat to kill them? I don’t know. The same goes for Sdom. His negotiation with Abraham showed how Jews can challenge his decisions; it doesn’t ensure that he will go along. I can’t emphasize enough that we simply cannot know the mind of G-d or why He acts as he does; when we try to impose our speculation on G-d’s mind and actions, it makes interesting discussion (which is why there is so much debate in the other Jewish writings), but we can’t be sure.
Oh, OK. I got the implication from “Since they “died” to their divine selves by their choice, they became human, subject to the beauty of free will” that they were not subject to the beauty of free will before their choice. I was also wondering, if they only became human by their choice, what were they before the choice?
From what I understand they were in a kind of divine state, a non-dual, perfect state.
Yeah, I guess all that curse stuff in Genesis 3 was actually a blessing in disguise.
Certainly I agree: We cannot know the mind of G-d. To do so we would have to be, at the least, His equal. But I am curious to know if these texts are in Jewish Scriptures: Job 21:22 – “Can anyone teach G-d knowledge, since He judges those on high?” Isaiah 40:13, 14 – “Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as His counselor has taught Him? With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge, and showed Him the way of understanding?” (Which is quoted more than once by an Apostle of the Messiah.)
But did He in fact change His mind, relent and turn back from His purpose and intent, or could it be that that is how it appears to mankind? I mean, Scripture speaks of His having eyes and hands but isn’t that a way of speaking to facilitate communication, an anthropomorphism?
The text is that Avraham wants to save the city – by virtue of it having righteous people within it. He did not ask to save the righteous people, but the city.
I volunteer.
We’re probably looking at the same thing two ways. Genesis 18:23 has Abraham saying, “Wilt thou indeed destroy the righteous with the wicked?” He knew that by saving the city the righteous would be saved. In the end, God mercifully (Gen 19:16) saved the righteous and the city was destroyed.
I guess Noah was the first depressed drunk. We do learn from the story how to deal with drunks: don’t look, don’t laugh, just cover them up, respect them, and go away.
I think this is a bit simplistic. Adam and Eve were entirely uncreative in the Garden. They did not interact with G-d in any meaningful way; they contributed nothing. And even with all of that, they did not eat the fruit until an agent (the snake) convinced them to do so.
Let me clarify: the Torah gives us commandments. Each individual needs to figure out what they can do to best work with G-d. This does not mean ignoring commandments: it means prioritizing.
I am really talking beyond this, though: what is your mission? What makes the world better because you lived in it? I don’t think G-d has a plan, or even a menu. Each person needs to engage, take risks, and work out what they should be doing – including changing plans as the situation warrants.
This is a highly dynamic understanding of what each person should be doing. It is much more formidable than merely, “do what G-d tells you.”
Absolutely, because this is in the Torah from beginning to end.
I believe that just as G-d limited Himself to create a finite world, so, too, He limited Himself to allow us true free will. So if G-d chooses to be omniscient, then we would no longer exist. He chooses to limit Himself, and so He does NOT know all things. And if you read the Torah and see how often G-d changes his mind, you’ll see that this is a very straightforward reading of the text.
That is correct: We have free will, and G-d does not know what we will do. If you believe otherwise, then you have to turn the entire Torah into a pretzel, making the text say what it does not say.
I do find it interesting that in context of iWe’s text, Eve (Adam just stands by passively and watches as this goes on), does engage, but she engages with the serpent and not with G_d. At no time do either go to their Creator with any of the questions that are brought up in the conversation. Perhaps the error is not in the questioning of the command, but with whom they are discussing the questions.
Excellent point, and one I had not considered.
G-d wants a relationship – and they talk to the snake instead!
Well I agree with that, except perhaps that I think God has a mission for each of us, rather than that we make up our own mission (if that is what you mean). In other words, God does have a plan – if he didn’t, then he literally didn’t know what he was doing when he created the world and us – and we are free to cooperate with that plan or not. Discovering what our particular mission is, and fulfilling it, is the greatest challenge of life. The hope in this is that, since God created me he knows me better than I even know myself, so following God’s plan for me rather than one I make up on my own will result in a life lived in accord with who I truly am – rather than merely who I think I am.
I would also add that I do not think the commandments are in competition with each other and need to be prioritized; in fact, they harmonize and support each other. Honoring your father and mother, for example, is one way to love your neighbor.
I agree with you that God really wants a creative relationship with us. But the individual who has such a creative relationship – a saint, for example – finds that God’s commands are not isolated, piecemeal instructions, but are aspects of an integrated life lived in the light of God’s spirit. Sort of like a beginning pianist finds all the various rules he is taught about playing well to be a catalog of unrelated, perhaps burdensome rules, while the virtuoso has embraced and lived them to the point that they are so integrated into his playing that he doesn’t notice them anymore. The only way the beginner will become the virtuoso isn’t to prioritize such rules, but to embrace them all and strive to integrate them all fully into his playing in the manner of the virtuoso.
Of course this easier said than done, and I am no saint. But when I feel the temptation to prioritize God’s commands – this one is important (and it happens I find it easy) while that one is not (and it happens to be one I find difficult) – I know I am rationalizing my will over God’s.
Well, there’s a good reason for it. God doesn’t want them to have knowledge, he wants them to remain ignorant. Why should they have trusted him, when the snake was correct?
We will disagree on this. When you get married, you may have some ideas about how things should work, but the marriage is an act of faith: anyone who dictates the relationship is not properly married.
OR…. G-d sent the snake to get them to wisen up.
?
I am speaking of opportunity cost. Should you visit the sick or host the poor? Some will focus on one – some another.
Please appreciate that observant Judaism holds all the laws in the Torah – which is a LOT of commandments, especially including the Oral Law. Each person MUST prioritize. Spend time with your wife, or contributing time to a charity? Pray (three times a day). The laws of kosher food, and agricultural resting. Many festivals. The 39 families of forbidden activity on Shabbos. The laws governing everything from Tefilin to family purity.
Time spent doing one thing is time NOT spent doing something else. Both may be commandments. That requires each person to determine their own priorities.
OK that makes sense
I certainly agree with this with respect to human marriage. But God is not simply another person, and our relationship to Him is not identical to our relationships with human beings. God is God and I am not: That is the fundamental truth, the First Commandment, and though it seems simple it is very difficult to embrace in all its implications. I may be confused about how my relationship with God should work, but I do not believe that God is confused about how His relationship to me should work – or about how my relationship to Him should work if I truly knew what was good for me. If He is, then he isn’t much of a God in my opinion.
This is a difference between Catholicism and the Torah.
In the Torah, it is human marriage that forms the EXAMPLE for our relationship with G-d. An unmarried man is unable to be the high priest. The priests prepared to serve G-d by first washing themselves with the vessel made from the mirrors Jewish women used to attract their husbands. Human marriage is the inspiration for our marriage to G-d!
I do not view the comparisons between marriage and our relationship to G-d as poetic or allegorical. I consider them as they are written.
G-d endowed us with free will – which does not mean that G-d is not G-d: If He lacked the power to limit Himself, then He would not be G-d!
We mustn’t assume a static situation: that is that G-d forbid them from the fruit of the tree to keep them ignorant of Good and Evil for all time. In fact, the character of the relationship between G-d and Man throughout the Torah and the Bible is that to increase knowledge. Hence again, in context of iWe’s premise we’re meant to understand and know, we’re meant to ask questions.
In fact, I would say it is a liberating experience to realize that discussion and even argument is welcome. For me I suspect the realization that this is possible came when I read of Moses speaking with G-d. G-d is angry and declares He’s ready to wipe out the Israelites and start over with Moses. Moses argues that G-d really doesn’t want to do that and wins, and this is to his credit that he does.
Could have sworn this was about Noah.
Actually it’s about the principle which is demonstrated in this story of Noah, thus, application of the principle can be explored in other parts.
A lacuna is a gap. I think Bob was trying to say that the Biblical narrative frequently includes gaps which open up the text to a variety of interpretations.
Am I the only who scans the title of this post and keeps clicking because it makes you think “God does not want Obamacare?”
Probably, but it sounds like a fun error.