Kaisipang Hudyo sa Mga Kawikaan 31:10: Akeidat Yitzchak & Guide for the Perplexed

Peace and harmony are trademarks of G'ds creation and handiwork. Nothing is functional or endures in this universe unless it represents the successful merging of a variety of elements. Death, destruction, and decomposition are the dissolution of this process of harmony, peace and collaboration which enabled any creature or object to perform its function previously. Even the most basic materials are combinations of earth, fire, air and water; according to our sages they are the fundamental raw materials of the physical universe. Isaiah describes the process of disintegration as ya-ef, tired, fatigued, when he describes G'd as "He gives strength to the tired." (Isaiah 40,29) This means that matter as such is imbued by G'd with the potential to become active, form a variety of combinations. Fusing unlikely candidates for mergers such as matter and spirit, i.e. human beings, requires the presence of shalom, harmony, in an even greater degree than usual. If Isaiah (45,7) says of G'd "I form light, create darkness, and make peace," this is an overriding attribute of G'd, since it is basic to all the things He has created. When Zecharyah in chapter fourteen, describes the distant future of mankind, the messianic era, he writes as follows: "The Lord will be king over the whole earth, on that day He will be One and His name will be One." The prophet envisages a period when historical strivings will have achieved their desired objectives. At that time, even creatures that appear at odds with one another in the universe as we know it, will be seen to be at peace with one another and with their Creator. There will no longer be any apparent dichotomies. Kingdom, dominion and unity are essentially the same thing. For that reason, after having recited the opening verse of the keriyat shema, "Hear O Israel the Lord our G'd the Lord is One," this is followed by the line "blessed be His glorious Majesty." Only after there is unity can malchut, Majesty have any real meaning. G'd is portrayed as "making" peace, whereas in the same verse He is described as "creating" evil, ra, evil, is the equivalent of pirud, dissolution, separating things that ought to be joined. Concerning such activity, G'd only "creates," i.e. provides the potential for it. He does not "make" evil. Having made shalom, harmony, He must be the originator of ra, as a corollary, but He does not bring its potential into actual existence.

In order to identify anything correctly, one needs definite answers to four basic questions. These are 1) What? 2) From what? 3) From whom? 4) Why? The answers to these four questions will reveal 1) the form, shape of the object of our inquiry; 2) the material it consists of; 3) who has created it; 4) what is its purpose, its function. Once we have been supplied with these answers, and proceeding from the simplest phenomenon, one can advance step by step to more sophisticated phenomena, identify them, understand their function and purpose, and eventually divine their ultimate Cause, i.e. the Creator of the universe. Since, however, we frequently fail to identify some phenomena correctly, and since the answers to all the four questions listed may not have been available, many people have resigned themselves to consider the universe as being the result of some cosmic accident, a mere coincidence. Aristotle already has disproved such a philosophy, employing three arguments. 1) Accidents are by definition exceptions, not norms. How can nature be an "accident" then? 2) Even when accidental happenings do occur, the result is rarely perfection, rather a pronounced lack of perfection. A similar idea is expressed in Solomon's song about the eyshet chayil the woman of valor (Proverbs 31). He asks, "Who can find such a woman?" The emphasis is on the word "find". Such a woman is not the product of some "accident", but the result of a process of very careful cultivation. 3) The fact that almost everything we observe serves a well understood purpose, is surely evidence that it is the result of the most careful planning. It is not accidental, but the work of a Creator, the result of a will. The predictability and order of most natural phenomena both on the ground and in space, prove that they are not products of accidents but of a monumental intellect. Any unexplained phenomenon merely points to the fact that the intellect of its Creator is far superior to that of His creature. There is no compelling reason that the creature must understand everything its Creator has done.

The author elaborates on this theme by appending a complete commentary on the chapter "the woman of valour" at the end of Proverbs (chapter 31).