DENYING GOD’S KNOWLEDGE

Before Rambam discusses his views of God’s knowledge, he pauses to note that part of the notion of God is that we cannot ascribe any deficiencies to Him. That is, if we were to say that God is ignorant in some way, it would be a deficiency, and therefore impossible. (We will obviously have to explain this in terms of the lack of providence over individual animals and objects, but that will be when we study chapter 20).

Despite the obviousness of this proposition, the idea that God simply does not know what goes on in the world is very ancient, with numerous expressions in Tanakh. Rambam lists several, and I thought two in particular were worth noting, because they are texts with which we are all familiar. The first text reads (I’m writing it in transliteration, to give a better opportunity for people to recognize it—I unfortunately am still dragging my feet over which Hebrew word processing program to purchase, so I can’t just import it from my new CD-Rom):

Almanah va-ger yaharogu, viyetomim yeratsehu; Va-yomeru lo yir’eh qah, ve-lo yavin Eloqei Ya`aqov. Binu Bo’arim ba`Am, u-kesilim matai yaskilu. Hanota ozen lo yishma im yotser ayin, halo yabit.

They slay the widow and the stranger and murder the fatherless. And they say, The Lord will not see, neither will the God of Jacob give heed. Consider ye brutish among the people; and ye fools, when will you be wise? He that planteth the ear, shall he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall he not see?

I will get to the other text in a moment, but I wanted to note this one, because we say it in davening as the shir shel yom for Wednesday. That being so, I thought it interesting to notice that Rambam was learning a philosophically important lesson from his recitation of this psalm, whereas I have trouble remembering the words. Rambam noticed that David haMelekh was aware of the view that said that God does not know events in this world, and rejected.

DOES THE VERSE'S LOGIC WORK?

Rambam records an interaction he had with some physicians of his time, who were troubled by this pasuq. In their question, David’s reasoning seems to be that God must be aware of what is going on in this world, because, as Creator of the ear and the eye, he must necessarily see and hear. Does that mean that the Creator of the mouth must eat and of the lungs must shout (or breathe, for that matter)?

Rambam rejects the question as misunderstanding David’s intent. He did not mean that one who creates something must necessarily utilize that thing. Rather, he said that in creating something, the Creator demonstrates an understanding of the thing created. That is, unless God knew and understood the concept of seeing and hearing He could not have created vehicles of those senses.

Rambam’s answer satisfactorily explains what Dovid haMelekh meant by his question, but takes some of the sting out of them. Once we know that it is possible for the Creator to understand and create a sense but not use it—such as breathing or shouting—then those whom Dovid is addressing could easily make a similar claim. Namely, they could say that when they kill widows and children [and I hope it is obvious that I am not recommending this course of action] God—who knows the concept of seeing and hearing—does not pay attention.

Rambam may not have intended as limited a reading of the verse as I have projected here. If Rambam actually meant that God must have understood the concept of hearing and seeing in creating the organs that fulfill those functions, he perhaps also meant that God understood the utility of those functions, and must have in His being at least the utility, if not the actual function. If that were true, then the answer to the physicians would have to be: Indeed, the one who created the mouth has enough to sustain Him [except that God does not need food as humans do] and the one who created lungs has the ability to communicate forcefully [the real function of shouting and lungs].

The verse then means that any sense that God created has a utility, and that it is impossible to imagine that the Creator of that utility did not understand its utility, and already had that utility for Himself. That would then explain Dovid’s certainty that God had the ability to perceive others’ actions and words by virtue of His having Created ears and eyes.

BACK TO VERSES DENYING GOD’S IGNORANCE

The chapter as a whole is dedicated to making this point, as Rambam stresses at the end. Another text he cites comes from the haftarah for Shabbat haGadol, where Malachi reports the complaints of those who see it as futile to worship God, since there is no distinction between good and evil people in their outcome. The navi, of course, asserts that in fact God pays heed to events on this earth and that in the future a clear distinction will be made between those who worship God and those who do not.

AZ NIDBERU—THE IMPORTANCE OF OUR CONVERSATIONS

A digression from Rambam. One of the verses in Malachi reads "Az nidberu yir’ei Hashem, va-yakshev Hashem va-yishma, va-yikatev sefer zikaron lefanav, etc., Then those who fear the Lord conversed, and God heeded and listened, and it was written in the book of remembrance before Him." Obviously, Rambam cites the verse as the conclusion of a discussion where people claimed that there was no value in worship, since God neither notes our acts nor reacts to the deeds we do. Malachi then says that when those who fear the Lord converse, Hashem listens and records what they say.

This pasuq is quoted in the third chapter of Avot, when the Mishnah mentions that when certain numbers of people study Torah together, the Divine Presence joins their midst. In two places, this verse is cited as the proof that when two people study together, the Divine Presence joins them. Within Rambam’s reading of the verse—that God generally heeds the world, disproving the contention of those who say He doesn’t—it seems that occasions of Torah study play a particular role in bringing that presence down into the world.

When we study Torah together (verbally), we not only benefit ourselves, but we provide occasions where God most attentively notes the events in this world. [I am not discussing how to connect this to Rambam’s view that God is unchanging—as we will see, Rambam himself avoids that question. But within the metaphors the prophet provides us, we can assume that God is "more" interested in the world when people are studying Torah together. That also fits Rambam’s view that we get more hashgaha as we develop our intellects further.]

AZ NIDBERU AS A LIVING CONCEPT

The second aspect of this pasuq I wanted to relate is a story about R. Lichtenstein that I heard years ago from my friend and havruta, Eli Weber. R. Lichtenstein went to Lebanon to visit some of the boys from the yeshiva stationed there. Unfortunately, they were out on maneuvers (or something) and he was unable to wait for their return. Instead, he left them a note, where he said he regretted not being able to speak with them "behinat [in the aspect of] az nidberu yirei Hashem, etc."

The story always made an impression on me because of the relevance of pesuqim to his everyday conversation—when he wanted to express a thought about the conversation he had hoped to have, it was a pasuq that sprang to mind. That is a tendency that is also common to medieval writers, particularly Ramban, where fragments of verses are appropriately included in all of his writings.

Having seen how Rambam uses the verse, though, it strikes me that R. Lichtenstein’s note may have had an additional element to it. It wasn’t just the conversation itself he was bemoaning as a missed opportunity, but the chance to join with these students in increasing the Divine attention to the world. I had always been impressed with the style; our study of Rambam suggests that there was an impressive substantive point behind the note as well.

Chapters 20 and 21 outline Rambam’s view of God’s knowledge, to the extent that he thinks it possible. After those two, we will begin the four chapters on the Book of Job.