{"id":144,"date":"2006-10-07T12:27:16","date_gmt":"2006-10-07T12:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/summametaphysica.com\/ge\/appendix\/bal-tosif-and-theological-dogma\/"},"modified":"2018-04-23T20:55:45","modified_gmt":"2018-04-23T20:55:45","slug":"bal-tosif-and-theological-dogma","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.summametaphysica.com\/ge\/appendix\/bal-tosif-and-theological-dogma\/","title":{"rendered":"BAL TOSIF<\/i> AND THEOLOGICAL DOGMA (pps.169-171)"},"content":{"rendered":"

hard cover page 169<\/p>\n

Bal Tosif<\/em> is the proscription against nonmandated additions to Jewish law.<\/p>\n

All this word which I command you, that shall ye observe to do; thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it
\n-Deuteronomy 13:1<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Judaism, from its very inception, has been an intellectual revolution. Indeed, it defines an intellectual revolution. The progressive revelation of Masorah<\/em> continues that thrust to this very day. Although some religious leaders feel threatened by, and consequently dismiss, intellectual inquiry, their fears are ungrounded.<\/p>\n

Problems arise when rabbinic leaders confuse dogma with opinion. Problems arise when they sincerely but recklessly go beyond required boundaries, dictate new frills to codes not mandated by Halachah, or needlessly and dogmatically overembellish the attributes of the Divine. Essentially, problems arise when rabbinic leaders needlessly limit the permissible range of opinion. At that point Judaism dilutes its internal intellectual strength, alienates adherents, and yields some of its intellectual primacy.<\/p>\n

There is a natural, but intellectually destructive, tendency among religious groups to embellish their Deity’s attributes and interventionist proclivities. There is a tendency to canonize,<\/p>\n

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hard cover page 170<\/div>\n

as well, authoritarian theories that would best be left uncanonized.<\/p>\n

It would be unfortunate for Judaism to yield the intellectual highground it maintains if, from the wide spectrum of viewpoints possible on omniscience and providence, it effectively canonized only the more aggressive and authoritarian theories, in spite of their apparent problems of internal consistency.<\/p>\n

One of Judaism’s strengths has been its self-limitation, its caution with regard to new restrictions, new obligations, new miracles, and new prophets.<\/p>\n

Judaism regards the transgression of Bal Tosif<\/em> seriously. A central thrust of this study is that it is as dangerous to overexpand the attributes of the Divine as it is to overly delimit His attributes. No service is done to God or to Judaism by attributing to God attributes or extensions of attributes which God neither manifests nor desires having attributed to Him.<\/p>\n

Add not unto His words,
\nlest He reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.
\n-Proverbs 30:6<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We take the philosophical liberty of extending the proscription regarding overextending God’s precepts, into a caution against theologically overextending infinite God’s manifestations and interventions to areas from which the Deity demurs. Interestingly enough, the Bal Tosif<\/em> proscription is initially cited by the Midrash with regard to the Garden of Eden itself. Eve’s overextension of the proscription on eating from the Tree of Knowledge into a proscription on touching the Tree of Knowledge is cited as a major factor in her “ensnarement.”603<\/sup><\/p>\n

There is a natural inclination among rabbinic elements of certain schools to “keep the masses in line,” or to adopt the “most devout” formulation. However, no service is done God by overextending His edicts or by overextending His potentially infinite, but not necessarily manifested, attributes.<\/p>\n

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603 <\/sup>See Midrash Bereshit Rabbah 19:3.”. . . you must not make the fence more than the principal thing, lest it fall and destroy the plants. Thus, the Holy One, blessed be He, had said, ‘For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die’ (Genesis 2: 17); whereas she [Eve] did not say thus, but, ‘God hath said: Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it’: when the serpent saw her thus lying, he took and thrust her against it. ‘Have you then died?’ he said to her; ‘just as you were not stricken through touching it, so you will not die when you eat it.’ ”<\/p>\n

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hard cover page 171<\/div>\n

Those who stridently insist, as a matter of dogma, on a God who fully and always extends His infinite powers of potential omniscience in all planes of time err in several respects. First of all, they contravene specific text-proofs to the contrary. Secondly, even in the absence of the contravening text-proofs, the proponents of this maximalist line attempt to make the complex unnecessarily simplistic. Third, they are trapped in theodicy. Fourth, they directly contravene rabbinic luminaries, Gersonides and Maimonides in particular.<\/p>\n

In an unnecessary attempt to defend God’s powers, the overzealous throw theology into the throes of the theodicy and freedom dilemmas. By the needless overextension of basic doctrine, they set man up for disaster and set up doctrine for ultimate paralysis when it encounters reality and logical analysis.604<\/sup><\/p>\n

A heavenly voice said to him. “Do not be too righteous!”
\n-Kohelet 7:16<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One can fulfill the imperative of belief in God without believing that God will necessarily always thwart undeserved evil.605<\/sup> The concept, prevalent in some quarters, as a matter of inviolate dogma of a steady-state, real-time omniscient, continuously intervening Deity has, unfortunately, caused much suffering to the Jewish people. Many sincere believers slackened up ever so slightly on their vigilance and self-reliance, confusing fate in retrospect with fate in prospect. For a sincere believer who is overly reliant on this inviolate dogma, may not quickly enough rise to thwart his looming enemy.606<\/sup><\/p>\n

The damage to the faith of sincere adherents unable to reconcile the common philosophical wisdom with the grossly evil reality defies all calculation. The alienation, as well, of potential adherents is equally beyond measure. A severe price has been paid over the millennia in this regard.<\/p>\n

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604 <\/sup>See Tsavoat ha-Rivosh,<\/em> as cited in Agus, The Evolution of Jewish Thought,<\/em> p. 338. “Let no man indulge in the multiplication of additional prohibitions.”<\/p>\n

605 <\/sup>See Berachot 7a.<\/p>\n

606 <\/sup>See Tadeusz Borowski, cited in Fackenheim, God’s Presence in History,<\/em> p. 104. “It is hope that provokes men to march indifferently to the gas chambers, and keeps them from conceiving of an insurrection . . . . Never has hope provoked so much ill as in this war, as in this camp. We were never taught to rid ourselves of hope, and that is why we are dying in the gas-chambers” (Borowski was a non-Jewish Polish writer and inmate of Auschwitz who committed suicide at age twenty-nine.)<\/p>\n

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hard cover page 169 Bal Tosif is the proscription against nonmandated additions to Jewish law. All this word which I command you, that shall ye observe to do; thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it -Deuteronomy 13:1 Judaism, from its very inception, has been an intellectual revolution. Indeed, it defines an intellectual revolution. 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