Indeed, finding the bridge that connects the spiritual and abstract with grounded reality is the struggle of humankind. My teacher, R' Moshe Shapiro, taught that Judaism's solution to this timeless quest is through obligation: there is a reason to everything, but only God understands it fully. We can enter God's reality by accepting the Torah's instructions, and then grow in understanding them based on our identification with God's will. This is the meaning of the Jewish people's statement at the foot of Mount Sinai: "We will do and we will listen," first the grounded reality, and from their flows endless wisdom.
(This is such a fundamentally Jewish concept that I'd take issue with the details of your approach regarding the different schools of thought within Judaism. In many private conversations, R' Shapiro told me that in essence there are no important differences between Maimonides and the Kabbalists, for example, because it's all a matter of language and emphasis. He even told me once that if I think that I understand Luzzato's systematic models but not Maimonides' more abstract concepts - that means I didn't understand Luzzato to begin with. We need to get at the message that lies beyond the words. This is obviously a complex and nuanced issue which deserves more than one short paragraph in parentheses in a comment on a post.)
Wow, a beautifully written piece. I love the images and captions as well! Outstanding!
Thanks for such a thoughtful, invested analysis!
Indeed, finding the bridge that connects the spiritual and abstract with grounded reality is the struggle of humankind. My teacher, R' Moshe Shapiro, taught that Judaism's solution to this timeless quest is through obligation: there is a reason to everything, but only God understands it fully. We can enter God's reality by accepting the Torah's instructions, and then grow in understanding them based on our identification with God's will. This is the meaning of the Jewish people's statement at the foot of Mount Sinai: "We will do and we will listen," first the grounded reality, and from their flows endless wisdom.
(This is such a fundamentally Jewish concept that I'd take issue with the details of your approach regarding the different schools of thought within Judaism. In many private conversations, R' Shapiro told me that in essence there are no important differences between Maimonides and the Kabbalists, for example, because it's all a matter of language and emphasis. He even told me once that if I think that I understand Luzzato's systematic models but not Maimonides' more abstract concepts - that means I didn't understand Luzzato to begin with. We need to get at the message that lies beyond the words. This is obviously a complex and nuanced issue which deserves more than one short paragraph in parentheses in a comment on a post.)