God, Man and History

This is the second time I'm reading God, Man and History. I read it a few years ago but felt that it deserved a second, much slower, read. So I left it on my desk at the synagogue, and for the past few weeks I've been reading a few pages at a time every shabbat, trying to absorb this masterpiece of Jewish thought more thoroughly. Eliezer Berkovits is one of the less-known Jewish thinkers of the past century, and the Shalem Institute in Jerusalem should be commended for publishing several of his works in new editions. This edition of God, Man and History was the first book to be published in this series, and rightly so, as it is considered Berkovits' keystone work. It is a small volume (just over 150 pages) and yet it manages to explain in clear language some of the most fundmental questions of Jewish theology. The book has three sections, corresponding to the title of the book. The first, and most detailed section, deals with the encounter with God which is the core of Berkovits' philosophy. It lays the foundations for the rest of the book. The second section deals with ethics, that is the practical translation of the encounter into Jewish law and deeds (mitzvot). The last, and shortest section, is about the manifestation of God in history (or rather, lack thereof), particularly the history of the people of Israel. As Berkovits himself states in the introduction, the book follows the footsteps of that "most Jewish of Jewish philosophers", Yehudah HaLevi, the 12th-century Spanish philosopher and poet who sought to define Judaism from within (particularly in The Kuzari). I will not even attempt to summarise Berkovits' philosophy here. But I will highlight one theme that permeates throughout the whole book, that of man's responsibility for his actions. Berkovits solves the paradox of the encounter between God and man by ultimately demonstrating that God cares for His creation and is engaged in its progress and survival. God is not an indifferent supreme being that leaves the world to its own devices (Aristotle), nor is He the pantheistic "God of nature" (Spinoza). However, there exists, and must exist, a separation between God and man, as such separation is vital for man. The doubts about the existence of God, which derive from the fact that the encounters between God and man in history were extremely rare and brief, are essential for safeguarding man's freedom. God hides from man in order to enable man to believe in Him without compulsion. There can be no intellectual proof of God's existence as such proof would "put the human intellect in chains". We would have no choice but to believe in God; faith would be redundant. For the same reason, there can be no evident and continuous intervention by God in the world (e.g. by preventing evil) as such intervention would crush man's responsibilities and he would be nothing more than a puppet. This is a most profound idea. We all know to repeat the mantra of man's "freedom of choice". Yet most of us wi

This is a masterful and insightful theological treatise. Berkovits brilliantly explains the foundation that revelation is to jewish understanding of its relation to a supreme being. The encounter between man and God is experiential knowledge that transcends reason. He goes further to the actual implications of a deity that would relate itself to its creation in such a fashion.

In the years since the passing of Rabbi Dr Eliezer Berkovits, his stature as one of the great thinkers of modern Orthodox/Traditionalist Judaism has only grown. Although Orthodox Judaism has undergone a great revival in the years since the Second World War after 200 years of decline culminating in the destruction of the centers of Jewish religious life in Europe, it seems that Orthodox Jewish intellectual thought has not kept pace with modern ways of looking at philosophical questions and many Orthodox Jews, although attracted to renewed vigor in religious observance, simply turn inwards and ignore the questions that challenge Jewish thought from the outside world. Rav Berkovitz is one of the few who has risen to the challenge. This important volume takes on basic questions in religous philosophy and is written in style fitting for an educated layman. This distinguishes Rav Berkovits's work from that of one of the other giants of modern Orthodox Jewish thought, Rav Joseph D Soloveitchik, whose writings contain a lot of terms and ideas that are accessible only to someone who has a background in advanced philosophical thought. This makes Rav Berkovits' book much more accessible, in my opinion. Rav Berkovits deals with eternal questions about how finite man can encounter the "infinite G-d", how G-d's creation of the universe both shows and hides his presence, how a perfect G-d creates an imperfect universe through self-limitation (tzimtzum), why man must be created free and why this freedom must be accompanyed by the possibility of evil, the sources of the ethics that man must follow, why the Torah must give man a comprehensive system of "mitzvot" (commandments) in order for man to be truly free and ethical, why justice demands that there be an afterlife and why G-d gave his special revelation of the Torah to a particular people (the Jewish people, "Am Israel") and not to all of mankind. Important points Rav Berkovits makes is his explanation for why it was not enough for man, particularly the Jew, to be commanded to be "good" and "ethical" to his fellow man, it was also necessary to give the Jew a comprehensive set of mitzvot that regulate not only his interpersonal relations (which appear to be "logical" to the human mind) but also his eating, sleeping, marital relations, speech, and activities on the Sabbath and Holy Days. Many modern Jews, particularly in the non-Orthodox trends among the Jewish people have thought it is adequate to either downgrade the importance of these "ritual mitzvot" or abolish them entirely. Rav Berkovits clearly shows that giving man only "ethical" demands (a la Immanual Kant) has failed throughout history, culminating in the horrors of the 20th century, and that in order to train man to be ethical as he should be, he must be constantly reminded of G-d's presence in ALL of his activities, thus "training" man (like a soldier in Rav Berkovits's example) to be aware of the divine imperative at all times and in all cond

An incredible book that all Jews should read - period. As a warning, it is not an "easy read" - I could only read a few pages at a time before getting overloaded. It will have more of an appeal to those with a traditional philosophical/academic bent than it will to the "casual reader". I think that I need to read it ~5 more time to best absorb the message that the author puts forth.