Review: Heaven on Earth

Heaven on Earth: Reflections on the Theology of Rabbi Menachem Mendel M. Schneerson, Faitel Levin, Kehot 2002, is a rare find. Literate, straightforward and eminently readable, it focuses on the Dirah Batachtonim theology of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe.

Rabbi Levin is clearly at home in the language and dialectics of philosophy and his never diffused focus on definitions and exposition enables him to pack a lot into a little. His retelling of the theological revolution that the Rebbe wrought in Chabad over his 40+ years of leadership is to the point, even if at time childishly gleeful and congratulatory. He manages to distill one key concept out of the universe of color, ideas, and concepts that is Chabad literature and he never loses the focus on the concept of Dirah Batachtonim. In it lies the success as well as weakness of the book.

In brief, if one can be brief, Dirah Batachtonim is the radical claim that God is best found where his presence is least recognizable - in this physical world. To understand this recall that "Altz is Gott", that It is precisely where His manifestations, Wisdom, Kindness, Sovereignty, etc are least present that His Essence is most graspable. At higher levels God's Manifestations obscure His Essence. It is only in the darkness of physicality that His Essence, the essence that underlines all Existence, can be grasped. It follows that worship with physical objects, tefillin for example, but also all mitsva performance, is a surer way to God than prayer or meditation. When a Jew performs a mitsvah without a sense of uplift or inspiration but solely because Hashem so commanded, he directly engages with God's command - bodily essence to Divine Essence. Prayer, mediation and other elevated religious activities, on the contrary, engage the worshiper's higher qualities only. One might say that God's Manifestations then obscure His Essence. It follows than that God is served better through physicality than religious devotion. Not is God also found in the physical, He is more found in the physical than in the spiritual world.

" `...upon consideration it becomes clear that in fact not only have the two trends of the infinite and finite been supplanted...but even the relative meanings of the infinite and finite categories themselves have been reversed. From this perspective, that which is finite rather than infinite, self-contained rather than expansive, roots deeper in God.'-p.111.

Rabbi Levin does not shirk from introducing each chapter with classic Kabablistic and Chassidic perspective, and then clearly exposing how Dirah Batachtonim changes the perspective on these teachings. The clarity of his presentation of the radicality and revolutionary nature of this overturning of classic Jewish theology led to the book lying at the offices of Agudas Chasidei Chabad for 15 years before finally being published.

This is an important work but its single minded devotion to the exposition of Dirah Batachtonim obscures the complexity of Rebbe's thought. It is somewhat dated, written before many important talks had been subsequently delivered. Striving for clarity it skimps on footnotes.

It also sets the Rebbe's theology in opposition to the voluminous Chabad literature that preceded him, not a reality in which Chabad lives at this time or ever. The book that reconciles and harmonizes is still to be written.

The concept of Atsmus being accessed through Mitsva performance did not originate with the Rebbe. It is clearly present in the Alter Rebbe's thought and arguably can be traced to the Besht himself. A story is told of how he demonstrated to his inner circle of students how the tehillim saying of the simple Jews was received in Heaven with greater pleasure than the learning and prayers of the students themselves. It is my belief that Baal HaTanya developed his theory of Atsmus in an attempt to explain this concept Kabbalistically. Be it as it may, it has become unique, or at least uniquely stressed in the thought system of Chabad.

Rabbi Levin is correct in invoking Dirah Batachtonim as the explanation for Rebbe's insistence in spreading his message to the most forsaken and spiritually desolate places. I do have qualms with explaining everything about Chabad on that basis. I have other concerns about the essential correctness of the approach and its antinomian centrifugality, already exerting its effect on individual Chabadniks -to go where no frum men have gone before. We would be better off by downplaying Dirah Batachtonim, as the concept whose time has passed. Without the Rebbe to moderate and fine-tune its practical expression, perhaps it would serve Chabad better to relegate this radical concept to the pages of its holy books, where its potential for mischief will attenuate... in time.

Comments

"It follows than that God is served better through physicality than religious devotion."

What about "rachmana liba baei"?

"It is only in the darkness of physicality that His Essence, the essence that underlines all Existence, can be grasped."

"Grasping" is a mental concept; what relevance does it have to physical actions unaccompanied by spirituality?

And if R' Levin simply prefers the conative over the cognitive, certainly not an unheard-of position in Jewish philosophy, you wish he could have said so a little more clearly.

Posted by: Ariel | August 10, 2007 at 09:07 AM