About

The Enlightenment of God

The following is the prologue and executive summary from Rabbi Yitzhak Miller's foundational theological essay: "The Enlightenment of God: Why Liberal Judaism is Part of God's Plan for the Redemption of the World"

Feel free to contact me for a copy of, presentation about, or discussion of the full essay.

Prologue 

This essay is my current state of progress in a lengthy quest.  When I made the decision to become a Rabbi, I was faced with a theological dilemma.  I fundamentally affirm the post-enlightenment concept of individual authority and empowerment.  However, I simultaneously believe that this concept cannot be in opposition to God’s will, and that Judaism has wisdom for our lives that we often do not understand until we have experienced the power of this heritage.  In the great tradition of medieval philosophy, I firmly believe that faith and reason, religion and science must be in concert.

As such, I cannot relegate the sacred texts and practices of Judaism to the status of exceptionally well-written and influential literature.  It is my belief that, at some level which I can’t pretend to quantify, there is a Divine hand at work in these texts which inherently elevates them above the great works of literature in our world.  But I also cannot interact with these texts and practices as an imposed, unquestionable authority.  I exist on this earth with both a brain and a soul, and if there is any purpose at all to my existence, those must both be an integral part of how I live my life.

It is simultaneously my belief that a religious movement whose raison d’etre is simply opposition to previous tradition is destined for failure, or at least for a whimpering disappearance into history for lack of ability to create a sustainable tradition.  For me to be a Rabbi at all, much less an effective Rabbi in any liberal Jewish movement, it is necessary for me to affirm and profess a philosophy and theology which is both inherently self-sustainable and coincident with the tradition which proceeded it.  To greater or lesser extents, most modern Jewish philosophers have impacted my personal theology, as have many pre-enlightenment philosophers.  My quest is also similar to that of many—perhaps most—post-enlightenment Jewish leaders.  But rather than finding that fact disconcerting, I find it representative of exactly what this essay sets out to affirm—that each soul and each life on this earth brings to God’s universe its own special spark—it’s own special contribution to the development of God’s universe.  It is this quest from which the following essay flows.

Executive Summary

Not only is the Enlightenment not contrary to fundamentals of Jewish religious faith, but in fact, the historical continuum of Judaism predicts the Enlightenment by demonstrating progressively broadening circles of empowerment of humanity by God. A series of 4 eras shows progressively less-and-less direct interaction between God and any given, but simultaneously progressively more-and-more empowerment of the individual by God.

Each era appears to demonstrate the following cycle:

1.      Each era is preceded by some harbinger of change, marked by Divine interaction through direct order. 

2.      A cataclysmic event in Jewish history marks the transition

3.      The event is then followed by a pattern of:

a.      questioning (self-initiated communication from humans to God)

b.      knowing (understanding God’s methods)

c.       feeling (communication with God through methods such as prayers and dreams)

d.      and acting (self-initiated action based on internal understanding). 

The characters in the stories of the Bible describe the first 2 eras (1^st the families of the Patriarchs and 2^nd the Israelites/Jews as a community).

Documented Jewish history then shows the pattern repeating through the 3^rd era (texts) and as we find ourselves part-way through the 4^th era (philosophy). This cyclical progression is as follows:

1^st Era (Direct Individual Interaction):

2^nd Era (Direct Group Interaction):

3^rd Era (Interaction Through Texts):

4^th Era (Interaction Through Philosophy):

But what would be the function of such a structure? Why would God do this? The answer completes the double entendre of The Enlightenment of God--that the Enlightenment is not only God's creation, but that God, too, continues a process of becoming enlightened. 

If one posits that God is the entirety of the universe, then what place does human free will have?  This question presumes a zero-sum game, by which God’s entirety precludes anything else. But there is no indication that the entirety of the universe is a zero-sum game (in fact, modern physics tells us that the universe is continually expanding). 

Although I affirm God’s essence as the entirety of the universe, I also posit that the entirety of the universe can grow because God “turns over” some control (free will) thereby empowering humanity to help expand the universe in a way that God cannot do alone. Theologically, the best analogy is love, in which mutually ceding some authority and autonomy to a partner results in a greater whole than is possible individually. 

The key to messianic redemption is a Maimonidean balance between individual autonomy and guidance of community. God has given us the Enlightenment, feeling that we are ready to accept personal responsibility to bring ourselves closer to God’s purpose. When we meld this increased empowerment with the Jewish communal values carried to us through tradition, we will most fully serve our purpose as partners in divine creation.