Let’s say you saw a magnificent machine, with hundreds of thousands of parts, all working in spectacular unison and harmony, far beyond anything the human mind could contrive.
Let’s say you examined the details of this machine and found that some aspects of its workings puzzle you. Would you complain to the inventor? Or would you pray in awe for understanding?
The universe’s wondrous design is obvious. In specific aspects, we must admit insufficient understanding.
I have sufficient understanding to recognize that killing is bad
If someone promised me a magnificent machine, but what I saw was not working in spectacular unison and harmony, and instead was filled with discord and conflict, I would complain. If I had given the inventor 1/7th of the days of my life (Shabbos) or 1/10 of my earnings (tithing), I'd ask for a refund.
If I saw that the machine was injuring, and even killing, millions of humans, including small children, I would try to shut down the machine, and I would have the police or a federal safety agency stop the inventor from doing such dangerous experiments. I wouldn't post articles on the Internet excusing his recklessness by saying that my understanding must be incomplete.
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Limited Senses - Limited Understanding
Our 5 puny limited senses have reached their limits in a distorted understanding of who and where we are, why we are here and where we must go.
The Kabbalists attained all these answers . As we aspire to rise beyond our limited senses to the level of unity amongst ourselves, we will experience a greater dimension and senses that reveal the answers with clarity.
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So true! This is so true and incredibly humbling. Love the analogy! Thanks for posting :) Reply
not mee.. as this says.. pray for understanding.. how mych did ivriham understand or yyqv or dawod.? how mych did moshe understand.. truth bee know each were revealed what they could handle to know.. how much more were the neviim given and whats with all this Kabbalah nonsense..
to see how the most Complex parts of a machine (as this article reads) would bee to understand the entire machine is destroyed at the end of its purposefulness ..
why make something soo awe enspiring only to destroy it.? cause it compares Nothing to what heaven is.. and many never attain it to see..
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even then....
even then we are still 'puny slabs of grey meat'....
YET...able to look out into the sky and question.
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Such Confusion
I believe that G-d directs...that G-d raises his hand and makes such beautiful and wonderous things in life like a tree or a bird in flight then just as G-d can be tender and warm and do beautiful things he can raise His hand and do something like the Tsunami on Japan...
I saw a photo of it from a plane that was this big circle in the water swirling and I sept thinking to myself what was G-ds feelings here-and I admit here that life is so fragile but more importantly that I have insufficient understanding as to why G-d did this.
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Re: Why is anything beyond understanding?
There's no absolute way of proving that the human brain cannot, of its own, understand it's Creator. To believe otherwise, however, would take a great leap of faith. After all, here you have a puny slab of grey meat looking out at a magnificent universe and asking, "How did it get here? What lies beyond space? What came before time? How would this reality look if it were not me looking at it?"
I can't prove that the meat patty cannot solve these problems. But it seems far more rational to believe that there are certain things we cannot know unless we are told. And even then...
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Leah and Thomas
Thank you Leah for your blessing and may the blessings come back to you a hundred fold.:)
And Thomas, Princeton is lucky to have you. To dare to know the unknowable is a mark of a true creative mind.
But I suspect what you really want to know is everything about who you are. Why don't you start with that mystery and you'll see that it takes a lifetime to do even just that--and then you die. What more everything that G-d made (or some would say--is?)?
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Lack of Understanding: When I read this I chuckled to myself and said Amen!! So true! Reply
obsession
Dear Cecilia,
May you be blessed in your endevor to do Gd's will with a perfect heart.
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Understanding why the man stepped on my foot.
Dear Rabbi,
Yesterday I was locked in an obsession to indulge in something that only benefits me and me alone. I was walking in a daze creating the scene in my head in full detail all the way down to what I'll be wearing...Until a fat tall man stepped on my left foot. The man apologized raising his hand to my head like a blessing. I snapped out of my reverie like someone going out of hypnosis.
If G-d engineered that moment, He would have begun edging the man to be in that place in the second that my foot will land just right under his. Without his full understanding of why he must run away from an angry dog perhaps instead of walking idly by the neighbor's house. Not knowing he'd been sent to save me from an evil train of thought that would have ruined everything I have been working at all this time.
It's an incredible machinery of check and balance and I find it a wonderful analogy to the precision of G-d.
G-d Bless.
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pray in awe? to an inventor? Sorry. If it were merely a machine, I would not be so in awe as to pray. I pray only to G-d. Sorry, but even in analogy, G-d is the Only One. Reply
Why is anything beyond understanding? Perhaps it will take decades or centuries to achieve it, but why should a scientist admit in advance that anything is beyond eventual human understanding? That way lies timidity, fearfulness, and, ultimately, stagnation. If G-d did not want us to try to understand everything, He could easily have made our brains incapable of understanding anything. Reply
Daily Dose Unsufficient Understanding
Dear Rabbi Freeman,
today I want to thank you for the Rebbes words (given in your language!) Just a time ago I found life so hard,did not know what to do. In such cases I pray normally. Today I prayed Mincha. And as I got up, your Daily Dose arrived. And it helped me.
I usually see things quite clearly, but sometimes I am not able to understand. Very quickly I see, which things are wrong. And I even ask G-d: "Why do you do that to me?" But in reality, I have to (I am citing you) admit insufficient understanding of certain aspects.
That is true.
Thanks,that you wrote if for us just today!
Shalom! Michal
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In order to get G-d's favor, believe what the vast majority believes is a must? I stopped in this article just by chance and with some suspicion, because this section of Daily Dose is addictive. My objection is this " Would you complain to the inventor? Or would you pray in awe for understanding?" Seems to me that not all options are contained in the above phrase. "In specific aspects, we must admit insufficient understanding." Aderabe, I certainly don't object. Let's consider a specific aspect: if I don't need understanding because I'm able to manage that aspect with sufficiency but my view is opposed to that of the vast majority; the question I'd pose to The Divine is -who is in tune with Him, I or they?