אַנְשֵׁי־רָ֭ע לֹא־יָבִ֣ינוּ מִשְׁפָּ֑ט וּמְבַקְשֵׁ֥י יְ֝הוָ֗ה יָבִ֥ינוּ כֹֽל׃
Злые люди не понимают справедливости; Но те, которые ищут Господа, понимают все.
Rabbeinu Bahya
In other words: due to the fact that we humans experience certain feelings and emotions we are unable to properly understand beings which are devoid of such feelings. Therefore, in order to give us at least an inkling of what goes on in those worlds, the Torah employs words and concepts with which we are familiar.
Once we have learned to appreciate that these terms employed for celestial phenomena are in fact merely similes, we will be able to strip these words of their terrestrial significance in our minds and see in them expressions used to describe attributes of the celestial world which correspond in some way to the meaning of these organs in our own world. Concerning this we are told in Proverbs 28,5 ומבקשי ה' יבינו כל, “those who seek out the Lord will understand all.”
If the Torah had not employed expressions used in this terrestrial world to describe phenomena in the celestial regions but had employed terms reserved for application to abstract intellectual beings, most people would not have even had an inkling of what the Torah was speaking about, neither of the subject matter nor of the attributes of these beings. This is why the Torah employed terms which enable a least the educated people to understand what the Torah had in mind. Every individual has to understand these terms based on his own insight into matters super-terrestrial. The one thing that we all have in common is knowledge of the existence of the Creator. Seeing that this is so, all of us are under an obligation to serve Him. Even though the scholar derives some advantage of being more familiar with celestial beings than the ordinary person, as far as his knowledge of the existence of the Creator is concerned this makes him no different from everybody else.
The philosophers have tried to illustrate this with the following parable: when a rich man arrives at the home of a man as a guest and he is accompanied by his beasts, the host feeds the rich man all kinds of delicacies, while at the same time feeding his animals food which is appropriate for them. In a similar way, the Torah expands our ability to perceive some super-terrestrial phenomena provided we have first prepared ourselves through the acquisition of both knowledge and the appropriate moral conduct.
Once we have learned to appreciate that these terms employed for celestial phenomena are in fact merely similes, we will be able to strip these words of their terrestrial significance in our minds and see in them expressions used to describe attributes of the celestial world which correspond in some way to the meaning of these organs in our own world. Concerning this we are told in Proverbs 28,5 ומבקשי ה' יבינו כל, “those who seek out the Lord will understand all.”
If the Torah had not employed expressions used in this terrestrial world to describe phenomena in the celestial regions but had employed terms reserved for application to abstract intellectual beings, most people would not have even had an inkling of what the Torah was speaking about, neither of the subject matter nor of the attributes of these beings. This is why the Torah employed terms which enable a least the educated people to understand what the Torah had in mind. Every individual has to understand these terms based on his own insight into matters super-terrestrial. The one thing that we all have in common is knowledge of the existence of the Creator. Seeing that this is so, all of us are under an obligation to serve Him. Even though the scholar derives some advantage of being more familiar with celestial beings than the ordinary person, as far as his knowledge of the existence of the Creator is concerned this makes him no different from everybody else.
The philosophers have tried to illustrate this with the following parable: when a rich man arrives at the home of a man as a guest and he is accompanied by his beasts, the host feeds the rich man all kinds of delicacies, while at the same time feeding his animals food which is appropriate for them. In a similar way, the Torah expands our ability to perceive some super-terrestrial phenomena provided we have first prepared ourselves through the acquisition of both knowledge and the appropriate moral conduct.