Human beings seem to have a need to see God’s hand in history. People sometimes speak of God having a plan, or events being ‘the divine will’. The Torah is imbued with this theology, that all that happens in nature or in history only happens because God will it so.
We see this in this week’s Torah portion, when Joseph insists to Pharoah that God, not Joseph, interprets dreams. The power is not Joseph’s but comes through him from God. Joseph tells his brothers, in next week’s portion, that it was God’s plan all along that he be in Egypt to save people from famine and so he forgives them for selling him into slavery. The Torah makes it clear that Moses only rescues the Israelites from slavery through God’s will – ‘with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm’. The Rabbis of the Talmud wanted to be so sure that God’s role was clear that they took Moses’ name out of the Haggadah entirely, so the focus would be on God’s power.
Similarly with the Hanukah story. The historical account is told in the Apocryphal[1] books of I and II Maccabees. The focus in both accounts is on the military prowess of the Hasmoneans (the real family name of the Maccabees). The Rabbis of the Talmud invented the story of the oil miracle in order to bring the focus back to God (Shabbat 21b). We see this again with the Purim story. The Book of Esther has no mention of God anywhere. The only hint of divine intervention is in Mordechai’s admonition to Esther that perhaps she was in her exalted position specifically so she would be able to help her people in times of danger. It seems some were uncomfortable with this lack of explicit attribution to God’s power. Another Apocryphal work corrects this gap, creating passages seemingly meant to be inserted in the Purim narrative, which bring God back into the picture. This work is known as The Rest of Esther.[2]
Why do humans feel such a deep need to attribute human events to God’s will or a divine plan? The idea that all that happens was meant to happen, that someone greater than us has a plan and it all will be to the good in the long run, can give us a feeling of security. When events are scary and we feel powerless, it can be comforting to think that someone more powerful and foresighted than ourselves has it all under control.
Nevertheless, we all have human agency and the power to effect change in our lives. The idea that God has a plan or a power in nature and in human history does not absolve us from responsibility to employ our agency and our own power to create our own future, both individually and collectively. As Rabbi Tarfon said, it is not incumbent upon us to complete the work, but neither are we free to desist from it.
-Rabbi Bonnie Margulis
---
Comments