Lost in Translation

INSIGHTS:
Words of Rebuke
What you say is important; no less, to whom you say it
Personal Politics
Governments are thoroughly crucial to civilization and should be as thoroughly mistrusted

Can spiritual concepts be expressed in everyday language? Or must they be discussed only in somber tones and sacred whispers, if they are even discussed at all? For many of us, spiritual literature seems hopelessly out of touch with our everyday experience. We associate “sacred texts” with yellowed, crumbling prayer books written in archaic language, or faded scrolls with barely decipherable hieroglyphics. But does sacred literature necessarily need to be so remote and estranged from reality? Is there anything incongruous about discussing G-dliness and spirituality using down-to-earth language and examples drawn from real life?

When we discuss G-d in personally relevant terms, we invite Him into the core of our lives, rather than relegating Him to the periphery of our existence. Yet it can be argued that toning down the reverence too much can easily lead to flippancy and lack of respect for truly sublime matters. A certain distance must be maintained in order to preserve the sanctity of the subject matter. We cannot lose sight of our own puniness and ignorance in relation to truly lofty and Divine matters, and start creating G-d in our own image.

The fine line between making G-d accessible to human understanding, as opposed to humanizing Him altogether, has been discussed since Talmudic times. It once happened that five scholars were commissioned by King Ptolemy to translate the Torah into Greek. That day, says the Talmud[1], was “as ominous for Israel as the day on which the Golden Calf was made, since the Torah could not be accurately translated.” Yet we find in the Torah that before crossing the Jordan River to enter the land of Israel, Moshe explained the Torah[2] in seventy languages[3]. Furthermore, he charged the Jewish people that upon crossing the Jordan, they were to inscribe the entire Torah on stones[4], in seventy languages[5]. If the Torah had already been rendered in seventy languages, why was the Greek translation considered to be so devastating?

What is the relationship between the Ptolemeic translation of the Torah and the sin of the Golden Calf? Note that the Talmud does not make the comparison to “the day the Golden Calf was served,” but rather “the day the Golden Calf was made.” Initially, the Jewish people were not seeking an object for idol-worship. They were only looking for a leader to take the place of Moshe, who they wrongly presumed had died on Mount Sinai. Just as G-d appointed Moses as his agent to redeem the Jews from Egypt, they hoped that the Golden Calf would also serve as some sort of intercessor between the Jewish People and G-d. They felt the need for a tangible representative to help them bridge the distance between their earthly existence and G-d.

In Judaism, every person is able and is expected to build a relationship with G-d without any go-betweens. Why, then, is there the need for any leadership whatsoever? G-d desires us to relate to Him on real life terms, to understand Him with our minds and love Him with all the love our human, fleshly hearts can generate. G-d therefore chooses a leader, a tzaddik, who, through his personal conduct and example, becomes a living manifestation of G-dliness to whom we can all relate and emulate.

The Jews wanted to carry this one step further. They argued that G-d's revelation need not be limited to the human level, and can be expressed through the animal kingdom as well. On Mount Sinai, the Jews perceived G-d descending to the mountain on a chariot borne by angels with four faces, one of which was that of an ox. They attempted to capture this spiritual vision in a tangible form.

Their mistake lay in their inept “translation” of a G-dly vision into physical matter. Such a representation cannot be made without an explicit divine instruction. Physical matter becomes invested with G-dly energy only through a direct command of G-d. The consummate example of this is the construction of the Tabernacle, where divine energy flowed through the ark topped with the cherubim. Since its construction was divinely ordained, it became a conduit for G-dliness and was utterly nullified before G-d. But any attempt on our part to convert spirituality into physical form, guided only by our own perception, is doomed to failure. Since it represents not G-d's will, but only our own limited conception of G-dliness, it actually results in a separation between us and G-d.

When the Torah is translated into a foreign language, there is a similar risk that our human interpretation will cloud over the divine meaning of the words. Hence the statement of the Sages that the Ptolomeic Greek translation of the Torah was “as ominous as the day the Golden Calf was made.” Indeed when the translation is divinely commissioned, as was the case on the bank of the Jordan River, there was no possibility of distortion.

What is the lesson to be derived from these two events? Should the story of the Golden Calf serve as a deterrent, to keep us from ever attempting to relate to G-d on our own terms? It is obvious that G-d does desire that we draw Him into our world, as evidenced by the fact that Moses himself translated the Torah into seventy languages. The Golden Calf serves only as a vivid example of what can go awry when we base our interpretations on our own understanding, without deferring to Torah authority.

In our generation, we have an unprecedented capacity to make Torah accessible in all languages, to individuals and populations that have never been reached before. We can choose to balk at this opportunity, citing our own unworthiness and the crassness of the world at large. Or we can use the impetus to communicate the values and ideals of the Torah in all languages, each on its own terms. G-d will be truly revealed in this world when all people, from every perspective, are able to acknowledge His presence and study His teachings.

Our efforts in this direction can serve to nullify the negative effects of the Golden Calf. Their original intention of drawing closer to G-d (although through improper means) can be redirected to its proper source by our intense efforts at making G-d manifest in this world under terms sanctioned by the Torah. One of the descriptions of the Messianic era is when G-d will “make the peoples pure of speech so that they will all call upon the name of G-d and serve Him with one purpose[6]”. Then the days of mourning[7], beginning from the 17^th of Tamuz[8] and culminating in the 9^th of Av[9], will be transformed into days of rejoicing and holidays, G-d willing, with the coming of our Righteous Moshiach.

“These are the words that Moses spoke to all of Israel on the [eastern] bank of the Jordan, in the desert, on the plain, opposite Suf, between Paran, Tofel, Lavan, Chatzeirot and Di Zahav.”

Thus opens the book of Deuteronomy, which relates Moses’ final message to the people of Israel, delivered in the thirty-seven days that preceded his passing. Here Moses recounts the events of the past forty years and restates Israel’s covenant with G-d at Mount Sinai, where G-d chose them as His people and they committed themselves to His Torah.

Moses’ address also includes words of rebuke to Israel, in which he reminds them of the occasions when their behavior was wanting. Indeed, our sages explain that all the “landmarks” referred to in the opening verse (“the desert,” “the plain,” “Suf,” “Paran,” etc.) are actually allusions to various sins committed by Israel during their forty-year journey from Egypt to the Holy Land.

Said one of the chassidic masters: “This is why the Torah emphasizes that ‘These are the words that Moses spoke to all of Israel.’ It was only to the people of Israel that Moses spoke of their iniquities and failings. To G-d, Moses spoke only of the virtues of Israel, and justified them no matter what they did.”

Rabban Gamliel the son of Rabbi Judah HaNassi would say... Be careful of the government, for they befriend a person only for their own needs. They appear to be friends when it is beneficial to them, but they do not stand by a person at the time of his distress.

Good advice for anyone lobbying for a cause among the wielders and brokers of power, and as pertinent today as when offered eighteen centuries ago. But Rabban Gamliel is not only speaking to community leaders and political activists, but to each and every one of us, including those fortunate enough never to have had any dealings with the government. What is his message to those of us whose involvement in politics is confined to the governance of the “miniature city”[11] that is man?

Indeed, the individual human being is a virtual “city” of thoughts, feelings and deeds, each with its own momentum and trajectory, converging, interacting and clashing with one another. What gives it all coherence and unity is the government of the city—the intellect and instincts which are the authorities in a person’s life.[12] As is the case with all governments, this internal authority is crucial, indeed indispensable: without it the city of man would be reduced to a chaotic mob. But as is also the case with all governments, it is profoundly selfish, its every act motivated solely by self-interest and geared solely toward self-perpetuation.

One must avail oneself of this government. But one must also deeply mistrust it, being aware of its self-bias. One must repeatedly challenge oneself: am I doing this because it is the right thing to do, or because it serves my selfish interests?

The following is a free translation of a letter by the Rebbe dated Nissan, 5724 (March-April, 1964):[14]

In answer to your query, in which you ask to explain the concept of shechinah (the divine immanence; lit. “indwelling”), which is mentioned many times in the teachings of our sages:

The concept is extensively expounded upon, particularly in the books and discourses of chassidic teachings—you can look it up in the indices published in the back of Tanya, Torah Ohr, Likkutei Torah and other works. Here I will offer a brief explanation, obviously not a comprehensive one, as space does not allow.

Since G-d is the ultimate perfection and is free of all limitations and definitions, it is self-evident that, in the words of the Alter Rebbe,[15] “The fact that He creates universes does not express what G-d is.”[16] At the same time, He is, as Maimonides writes in his Laws of the Fundamentals of Torah, “the one who brings every existence into being; all existences exist only as derivatives of His ultimate existence” and the one whom “all existences are utterly dependent upon Him.” It is also obvious that just as no creature can comprehend the nature of G-d’s creation of reality ex nihilo, so, too, no creature can comprehend the nature of G-d, even the nature of G-d as the creator of the world and the source of every existence.

In the words of the great Jewish philosophers: “If I knew Him, I would be Him.”[17]

So though a person realizes and understands that no thing can create itself, and that one must therefore conclude that the created reality has a source that generates its existence, this is only proof of the existence of the Creator, not an understanding of what He is, even as “Creator.”

Nevertheless, G-d desired that the divine influences upon creation... and the divine immanence in the world should also include elements that the human mind can comprehend. In the words of the sweet singer of Israel,[18] “When I see Your heavens, the work of Your fingers...”[19] Indeed, this includes an instruction to man regarding the service of his Creator: “Lift your eyes upward, and see who created these...”[20] (As the Alter Rebbe elaborates on this verse in a discourse that is also the basis of Sefer Hachakirah, authored by his grandson, the Tzemach Tzedek.[21])

This aspect of the divine reality—that which pervades our world to the extent that it can be discovered by G-d’s creatures—is what is meant by the term shechinah, i.e., that which dwells within and enclothes itself.

It is important to emphasize that one cannot categorize the divine reality into various aspects or areas, G-d forbid; it is only that from the perspective of the contemplating creature, there are things that he can comprehend and things that he cannot comprehend. In truth, however, there are no categories, in the plural, but a singular, utterly abstract reality.

Consider the soul of man: obviously, it is not divisible into 248, 365 or 613[22] components; nevertheless, the observing eye differentiates between the vitality of the foot and the vitality of the brain, though both are of a single essence—the soul that vitalizes the body. How much more so (to distinguish ad infinitum) is it so regarding the divine reality. Thus, when we say that the shechinah is present in the Holy Temple, this is not to say, G-d forbid, that only that “aspect” of the divine that is called shechinah is there, but to stress that there the divine reality is present in such a way that it “dwells within” and “clothes itself” to the extent that it is observable with our physical eyes, in the fact that “the space of the ark did not take up space,”[23] in the ten miracles that regularly occurred in the Holy Temple,[24] and so on.

As we said, the above is but one approach to explain the concept of shechinah; many other approaches, and many other points in this approach itself, are elaborated in a number of books and discourses of chassidic teaching.

My hope is that you have set times for the study of the teachings of chassidut every day, and to an even greater extent on Shabbat, the day sanctified to G-d.

[7] The three week period from the 17^th of Tamuz until the 9^th of Av, which commemorate the destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, may it speedily be rebuilt.

[8] The 17^th of Tammuz was the day that the Golden Calf was served. In the Temple era, it was the day that the walls of Jerusalem were breached.

[21]. Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch, 1789-1866. In his Sefer Hachakirah Rabbi Menachem Mendel explores the nature of the created reality and what it can tell us about its Creator.

[22]. The human body contains 248 organs and 365 blood vessels, making a total of 613 distinct components, corresponding to the 248 positive commandments and 365 prohibitions of the Torah (Midrash Tanchuma [hakadum], Ki Teitzei; see Tanya, chapters 4 and 51).

[23]. Talmud, Yoma 21a. The ark (containing the Two Tablets on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed by the hand of G-d) stood in the most sacred chamber in the Holy Temple, the “Holy of Holies.” The ark measured 2.5 cubits by 1.5 cubits (1 cubit = approx. 20 in.), and the Holy of Holies measured 20 cubits by 20 cubits. Nevertheless, the space from each of the ark’s outer walls to the opposite wall of the Holy of Holies measured a full 10 cubits. In other words, while the ark was a physical object of a definitive physical size, it did not take up any of the space of the room in which it stood. This expressed the truth that while G-d transcends all limits and definitions, He also transcends the very concepts of infinity and transcendence—He cannot be defined as “infinite” or “transcendent” any more than He can be defined as “finite” or “immanent.”