By the Grace of G-d
18th day of Sivan, 5715
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Blessing and Greeting:
I received your letter of May 31, in reply to mine, in which I dwelt on the subject of simple faith, as emphasized by the festivals of Pesach and Shovuoth.
In your reply you refer to what seems to you a contradiction to the beauty of “simple” faith in the fact that the complexity and multiplicity in nature, particularly in the world of plants and animals, rather add to, than detract from, the beauty of things, and you wonder if the same may not be true of faith.
The argument would be valid perhaps if we were speaking of the “superficial,” and not of the innermost and essential aspects of things. Actually the analogy from nature only confirms what I wrote to you in my previous letter.
For, needless to say, I did not mean to imply that a person, especially a Jew, should content himself with faith alone, or that our religion is a simple matter. As you know, the Torah contains 613 different and varied precepts, and each one has a variety of facets, and G-d expects every Jew and Jewess to reflect them in their daily life according to circumstance. This certainly makes for a variety of religious experience and practice. I say, “to their best ability,” etc., for as our Sages ruled, “a rich man bringing a poor man’s offering has not fulfilled his duty,” which, of course, applies to the realm of the spiritual as to that of material. However, all this religious practice and experience, in all its variety, has to be based on, and permeated by, the same basic faith in G-d, a simple and absolute faith.
The analogy in nature is to be found in the fact that with all the complexity and multiplicity of plant and animal life, their basic and ultimate components are single cells, though the cell itself has a variety of components which science has by no means fully unraveled. It is only when these elementary cells behave properly in their simple functions of growth, division and multiplication, without interference of foreign elements, etc., that the complex organism is properly attuned and can carry out its most amazing functions.
Even in the inorganic world, and also in the organic world, the great complexity and multiplicity of things have been reduced to a small number of some, one, hundred basic elements, and the endeavor in science is to reduce even the complex of their nuclear composition to a minimum, in order to get closer to the secrets of nature. Here, too, the basic function of nature is determined not by the principle of complexity but by that of simplicity, the small particle, the atom, the core of things, and more deeply by its very few components.
You write that although you believe in G-d and His closeness, you are endeavoring to find your own way of serving Him. This is a long and round-about way. It is analogous to the person searching for the secrets of the functions of the physical body, e.g. how food is converted into blood, tissue, energy, and sustains life; it would surely not be the right approach to stop eating and drinking, pending his arrival at the conclusions of his study. Even a reduction in the necessary calorie intake would weaken his powers of reasoning and research and handicap him in his ever attaining his objective. Similarly, in an effort to find a way of serving G-d, one must not postpone such service until one has completed one’s search, and, moreover, the absence of the religious practice itself handicaps the powers of the intellect to grasp the truth. Furthermore, since the human intellect is by its very nature limited, while the subject it desires to grapple with is related to the Unlimited, it is only with the aid of the Infinite G-d that one can hope to be lifted across the unbridgeable chasm separating the created and the Creator, and such Divine aid can come only through Divine service.
Finally, there is obviously no contradiction here to the principle of the freedom of personal choice. The real issue here is the proper approach and method to be undertaken now, until one has arrived at the stage where one’s intellect becomes sufficiently clear to confirm the established truth. The key to the solution is “Na’aseh v’nishma,” where “Na’aseh,” practical religion in daily life, is the prerequisite condition for “Nishma” study and understanding.
With blessing,
Signed:
