The Idolatry of Control
Rabbi Shmuel Klatzkin, Ph. D.
In his great work The Guide or the Perplexed, Moses Maimonides maintains that the basic agenda of Judaism is to deny idolatry, and that his program in the Guide would be the same.
What is so problematic about idolatry that its denial should be so important? After all, there seems to be persistent testimony across time and across cultures that there are intermediary forces in the world. People dedicate their lives to the pursuit of fame, to the service of pleasure, to money, to power. Granted, all or any one of these pursuits have also been seen as less than ultimate. But Maimonides himself in his great code of Jewish law, the Mishneh Torah, teaches that one does not have to consider one’s idol to be supreme to be engaging in idolatry.
It is not that [the idolaters] would say, “There is no god but this star.” This is what Jeremiah said: “Who does not fear You, King of the nations, for it befits You, for among all the wise of the nations and from all their kingdoms there is none like You…” All know that You are alone. Their error and foolishness is in imagining that this vain thing is Your will…
The essence of the prohibition on idolatry is not to worship any of the created things…even if the worshiper knows that the L-rd is G‑d.
One could imagine that there is no rational sense in the unity of G‑d. Certainly as an article of faith, removed from the world it can be upheld, but within this world, other rules apply and must be obeyed and honored. Here, the lofty ideal of an all-encompassing reality has no place and is not even intellectually conceivable.
Following this line of thought, the only useful way of dealing with reality is to carve it up. One can grasp the meaning of a small and manageable corner of reality, and in that knowledge find a certain power. Controlling one discreet segment after another, we can build a structure, brick by brick.
Thus the tale of the Tower of Babel. Babylon was to its inhabitants Bab Illi, the Gate of the Gods. The towering edifice of civilization, built brick by brick, was so impressive that the gods themselves made it their home. But the product of the artifice of human minds alone never makes a whole. Many little gods do not combine to make one big one. And so what was put together becomes instead babble, a destruction of a unity that we already had and in which we were already participating.
The Unity of G‑d is always challenging. It is by definition inclusive of human thoughts but not reducible to them. It is not subject to manipulation, though we can enter into relation with it.
When the thinker thinks himself outside the rest of reality, rather than a participant in it, his discourse in the end will reduce to babble. What common language is there that makes the powerful thinking of the professions available to all? How often does each specialty relate to the other? But lawyers are affected by biology and physics; physicists have a psyche; physicians must deal with laws. And every human being must balance his/her aspirations towards meaning and eternity with the reality of his/her limitations.
To live coherently then, the Torah tells us, we must speak a language not entirely of our devise. We must be aware that even our own consciousness, the holy of holies of our very own autonomous self, is inextricably bound in a larger web of being.
Thus, when we focus on one area, reduce the multiplicity of the world to a one-body problem, we must retain an awareness of what we are doing, and not begin to worship the little piece we have cut off and mastered as being the whole with which we must reckon. As we realize that we must at last deal with the incredible complexity of the whole, we also realize that we would not be capable on our own of bringing it into coherence.
Instead, we come to see that we are ourselves part of a larger coherence. The whole of our life, from our grossest action to our subtlest intuition, is required to serve that coherence. Beyond manipulation and power, we come to truth.
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