Why Torah is Disguised

Rabbi Moshe Ben-Chaim

We discussed Torah’s subtle lesson of using the largest and smallest of a species (cedar and hyssop) tied with red string (sin) to represent the sinful nature of following either extreme in any emotional spectrum. In Torah’s example, the opposites cedar and hyssop referred to a preoccupation with these opposites; death and immortality. Both preoccupations (death/immortality) remove one from a focus on the present. Improper focus on the self removes one from real enjoyments that are external to the self: God's creations and Torah wisdom. Maimonides too discussed the “Golden Mean,” referring to seeking the point in any emotional spectrum that is equidistant from both poles. For example, one should not be a spendthrift, but also not miserly. One should not be too giddy and also not too morbid. Again, one should not be overly courageous and not too bashful. The goal of being equidistant (midpoint) from both poles is to avoid the strong emotional pull the polar extremes exert on the personality, which overwhelm the mind with emotion, rendering a person incapacitated for pursuing wisdom (Rabbi Israel Chait). When a person is too courageous or overly greedy, for example, this excites those emotions, thereby incapacitating the mind from operating with clear rationality. This leads to poor decisions and a troubled life. Man operates with focus: either his emotions or his intellect dominate at any given moment. Intense emotion prevents rational thought. 

But why does God not openly state, “Don’t be preoccupied with death or eternal life?” The answer is that this is not a message that can be shared with the masses, but only with people who have reached a level of psychological awareness. Many people are unaware of how their emotions work, much less how their unconscious operates and what they truly desire behind their feelings and actions. Analysis and dream interpretation can help reveal our personalities and motives. 

Targum says that once Adam was sentenced to mortality for eating the forbidden fruit, he became preoccupied with physical luxuries. Ask him why, and he may not know that it was a reaction to his fear of death, where luxuries reinforced a feeling of immortality: 

God made Adam the First upright before him and just; and the serpent and Eve seduced him to eat of the fruit of the tree, because those who eat its fruit would be wise to discern between good and evil, and they brought upon him and all the inhabitants of Earth the day of death; [then] they sought to find many calculations [luxuries] in order to bring deficiency upon the inhabitants of Earth. (Targum, Koheles 7:29)

Adam’s realization of his mortality disturbed him greatly. He sought to avoid death by engaging in the physical pleasures to a great degree, feeling that this attachment to the physical guaranteed him prolonged and even eternal life. But this was all unconscious, he would not necessarily explain his involvement as an attempt to avoid death. Today, man has not changed: his fear of death is countered by his worldly ambitions and drive for wealth and fame. 

But the realistic man of Torah lives differently, and more enjoyably. He accepts death, he knows it must be a good as God created it. He doesn’t strive for immortality as that is a lie. Realistic man is honest in every matter. He does not preoccupy himself with death or the soul’s eternity, as they will occur on their own terms. He occupies himself as God deemed most beneficial, by engaging the majority of his day in Torah study and teaching others. He experiences sheer joy in uncovering new ideas each day, each hour. God designed Torah precisely to afford man such bliss. The Torah personality engages in obtaining his basic needs, and nothing more. He finds such engagement a wasteful distraction from his true enjoyment in God’s wisdom. He views the efforts of accumulating wealth that he never uses as futile. He is unconcerned with matching his neighbors’ successes, their stylish cars, suits or luxurious homes, for the time needed to do so could be better applied to perfecting his eternal soul, not his temporary bank account or relative popularity. God is his focus, not neighbors: “Cease to glorify human beings, who have only a breath in their nostrils. For by what do they merit esteem?” (Isaiah 2:22)

From Torah’s “hinting” at turning away from death and immortality, we derive the principle that God’s Torah aims to reach all people, on each person’s level. Torah also hid Jacob wrestling with his personality, saying instead that he wrestled with a “man.” For many people have not come to study psychology and understand the many components of the psyche and the emotions. They would dismiss the truths of a conscience or an ego, and dismiss Torah altogether. But as such concepts are fundamental to human perfection, God disguised these matters so wiser people can benefit.

Proverbs too is a perfect example of how our leaders followed God’s lead and wrote vital matters in disguised form to preserve our transmission, while simultaneously concealing deeper ideas from those not ready for them.