EE & R, 3_17: Between the Torah and the Prophets: The Prophet of Bondage
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3. Between the Torah & the Prophets – Can Man Truly Know Hashem?
Armed with our understanding of the tension between the Mosaic and prophetic ways, we return to the conversation between Moshe and Hashem about the apparent setback in Moshe’s mission of redemption. Moshe pleaded, questioning the intent of his divine appointment. Instead of deliverance, he had brought only suffering upon Israel:
Moshe returned to Hashem and said, “Lord, why have You done evil to this people? Why have You sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and You have not rescued Your people at all.” (Exodus 5:22-23)
Then Hashem responded:
Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh, for through a mighty hand he will let them go, and through a mighty hand he will drive them from his land… I am Hashem. And I appeared to Avraham, to Yitzchak and to Yaakov as El Shaddai, but by my Name, Hashem, I was not known to them… (ibid, 6:1-3)
What is the meaning of this cryptic response? How does the fact that Hashem appeared to the forefathers as El Shaddai but wasn’t known to them by His Name bear on the nature of Moshe’s mission of redemption and explain why it unfolded as it did?1
Moshe originally believed his mission was to reveal Knowledge, the great doctrine of the prophets. He thought he would put an end to toil and suffering by teaching the freedom that comes from knowing Hashem. Pharaoh’s brazen defiance – “Who is Hashem... I do not know Hashem" (ibid, 5:2) – came as a shock. Why, Moshe questioned, would his divinely ordained mission lead to unyielding blasphemy and increased suffering?
At that point, Moshe glimpsed the secret of unknowledge. He came to understand that his teaching would not be entirely new, but would build on the foundations laid by the forefathers who first walked the path of divine recognition. And if those righteous men did not know God by His Name,2 then unknowledge lies at the heart of the faith, which will not suddenly and abruptly transform into a doctrine of absolute clarity, free from all obscurity of perception. This is the paradox at the heart of the dichotomy between the Torah of Moshe and the Prophets: Revelation is not merely opposed to unknowing, but depends upon it, interacts with it, and is shaped by it. Thus, Hashem explained to Moshe, it should come as no surprise that the height of revelation demands an equal surge in concealment, one final dramatic burst of unknowing, in accord with the way of the forefathers, to whom Hashem wasn’t known by Name. At the threshold of redemptive revelation to their descendants, Hashem would again be unknown. In His concealment, Hashem would be deniable in Pharaoh’s sacrilegious defiance, His hiddenness fueling the suffering and bondage of Israel.
Moshe, expecting to herald freedom through knowledge, discovered he must also bear the burden of bondage through unknowing – a duality that defines his prophetic mission. The Exodus and the exile alike unfolded in God’s good world, equally willed by Him – not as contradictions, but as complements. The ultimate revelation does not destroy unknowing, but embraces it, transforms it, and weaves it into its own light.
Regarding “the paradox at the heart of the dichotomy between the Torah of Moshe and the Prophets: Revelation is not merely opposed to unknowing, but depends upon it, interacts with it, and is shaped by it. Thus, Hashem explained to Moshe, it should come as no surprise that the height of revelation demands an equal surge in concealment, one final dramatic burst of unknowing, in accord with the way of the forefathers, to whom Hashem wasn’t known by Name. At the threshold of redemptive revelation to their descendants, Hashem would again be unknown. In His concealment, Hashem would be deniable in Pharaoh’s sacrilegious defiance, His hiddenness fueling the suffering and bondage of Israel.”
The question is, Why is then the prayer in the Morning Blessings worded “please extend Your Kindness to those who know You,”?
…continuing quote, “and Your Righteousness to the upright in heart.”