EE & R, 3_5: Between the Torah and the Prophets: What is Ours and What is God’s?

(For the previous installment of "Exodus, Exile and Redemption," click here. For ToC, click here.)

Knowing Hashem stands in direct contrast to worshipping Him through sacrifice, for one does not worship what one truly knows; rather, one embraces and emulates it. That is one way in which the doctrine of Hashem’s knowability contrasts with sacrificial worship. There is also a second, more indirect way. Sacrifices are viewed as gifts from man to God. Through his arduous toil, man generates goods, such as grain or livestock, and from these goods, he selects and offers to God. Such a gift is meaningful and appropriate only if man’s realm is distinct from God’s. However, if man truly knows God, then their realms are united; thus, he who knows God brings Him no gifts.

This contrast with sacrificial worship is also expressed by the prophets, who insist that God, who owns all, has no need for our offerings:

I shall not take from your house a bull, nor goats from your pens. For Mine are all the beasts of the forest… If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for Mine is the world and its fullness (Psalms 50:9-12)

God has no need for our efforts or the fruits of our labor. This same message underpins Isaiah’s words, which touch on the themes of the value of human toil and the nature of sin:

You have not called on Me, O Yaakov; but you have toiled for me, O Yisrael. You have not brought Me sheep for your burnt offerings, and with your sacrifices you have not honored Me. I did not burden you with grain offering nor make you toil with frankincense. You did not buy for Me cane with money nor sate me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you burdened Me with your sins, made Me toil with your iniquities (Isaiah 43:22-24)

The people of Israel toiled for God, believing they could honor Him and earn His favor through costly gifts and hard-earned sacrifices. Yet their focus on the fruits of their toil revealed a state of sin – a burden placed on God. It is impossible to offer anything to God that wasn’t generated in sin, apart from His divine presence. The sinner alone seeks to bring a gift to God from what he has produced, having created it without His guiding light. In contrast, the righteous person, whose every action is motivated by knowledge of Hashem, is doing Hashem’s work: His product is Hashem’s product, generated by the essence of His goodness. Such a product, made by Hashem, cannot be gifted to Him.  

If we truly know Hashem, all our actions are part of His divine plan and thus already His. Conversely, if we do not know Hashem, our actions are separate from His divine activity. This separation is what makes giving to God seem meaningful, as our actions and possessions appear not to belong to Him. This lack of knowledge is the essence of sin, a division between human and divine realms. Indeed, “Mine is the world and its fullness” – unless it is wrested from God by the man who acts alone, divorced from His presence and living in sin.

Belief in the value of human toil is akin to placing a burden upon God. To toil is to introduce something new and foreign into God’s perfect world, something ungodly. For he who knows the ways of Hashem does not toil. Rather, he fulfills those good ways with devotion and love, his soul in tranquil harmony with Hashem’s plan.

The continuation of the passage brings us back to our earlier discussion of Yaakov and his celebration of toil:

I am the one, I sweep away your crimes for my sake, and your sins I do not recall. Remind Me, let us argue together; you recount it so that you be proven right. Your first father sinned… So I profaned the princes of the sanctuary and have given Yaakov to destruction and Yisrael to contempt. And now listen, Yaakov, my servant, and Yisrael, whom I have chosen. Thus said Hashem your Maker, your Fashioner in the womb, Who helps you: Fear not, my servant Yaakov and Yeshurun whom I have chosen… Remember these things, O Yaakov, and Yisrael, for you are my servant… I have swept away your crimes like a cloud, and like the mist your sins… For Hashem has redeemed Yaakov, and will glorify in Yisrael (ibid, 43:25-44:23)

The passage abounds with references to Yaakov’s narrative, highlighting his character deficiency and his misplaced emphasis on toil. The various names of the patriarch – Yaakov, Yisrael and Yeshurun – reflect his spiritual journey from imperfection toward righteousness (as explained here). Yaakov’s early life is marked by imperfect honesty, his crookedness symbolized by the heel he clutched upon exiting his mother’s womb. Unexpert in the ways of Hashem, he argued for his imagined innocence regarding the theft of Laban’s gods by appealing to his great toil, saying, “What is my crime, what is my sin?” The prophet responds to Yaakov’s self-justification with a divine rebuke.

Yaakov was not of perfectly innocent character. Our foremost forefather sinned, his impassioned remonstrations notwithstanding. He argued for his innocence to be proven right, but his crime and sin were lurking within, symbolized by the profane gods hidden in his camp. Thus, his progeny was tainted, given to destruction and contempt. Nevertheless, he remains Hashem’s chosen one, fashioned in the womb to be Yaakov: Hence, Hashem alone will wipe away his crimes and sins and redeem Israel, according to His grand plan.

The prophets advocate for human knowledge of Hashem and envision a world in which the realms of mankind and God unite seamlessly. In such a world, which is truly His in all its fullness, a gift from man to Hashem is as meaningless as a gift from Hashem to Himself. Sacrifice, then, achieves only a symbolic or superficial connection, whereas knowledge of Hashem establishes an inherent, living bond between human activity and the divine will. In other words, sacrifice accomplishes in outward form what knowledge of Hashem fulfills in essence – connect human industry directly to its divine source. Knowledge is thus superior to sacrifice:

For I desired kindness and not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings (Hosea 6:6)

(For the next installment of "Exodus, Exile and Redemption," click here.)