Sunday, February 14, 2010

"Monotheism is a fabrication..."
"Monotheism is a fabrication of gentiles, an imprecise translation, a sort of self-contradictory comprehensible infinity, and therefore can lead to nothing [the limits of the "God of the Philosophers" in leading anywhere but the the self-referencial limits of a given rationality]. This is not the source of the Name of the God of Israel, the Infinite, the incomprehensible root of all existence, in Whom the entire world exists, Who can be comprehended and spoken of only through the nuances of colors, through His many deeds and abundant peace, His profusion of love and courage[.] (?) Only Israel, who proclaims "this is my God and I will adorn Him," can say this, not the barren wilderness of Islamic monotheism, nor Buddhism's negation; only the highest existence which brings joy to all and gives life to everything, revealed through the subjective revelation of all hearts who seek and comprehend him, "And each and every one will point with his finger: ‘Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him that he should save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; we shall be glad and rejoice in his salvation.'" "Happy is the people who has it thus; happy is the people whose God is the Lord."

From the footnotes;

...idolatry and atheism stem from the same root - relating to the object only. Idolatry attributed the Divine essence to objects, and thus brought about the anthropomorphism and vulgarization of faith. Modern philosophy only acknowledges the object because it does not know more than what is comprehended through rational human sense-perception. The foundation of modern atheism is the denial of anything about which “This! Zot!” cannot be said. Kant understood that the perceived “this” is only the world of phenomena and that unperceived being lies beyond it; however, the idolatrous root caused man to ignore that being or to be unable to understand the relationship between that which is beyond awareness and the revealed and familiar world. Thus, idolatry and modern atheism are two sides of the same coin.

Monotheism, which many people mistakenly consider Judaism to be, speaks of Divine existence as being an infinite entity, a perfect metaphysical Being, that is directly grasped by religious-philosophical consciousness. Monotheistic religion is based on relating to that entity, and not on relating to its manifestations. This theistic concept, as it is often called, contradicts itself, for what is a concept cannot be infinite. Medieval theology is full of linguistic and philosophical games whose goal is to solve this problem, but according to Rav Kook, the theological contradiction remains in force.

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