{"id":102,"date":"2006-10-05T18:50:44","date_gmt":"2006-10-05T18:50:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/summametaphysica.com\/ge\/80020-knowledge-and-freedom\/"},"modified":"2018-04-23T20:27:12","modified_gmt":"2018-04-23T20:27:12","slug":"80020-knowledge-and-freedom","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.summametaphysica.com\/ge\/80020-knowledge-and-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"800.20 KNOWLEDGE AND FREEDOM (pps.112-114)"},"content":{"rendered":"

hard cover page 112<\/p>\n

As mankind and Judaism ascend in knowledge (and possibly in consciousness) on the road to fulfilling a primal drive of there is an implicit demand for fuller freedom. <\/strong>(This is implicit in our paradigm of the Tree of Knowledge.)460<\/sup><\/p>\n

There is no free man except he who is immersed in Torah.
\n-rabbinic dictum<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When man acquires knowledge, he acquires a greater desire for freedom.461<\/sup> This is true of individual man and of groups of man.462<\/sup> We contend that this can be applied to civilization as well, and that as a civilization ascends in knowledge, it demands ever increasing levels of freedom on all fronts.463<\/sup><\/p>\n

We will later on formulate that, in turn, this freedom further opens the gates for man to achieve his ultimate goals.464<\/sup> For ultimate spiritual goals465<\/sup> can be best quested for from a base of the fullest possible freedom.466<\/sup><\/p>\n

\"arrow_up.gif\" knowledge \"arrow_right.gif\" \"arrow_up.gif\" freedom (privacy, responsibility, selfhood)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"arrow_right.gif\" \"arrow_up.gif\" potential:<\/em><\/p>\n

The only thing of value is the fear of God. But no one can reach this stage of the fear of the Lord until he ascends the ladder of wisdom and has acquired understanding.
\n-Abraham Ibn Ezra467<\/sup><\/p>\n

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459 <\/sup>See Whitehead, Religion in the Making, p. 160. “The universe shows us two aspects: on one side it is physically wasting, on the other side it is spiritually ascending.”<\/p>\n

460 <\/sup>See Berkovits, Faith after the Holocaust,<\/em> p. 63. “Freedom and Law are the two foci of human existence in time and history.”<\/p>\n

461 <\/sup>See Greenberg, Perspectives: Voluntary Coverzant,<\/em> p. 2.<\/p>\n

462 <\/sup>In discussing the concepts of contingency and freedom, Spero notes, in his Morality, Halakha and the Jewish Tradition:<\/em> “The limits on man’s freedom to carry out his desires that are imposed by the physical environment, are constantly being eroded by the expansion of scientific knowledge and tech- nology.” (In our Unified Formulation it is not just physical knowledge and freedom which are expanding, but a knowledge and freedom as broadly defined as possible.)<\/p>\n

463 <\/sup>See also Teilhard de Chardin, The Future Man, p. 75. “Evolution, by the very mechanism of its synthesis, charges itself with an ever-growing measure of freedom.”<\/p>\n

464 <\/sup>See Agus on Abrabanel in The Evolution of Jewish Thought,<\/em> pp. 296- 297. “. . . man’s ascent toward the Deity consists in the acquisition of knowledge of physical reality and in the cultivation of a sympathetic under- standing of the entire range of creation. Every increment of knowledge is a step on the infinite road of love.”<\/p>\n

465 <\/sup>See Stitskin, Eight Jewish Philosophers<\/em>, p. 136. “Knowledge and intellectual excellence, according to personalistic doctrine, is more than a mere search for truth. It is a means of ecstatic union of the human spirit with the divine spirit.”<\/p>\n

466 <\/sup>See Midrash Rabbah 1:4-8 (on Proverbs 3:19). “The Lord, for the sake of wisdom [i.e., the Torah], founded the earth.”<\/p>\n

467 <\/sup>See Abraham Ibn Ezra, “Introduction to Ecclesiasies,” in Stitskin, Eight Jewish Philosophers<\/em>, p. 128.<\/p>\n

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hard cover page 113<\/p>\n

God endowed man with a rational faculty, which is also referred to as lev<\/em> (literally: heart) in order to actualize every soul’s potential in due time.
\n-Abraham Ibn Ezra468<\/sup><\/p>\n

In the final chapter of Maimonides’ Guide to the Perplexed, four levels of human perfection are listed in ascending order, with the acquisition of metaphysical knowledge regarded as the true end, the highest perfection, the mark of man, and the path to immortality.469<\/sup><\/p>\n

. . . the possession of notions which lead to true metaphysical opinions as regards God. With this man has obtained . . . the highest human perfection . . . which gives him immortality, and on its account he is called man.
\n-Maimonides470<\/sup><\/p>\n

\"arrow_up.gif\" knowledge \"arrow_right.gif\" \"arrow_up.gif\" freedom:<\/em><\/p>\n

One can make a case for a correlation between the intellect and active Providence, but we would make it in precisely the opposite manner as Maimonides seems to do, and we would make the case on a collective level, as opposed to the individual level. That is, Maimonides correlates Providence directly with the individual’s intellectual and spiritual attainment; we correlate a contraction of Divine here-and-now consciousness with civilization’s intellectual attainment.<\/p>\n

We posit that as the cumulative knowledge of Israel and civilization rises, the cumulative psyche of man demands greater freedom (in accordance with the dynamics of Eden).471<\/sup> This in turn demands a corresponding contraction of hereand-now consciousness on the part of the Deity to yield man greater freedom and concomitant privacy, responsibility, and selfhood.472<\/sup><\/p>\n

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468 <\/sup>See ibid., p. 129.
\nCf. ibid., p. 124. “The search for taame ha-mitmot<\/em> (the reason for the mizuot<\/em>) is the practice and intellection over them by which the neshamah<\/em> rises to the Divine Presence. To fathom the divine wisdom and establish patterns of thought and behavior is conducive to coming near to God. They provide the best specific means for actualizing man’s potential. . . .
\n“. . . Mere observance without a quest for the reason behind practice is insufficient. The quest is crucial to the neshamah’s<\/em> ultimate transcendence and nearness to God.”
\nCf. ibid., p. 126. “Maimonides regarded the works of Ibn Ezra superior to any other Jewish scholar. In his ‘Letter of Instruction to His Son Abraham,’ he admonished . . . [that] Ibn Ezra’s [works] alone are meaningful and profitable to all who study them. . . . Ibn Ezra was in spirit similar to our patriarch Abraham.”<\/p>\n

469 <\/sup>Schulweis, Evil and the Morality of God<\/em>, p. 42.<\/p>\n

470 <\/sup>Maimonides, Guide<\/em> 3:54.
\nCf. R. N. Flew, The Idea of Perfection in Christian Theology<\/em>, as cited in Schulweis, Evil and the Morality of God<\/em>, p. 42. “The attainment of perfect intellection is the highest aspiration of Thomas’ man. For him, as for Maimonides, the active, moral, social life is important but auxilliary to the contemplative ideal.”<\/p>\n

471 <\/sup>See Wolfson on Spinoza in Religious Philosophy,<\/em> p. 260. According to Spinoza, “Freedom is power, the power of reason by which man may control and guide the forces of his own nature, just as by the same power of reason he can control and guide the forces of external nature.”<\/p>\n

472 <\/sup>Amplified below in Section 900.10.<\/p>\n

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hard cover page 114<\/p>\n

The kabbalists posit that the initial creation of the universe could only be brought about by a Divine contraction. We posit that man’s achievement of his potential necessitates elements of Divine contraction.<\/p>\n

The receiving of the Torah at Sinai, the compilation of Scripture under Ezra in Babylon, the advent of the Mishnah, the emergence of medieval Jewish scholarship, the advent of great centers of learning in Europe-each of these would represent a quantum step-up in the disseminated knowledge for the people of Israel, in particular.<\/p>\n

However, even on a less grandiose level, the ascent of an individual in any area affects the whole. The individual thus has an impact on the whole, and the whole has an impact on the individual.473<\/sup><\/p>\n

Whenever a person raises himself through good deeds, through a higher stirring of his yearning for godliness, for wisdom, justice, beauty and equity, he perfects thereby the spiritual disposition of all existence. All people become better in their inwardness through the ascendency of the good to any one of them. …Such virtue in any one person is due to spread among the general populace, to stir each one, according to his capacity, toward merit, and thus all existence thereby becomes ennobled and more exalted.
\n-Kook474<\/sup><\/p>\n

. . . every thought, every tremor of anticipation and desire on the part of man work their way until they reach the Holy One Himself, the Infinite, Blessed be He.
\n-Steinaaltz475<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The dynamics of Tree of Knowledge\/Potential mandate that the cumulative growth of knowledge necessitates an expansion of man’s freedom.<\/p>\n

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473 <\/sup>See Scherman, “An Overview: The Period and the Miracle,” p. xxx. “[David] was not permitted to build the Temple because his people could not measure up to this level of purity and righteousness (Yalkut Shimoni I1 Samuel 145) .”<\/p>\n

474 <\/sup>Kook, Orot Hakodesh, vol. 3, quoted in Bokser, Abraham Isaac Kook<\/em>, p. 24.<\/p>\n

475 <\/sup>Steinsaltz, The Thirteen Petalled Rose, p. 47.<\/p>\n

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