Description
The Big Picture – By Rabbi Pinchas Winston
Derech Hashem is a Torah classic, an encyclopedia of seminal Torah concepts thoughtfully organized to make them more accessible. However, one of the most important insights for life is in the Introduction itself:
When one knows a number of things and understands how they are categorized and systematically interrelated, then they have a great advantage over one who has the same knowledge without such distinction. It is very much like the difference between looking at a well-arranged garden planted in rows and patterns, and seeing a wild thicket or forest growing in confusion. When an individual is confronted by many details and does not know how they relate to one another or their true place in a general system, then their inquisitive intellect is given nothing more than a difficult, unsatisfying burden. They may struggle with it, but they will tire and grow weary long before they attain any gratification. Each detail will arouse their curiosity, but not having access to the concept as a whole, they will become frustrated. (Derech Hashem, Introduction)
The Ramchal is saying that it is not enough to merely learn concepts and remember them. The human mind, in fulfilling its need to understand and relate to things, requires knowledge to be organized. The more organized knowledge is, the more accessible and useful it will be.
We rarely forget things we have learned, though the opposite seems true. We don’t lose information as much as we lose access to it, and this, the Ramchal explains, is very much a function of a disorganized mind. The information becomes inaccessible, and the brain eventually tires looking for it and eventually gives up, resulting in frustration.
The Ramchal continued:
The exact opposite is true when one knows something in relation to its context. Since they see it within its framework, they can go on to grasp other concepts associated with it, and success will bring them pleasure and elation.
The key phrases here are, “in relation to” and “to its context.” It is the juxtaposition of ideas that leads to one of mankind’s most valuable tools and pleasures: insight. Rather magically, the juxtaposing of known concepts leads to new and insightful knowledge. This excites the mind and encourages even deeper thinking.
The most important result though is wisdom. It is wisdom that allows a person to accurately view life and maximize its opportunities for personal growth. Therefore:
When one studies a subject, they must therefore be aware of the place of each element within the most general scheme. When one takes into account existence as a whole, including everything imaginable, whether detectable by our senses or conceivable by our minds, then they recognize that things are not all in the same category and level. (Derech Hashem, Introduction)
This is very important. Sometimes people accept ideas they should reject, and reject ideas they should accept. They confuse one idea for another because on the surface they seem the same. It is only after investigation that they learn the truth, or as is often the case, after the error has done damage.
This is how good can become seen as evil, and vice-versa. This is how people miss important opportunities in life, unnecessarily offend others, and in more extreme cases, start wars. It is what has caused many intelligent people over history to mistakenly reject God and ignore Torah. To avoid catastrophic misconclusions, the Ramchal adds:
The categories are both varied and numerous, and as they vary, so do the rules and principles associated with them. In order to comprehend the true nature of each thing, one must also be able to recognize these distinctions. (Derech Hashem, Introduction)
Though some thinking is automatic, much of it is really an art. It is a skill that must be learned and practiced. Just because a person is a “genius” in one area does mean that they will be in another. The starting point to getting a good intellectual handle on life is realizing this.
Clearly, the Ramchal has provided invaluable insight into how the human mind works and relates to ideas. He has also alluded to the answer of one of the most pressing questions of history: Does God exist, and if yes, why do so many people not agree?
Is it an issue of intelligence?
Nope, brilliant people exist on both sides.
Is it a matter of evidence?
Both sides have access to the same evidence.
Then what is the source of such a fundamental difference of opinion on such a crucial life issue?
The Ramchal explained it in Torah vernacular. This says it in everyday terms:
In short, the works of modern science, taken one by one, seem enough to dampen a person’s hope for higher meaning. If religion’s stock-in-trade is the inexplicable, the coming years don’t look like boon times. This is half of the giant paradox, and it’s one reason why the average scientist today is probably less religious than the average scientist of 50 or 100 years ago. (What Does Science Teach Us About God? TIME Magazine, December 28, 1992)
In ancient times, religion was a way to “explain” the mysteries of Creation. People could relate to the idea of supernatural beings, and believe they had powers that controlled the world of man. So they did, and they tried to gain mastery of their own lives by buying off the “gods” they were told controlled them.
Then came science. It took thousands of years, but eventually man found ways to de-mystify Creation. It was the death knell for many religions that had used that mystery to keep believers in line. At first, religion fought back, but the momentum was in favor of science, and more and more religion was forced to bend and acquiesce.
But even “atheistic” scientists have acknowledged that there is another more fundamental reason to believe in a Master Designer of the universe:
The fact that the universe exhibits many features that foster organic life—such as precisely those physical constants that result in planets and long-lived stars—also has led some scientists to speculate that some divine influence may be present. (Science and God: A Warming Trend? Science, August 1997)
The remarkable fact is that the values of these numbers (i.e. the constants of physics) seem to have been very finely adjusted to make possible the development of life. For example, if the electric charge of the electron had been only slightly different, stars would have been unable to burn hydrogen and helium, or else they would not have exploded…It seems clear that there are relatively few ranges of values for the numbers (for the constants) that would allow for development of any form of intelligent life. Most sets of values would give rise to universes that, although they might be very beautiful, would contain no one able to wonder at that beauty. (A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking, p. 125).
Life as we know it would be impossible if any one of several physical quantities had slightly different values…One constant does seem to require an incredible fine-tuning…The existence of life of any kind seems to require a cancellation between different contributions to the vacuum energy, accurate to about 120 decimal places…the universe either would go through a complete cycle of expansion and contraction before life could arise or would expand so rapidly that no galaxies or stars could form. (Nobel laureate, High Energy Physicist, Professor Steven Weinberg, Scientific American)
The precision [of the universe] is as if one could throw a dart across the entire universe and hit a bulls-eye one millimeter in diameter on the other side. (Michael Turner, Astrophysicist at the University of Chicago and Fermilab)
This doesn’t mean that the people who made these statements changed their lives because of them. Quite the contrary, and this explains part of the problem:
Among the causes of this scientific tunnel vision I would like to discuss two that result from the nature of scientific tradition. The first of these is the issue of methodology. In its laudable insistence upon experience, accurate observation and verifiability, science has placed great emphasis upon measurement. To measure something is to experience it in a certain dimension, a dimension in which we can make observations of great accuracy which are repeatable by others. The use of measurement has enabled science to make enormous strides in the understanding of the material universe. But by virtue of its success, measurement has become a scientific idol. The result is an attitude on the part of many scientists of not only skepticism but outright rejection of what cannot be measured. It is as if they were to say, “What we cannot measure, we cannot know; there is no point in worrying about what we can’t know; therefore, what cannot be measured is unimportant and unworthy of observation.” Because of this attitude many scientists exclude from their serious consideration all matters that are—or seem to be—intangible. Including, of course, the matter of God… (The Road Less Traveled, III Growth and Religion, Scientific Tunnel Vision; Simon and Schuster, 1978)
Not all scientists however suffer from such myopia, and this explains why:
The other half of the paradox comes from stepping back and looking at the big picture: an overarching pattern that encompasses the many feats of 20th century science and transcends them; a pattern suggesting, to some scientists, at least, that there is more to the universe than meets the eye, something authentically divine about how it all fits together.” (What Does Science Teach Us About God? TIME Magazine, December 28, 1992)
A paradox is not a contradiction. It just looks like one. In a contradiction, two contrary ideas that seem to coexist really do not, and the question is, which one is false? In a paradox, they do coexist, and the question is, how?
As the article says, it has to do with the big picture. Details are just details until they are put into their proper place in the big picture, at which time they reveal pattern and design. Each may be fascinating in-and-of-itself, and worthy of intense study and government grants. But the insight into life they were created to teach, the wisdom they exist to impart, only emerges when each is seen as part of the bigger picture of life.
Then this becomes true:
Perception of the miraculous requires no faith or assumptions. It is simply a matter of paying full and close attention to the givens of life, i.e., to what is so ever-present that it is usually taken for granted. The true wonder of the world is available anywhere, in the minutest parts of our bodies, in the vast expanses of the cosmos, and in the intimate interconnectedness of these and all things…We are part of a finely balanced ecosystem in which interdependency goes hand-in-hand with individuation. We are all individuals, but we are also parts of a greater whole, united in something vast and beautiful beyond description. Perception of the miraculous is the subjective essence of self-realization, the root from which man’s highest features and experiences grow. (Beyond the Norm: A Speculative Model of Self-Realization, Michael Stark and Michael Washburn, Journal of Religion and Health, Vol. 16, No. 1, 1977; pp. 58-59)
Welcome to The Big Picture: Thirty-six Sessions to Intellectual and Spiritual Clarity. What follows is a tapestry of many very important concepts and details about life from a Torah perspective. Take the time to learn them. Take the time to think about them. Take the time to use them to create a big picture perspective of life, and then enjoy the tremendous insight and life-enhancing wisdom that emerges.
