The Kuzari — Arguments In Defense of Judaism
by Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi
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Sample text from PART THREE
2. The Kuzari: If so, then give me a description of the doings of one of your pious individuals nowadays.
3. The Rabbi: A pious individual is the guardian of his country. He provides its inhabitants their livelihood and all their needs. He rules them fairly; he does not oppress any of them, nor does he grant any more than their due. Then, when he requires them, he finds them obedient to his call. They hasten to respond to his call. He orders, they execute; he forbids, they abstain.
4. The Kuzari: I asked you concerning a pious individual, not a ruler.
5. The Rabbi: And yet the pious individual is a ruler! He is obeyed by his senses, and by his mental and physical faculties, which he governs like a political leader, as it says, “One who rules his spirit is better than one who conquers a city” (Prov. 16:32). He is fit to rule, because if he were the leader of a country, he would be as just a ruler as he is to his body and soul.
He keeps his physical desires in check, guarding them from lawless profligacy; yet giving them their share and fulfilling their needs, such as balanced diet and drink, bathing and cleanliness in moderation. He further restrains the aggressive desire to defeat others; he only allows it when it is productive — in debates of wisdom and opinions, as well as to rebuke the evil-minded. He allows the senses their share by employing them when they are useful. He uses his hands, feet, and tongue for that which is necessary, or for worthwhile goals. The same is the case with hearing and seeing, as well as the shared perception that comes from both of them. After these, come the powers of imagination, perception, thought, and memory; and then will power, which commands all these. These are all subservient to the intellect. He does not allow any of these organs or faculties to go beyond its special task, or encroach upon another.
As he has satisfied each of them — giving the necessary amount of rest and sleep to his vital powers, and waking hours, movement, and worldly occupation to his physical ones — he then calls upon his ‘community’ as a respected leader calls his disciplined army, to assist him in reaching a level that is above them, a Divine level which is beyond the level of the intellect. He arranges and organizes his community, in the same manner as Moses arranged his community around Mount Sinai. He orders his will power to receive every command issued by him obediently, and to carry it out straightway. He makes his faculties and organs do his bidding without disobedience. He forbids them to turn to the evil inclinations of mind and fancy, forbidding them to listen to or believe in them, without first taking counsel with the intellect. If [the intellect] permits, it will allow him, but not otherwise. In this way, his will power receives its orders, carrying them out accordingly.
He directs his vessels of thought, emptying them of all previous thoughts of the world, and charges his imagination to produce, with the assistance of memory, his most majestic images, in order to imagine the Divine Matter that he seeks. Examples of such images include the Revelation at Mount Sinai, Abraham and Isaac [at the Akeidah] on Mount Moriah, Moses’ Tabernacle, the service in the holy Temple, and God’s Divine Presence in the Temple. He then orders his powers of memory to retain this and not to forget it; and he warns his fancy and its sinful prompters not to confuse the truth or trouble it with doubts. He warns his powers of anger and lust not to influence or lead astray his will, not to confuse it or burden it with their anger and greed.
After this preparation, his will-power awakens all of his organs to obey it with alertness, eagerness, and joy. They stand without indolence when the occasion demands; they bow down when he bids them to do so; and they sit at the proper moment. The eyes look as a servant looks at his master; the hands stop their idle activity and do not meet; and the feet stand straight. All the limbs are hasty and anxious to obey their master, paying no heed to pain or weakness. The tongue agrees with the thought, and does not overstep its bounds. It does not speak in prayer in a mere mechanical way, like the starling and the parrot; but every word is uttered with thought and reflection.
This hour [of prayer] is the heart and fruit of his time, while the other hours are merely paths leading to it. He looks forward to its approach, because while it lasts he resembles the spiritual beings, and is distanced from animal existence. Those three times of daily prayer are the ‘fruit’ of his day and night; and the Sabbath is the ‘fruit’ of the week, because it is dedicated to establishing his connection with the Divine Influence, and to serve God in joy, not in sadness, as has been explained before.
All this stands in the same relation to the soul as food to the human body. Prayer is for his soul what nourishment is for his body. The impact of one prayer lasts until the time of the next, just as the strength derived from the noon meal lasts until supper. The further one’s soul is removed from the time of prayer, the more it is sullied as it comes in contact with worldly matters. The more so, if necessity brings it into the company of youths, women, or people who are not respectable, and one hears unbecoming words that sullies the purity of the soul, or songs which attract the soul and it is unable to master. During prayer, one purges the soul from all that passed over it, and prepares it for the future.
After this, a week will not pass before both soul and body will become weary. Sullying elements accumulate during the week, and they can be purified and cleansed only by consecrating an entire day to serving God, together with physical rest. The body replenishes on the Sabbath that which it lost during the six days, and prepares itself for the future. The soul is similarly reminded of what it lost due to the burdens of the body. It is as if the soul is healed from a past illness, and also provides for itself a remedy to ward off future sickness. This is similar to [the offerings] that Job brought for the sake of his sons every week, as it is written, “It may be that my sons have sinned” (Job 1:5).
He further renews himself during the Three Festivals [Passover, Shavuot, and Succoth]. And he requires the great Fast Day [Yom Kippur], when his past sins are purified, and on which he endeavors to repair that what he may have missed on the days of the weekly and monthly cycles. His soul cleanses itself from sullying influences of imagination, anger, and lust; he repents from assisting them in thought or deed. And if his soul is unable to free itself from improper thoughts — the result of songs, tales, and so on, heard in youth, and which cling to one’s memory — it cleanses itself from sinful actions; he requests forgiveness for these thoughts, and resolves to prevent them from escaping his tongue, much less to put them into practice, as it is says, “My thoughts will not pass my mouth” (Ps. 17:3).
His fast of this day is such as bringing him to a state like the angels, because it is spent in submission and humility, standing, kneeling, praising and singing. All his physical faculties are denied their natural requirements, being entirely abandoned to religious service, as if he had no animal component.
The fast of a pious individual is such that his eye, ear, and tongue also participate in the fast. He only engages in that which brings him near to God. This also refers to his innermost faculties, such as his imagination and thoughts. To all of this, he adds the performance of good deeds.
12. The Kuzari: In this manner, one may live a pleasant life even in exile, gathering the fruit of his faith in this world and the next. But those who suffer the exile resentfully are likely to lose [both worlds,] first and last.
13. The Rabbi: Our pleasure [in life] is strengthened and enhanced by the duty of reciting blessings (berachoth) over everything we enjoy or which happens to us in this world.
14. The Kuzari: How can that be? Are not the blessings an additional burden?
15. The Rabbi: Is it not fitting that a more complete person derives greater pleasure in eating and drinking than a baby or an animal does, just as an animal has greater enjoyment than a plant, even though the plant is continually taking nourishment?
16. The Kuzari: This is because he is favored with greater consciousness of enjoyment. If a drunken person was given all he desires — food and drink, fine music, companionship with friends, and was embraced by his beloved, all while being completely intoxicated — if afterwards (when sober) he was informed what took place, he would grieve over it. He will regard it all as a loss rather than a gain, since all of these enjoyments took place while he was incapable of fully experiencing and appreciating them.
17. The Rabbi: Preparing oneself for pleasure, awareness of the pleasure, and imagining its absence beforehand — all of these serve to multiple the enjoyment. This is one of the benefits of reciting blessings for those who say them with intention (kavannah) and understanding. Blessings produce a kind of pleasure for the soul, as well as gratitude towards the One providing it. Because we were prepared for its absence, our joy is now all the greater.
Take, for example, the Shehekhiyanu blessing, when we thank the One “Who has kept us alive and preserved us.”
You were prepared for [the possibility of] already being dead. Now you feel gratitude for life and regard it as a gift. When sickness and death come, they will be light in your eyes, since you have examined yourself and realized that you have gained before your Master. For by nature you do not deserve any good, since you are dust, and yet God has presented you with life and pleasure; therefore you are grateful to Him. And when He will take them away from you, you will praise Him and say, “God has given; God has taken; may God’s name be blessed”(Job 1:21). Thus your entire life is one of pleasure.
Whoever does not pursue this course, do not consider his pleasure the pleasure of a human being. It is the unappreciated pleasure of an animal, like the case of the drunkard mentioned before.
In this fashion, the pious individual fully grasps the meaning of each blessing. He pictures in his mind the blessing’s intent, and every associated meaning.
