Feature Tidbit
for Parashat VaEtchanan

Two-Sided Warning

Moshe Rabeinu continues his farewell address to the people in Va'etchanan. He seems to be very concerned about certain aspects of the experience of Matan Torah and how they might be misconstrued. Just be careful and watch yourselves VERY carefully (lit. preserve your souls) that you do not forget what happened at Sinai. (And make sure you transmit the experience to your children and to their children.)

Then, as if Moshe had another thought on the subject, he adds, And be VERY careful to protect your souls from misinterpreting those events at Sinai. Since you did not SEE an image of G-d when He spoke to you, you might be tempted to latch on to a tangible representation of G-d (or a substitute for Him, G-d forbid), from that which you do see in nature.

Apparently, it is very tempting to look up into the sky and be so impressed with the Sun or the Moon or the stars, that one would choose to worship them and/or make graven representations of them.

This is one very stern warning issued by Moshe Rabeinu.

Perhaps there is another implied warning as well. And it addresses the opposite issue.

Perhaps, because we did not, and can not, and can never see G-d, we may come to view all of nature — that which we can and do observe — as something different and totally detached from G-d. Not that we will look heavenward and find an object of veneration, but that we won't even think in terms of the Divine when studying and admiring nature.

This idea is expressed by some of the commentators of the mishna in Avot that is attributed to Rabbi Yaakov (or Rabbi Shimon). One who is walking on the road and engrossed in Torah study (review), and INTERRUPTS his study to admire a beautiful field or tree, the pasuk on the Torah considers such a person to have put his life in jeopardy. The mishna does not specify what pasuk it was referring to, but a nearby mishna quotes from this portion of Va'etchanan.

In other words, attributing divinity to nature is highly problematic, but so is divorcing nature from the Divine.

With all the dangers involved, with the two-sided warning by Moshe Rabeinu, maybe it is best not to study nature too much. Hold that thought (but don't take it to heart).

Space.com, the ultimate adventure – an electronic magazine on space and astronomy, just carried a story about Christian astronomers mending the rift between religion and science. What made this new star-watching club so newsworthy is the fact that Christians apparently have been keeping nature and G-d apart for a long time, and are still somewhat nervous about Galileo being ostracized by the Church for suggesting that the Earth revolved around the Sun.

Not so Judaism. Torah and astronomy and Torah and science and Torah and nature, etc. etc. have been going hand-in-hand for a long time. One does not close his eyes to nature in order to "protect" himself from the dangers that are spelled out or implied by the p'sukim from Va'etchanan.

Rather, one takes Yeshayahu HaNavi's "suggestion' from this week's haftara, Nachamu. SE'U MAROM EINEICHEM, lift your eyes heavenward, U'R'U MI BARA EILEH, and see Who created all that you see. There is no KUNTZ, as we used to say (Yiddish, perhaps?) to not looking and not studying and not pondering. And not grappling with different scientific findings that puzzle us (temporarily) vis-a-vis HASHKAFA.

I remember Rabbi Dr. Moshe Tendler at YU (whom I had the privilege of having for several biology courses) saying that any apparent conflicts that we cannot resolve and understand, only means that we either do not know enough Torah or enough science to work things out. There are no conflicts, there cannot be any conflicts, because G-d created this world an everything in it.

It is a beautiful lesson that Moshe Rabeinu, Yeshayahu HaNavi, and Rabbi Yaakov (or Rabbi Shimon) combine to teach us. Let us learn it and enjoy nature to its fullest.

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