Dr. Heschel's philosophy of Judaism reflects his general philosophy of religion. The Judaism which he sets forth is a religion of deep spiritual craving, of an insatiable thirst for God. While he acknowledges and even stresses the absolute importance of Halachah it is quite clear that he demands something beyond Halachah. "The meaningfulness of the mitzvot," he says, "consists in their being vehicles by which we advance on the road to spiritual ends." The implication is that the mitzvot themselves are insufficient for the elevation of man's spirit, that they are a means to a higher end. In fact, very early in his book Dr. Heschel affirms that "Religion is, indeed, little more than a desiccated remnant of a once living reality when reduced to terms and definitions, to codes and catechisms."
There can be little quarrel with the ideal representation of Judaism which Professor Heschel has formulated. Any fair examination of the authentic Jewish tradition will recognize, with Dr. Heschel, that it seeks a disciplined life whose pattern is set by Halachah with the aim of bringing man as close as possible to God. But even among faithful and pious Jews the exalted spiritual moments are infrequent. One has the feeling that Professor Heschel has over-emphasized this dimension of the religious life, that he places too little value on the ordinary routine of piety and demands far too much spiritual fie of the ordinary Jew.
Is it necessary to go as far as Dr. Heschel does in his absolute requirement of spontaneity, burning religious feeling, and inner devotion? Must we, in effect, scorn the piety of the vast numbers of meticulously observant Jews because it is often routine and mechanical? Does not such a view of Judaism grant (without intending to do so) the old (and probably malicious) charge that the letter kills while the spirit gives life? With all of Dr. Heschel's repeated affirmations of the fundamental need for Halachah in the religious life, his qualifications and restrictions of the place of Halachah undermine the effectiveness of his stand. Jewish tradition devoted its major efforts to the development of Halachah without qualifications or apology. A Jew who lives in accordance with Halachah has done all that can be asked of him. Whenever he acts in response to the mitzvah, he draws close to God, even if he never has a mystical experience, even if he never knows the anguish of craving for the divine presence and the transcendent joy of breaking through the barriers. Professor Heschel seems to underestimate the wòrth of the most prosaic fulfillment of the divine commandments.
While we applaud the skill with which he has explicated and defended the often neglected Aggadah we must note that this enthusiasm seems to have blinded him somewhat to the special place of Halachah in Judaism. For, according to Dr. Heschel, "Halachah does not deal with the ultimate level of existence."
He believes that "The law does not create in us the motivation to love and to fear God, nor is it capable of endowing us with the power to overcome evil and to resist its temptations, nor with the loyalty to fulfill its precepts. It supplies the weapons; it points the way; the fighting is left to the soul of man."
The greatest Jewish sages were, of course, cognizant of the importance of Aggadah and many of them made brilliant contributions to aggadic literature. Nevertheless, they consistently centered the bulk of their study and concern on Halachah. Their preference for Halachah indicates that they found in it far more than Professor Heschel does. They were convinced that Halachah does deal, with the ultimate level of existence. They understood that Halachah is more than a dry legal code and that halachic study is more than intricate mental gymnastics. By way of Halachah, Judaism grasped in a clear and communicable form the profoundest religious insights. Dr. Heschel fails to see this when he attacks "pan-halakhic theology" as "a view which exalts the Torah only because it discloses the law, not because it discloses a way of finding God in life." Jewish tradition has always taught that Halachah is the only reliable way of finding God in life.
In Halachah Judaism bridges the gap between the man of rare spiritual genius and the rest of the people. The great religious insights, which are ordinary restricted to men of prophetic sensitivity, are made available and real through Halachah to every Jew in all the ordinary circumstances of his every-day lie.
"Insights are not a secure possession; they are vague and sporadic; they are lie divine sparks, flashing up before us and becoming obscure again, and we fall back into a darkness almost as black as that in which we were before.'" Because he sees very clearly that we cannot rest with such insights, Professor Heschel goes on to ask the most earnest questions. "The problem," he says, "is: How to communicate those rare moments of insight to all the hours of our life? How to commit intuition to concepts, the ineffable to words, insight to rational understanding? How to convey our insights to others and to unite in a fellowship of faith?" Surely, Dr. Heschel must admit that the historic Jewish answer to his questions has always been a reliance on Halachah.
Given the vagueness and insecurity of our moments of insight they must be translated into terms that are related to man's life in order to be effective. This is precisely what Halachah does. It is an objectification of Israel's collective religious experience, a concrete expression, in human terms, of those elusive truths granted us through divine revelation and grasped in especially sensitive moments by our choicest spirits. The entire structure of Halachah is the Jewish way of committing "intuition to concepts, the ineffable to words, insight to rational understanding." This is neither a rejection of religious thinking, nor a derogation of theology. It is not a condemnation of the restless craving of men for spiritual exaltation and overpowering insight. What we are insisting upon is that all of these are present in Halachah.
In spite of his strictures Dr. Heschel will surely grant that the talmudic discourse concerning "the ox which gored the cow" is not merely an arid discussion of certain technical problems in the law of damages. It is the Jewish way of concretizing the presence of God in the most mundane aspects of daily life. Rabbi Elazar ben Chisma made this point eminently clear when he laid down the principle קינין ופתחי נדה הן הן גופי הלכות. This is the view of the world of Halachah as an ideal world in which we meet God face to face. What seems impractical and irrelevant is shown in that world to be especially meaningful. What seems ugly and indelicate is transformed in that world to the highest level of beauty and refinement. In his life and in his study, the halachic Jew renews continually the essence of his own being.
Though he may have no great moments of mystical insight he is nevertheless, always very close to God, for it is the objectification of divine reality in Halachah that stands at the center of the halachic life. It is only in Halachah that moments of genuine religious awareness are given a stable, intelligible, and communicable form.
This explains the consistent priority which rabbinic tradition gave to halakhic literature as an subject of study. How revealing is the rabbinic observation that the study of sacred Scripture is only a partially satisfactory activity, while the most desirable of all study is the study of Gemara: "They who occupy themselves with the Bible (alone) are but of indifferent merit; with Mishnah, are indeed meritorious . . . with Gemara - there can be nothing more meritorious" (B. M., 33a). This teaches us that the apparently dry legalisms of halakhic debate encompass all of the divine beauty and wisdom of the Bible. Even more than this - divine revelation receives its most specifically concrete and crystallized form in halachic discourse and halachic decision. However lovely and moving the flights of aggadic imagination may be, they lack the stability and clarity of Halachah. Aggadah may inspire us, but only Halàchah can give direction to our actions. The need for aggadic inspiration is granted without question, but Aggadah is effective only with halachic discipline and direction. God and man can find each other only by way, of the bridge of halachic study and action; for we have been taught that "Since the day that the Temple was destroyed the Holy One blessed be He has nothing in this world but the four cubits of Halachah alone".
The world of Halachah is the distillation of all our authentic efforts to encounter the divine. It is in that world that man elevates himself so that he can be with God. Repeatedly, in his writings, Professor Heschel affirms this very same point, only then to back away from it because of a fear of "pan~halachism." It is this hesitation about the full power of Halachah that is inconsistent with the normative Jewish tradition. At his best, Dr. Heschel offers us a superb exposition of the ultimate significance and the ultimate claim of Halachah. His philosophy of Judaism would be immeasurably strengthened if he held to his own insights with complete consistency.
Professor Marvin Fox
