Israel and Humanity - Identity of human and divine law according to the Bible
§ 3
IDENTITY OF THE DIVINE AND HUMAN LAW ACCORDING TO THE BIBLE.
This doctrine pointed to the law exists does in the Bible as the Kabbalah and the haggadoth Talmud and Midrash? We find first, as it reflects this idea, so common in Scripture and which one does not generally the attention it deserves, that God's way is the way of man that it must follow the same path as his Creator in a word, its purpose is to imitate God. So if the way is the same, the law is also identical, and these are two names of one and the same thing.
The Bible shows us God practicing what he prescribes for man to observe, justice, charity, holiness, forgiveness of sins, moral perfection. Abraham exclaims: "He who judges all the earth do not there justice? "That is to say, as our modern intelligence include: one who supports the world with justice be the only one who does point out? The text of Leviticus: "Be holy because I am holy, I the Lord your God" expresses the idea as clearly as possible.
The result that comes to mind is that there is no reason why he did not also apply to other precepts that God has ordered to man and that all without exception are observed by God, in other words that the law he has given to men is that he follows himself in nature and government of the universe. Without doubt, in a manner consistent with the divine nature that God observes the law, as are all beings of the universe in turn perform as their own special character. Prayers, sacrifices, dietary orders and domestic civil laws, political and ceremonial in practice vary according to the particular character of those who observe them. Moral laws themselves should not be understood by God as understood and practiced by man and in this sense that Maimonides and other commentators have interpreted this verse from Isaiah: "My thoughts are not your thoughts and your ways are not my ways, saith the'Eternel; as the heavens are high [1] Over and above the earth, so are my ways higher above your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts [2] ". But this diversity does not prevent the degrees of identity and, as we have said, it is even more perfect that it takes all types to suit all different kinds of beings, since the nature of God until the grain of sand.
Some will object that dédutions probably reasonable if they are not worth the texts and be asked if he really exists in the Bible that show us examples of God observing the law. The question is new and certainly unique, but it will not remain unanswered. We have not noticed, it seems that the Sabbath was observed before by God to be with Moses and that it is precisely because God observed that it was commissioned to man observed in his turn. Is there just one isolated event that is awaiting this biblical example or explanation does not fit Does not it rather in a perfectly coordinated and consistent? The idea of seeing in this county Sabbath observance a moral artifice to encourage man to develop more can resist, we believe, nor the just demands of faith in revelation, or objections criticism that is independent of anthropomorphism or assimilation of God to man one of the distinctive features of ancient religions.
We find another example of biblical observance common legitimate consequence of the unity of law in the sabbaths and jubilees of years, and schemittot yobelin , which are among the civil institutions of ancient peoples as a reflection of their religious cosmology. As these sabbaths of years or Jubilees were evidently modeled on the weekly Sabbath, it naturally follows that since the latter responds, according to the Bible, a Sabbath of God, others must also correspond to other Sabbaths of God . If the seven days of Genesis should be understood as divine periods of a thousand years or more, the analogy between the cosmological Sabbath and rest the seventh day is the most complete. Do not forget that the Sabbaths that open and close the solemn week of Passover and Tabernacles are also included in this vein. [3] An independent scholar, speaking of the antiquity in general and therefore also of Judaism for which we can consider making an exception out of the belief in revelation, said that the civil constitution is reflected in the divine constitution and Olympus with all its traditions is not the reproduction of an original revelation, but rather reflects more or less accurate from a historical epoch [4] ". Thus Heaven would be established in imitation of the earth, human society is precisely the opposite of what we say, but despite this difference, we would like to see in this testimony of science, c ' Compliance is the idea of unity of the two laws. It should also be noted that typically confuse the prophets in the same design changes sidereal, cosmic, geological with political developments, fall and resurrection of empires, in short, the human and social life with the universal life, or to use their language, a new heaven and new earth with the renovations religious or civil, that the transformations of humanity. Such thinking is obviously connected with what we have said about the harmony between human institutions and beliefs and cosmological each other and are closely related to the idea of unity of law which, in reality future results for the lights of Israel by the simultaneous emergence of land or renovation palingenesis itself and the renovation of mankind or resurrection.
The principle of the unity of law has been taught by Judaism in a different form, since he had this idea, which, strange as it sounds, Moses goes up, a Jerusalem and a heavenly temple. In several passages of Exodus we read that God showed Moses the pattern of the tabernacle and all that it should contain: "Look, and do according to the model shown thee on the mountain [5] "is to say the place where lay the glory of the Lord. Is this a fleeting vision intended only to better instruct Moses to build the tabernacle and its dependence? This hypothesis is unlikely if one considers that in the Bible may indicate a host of other references not less conclusive, such as that of [6] vision of Isaiah: "I saw the Lord seated on a throne high and the skirts of his robe filled the temple .... However, one of the seraphim flew to me in his hand he had taken the embers on the altar [7] ". So there was an altar and the altar just as the fire in the temple of Jerusalem.
This is not all we find two psalms that it is difficult to understand outside of this system of transposition of earthly things in heaven. "O Lord! writes David, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Which will remain on your holy mountain [8] ". Follows a long list of moral qualities necessary that leads to this conclusion: "Whoever does these things shall never be." Another psalm begins in a similar manner: "Who shall ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and pure heart who does not deliver his soul to falsehood [9] ". It seems absolutely impossible to see in this tent in the mountain of God in this holy place is Jerusalem, or the tabernacle or temple and therefore it must be by their celestial counterparts.
Jacob's vision of itself is not without significance. These degrees uniting heaven and earth, these angels that ascend and descend, the very name of heaven is given to the sanctuary are obviously significant. It may, for the light, closer to the latter passage the words of the Psalmist concerned to know the mystery of the prosperity of the wicked: "When I pondered to understand this I saw that the difficulty is great, until that I enter the sanctuary of God, then I will see what their ultimate fate [10] ".
We said in the Pentateuch itself God shows Moses the pattern of the Tabernacle and all its holy vessels. The legislature has seen great mountain, whose summit coincides with the sky, the holy ark, the tables and the book of the Law, which prepares us to see the Torah appear beside God as his science and his adviser. Would it be rash to say that the book so often mentioned in the Bible where the names of the righteous are inscribed, is basically the book of universal law, [11] of the divine and human law? What is certain is that commentators have taken turns this book for one of the Act and for that fate. So if the Act pre-exists in heaven, it is natural that we have applied to Moses verse of Psalms: "Thou hast ascended into heaven, thou hast won the spoils, thou hast received gifts for men and even for rebels, so that Jah-El could live there ohieme [12] ". In this magnificent tribute to the divine law which is Psalm 119 also reads "Forever, O Avaya! Speech is present in heaven [13] ".
But here is a fact that demands our attention. This conception of a heavenly sanctuary on the model of the Temple of Jerusalem is not unusual: it is actually part of a general system by which localities land, parts of the holy city of Palestine, are considered copies and representations of moral, spiritual states of the other life, so that the idea of identity of the divine and human law is found even in the forms and smallest details. A wise writer writes for example about the valley of Jehoshaphat: "This valley is not mentioned by Joel the proper name of the valley that lies between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives, but the symbolic name and report the notional place where the Lord had to judge and punish the enemies of his people and the proof is that in verse 14 it replaces the name of the Valley of the rescission, that is to say where people should be beaten to pieces. Therefore Theodotion reflected the Valley of Jehoshaphat in Joel in locum judicii and the Chaldean paraphrase in valle judicii divisione , that is to say that each the penalty will be applied proportionally to its demerit [14] ". We do not deny, in our opinion, the existence of a valley of Jehoshaphat in Jerusalem, on the contrary we believe that the valley that name was used as a significant symbol to represent the decision between the Gentiles and Israel. Anyway, here is an example of a geographical point taken as a representation of a moral state.
Here is another, we will not dispute that Tophet was a real community around Jerusalem in the valley Hinom where children were burned in honor of Moloch. However [15] This name was used by Isaiah to mean the place of punishment of the enemies of God, either in this world or, as seems more likely, in the abode of the dead, so that the name of ghe-Hinnom Valley of Hinnom, given by the rabbis in hell is below the equivalent of Tophet in the prophecy of Isaiah [16]
Now see the texts in which the unity of law is considered in itself, establish that they will complete the Kabbalah Rabbis and on this point are in perfect agreement with the Bible.
