The All-Spiritual Afterlife, the Torah, and Me. Part Six

By Ari Faust, Jerusalem, Israel.

Why is it that the Torah focuses so much attention on the collective, National reward, while placing secondary significance to the individual and only hinting to the ultimate individual reward? Why is necessary that the National reward be physical and not spiritual – beyond the technical explanation of the “Sefer HaIkarim”? With thorough analysis of this idea, we can understand a central foundation of Jewish faith.

Ever since the destruction of the First Temple and the cancellation of prophecy (see above at length), Judaism has become reduced to “four cubits of Halacha” (Brachot 8a). It has become a religion of individuals, with a Torah which teaches individuals – who live on all four corners of the Earth – how to live their lives. While this is certainly an eternal truth, and the Torah is certainly meant to guide the individual through all aspects of life, what is more true is that before the Torah teaches a way of life for the individual, It teaches a way of life for a Nation. The purpose of the Torah – and every one of Its six-hundred and thirteen Mitzvot – is to guide a Nation and to give it the tools to be a “Holy Nation”.

When the Torah was given to the newly born Nation, Am Yisrael, at the foot of Mount Sinai, it was given to six-hundred thousand individuals (men over the age of twenty). However the Torah was given to these myriad individuals not due to their individual merit, but due to the simple fact that they were part of a Nation (see, for example, Midrash VaYikra Rabbah 9:9). When the Divine Presence rested in the encampment of Am Israel upon the inauguration of the Tabernacle, HaShem counted the people out of love of them (Rashi, BaMidbar 1:1). In this counting, each individual was counted as a member of the general community, as a part of the Nation (BaMidbar 1:45 and Ramban there).

The individual Jew acquires his significance by virtue that he is part of the Nation. The individual Jew comes to encounter the Torah first and foremost as a guide for his Nation, and thus learns how to behave as an individual within this Nation. The significance of his actions – his Mitzvot – lies in the fact that they advance the Nation and bring the Nation to Its exulted plateau of “Kingdom of Priests and Holy Nation” (See Sifri, Parashat Eikev 7). Why does the Torah focus its attention on the reward of the Nation? It is because the Torah speaks not to the individual, but rather to the Nation (and thus to the individual).

The Torah speaks to Am Yisrael. The individual Jew encounters the Torah, encounters God and encounters the significance of his actions (and Mitzvot) by virtue of him being part of Am Yisrael. This principal is clear from the entire Torah, the words of the Prophets and the teachings of our sages. Why is it so? What is the meaning of this concept?

The Holy One, Blessed be He, desires to be revealed in the physical world (Midrash Tanchuma, Naso 16). The vessel by which He achieves this is Am Yisrael. We are told of God’s intention in conceiving Am Yisrael by the prophet:
“This Nation I have fashioned for Myself that they may tell My praise.” (Yeshayahu 43:21)

The purpose of the existence of Am Yisrael is to reveal God in this world (see Brachot 6a). It is well known according to the Torah, Prophets, and our sages that the ultimate revelation of HaShem can only be achieved by Am Yisrael as a whole unit (as a Nation) (see section 3 above at length). Why is this? Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook explains this concept:
“… In order to accomplish this ideal, it is required that [there will be a community, and] this community will be the possessor of a State – political and social – and sovereign national status, at the peak of human culture, ‘A smart and clever nation and a great nation’, and the absolute Divine Ideal rules there, and brings the Nation and the Land to life in the glorious light of life.”
The purpose of this sovereign National model specifically is:
“That it may be made known that not only outstanding brilliant individuals, pious men, Nazarites and holy men live by the light of the Divine Ideal, rather entire nations – perfected in all aspects of society. Entire nations which include in them all the different levels of humanity – from the peak of artistic brilliance, academia and saintliness to the more general circles, social, political and economical to the most lowly thing.” (Orot, page 104)

In order for God to be revealed through all aspects of life, He must be revealed not only through the pursuits of the saintly individual, but through all aspects of life. God must be revealed not only in prayer and “spirituality” but in the simple daily chores and systems of life as well such as economy, culture, defense, etcetera. This is accomplishable only by a sovereign Nation. This Nation is Am Yisrael who has the potential to “tell My praise”. The Torah is the tool by which Am Yisrael reveals this potential, thus revealing God in all aspects of life. Am Yisrael is HaShem’s mirror image (as it were) in the physical world.

Every day, the Jew blesses upon learning Torah. What is the blessing which he recites? “…He who chose us from all other nations and gave us the Torah.” Rabbi Tzvi Yehudah Kook would stress the meaning of this blessing: “…He who chose us from all other nations” – this is the foundation, afterwards He – “… gave us the Torah”. First there is the Nation, then the Torah serves as the tool to reveal the message of the Nation – “that they may tell My praise”.

The Torah speaks first to Am Yisrael collectively, and thus speaks to the individual within this Nation. It guides Am Yisrael to be a “Holy Nation”, thus obligates the individual to follow Its Mitzvot. The reward to the Nation which strives to fulfill God’s Will is [not the all-spiritual afterlife, but rather] the ultimate realization and fulfillment of Its purpose, the revelation of its potential and the revelation of HaShem in all aspects of life.