Hello Everyone,
Yesterday we began the final section of Chovot Halevavot, the section on the love for Hashem.
When we began studying חובות הלבבות we saw the core of Rabbeinu Bachya’s belief system. Rabbeinu Bachyah writes that if the “physical” mitzvoth (e.g. eating matzah on Pesach) are not accompanied by the mitzvoth of the heart, the חובות הלבבות, then those physical mitzvoth are without value. Rabbeinu Bachyah took upon himself the task to warn us against falling into the trap of rote performance of our religious duties. If we have succeeded in living according to the guidelines of Chvot Halevaot then now, at the final section, we are ready to reach the summit of spiritual development, the love of God. Rabbeinu Bachya is emphatic about this point. He writes that, “you need to know that each mitzvah and each positive trait, whether it is known logically or known through tradition, is only a step and way-station by which we ascend and reach this level.”
What is “love of God?” It is the absolute, obsessive yearning of the soul to cling to God. Rabbeinu Bachya explains how this yearning develops within the person. People are hybrid beings, we have a soul and a body. The soul is attracted to activities which will aid in its development. However, the soul is aware that Hashem placed it in a body which has its own decidedly non-spiritual needs, and the task of the soul is to address the needs of the body while not ignoring its own spiritual progress.
The sad fact is that the body is insatiable. The body endlessly craves more and more and never leaves the soul time to pursue its spiritual goals. This state of affairs continues until the person realizes intellectually that he is indulging his body at the expense of his soul.[1] When the person realizes that he has ignored his soul he will realize that all the pleasures of this world are worthless and he will turn towards the service of Hashem. He will acknowledge the greatness of God and he will be seized with awe as he becomes more and more ware of God’s presence in his life. The person will become interested only in doing what Hashem desires. If his life is proceeding smoothly he will thank Hashem for this. If his life is full of pain he will continue to serve Hashem despite these troubles. This absolute devotion to Hashem is love of Hashem.
Several people during the shiur wrote in the chat-box that love for Hashem needs to be differentiated from romantic love. I don’t quite understand what they meant. Romantic love is, as I understand it, an apparently irrational, tremendously powerful, interest by one person in another person. The one who feels romantic love wants to spend all of his her time with his (or her) beloved. This is the feeling that the soul feels towards God. Chazal say that שיר השירים[2] describes the relationship between God and the Jewish people[3]. So it seems to me that the intensity of love that a person feels towards Hashem could and should be as intense as the feelings that Romeo felt for Juliet. I don’t think that there is anything blasphemous in this.
Rabbeinu Bachya writes that love can only arise after the person feels awe towards Hashem. It seems that the Rambam disagrees with this sequence. He writes:
רמב”ם הלכות יסודי התורה פרק ב
הלכה א
האל הנכבד והנורא הזה מצוה לאהבו וליראה אותו שנאמר ואהבת את ה’ אלהיך, ונאמר את ה’ אלהיך תירא.
הלכה ב
והיאך היא הדרך לאהבתו ויראתו, בשעה שיתבונן האדם במעשיו וברואיו הנפלאים הגדולים ויראה מהן חכמתו שאין לה ערך ולא קץ מיד הוא אוהב ומשבח ומפאר ומתאוה תאוה גדולה לידע השם הגדול כמו שאמר דוד צמאה נפשי לאלהים לאל חי, וכשמחשב בדברים האלו עצמן מיד הוא נרתע לאחוריו ויפחד ויודע שהוא בריה קטנה שפלה אפלה עומדת בדעת קלה מעוטה לפני תמים דעות, כמו שאמר דוד כי אראה שמיך מעשה אצבעותיך מה אנוש כי תזכרנו, ולפי הדברים האלו אני מבאר כללים גדולים ממעשה רבון העולמים כדי שיהיו פתח למבין לאהוב את השם, כמו שאמרו חכמים בענין אהבה שמתוך כך אתה מכיר את מי שאמר והיה העולם.
According to the Rambam love for Hashem is the result of our contemplating Nature. When a person studies the wonders of nature (for example when he sees photographs from the Hubble telescope or sees the complexity of microscopic life) he will be seized with wonder for the Creator who brought all of this into being. He will want to know all that he can about the Creator and his adoration of the Creator will lead to love for the Creator. But as soon as the person realizes how great the Creator is, he will realize how tiny and insignificant he is . This will lead to fear and awe before the Creator.
So while Rabbeinu Bachya ( and others) see love as following awe, the Rambam feels that love comes before awe. It seems to me that Rabbeinu Bachya and the Rambam are describing different spiritual paths as opposed to differing over a matter of principle. In Chovot Halevavot, Rabbeinu Bachya wrote a guide to spiritual growth. The book does not start from “zero.” Rabbeinu Bachya’s audience was not unaware of the mitzvoth. His readers were observant but emotionally uninvolved in what they were doing. The process of becoming spiritually involved is a personal one. Rabbeinu Bachya sees it as a process of changing one’s relationship with the material world from being over-involved to being minimally involved. The mindless pursuit of pleasure needs to be stopped and this can only happen when the person becomes aware of God. The awareness of God which can shock a person into changing his way of life is necessarily the experience of awe. Awe causes the necessary change in behavior and can lead to love.
The Rambam is describing a different experience. While Rabbeinu Bachya is describing away journey from spiritual numbness, the Rambam is describing how a person should experience life. We all live in the world of Nature. We see the sun, the moon and the stars . We have all seen the miracle of life. The Rambam says that instead of taking it for granted we should step back and appreciate its grandeur. This appreciation can lead us to God. But the realization of God’s presence in our world creates conflicting feelings within us. We adore the God who created this amazing world but we are also forced to acknowledge our insignificance in His presence. Rabbeinu Bachya is guiding us to a goal, and since the goal is more significant than any of the stops along the journey, love is greater than awe. The Rambam is not describing a journey towards the love of God, he is describing how we should perceive the Creation. The proper perception of the world leads to love and awe but (it seems to me) the Rambam does not say that either love or awe are “better” than the other. Both feelings towards God are correct and the challenge is to live with both feelings .[4]
Thanks to everyone who participated in the shiur
חנוכה שמח
Stuart Fischman
[1] In Rav Kaffach’s translation the word נפש is used to label the spiritual component of the human. The נפש is forced to live in and to tend to the body until the שכל (which I translate as the intellect) realizes that the soul is being ignored.
[2] Which freely uses romantic imagery
[3] Some commentators write that it describes the relationship of God to the indvidual