50.03 Geometry (pps.40-41)

hard cover page 40

Judaism and Halachah have their own inner logic and cohesive structure. In some sense this can be thought of as an inner theological geometry.

. . . there is practical value, as well as theoretical validity, in the display of an inner logic within Judaism, which dispels anarchy and sets limits.
—Fackenheim¹⁶³

The statement of Galileo that “the great book which ever lies before our eyes—I mean the Universe—is written in mathematical language and the characters are triangles, circles, and other geometrical figures” applies as well to the Halakhah. And not for naught did the Gaon of Vilna tell the translator of Euclid’s geometry into Hebrew [R.Barukh of Shklov], that “To the degree that a man is lacking in the wisdom of mathematics he will lack one hundredfold in the wisdom of the Torah.”
—Solveitchik¹⁶⁴

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¹⁶³ Fackenheim, Quest for Past and Future, (Boston: Beacon Press, 1968) p.13.

¹⁶⁴ Soloveitchik, Halakhic Man, p. 57.
Cf. ibid., p. 87. “Halakhic man, on the contrary, is very sparing in his recitation of the piyyutim, not, heaven forbid, on account of philosophical qualms, but because he serves his Maker with pure halakhic thought, precise cognition, and clear logic. . . .He serves the Creator by uncovering the truth in the Halakhah, by solving difficulties and resolving problems.”
Cf. ibid., “Not so for halakhic man! When his soul yearns for God, he immerses himself in reality, plunges. with his entirelbeing, into the very midst of concrete existence, and petitions God to descend upon the mountain and to dwell within our reality, with all its laws and principles.”

~continued~

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