Torah and the Spirit of the Times

Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: I am the Lord, your God.

ב. דַּבֵּר אֶל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם אֲנִי יְ־הֹוָ־ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם:

 

Rashi: Rabbi [Yehudah Hanassi]  says: “It is openly known before Him, that they would eventually be scourged by [transgressing the laws of] immoral relations, in the days of Ezra. Therefore, [concerning these laws,] God came to them with the decree: I am the Lord, your God! You should know Who is placing these decrees upon you-the Judge Who exacts retribution (אלֹקִים), but Who is faithful also to pay a reward (ה ) ! ”- [Torath Kohanim 18:138]"

Rashi is saying something very strange! He appears to explain that this verse was written in the Torah not for the generation in which it was given but for generation of Ezra, many centuries later. How do we wrap our heads around a supposition that an entire verse in the Torah was not understandable at the time it was given, but would only be understood at the time of Ezra.

With Hashem's help, as I was mulling this question I was listening to a lecture by Rabbi Asher Kushnir (Toldos Yeshurun) in Russian entitled, "Torah, science and aunt Bella". On Bella, in case you're interested, represents a ype of pseudo-scientific anti-religious critic immediately recognizable to any one familiar with Russian Jewish culture. The speaker is engaging, intelligent, and well informed.

Rabbi Kushnir discusses the question of why would the all-knowing Creator make a world that contains apparently unnecessary or redundant creatures. To explain it, he gives an analogy of a long distance spaceship, that's travels to distant stars. Its mission consists of three stages. First, it has to leave the earth and guide itself toward he destination star. Second it must sustain its inhabitants during the multigenerational journey. Finally it contains equipment and materials that would be necessary for landing and settlement of distant planets.

Does it not stand to reason that the participants of each one of the three stages will think that there spaceship contains matériel that is extraneous and duplicative? Ihose who leave the earth and direct themselves toward the stars will find much during this stage that they do not need. Similarly, those who maintain the ship in the middle of the journey will find equipment from the past and machinery and instruments for the future that they will perceive as not needed. Finally, in the final stage, the third-generation will wonder why they have so many things inside the spaceship that seem to serve no constructive purpose for what they require.

The speaker goes on to relate this to what each generation sees on their earth itself. A telephone or computer would've been totally superfluous a few hundred years ago. On the other hand, much of the natural world seems to us incongruent and extraneous to our modern lives. Many of its phenomena are against or do not speak to the Gestalt of the modern world

If so, the same could be true of the Torah. The Torah can contain phrases or passages that we do not understand but will understand in the future. This is certainly true of prophecies, many of which have not yet come to pass. However, by extension, it also may be true of concepts and thought processes that appear to us to conflict with the world as we see it, but after Redemption,  will make perfect sense.

Comments

[h]

All this has already been stated concisely in end of the Book of Daniel:
והמשכילים יבינו

[moshe]

This may be reflective of the well known idiom of chazal - the words of the torah are impoverished in one place but are wealthy in another.