Your mind itself no more than a creation, a whim of a Creator who fashioned it from nothing.
To approach the One Who Created Intellect, you need a sense which is beyond intellect and beyond self. We call this sense emunah, which some translate as faith.
Not a faith that ignores intellect.
Rather, one that takes you far beyond.
Faith found within and without When the L-rd created this world as we know it in all it wonder, how can we imagine the thoughts and creativity of G-d. After creating all,then Human, He gave the right for Human to change. Example, a rock and only be a rock, a fish a fish, etc. They cannot change in themselves. But Human was given the ability to change. We can take a rock and use it as a alter to worship G-d. We can take a piece of paper and become a teaching book for learning. There are many things in life that can change, but the G-d of all is waiting for Humans to change its purpose. Too bring it to a higher purpose. Faith is the purpose and direction that HaShem created us to use to bring everything into His creativity realm. Reply
Hymie
The only way to not doubt G-d's Goodness when faced with human tragedies,is to warm ourselves to the idea that G-d is in fact NOT DIRECTLY involved in them.
G-d has a Desire and has created a world in which this Desire is meant to unfold, proliferate and ultimately be realized with the willing and joyous cooperation of wo/men. In it He has instituted spiritual and physical operating mechanisms (because if goal then order). He has communicated these mechanisms to the Jewish people and then withdrew Himself, as it were,to the audience seat (This is not to deny the ever present possibility of Divine intervention). What shapes history and thus present and future also, is the most mysterious of these mechanisms: the 'Free Choice' premise and its correlate 'Responsibility'.
It is a humanly unintelligible, extremely intricate interaction of a cumulative 5774 years of human misuse/abuse of free choice that has caused that precious boy's cancer. Today, it is you and I. So shall we get to Work?
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Breaking Free from the Intellect
G_d created the 'intellect' -something He does not have - the will to self-gain.
The recognition of this intellectual property + your desire to receive Help to correction is the spiritual work. Consequently (Gmar Tikkun - final correction) we are FREE to think beyond the self.
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Cecilia Beltran on Karl Marx and Emunah What deep insights! Thanks for sharing. Reply
"Religion"
Why add this word to the discussion?
Biblical Hebrew has no such word.
What we have is a Torah way of life.
What is difficult is to know that Gd is good, when we see evil all around us.
What is more difficult is to know that Gd is good, even when the local rabbi's beautiful precious two-year-old son has cancer of the brain.
What is most difficult is when we are ourselves sick or wounded, when we are in pain, and doubt whether we can ever recover.
That's when we need "emunah".
That's when we it is hard to truly feel, with Gamzu and with Akiva, "Whatever Gd does, He does for the best."
That's when it's hard to see Gd's CHESED. Gd's lovingkindness.
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WHIM?!
You write:
"Your mind itself is no more than a creation, a whim of a Creator who fashioned it from nothing."
HaShem surely has whims - he has everything and He is everything - but would He fashion anything, much less your mind, based on a whim?
I don't think so.
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To Cecelia.
Religion itself is not an opiate.
It is abused that way though by many people.
Marx did have some dangerous ideas. Many people misquote him though. What you describe here sounds more like Neitzsche then Marx, and though they both lived in Germany around the same time period, Marx was different from him.
For one thing, Marx was a Jew. Judaism is not a religion in the way that are the other 'houses' of faith, for they are based mostly on belief; Judaism on a birthright.
A Jew can represent G-d, can give off 'sparks' of Torah-like illumination, evenwhile professing against faith; even when professing against his own faith.
The sad fact is that many people invoke belief, and especially belief in G-d, in a drug like fashion. They harm the minds that G-d gave them, their intellects, and give themselves over too much to their 'animal souls' and their yetzer haras.
Yes, Marx did have dangerous ideas.
Why didn't he just become a rabbi like his father?
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Meditations I like to think that Emuna/faith stands as an independent feeling each time affecting one as a pulse as in the beat of ones heart or or the tone or pitch of a sound of an instrument that can only enhance one-As G-ds' love does enhance one...but what I did want to say about Emunah is that it has an improvising step being that improvising is based on feeling and faith.This does take you beyond inellect however I feel it takes you to a stronger firmer sense of G-d and you. Reply
Karl Marx
Thomas, the thing about Karl Marx is that he asserts that man is the creator of his own destiny. He espoused cutting off from roots and starting anew.
His dangerous ideas are tantalizing. He celebrates man's creative power -- MAN's. But this celebration of creativity is an act of destruction. Destroying roots. Destroying that which was founded before him. It is a vain perspective to think that you and you alone can create your destiny. You co-create it with your ancestors and those who will come after you. We are continuing thought of the Divine that jump from vessel to vessel.
Religion is not the opiate of the people. I totally disagree with Marx. Religion is a poor parody of a true connection with the Divine. But it is a waiting shed, a temporary shelter from confusion. When awakening happens, it sounds like religion but it is not. It is Emuna. True faith. An unwavering certainty that you have found the center of truth, even without proof. This is what I think.
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The problem with the intellect is-
the problem with pain.
Rabbi Freeman, the more one is conscious the more is one receptive to pain, and the more one is conscious the more are they intuned with their intellects.
Rabbi, Karl Marx wasn't completely wrong (despite his abominable political theories) when he said-'religion is the opiate of the people'.
People tend to desire a relationship with G-d that is one of a comforter. They want a G-d who will relieve them when they are in pain; which means a G-d that won't require any special consciousness on their part, or that will require them to think too hard.
What's wrong with that? Is not the name of the Rebbe himself (Menachem) a way of saying 'comforter'?
The problem is that from there many people will term the mind and the intellect as opposed to G-d, as 'anti' to G-d, when these things are not only also from G-d, but were given to us by Him to differentiate us from the other animals.
Indeed, Rabbi, all too many of us never get beyond our 'animal souls'!
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But Also
Faith that ignores intellect is delusion.
I understand what you mean. You go so high up the rung until you reach a level of understanding that you can no longer adequately describe in words. As Joseph Campbell puts it " It has not been stained by the human tongue ". You transcend intellect not defy it.
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Beyond Intellect Comment I can honestly say that Emuna (faith) cannot be grasped at as a knowledge that can be learned by someone else- and nobody can show you the way to emuna it is a land sort of that is not conquered by all-As an artist I can say I know nothing about Emuna-Why lie to you?-My imagination is full of darkness that is controlled by G-d's presense and he makes sure that the imagination doesn't get toooo out there so that I am not ridden with guilt-which happens anyway-so how could I know about Emuna? However it does sound heavenly-and I know that when the colors are right and the lines are right and I am learning Hebrew correctly I feel I know Emuna. Reply
True! That is really true. We usually forget the fact that intellect is also created by the Creator of the Universe and we need to look beyond intellect through faith. Reply
Living up to G-d's expectations. I believe both your intellect and your spiritual side are equally important in our quest to emulate G-d. I also believe we don't have to follow all of G-d's laws or rules if we're unable to abide by them, but I also believe that doesn't give us permission to do as we please. It is our duty to be the best person we can possibly be; even if we fall short of G-d's "expectations." G-d is the only one that will pass his judgment on each and everyone of us when the time comes.