Two weeks ago, in writing on Parshat Mishpatim, I expressed my ideas to a good friend of mine: God is, in a sense, dependent upon man to be brought into the world. Not that He doesn’t exist without man’s actions, but that He has created a world in which His presence is primarily seen through the mitzvoth of man. My friend found a fundamental issue with this idea, and that is that it implies there is something lacking in God’s essence. Only if there is something lacking would He “need” anything – whether it be our actions or anything else. Yet of course God is, by definition, infinite and not lacking. Now, this is certainly not what I (or Rabbi Heschel) was implying, but it is more of a philosophical idea than practical reality. Nonetheless, I will try to address this issue through a look at this week’s parsha where it appears that God, once again, calls upon man for “His benefit.”
“It is a satisfying aroma before Hashem,” the Torah says numerous times throughout the last part of Parshat Tetzaveh. It seems that the specific offerings and sacrifices that we are taught to bring in the Temple are brought because God takes pleasure in them, in addition to the fact that we benefit by receiving atonement through the sacrifice. Unfortunately I am only going to have time for a brief escape into the parsha this week, but I don’t think it possible to believe that there is a God that actually “enjoys” the smell of offerings. For one, He hasn’t a nose; for two, if He is all powerful He can create whatever smell He wants, whenever He wants. So when the Torah states the benefit it has for God, there is really an underlying meaning for the offer-giver. While the Torah states God’s perspective, it implies the transformation that man can undergo through the process. The act of bringing an offering to Hashem, our God, is not for His sake, at least not in that He needs it for His benefit; it is for our benefit, but only by doing acts that benefit us, does God get exposed in the world. It is through religious acts that God becomes known through the world. This is, of course, something that God wants, as it is the reason He created mankind – to perform tikkun, reparation of our world. Yet God is not lacking without our performance of what He wants.
The offerings are something commanded by God, for the benefit of man. Of course God wants us to bring them, but they improve us through the process: to atone for our sins we bring an animal that we watch be sacrificed, all the while thinking, “when I sinned I became like an animal, unable to distinguish between good and bad, right and wrong, godliness and profanity…that animal should have been me, for I lost my human-ness in the moment I sinned” (based on Sefer HaHinnuch). It is the unification of thoughts, speech, and action that are required to atone for our sins and improve ourselves. Without all three, we are not fully improved. That is why the Torah encompasses all three.
So when I (and, I believe, Rabbi Heschel) say God “needs” something, it is akin to the Torah saying that God smells, or “God’s right hand….” Does God have a hand? A nose? Certainly not! But through this language we can come to relate to Him in a way that would otherwise be impossible. There is no other way to begin to understand Him. And, by understanding God in this way, it helps to develop the relationship with Him that we desire.
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