THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

Chol Hamo’ed

“And He said: ‘You cannot see My face, for man cannot see Me and live’” Exodus 33:20

God is supposed to be perfectly loving. Presumably, He would want to be available for a relationship with anyone who doesn’t reject Him. And yet, we all know of people who are completely open to belief, some of them even wanting to believe, but who never seem to receive enough evidence to convince them. For atheist philosopher John Schellenberg, this is proof that God doesn’t exist.

One response to Schellenberg suggests: if theism were blindingly obvious, it would be toxic to human free will. We would find it impossible to act against God. Perhaps that’s what our verse means: man would cease to be man if he could really see God’s face with his own eyes. For this reason, God hides a little.

Schellenberg is unmoved. Belief in God, he insists, wouldn’t strip us of freedom. We all know believers who sin. Their belief doesn’t undo the challenge of living freely.

Perhaps our verse contains another response. To grasp it, we need to explore another theological puzzle. Imagine any possible world you like. Surely it’s always possible to make it better. No world is definitively the best. Why is this a problem? Well, if a perfect God would only create the very best, and there is no best, then a perfect God would create no world at all. But isn’t God perfect? And didn’t He create our imperfect world?

The Kabbalah responds. In order for God to create, it teaches, He had to constrain himself. God, as He appears in this world, cannot be as perfect, as good, or as loving, as He really is, beyond this world. If God’s perfection were completely manifest in this world, there would be no room left for anything else. For this reason, man cannot see God’s face. For creation to be possible at all, it’s inevitable that God will have to be somewhat hidden.

And yet, as we sit in our succot, peeking through the temporary roofing to the stars that twinkle beyond, we can begin to experience the joy of coming to know an unknowably loving God. RABBI DR SAMUEL LEBENS