Letters March 2025

“We All have a Tafkid (mission) in Life”

Rabbi: One supports this view as this means he too is special: it is egoistical, self-serving, and thereby appealing and widely accepted. But Torah says otherwise: we are all to follow one singular system of 613 commands. Without prophecy directing a given person in a unique task, there is no support for this view that each person has a unique mission in life. We should not seek to make ourselves unique, that is antithetical to Torah’s direction to pursue God’s wisdom, not our own status. Focus on the self, accomplishment, and success does not bring happiness. Happiness is attained when one’s mind is engaged in God’s wisdom, looking external to oneself. Talmud Sota 21b says Torah is attained only when one separates himself from all other involvements, even rendering him with little means, and when he also views himself as nothing. This means to succeed in Torah, one’s attention must not be diverted away from Torah, not to other pursuits, or to one’s plans for greatness. The self cannot be of any focus. If it is, one will fail at Torah which requires “all one’s drives, all one’s intellect, and all one’s intensity” (Deut 6:5). 

Messiah

Rabbi: Why is the Messiah one of the 13 Principles, principles that teach some perfection about God? Rabbi Reuven Mann explained that man is the only creation operating in an imperfect form. Man is corrupt. This reflects poorly on a perfect God. However, in the messianic era, God will make a change and mankind will follow the proper life. In that era, all God’s creations will operate with perfection, reflecting God’s perfection in all His creations. Thereby, all 13 Principles teach God’s perfection.

Is God Immoral or Weak?

Neil deGrasse Tyson: “Tsunamis killed 1/4 million in Indonesia and earthquakes killed 1/4 million in Haiti. Therefore God is either not all-good or not all-powerful.”

Rabbi: Neil deGrasse Tyson operates with a principle that life is entitled to anyone under any condition. That’s his own flawed human assessment, not the true moral conclusion, determined only by the Creator of life. Tyson does not feel the Creator of life owns the right to maintain life only when His conditions are met.

It’s illogical to suggest the Creator can’t control His creations. By definition, the Creator controls all His creation’s existences, and granted it all its properties. Thus, the Creator can control all He creates. He is all-powerful. 

Neil deGrasse Tyson also questions God’s morality. Certainly, Tyson accepts historical accounts witnessed by masses, like Caesar, Alexander the Great, and all accounts in Bible, as Bible lists dates, locations, and numerous family names of the Children of Israel. Tyson is aware of the Egyptian Exodus where God saved the Jews through 10 plagues and the splitting of the Reed Sea. Thus, God is not lacking goodness to save whom He desires, and to punish their oppressors, like the Flood of Noah’s era. Instead, Tyson should seek to learn rules that determine when certain peoples fail to comply with their right to life, as the Egyptians failed. God created life with certain conditions, they are found in His Biblical laws. And our leaders like Moses, Kings David and Solomon, and more recently Maimonides elaborate on God’s rules of life. It behooves us to not criticize God before studying greater minds than ours, and learning why they didn’t not view tsunamis and earthquakes as questions on the Creator’s morality.