Rav Aryeh Leibowitz
It emerges from our discussion that man is challenged to
determine his own identity. Man must choose to develop his elevated
capabilities, identify with his neshama, and acquire his true tzurah. If man does this, he earns his exalted position
in the hierarchy of creation. However,
the process of achieving this goal is long and arduous. In fact, it is particularly challenging
because the greatest distraction to this pursuit is found within man himself!
Since man is born only with the potential to assume his
exalted position in creation, he does not readily identify with his mission. He is oblivious to the spiritual forces that
resides dormant within him. This is very
unlike his relationship with the lower forces that are within him from birth. Man’s lower, non-elevated, identity is his natural
identity. And for this reason, it exert
a great influence over him.
Moreover, it takes years until man is able to appreciate his
elevated intellectual capabilities and the ensuing free will that is a product
of his intellect. Only with years of
maturation does man have the ability to understand his responsibility to create
for himself an elevated existence. By
this time, the grasp of his lower identity and its forces is already quite
strong. In many cases, man is not only
accustomed to his lower forces, but he is also driven by habit and encouraged
by his surroundings that he need not strain himself to develop his more
elevated capabilities.
Man’s lower identity beckons him to pursue those acts shared
with the lower strata of creation. From
his earliest years he identifies most readily with the consumption of food and
drink, the construction of comfortable shelter, the development of the physical
body, and engagement in reproductive activity.
It is with these pursuits that he naturally identifies.
What’s worse, man even subjugates his elevated intellect to
these pursuits! As man matures, instead
of utilizing his elevated intellect to transcend the pursuits of the rest of
creation, he utilizes it to achieve them with greater intensity and
consistency. Instead of using his mind
for dominion over his lower identity, he uses his mind to further indulge his
lower identity.
Nonetheless, man is challenged to overcome these
temptations. He is charged to ignore the
voices that tell him that using his abstract thinking or his moral and emotional
intelligence for gaining greater insight into the human condition is unpractical
and unworldly. Instead, he must actively
pursue a process of self-change in order to actualize his potential and assume
the exalted position of man in creation.
He must consciously raise himself up from the levels below him in
creation – his lot upon entering the world – and strive for a more exalted
position. He must discern what inborn
proclivities and natural propensities are consistent with his elevated potential
and which are inconsistent. He must
realize that the later reflect his lower properties and detract from his goal
of actualizing his potential. Man must
turn a critical eye on himself, and change himself for the better.
This basic fundamental principle is unfortunately ignored,
at best, and more often scorned.
Convention assures us that we are who we are, and we have no reason to
correct or alter how we were created. Culture
often discourages us to “change,” seeing this a “denial of self.”
However, our tradition takes the opposite approach. We believe that man was intentionally created
in an incomplete state. By
nature, man is lacking perfection, and hence there is nothing shameful in
acknowledging human deficiencies. Quite
the contrary, it is shameful to deny them.
We are proud to state that man’s purpose in life is to identify his
shortcoming and then seek to change for the better. This is the very essence of man. His elevated position in creation is only
potentially his. It is man’s mission to rise
to the challenge and attempt to achieve perfection.
This debate is not new.
The Midrash relates (Midrash Tanchuma, Tazria,
5) that the Roman General, Tarnus Rufas once approached the venerable sage, R.
Akiva, and asked him what is more exalted: The creations of man or the
creations of God? R. Akiva realized
immediately that the General was assaulting the Jewish institution of
circumcision, branding it a mutilation of God’s creation. R. Akiva responded to the Roman General with
his own question: What is more exalted, a
stalk of grain or a loaf of bread? The
answer is obviously bread. R. Akiva’s
message to Tarnus Rufas was that human initiated acts do not diminish the
greatness of God’s creations. Quite the
contrary, God created thw world in a state of imperfect and it is man’s mission
to perfect it. So too, mankind was
created lacking and it is man’s responsibility to bring himself closer to
perfection. The commandment of circumcision
demonstrates that man is imperfect and requires human initiative to achieve
perfection and completeness. In a sense,
performance of circumcision reflects a commitment to self-development.
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