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In memory of Barbara Freudmann, Bayla bat Avraham z”l,
who passed away on 2 Cheshvan 5776 / October 15, 2015
It was once rumored that the Messiah was about to appear. So the Chelmites, fearing that he might bypass their town, engaged a watchman, who was to be on the lookout for the divine guest and welcome him if he should happen along.
The watchman meanwhile bethought himself that his weekly salary of ten gulden was mighty little with which to support a wife and children, and so he applied to the town elders for an increase.
The rabbi turned down his request. ”True enough,” he argued, “that ten gulden a week is an inadequate salary. But one must take into account that this is a permanent job.” (1)
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The story of Esther centers around a famous talmudic principle called hester panim (the concealed face of God). This refers to the belief that at times divine intervention in the affairs of human beings is no longer at work and that conditions are left to the forces of nature and to the inconstancy of historical developments. This is mostly, but not always, seen as a type of divine punishment for the failure to observe the commandments. (2)
Obviously, this doesn’t mean that God has become a deus absconditus (an absentee God), as proposed by several seventeenth-century English philosophers. They believed that such a God is responsible for the creation of the universe, but abandoned it and left it in the hands of the various natural forces. This position is intolerable within the conventional understanding of God in Judaism, although Maimonides’ understanding of God’s intervention does come close. (3)
The Jewish tradition understands God to be transcendent and immanent. He is above, beyond and apart from the universe, yet also exists within the universe, filling it with His spirit and guiding its inhabitants. Hester panim means it is as if God has withdrawn Himself from this world, while in fact He has not. His immanence in this world is therefore no longer expressed through open and often miraculous interference in the natural order of the world, but rather in the undisturbed continuation of that very order. God’s withdrawal from this world is in itself a conscious act that is part of His divine providence.
Consequently, His interference in this world becomes blurred, and it is difficult for us to see God’s hand in our daily lives. Various commentators have dealt with the question of the extent to which hester panim is possible. How far is God prepared to go in order to give the impression that He is no longer ‘there’?
The Talmud makes a remarkable observation regarding hester panim. “Rava said: The Holy One, blessed be He, said, Although I hide My face from them, I will speak to them in a dream. Rabbi Yosef said: His hand is stretched over us [to protect us].” (4)
This seems to modify the principle of hester panim. Even if God’s special providence has left His people, He seems to remain actively involved with them via dreams, or His protective hand.
Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, in an essay on the Holocaust (5), provides us with a special insight into this talmudic statement by dividing the concept of divine intervention into four categories: absolute hester panim; a survival hester panim; an intermediate hester panim; and nesiat panim (the “lifting of the face” [of God], i.e. the revelation of God’s providence). The first or lowest level applies to individuals only. In such a case the person loses all special protection or divine intervention. God seems to be completely absent and all is left to pure “chance.” It is as if God no longer bothers about this human being. However, this is only true for an individual. When speaking about the Nation of Israel, absolute hester panim is impossible, since there is a divine promise that the People of Israel will continue to survive and exist. While there may be hester panim all around, the moment that Israel’s very survival is at stake, God will have to “step in” and ensure the continued existence of the nation.
This may have been the case during the Holocaust, when everything – except the existence of Am Yisrael as a whole – was left to the most evil forces. (To argue that this was divine retribution for our grandparents’ failure to observe the commandments is obscene, theologically offensive and a profanation of His name. See the book of Iyov.) Though millions of individuals were killed, the Jewish nation was not. This is called survival hester panim and is clearly the meaning of Rabbi Yosef’s statement in the Talmud – even in the case of hester panim, “His hand is (still) stretched over us.” What, however, is the meaning of Rava’s observation that even though He hides His face, “I speak to them in a dream”?
This, says Rabbi Lamm, is the category of intermediate hester panim – hiding of the face that is sometimes interrupted by moments of direct divine intervention, albeit in a secret and clouded way. This is the underlying motif of the Esther story, which is at once natural and supernatural; secular and religious. Depending on one’s point of departure, a person may see an ordinary story, or a divinely inspired event. The main problem is that you can’t put your finger on it. Both interpretations make perfect sense, but we get an intuitive feeling that there’s more to the story than meets the eye. Just as in a dream events are clouded and blurred but point to something higher, the Megillah, too, represents this ambivalent situation. Rava’s comment, then, means that God still comes to us in a dream, in a blurred and semi-hidden way.
This, argues Rabbi Lamm, is also the Jewish experience with the return of many Jews to the land of our forefathers in our days. The famous Shir Hama’alot, which we sing on Shabbat, expresses that feeling: “When the Lord returned the returnees of Tzion, we were like dreamers.” (6)
Since the establishment of the State of Israel, Jews have been experiencing a new Megillat Esther. On one level, the development of the State of Israel seems to reflect all that is secular in history; but on another level, it overflows with divine sparks. Intermediate hester panim creates confusion. One moment we see the hand of God and there’s a strong feeling that we’re entering the messianic age, only to feel betrayed a moment later when everything seems to fall back into darkness. Nothing is clear; it is as yet an unfolded dream. Indeed, the many miracles that were evident during the Six-Day War, and at other moments in Israel’s history, give many of us the feeling that we have left the survival hester panim behind us and are experiencing one of a more intermediate state. Whether this is true is open to debate, and drawing such conclusions may even be dangerous, as it often causes people to act as if the messianic age has already begun, which could easily bring disaster. The nationalistic excesses of religious Zionism in recent decades prove the spiritual dangers of sanctifying historical processes beyond the facts on the ground.
Redemption does not happen overnight; it develops over a long period of intermediate hester panim, until the last stage in the drama of history is fulfilled. This is called nesiat panim, the “lifting of the face,” when God’s direct interference in human life becomes a day-to-day experience. Purim reminds us where we find ourselves. It gives us a framework in which to understand our lives and remain optimistic in the midst of all the darkness.
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(1) Irving Howe and Eliezer Greenberg, eds., A Treasury of Yiddish Stories (New York: Schocken, 1973) p. 626.
(2) Devarim 31:18.
(3) For a good overview, see David Hartman, Israelis and the Jewish Tradition: An Ancient People Debating Its Future (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2000).
(4) Chagigah 5b.
(5) Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, “The Face of God: Thoughts on the Holocaust,” Bernhard H. Rosenberg, ed., Theological and Halakhic Reflections on the Holocaust (NJ: Ktav Publishing House, 1992) pp. 119-136.
(6) Tehillim 126:1.
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Questions to Ponder from the David Cardozo Think Tank:
[We suggest printing out and discussing at your Shabbat table, if you like.]
1) Do you think that God sometimes hides His face when he shouldn’t? If so, do you feel alienated from Him because of that?
2) Alternatively, do you think that everything God does is perfect, but feel aggrieved that he created us without the faculty to understand why things that seem bad are in fact good?
3) Do you think that the human soul is a “spark” of the divine essence, a “part” of God, and at least one of the agents of divine intervention in the world?
4) Rather than acting “under the influence” of God, does the human individual act in part from the spark of God, which is his essential identity? To that extent, are Divine intervention and expression of individual will actually the same thing?
5) Do you think that “intermediate hester panim” requires that there be Divine intervention in events external to human beings? Alternatively, can God reveal himself at this level by intervening only in the human heart and mind, as it were? For example, if the course of events in the Six Day War was affected by Divine intervention at the “intermediate hester panim” level, did this intervention extend beyond the hearts, minds and souls of the individuals involved? Is this so for the story of Megillat Esther?
6) Is the difference between hester panim and nesiat panim essentially in the visibility of God’s participation rather than the fact of it?
7) Could it be that God’s promise of eternal existence to the Jewish people was not a promise of Divine intervention but a statement about the nature of reality? That once awareness of an ultimate truth has entered the world, it can be overlaid and repudiated but never extinguished? That there will always be a community carrying that awareness, and that is who the Jewish people are?
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1. There were a few occasions where I believe my life was saved by the Eternal’s intervention, at age 8-1/2 a brutal anti-Semitic attack (October of November 1940, Central Park West and 88th Street) interrupted only by the arrival of older boys from my school, a road discontinuity (an old, unused, and unmaintained streetcar rail) on Boston’s Longfellow Bridge sending my car in a spin that did not land me in the wide and deep river below, and crossing into Arab-held Jerusalem in December 1966. So I do believe that the Eternal does intervene. Furthermore, while I accept Rabbi Norman Lamm’s analysis of the Holocaust, the fact remains some people did survive and nearly every one mentions one or more events that appear to be miracles.
2. I see minor miracles in my daily life in Israel. Things seem lucky for me when I do consciously try to think and speak and act in ways that I think the Eternal would approve. When laziness or lust or disrespect or impatience or arrogance or anger or self-pity or other aspects of the evil inclination have turned me away, things just have not gone as well, including solving health problems at age 84.
I found the questions interesting so I thought I’d provide my thoughts to this TPP.
1) Do you think that God sometimes hides His face when he shouldn’t? If so, do you feel alienated from Him because of that?
• To suggest that God “sometimes hides His face when he shouldn’t” would appear to place the opinion of the one making such a suggestion (finite human) on the same level as God. We certainly may prefer that He doesn’t hide His face, but to suggest that he “shouldn’t” would seem to be presumptuous at best. Any consequent feeling of alienation would seem to be an extension of that presumptuousness.
2) Alternatively, do you think that everything God does is perfect, but feel aggrieved that he created us without the faculty to understand why things that seem bad are in fact good?
• To be sure, everything that God does is perfect according to His own counsel. If it were otherwise, he would not be God. We mere mortals are obviously not privy to God’s hidden counsel. I don’t feel aggrieved at our lack of understanding the “why” of some things, though I think it would be nice to know at times. On the down side, knowing “why” might engage our human capacity to second-guess God, as though in our finite capacity we would know better than He. I think that we can be confident that God in His infinite wisdom has kept such a faculty from us for our greater good. In pondering what that greater good might be, I’ve concluded that it must be a higher faculty God has given to all of us. A faculty which causes us to focus our attention on Him rather than ourselves: the ability to trust Him.
3) Do you think that the human soul is a “spark” of the divine essence, a “part” of God, and at least one of the agents of divine intervention in the world?
• As part of God’s creation, the human is unique in that it is the only creature that was made in God’s image. However, while certain aspects of God may be described anthropomorphically, God is Spirit and has no “parts” or “sparks” which would include anything of a created nature. Otherwise, prior to the creation of human souls (at least), God was deficient in some way, or less than fully God without the parts or sparks that He subsequently created. I think the best we can say is that the human soul (man) is the recipient of divine intervention and, when determined by God, can function as a conduit/instrument through which some divine interventions are (have been) carried out.
4) Rather than acting “under the influence” of God, does the human individual act in part from the spark of God, which is his essential identity? To that extent, are Divine intervention and expression of individual will actually the same thing?
• God has set eternity in the hearts of men. As God informs us through Isaiah: “From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do.” Men can be willing or obdurate in their participation in fulfilling God’s will and purpose. God’s purpose and plan has been set from eternity – every minute aspect of it, for both the willing and obdurate. So decreed, nothing can thwart it. We will all play the part we are predestined for, whether in obedience or disobedience. Perhaps paradoxically, we get to choose which it will be.
5) Do you think that “intermediate hester panim” requires that there be Divine intervention in events external to human beings? Alternatively, can God reveal himself at this level by intervening only in the human heart and mind, as it were? For example, if the course of events in the Six Day War was affected by Divine intervention at the “intermediate hester panim” level, did this intervention extend beyond the hearts, minds and souls of the individuals involved? Is this so for the story of Megillat Esther?
• We can be confident that every minute aspect of any pending predestined event from God will include all of the necessary contributing participants needed to achieve it, whether each individual is aware that they are participating or not. To suggest otherwise would be to assert that there are details outside of God’s influence or that God’s plans are subject to thwarting – which is impossible. For instance, there is no doubt that Israel’s exile to Babylon was in accordance with God’s plan. Yet, who would argue that every Babylonian participant in the execution of His plan was aware that they were actually doing God’s will? Similarly, the Six Day War and Esther, just to name two of myriads.
6) Is the difference between hester panim and nesiat panim essentially in the visibility of God’s participation rather than the fact of it?
• Seems to me that as the Sovereign over all creation, there is never a moment in which God is not participating in the affairs of this world – ceaselessly. And God does not change such that today He is participating but yesterday He wasn’t. To think otherwise might be to make the error of viewing God’s participation in purely human terms. Whether he stimulates our visual cortex or not should not be the measure by which we conclude God’s participation or lack of it. Often we don’t “see” God’s involvement until there is an outcome of some kind. Take Esther for instance. They may not have “seen” God’s involvement through the individual moments of their entire experience, but at the end they certainly “saw” His hand. Similarly, Joseph’s experience comes to mind as well. There are countless others. Such examples should serve to bolster our confidence that God is always busy assuring what He wants to have done gets done, whether we have any advanced visual queues or not.
7) Could it be that God’s promise of eternal existence to the Jewish people was not a promise of Divine intervention but a statement about the nature of reality? That once awareness of an ultimate truth has entered the world, it can be overlaid and repudiated but never extinguished? That there will always be a community carrying that awareness, and that is who the Jewish people are?
• History has shown us that because we sometimes don’t see what we think we ought to see (or would like to see) when we think we ought to see it, we mortals can fall into the abyss of endless speculations that would have us mistakenly speculate, for instance, that Sarah’s maidservant, Hagar, will bear Abraham’s heir of promise. And we know where that led.
• It may be possible to imagine that the “nature of reality” is somehow devoid of Divine intervention, as though they were mutually exclusive, though I can’t see how. Nature couldn’t possibly have any reality apart from Divine intervention.
• Isaiah reminds us: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” In my mind, a rational child should be able to understand God’s promises in the plain language He has delivered them. If they are to be understood abstractly, who is the authoritative source to inform us what they really mean? If it can be “anyone”, then the promises can mean what anyone wants them to mean – in which case, they are meaningless.