1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,020 Okay, let's unpack this. Today, we are undertaking 2 00:00:03,020 --> 00:00:07,459 a deep dive into some truly profound, I think 3 00:00:07,459 --> 00:00:10,119 very difficult material. It's a speculative theological 4 00:00:10,119 --> 00:00:13,519 framework by the philosopher Hans Jonas, an attempt 5 00:00:13,519 --> 00:00:16,160 to reconstruct the very concept of God in the 6 00:00:16,160 --> 00:00:19,199 devastating shadow of the Holocaust. It's a heavy 7 00:00:19,199 --> 00:00:22,000 topic. And this deep dive into Jonas's work, 8 00:00:22,100 --> 00:00:24,100 it's really less about religious doctrine and, 9 00:00:24,140 --> 00:00:25,800 you know, more about philosophical necessity. 10 00:00:26,179 --> 00:00:29,280 We're exploring what happens when Faith confronts 11 00:00:29,280 --> 00:00:32,420 an event, Auschwitz, that just fundamentally 12 00:00:32,420 --> 00:00:34,740 shatters the traditional understanding of divine 13 00:00:34,740 --> 00:00:37,460 justice and power. Right. And for you, the listener, 14 00:00:37,539 --> 00:00:39,619 this is really a crucial shortcut to understanding 15 00:00:39,619 --> 00:00:42,799 the intellectual and theological fallout of the 16 00:00:42,799 --> 00:00:45,140 20th century's ultimate horror. It really is. 17 00:00:45,240 --> 00:00:47,619 It's also vital context, I think, to remember 18 00:00:47,619 --> 00:00:50,100 just how personal this analysis was for Jonas. 19 00:00:50,140 --> 00:00:52,700 This wasn't some abstract academic exercise. 20 00:00:52,960 --> 00:00:54,840 Not at all. He delivered this material after 21 00:00:54,840 --> 00:00:57,460 receiving an award named for Rabbi Leopold Lucas, 22 00:00:57,700 --> 00:01:00,700 who died in Theresienstadt, and his wife was 23 00:01:00,700 --> 00:01:03,079 murdered at Auschwitz. And Jonas's own mother 24 00:01:03,079 --> 00:01:05,599 suffered the same fate. Absolutely. Yeah. So 25 00:01:05,599 --> 00:01:07,700 this paper, The Concept of God After Auschwitz, 26 00:01:07,760 --> 00:01:10,799 it's an answer that he feels is owed to shadows. 27 00:01:11,560 --> 00:01:14,180 It's a philosophical debt, really, paid to the 28 00:01:14,180 --> 00:01:16,799 millions who died questioning a silent God. It's 29 00:01:16,799 --> 00:01:19,819 concept reformation driven by trauma. That's 30 00:01:19,819 --> 00:01:21,980 the perfect way to put it. And before Jonas can 31 00:01:21,980 --> 00:01:26,060 even begin this. this reformulation of God, he 32 00:01:26,060 --> 00:01:28,379 has to justify the act of doing so at all. Because, 33 00:01:28,439 --> 00:01:30,459 you know, by the mid -20th century, a lot of 34 00:01:30,459 --> 00:01:32,540 the intellectual date keepers, people like Kant 35 00:01:32,540 --> 00:01:34,780 or the logical positivists, they'd essentially 36 00:01:34,780 --> 00:01:37,439 declared the whole conversation about God, about 37 00:01:37,439 --> 00:01:40,500 metaphysics, to be philosophically dead. That's 38 00:01:40,500 --> 00:01:43,159 right. The cognitive veto, as he calls it. Kant 39 00:01:43,159 --> 00:01:45,180 had already said that we can't use theoretical 40 00:01:45,180 --> 00:01:47,939 reason to speculate on God. It just falls outside 41 00:01:47,939 --> 00:01:49,939 the realm of things we can logically prove or, 42 00:01:49,959 --> 00:01:52,819 you know, know. And the logical positivists took 43 00:01:52,819 --> 00:01:55,260 it even further. They did. They basically argued 44 00:01:55,260 --> 00:01:58,140 that statements about God were just nonsensical, 45 00:01:58,140 --> 00:02:00,959 void of conceptual meaning because they weren't 46 00:02:00,959 --> 00:02:04,719 verifiable by scientific physical data. So if 47 00:02:04,719 --> 00:02:07,239 the modern philosophical mind had basically decreed 48 00:02:07,239 --> 00:02:09,900 silence on this topic, why did Jonas refuse to 49 00:02:09,900 --> 00:02:12,439 listen? Why not just, you know, concede the point 50 00:02:12,439 --> 00:02:14,900 and become an atheist or an agnostic? Well, this 51 00:02:14,900 --> 00:02:16,900 is where he makes a brilliant distinction that 52 00:02:16,900 --> 00:02:19,020 really opens the door for his whole project. 53 00:02:19,520 --> 00:02:22,120 He grants that the cognitive veto only applies 54 00:02:22,120 --> 00:02:25,740 to knowledge. We cannot hope to know God, and 55 00:02:25,740 --> 00:02:27,840 we certainly can't prove him empirically. Okay. 56 00:02:28,259 --> 00:02:31,719 But, he argues, this does not mean we cannot 57 00:02:31,719 --> 00:02:34,360 meditate on God in terms of sense and meaning. 58 00:02:34,740 --> 00:02:37,699 Ah, so he's rejecting that idea that only the 59 00:02:37,699 --> 00:02:40,439 scientifically knowable is meaningful. Just because 60 00:02:40,439 --> 00:02:42,159 I can't put it under a microscope doesn't mean 61 00:02:42,159 --> 00:02:44,180 I can't speak about it coherently. Precisely. 62 00:02:44,569 --> 00:02:46,990 Working at the concept of God is justified as 63 00:02:46,990 --> 00:02:49,689 a task of understanding, not a task of knowledge. 64 00:02:49,889 --> 00:02:52,289 And the rigor for this understanding, it's maintained 65 00:02:52,289 --> 00:02:55,289 by the discipline of concept connection, making 66 00:02:55,289 --> 00:02:58,050 sure the resulting idea of God is logically coherent 67 00:02:58,050 --> 00:03:00,310 and doesn't, you know, contradict itself. But 68 00:03:00,310 --> 00:03:02,090 there's a second and I think far more powerful 69 00:03:02,090 --> 00:03:04,189 justification you mentioned, which gives this 70 00:03:04,189 --> 00:03:07,960 entire project its fire. Yes. And it's the force 71 00:03:07,960 --> 00:03:10,680 of a unique and shattering experience. This is 72 00:03:10,680 --> 00:03:13,219 the ultimate license when an event is so massive, 73 00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:16,680 so profound that it just ruptures all previous 74 00:03:16,680 --> 00:03:19,500 metaphysical assumptions. And it makes the traditional 75 00:03:19,500 --> 00:03:22,120 concept of God morally and logically untenable. 76 00:03:22,240 --> 00:03:24,979 Well, the philosopher is then ethically compelled 77 00:03:24,979 --> 00:03:26,979 to try and make sense of the meaning of existence 78 00:03:26,979 --> 00:03:29,500 again. And Auschwitz is that event. It's what 79 00:03:29,500 --> 00:03:31,819 breaks the silence that Kant decreed. It's the 80 00:03:31,819 --> 00:03:33,900 ultimate rupture. So that brings us directly 81 00:03:33,900 --> 00:03:37,139 to the core problem. Suffering is not new. Jewish 82 00:03:37,139 --> 00:03:39,759 persecution is a millennia -long story. So the 83 00:03:39,759 --> 00:03:42,419 question then becomes, what did Auschwitz add 84 00:03:42,419 --> 00:03:44,479 to the human equation that required a complete 85 00:03:44,479 --> 00:03:47,580 theological overhaul? Why did all the old answers 86 00:03:47,580 --> 00:03:51,039 break down so utterly? Well, for millennia, humanity 87 00:03:51,039 --> 00:03:54,379 and Judaism specifically had these frameworks 88 00:03:54,379 --> 00:03:57,419 of theodicy. which is the theological endeavor 89 00:03:57,419 --> 00:03:59,860 to justify God's goodness in the face of evil. 90 00:04:00,259 --> 00:04:02,419 Jonas points out that two of the primary Jewish 91 00:04:02,419 --> 00:04:04,699 frameworks were just entirely shattered by the 92 00:04:04,699 --> 00:04:07,479 mechanization of debt that ended in 1945. Okay, 93 00:04:07,539 --> 00:04:09,419 let's start with the most ancient one, the prophetic 94 00:04:09,419 --> 00:04:12,139 view, this idea of guilt and retribution. Right, 95 00:04:12,180 --> 00:04:14,520 this is the covenantal framework. So when disaster 96 00:04:14,520 --> 00:04:17,220 struck exile, famine, the destruction of the 97 00:04:17,220 --> 00:04:19,600 temple, the explanation was, well, it was clear. 98 00:04:19,699 --> 00:04:22,350 Israel had been unfaithful to the covenant. The 99 00:04:22,350 --> 00:04:24,430 suffering was a punishment for sin. A direct 100 00:04:24,430 --> 00:04:26,910 transaction. A direct transaction. But Jonas 101 00:04:26,910 --> 00:04:29,310 observes that this particular explanation had 102 00:04:29,310 --> 00:04:32,569 already long ceased to function by the modern 103 00:04:32,569 --> 00:04:34,629 era. People just didn't view their suffering 104 00:04:34,629 --> 00:04:36,629 that way anymore. OK, so that one was already 105 00:04:36,629 --> 00:04:39,509 fading. But the second and arguably far more 106 00:04:39,509 --> 00:04:42,410 robust framework was that of witness and martyrdom 107 00:04:42,410 --> 00:04:45,529 or Kiddush Hashem, the sanctification of God's 108 00:04:45,529 --> 00:04:48,509 name. This is what sustained Jewish life through 109 00:04:48,509 --> 00:04:51,600 the Crusades, the Inquisition. Pogroms. Yes. 110 00:04:51,699 --> 00:04:53,839 And this emerged very strongly in the Maccabean 111 00:04:53,839 --> 00:04:56,139 age. The idea was that the innocent suffered, 112 00:04:56,399 --> 00:04:59,620 but, and this is the key, they did so with agency. 113 00:05:00,079 --> 00:05:02,800 They were choosing death over apostasy. They 114 00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:04,879 maintained their dignity. They affirmed God's 115 00:05:04,879 --> 00:05:07,240 oneness with the Shema Israel. And through their 116 00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:10,279 sacrifice, they kept alive the hope for a final 117 00:05:10,279 --> 00:05:12,680 messianic redemption. Their death had meaning. 118 00:05:12,920 --> 00:05:16,160 They were spiritual heroes, saints even. They 119 00:05:16,160 --> 00:05:18,779 were giving their lives for their belief. Exactly. 120 00:05:18,939 --> 00:05:21,439 And that's the crucial context we need to appreciate. 121 00:05:21,720 --> 00:05:25,060 In, say, medieval martyrdom, the victims still 122 00:05:25,060 --> 00:05:27,259 had a role in the story. They controlled their 123 00:05:27,259 --> 00:05:29,639 confession. They were a witness. But Auschwitz 124 00:05:29,639 --> 00:05:32,660 redefined suffering. It redefined death. It did. 125 00:05:32,839 --> 00:05:35,740 Jonas stresses that the factory -like workings 126 00:05:35,740 --> 00:05:38,259 of the death machine, it knew nothing of fidelity 127 00:05:38,259 --> 00:05:41,540 or infidelity, belief or unbelief, guilt or punishment. 128 00:05:41,740 --> 00:05:45,259 Not trial, not witness, not heroism, or even 129 00:05:45,259 --> 00:05:47,740 cowardice. The conditions of utter degradation, 130 00:05:48,079 --> 00:05:51,300 starvation, torture, they stripped away any possibility 131 00:05:51,300 --> 00:05:54,279 of a meaningful, dignified self -sacrifice. The 132 00:05:54,279 --> 00:05:56,699 victims were reduced to non -persons before they 133 00:05:56,699 --> 00:05:58,839 were even killed. They were murdered not for 134 00:05:58,839 --> 00:06:00,819 their faith, which is the definition of martyrdom, 135 00:06:00,939 --> 00:06:03,180 but because of a lace fiction. It didn't matter 136 00:06:03,180 --> 00:06:05,899 if they were pious, secular, or had even converted 137 00:06:05,899 --> 00:06:08,600 to another religion. The dehumanization was absolute. 138 00:06:08,819 --> 00:06:10,939 To be a martyr, you had to have agency. You have 139 00:06:10,939 --> 00:06:13,959 to be able to say, I died for X. At Auschwitz, 140 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:16,199 the victims were prevented from fulfilling any 141 00:06:16,199 --> 00:06:18,660 spiritual role. They were simply annihilated 142 00:06:18,660 --> 00:06:21,019 based on a bureaucratic ledger. And this is what 143 00:06:21,019 --> 00:06:24,459 Jonas calls the monstrous inversion. It is. The 144 00:06:24,459 --> 00:06:26,360 ancient people of the covenant were chosen not 145 00:06:26,360 --> 00:06:29,459 for a trial of faith, but for wholesale mechanized 146 00:06:29,459 --> 00:06:32,740 annihilation. This defied all possible endowment 147 00:06:32,740 --> 00:06:35,620 with meaning. The fact that God was silent throughout 148 00:06:35,620 --> 00:06:38,100 those years, that God let it happen. When the 149 00:06:38,100 --> 00:06:39,660 people of the covenant were being killed in a 150 00:06:39,660 --> 00:06:41,459 way that stripped their death of all theological 151 00:06:41,459 --> 00:06:44,800 meaning, well, it nullified every single traditional 152 00:06:44,800 --> 00:06:48,079 framework. And this crisis, it hits Judaism with 153 00:06:48,079 --> 00:06:50,439 a unique theological force, doesn't it? More 154 00:06:50,439 --> 00:06:53,040 so than other faiths like Christianity. It does. 155 00:06:53,100 --> 00:06:56,100 I mean, to a stern Orthodox Christian view, the 156 00:06:56,100 --> 00:06:59,680 world is often seen as inherently flawed, tainted 157 00:06:59,680 --> 00:07:02,879 by original sin. Suffering is, in a sense, an 158 00:07:02,879 --> 00:07:05,339 expected condition of a fallen world. Sometimes 159 00:07:05,339 --> 00:07:07,579 it's even viewed as a necessary path to celestial 160 00:07:07,579 --> 00:07:10,480 redemption. But Judaism has always historically 161 00:07:10,480 --> 00:07:13,759 prioritized this world. Precisely. To Judaism, 162 00:07:13,959 --> 00:07:16,199 God is eminently the Lord of history. He is the 163 00:07:16,199 --> 00:07:18,079 divine authority that acts, that intervenes, 164 00:07:18,079 --> 00:07:20,560 that creates, delivers justice, and brings redemption 165 00:07:20,560 --> 00:07:23,300 within the processes of time. In this world, 166 00:07:23,500 --> 00:07:25,980 the covenant promises earthly justice in continuation. 167 00:07:26,439 --> 00:07:29,779 So... If history itself produces a horror that 168 00:07:29,779 --> 00:07:32,639 is utterly meaningless, unjustifiable, and just 169 00:07:32,639 --> 00:07:35,720 unprecedented, it calls the entire traditional 170 00:07:35,720 --> 00:07:39,399 concept of God into question, specifically God's 171 00:07:39,399 --> 00:07:41,920 power and his willingness to act within time. 172 00:07:42,060 --> 00:07:44,480 The covenantal structure is fundamentally violated. 173 00:07:44,639 --> 00:07:47,120 As Jonas put it, the entire concept of the Lord 174 00:07:47,120 --> 00:07:49,480 of History, we suspect, will have to go by the 175 00:07:49,480 --> 00:07:52,420 board in this quest. The question is no longer 176 00:07:52,420 --> 00:07:55,560 how God will justify evil, but what kind of God 177 00:07:55,560 --> 00:07:57,939 could possibly be compatible with this experience. 178 00:07:58,199 --> 00:08:00,759 The old categories, they just couldn't assimilate 179 00:08:00,759 --> 00:08:02,759 this horror. They were broken. Okay, so since 180 00:08:02,759 --> 00:08:05,120 all the old answers failed, Jonas has to create 181 00:08:05,120 --> 00:08:07,620 a new concept. And he uses the only tool that 182 00:08:07,620 --> 00:08:10,060 seems appropriate for this sphere beyond empirical 183 00:08:10,060 --> 00:08:12,829 knowledge. Myth. This isn't a historical narrative, 184 00:08:12,930 --> 00:08:14,790 right? It's an imaginative, credible conjecture. 185 00:08:14,810 --> 00:08:16,649 Sort of like the great cosmic stories of Plato. 186 00:08:16,810 --> 00:08:18,870 And this is where he introduces his central mechanism, 187 00:08:19,110 --> 00:08:21,990 God's self -forfeiture. Right. And this is the 188 00:08:21,990 --> 00:08:24,410 concept of kenosis, or divine self -emptying. 189 00:08:24,550 --> 00:08:26,850 For reasons we can never know, the why of it 190 00:08:26,850 --> 00:08:29,769 all remains unknowable. The divine chose to give 191 00:08:29,769 --> 00:08:32,929 itself over entirely to the chance and risk and 192 00:08:32,929 --> 00:08:35,860 endless variety of becoming. And this renunciation 193 00:08:35,860 --> 00:08:38,399 was total. This is the crucial difference from, 194 00:08:38,440 --> 00:08:41,480 say, ideas of mere divine delegation. It was 195 00:08:41,480 --> 00:08:44,159 total. The deity held back nothing of itself. 196 00:08:44,620 --> 00:08:47,580 This means God divested himself of his completed, 197 00:08:47,700 --> 00:08:50,320 sovereign being for the sake of an unprejudiced 198 00:08:50,320 --> 00:08:53,580 becoming. There was no uncommitted or unimpaired 199 00:08:53,580 --> 00:08:56,480 part remained to direct, correct, and ultimately 200 00:08:56,480 --> 00:08:59,519 guarantee the outcome of creation. So the world 201 00:08:59,519 --> 00:09:02,120 is genuinely left to its own devices. The laws 202 00:09:02,120 --> 00:09:04,159 of nature, the course of history, they brook 203 00:09:04,159 --> 00:09:06,799 no interference. This is what makes our being 204 00:09:06,799 --> 00:09:09,399 in the world so serious, as Jonas says. It creates 205 00:09:09,399 --> 00:09:11,399 a tremendous existential risk for the divine 206 00:09:11,399 --> 00:09:13,840 itself. And this is not panotheism, where God 207 00:09:13,840 --> 00:09:15,379 and the world are identical, which would mean 208 00:09:15,379 --> 00:09:18,220 God can neither lose nor gain. Here, God's goal 209 00:09:18,220 --> 00:09:20,240 is to receive his being back from the odyssey 210 00:09:20,240 --> 00:09:23,120 of time, a being now weighted with temporal experience, 211 00:09:23,279 --> 00:09:25,399 a being that is possibly transfigured or possibly 212 00:09:25,399 --> 00:09:27,830 even disfigured by it. The stakes are absolutely 213 00:09:27,830 --> 00:09:31,870 immense for the internal. Immense. And this unfolding 214 00:09:31,870 --> 00:09:35,289 of divine return happens in stages, right? It 215 00:09:35,289 --> 00:09:37,629 sort of mirrors the evolutionary history of the 216 00:09:37,629 --> 00:09:42,129 cosmos. Let's trace this cosmic gamble. So for 217 00:09:42,129 --> 00:09:44,669 the first immense period, Eons and Eons God's 218 00:09:44,669 --> 00:09:47,090 cause is relatively safe. It's in the hands of 219 00:09:47,090 --> 00:09:49,529 cosmic chance and probability, you know, the 220 00:09:49,529 --> 00:09:51,970 inorganic realm. This phase is characterized 221 00:09:51,970 --> 00:09:55,149 as the expectant accompaniment of eternity to 222 00:09:55,149 --> 00:09:58,480 the labors of time. Transcendence is just a patient 223 00:09:58,480 --> 00:10:01,000 memory, sort of hesitantly emerging. And then 224 00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:03,240 comes the first dramatic moment, the first stirring 225 00:10:03,240 --> 00:10:06,519 of life. Yes. The advent of life is described 226 00:10:06,519 --> 00:10:08,679 as a tremendous quickening of concern in the 227 00:10:08,679 --> 00:10:11,360 eternal realm. With life comes feeling, sensing, 228 00:10:11,620 --> 00:10:14,860 acting, striving, suffering, mortality. But crucially, 229 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:18,519 this stage is marked by innocence. The creatures 230 00:10:18,519 --> 00:10:20,139 are merely fulfilling their inherent potential. 231 00:10:20,679 --> 00:10:23,000 This leads to one of the most, I think, difficult 232 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:26,019 philosophical ideas in Jonas's essay. The concept 233 00:10:26,019 --> 00:10:28,200 that suffering and even cruelty in the animal 234 00:10:28,200 --> 00:10:30,679 kingdom, surprisingly, enriches the divine essence. 235 00:10:30,779 --> 00:10:33,279 Why is God safe in this stage? Because the animal 236 00:10:33,279 --> 00:10:36,000 kingdom operates outside the moral axis of good 237 00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:38,559 and evil. It's all driven by necessity, appetite, 238 00:10:38,759 --> 00:10:41,860 fear, survival. So whatever variety evolution 239 00:10:41,860 --> 00:10:44,200 produces, the heightened pitch and passion of 240 00:10:44,200 --> 00:10:47,639 predation and pain, it enriches the self -experiencing 241 00:10:47,639 --> 00:10:49,730 of the ground of being. God cannot lose here 242 00:10:49,730 --> 00:10:52,009 because all these experiences, bright or dark, 243 00:10:52,090 --> 00:10:54,789 they just swell the fullness of the symphony. 244 00:10:54,909 --> 00:10:57,590 So if a lion kills a gazelle, that's just necessity, 245 00:10:57,750 --> 00:11:00,289 not a moral evil. The pain of the gazelle is 246 00:11:00,289 --> 00:11:03,090 a modality of existence. It adds temporal experience 247 00:11:03,090 --> 00:11:05,710 to the divine essence which is committed to experiencing 248 00:11:05,710 --> 00:11:08,149 everything. Precisely. The mortality and the 249 00:11:08,149 --> 00:11:10,330 pain simply deepen the transcendent treasure. 250 00:11:10,690 --> 00:11:13,330 The suffering is non -moral, and therefore, it's 251 00:11:13,330 --> 00:11:15,690 ultimately a gain for the deity. It supplies 252 00:11:15,690 --> 00:11:18,529 the tempered essence from which the Godhead reconstitutes 253 00:11:18,529 --> 00:11:21,070 itself. And this continues until creation crosses 254 00:11:21,070 --> 00:11:23,649 a critical threshold. The moment innocence ceases, 255 00:11:23,809 --> 00:11:26,549 the advent of man. This is where the risk becomes 256 00:11:26,549 --> 00:11:29,830 absolute. With man comes knowledge and freedom. 257 00:11:30,289 --> 00:11:32,490 This is the gift that ends innocence, and it's 258 00:11:32,490 --> 00:11:35,009 replaced with the charge of responsibility under 259 00:11:35,009 --> 00:11:38,009 the disjunction of good and evil. The divine 260 00:11:38,009 --> 00:11:41,049 cause, having patiently endured the vast spirals 261 00:11:41,049 --> 00:11:45,389 of pre -human life, now passes into man's precarious 262 00:11:45,389 --> 00:11:48,289 trust. Which means man's deeds have a direct 263 00:11:48,289 --> 00:11:51,750 impact on God's destiny itself, the very complexion 264 00:11:51,750 --> 00:11:53,669 of eternal being. I mean, that is an astronomical 265 00:11:53,669 --> 00:11:56,289 weight of responsibility. It is terrifying. In 266 00:11:56,289 --> 00:11:58,690 this myth, transcendence is awakened to itself 267 00:11:58,690 --> 00:12:01,289 and accompanies man's doings with the bated breath 268 00:12:01,289 --> 00:12:04,090 of suspense. God hopes and grieves with every 269 00:12:04,090 --> 00:12:06,570 human action, but... and this is key, because 270 00:12:06,570 --> 00:12:09,490 of that initial total self -forfeiture, he absolutely 271 00:12:09,490 --> 00:12:11,830 does not intervene in the dynamics of the worldly 272 00:12:11,830 --> 00:12:14,570 scene. The ultimate existential risk is introduced 273 00:12:14,570 --> 00:12:17,870 at the human level. Creation is now co -responsible 274 00:12:17,870 --> 00:12:19,710 for the fate of the creator. Okay, so that myth 275 00:12:19,710 --> 00:12:21,809 of self -forfeiture, it translates into three 276 00:12:21,809 --> 00:12:24,110 core theological attributes that really break 277 00:12:24,110 --> 00:12:26,309 decisively with millennia of orthodox thought. 278 00:12:26,490 --> 00:12:28,649 The first and most immediate is the suffering 279 00:12:28,649 --> 00:12:31,529 God. And this notion is immediately antagonistic 280 00:12:31,529 --> 00:12:34,250 to the traditional biblical conception of divine 281 00:12:34,250 --> 00:12:37,090 majesty, which was heavily influenced by Greek 282 00:12:37,090 --> 00:12:40,470 philosophy. Ancient Jewish and Christian theologians, 283 00:12:40,549 --> 00:12:43,289 drawing on Plato and Aristotle, they stressed 284 00:12:43,289 --> 00:12:46,570 impassibility, the idea that God is unable to 285 00:12:46,570 --> 00:12:49,389 suffer or be affected by human affairs. Right. 286 00:12:49,509 --> 00:12:52,389 And why was impassibility so crucial to traditional 287 00:12:52,389 --> 00:12:55,169 theology? Because the Greeks believed that perfection 288 00:12:55,169 --> 00:12:58,950 meant immutability. If you are perfect, You cannot 289 00:12:58,950 --> 00:13:02,110 change. So if you can suffer, you can be diminished, 290 00:13:02,309 --> 00:13:04,549 which means you are not perfect to begin with. 291 00:13:04,809 --> 00:13:07,870 Thus, a perfect God must be impassable, untouched 292 00:13:07,870 --> 00:13:10,629 by the turmoil of the material world. But Jonas' 293 00:13:10,789 --> 00:13:12,870 suffering God contradicts this fundamentally. 294 00:13:13,330 --> 00:13:16,490 It does. Jonas is careful, though. He distinguishes 295 00:13:16,490 --> 00:13:18,830 his concept from the Christian idea of kenosis, 296 00:13:18,950 --> 00:13:21,409 which often centers on a singular special act 297 00:13:21,409 --> 00:13:23,970 of suffering, the incarnation and crucifixion. 298 00:13:24,159 --> 00:13:26,799 For Jonas, if the myth is true, divine suffering 299 00:13:26,799 --> 00:13:29,460 isn't a special event. It's continuous. It began 300 00:13:29,460 --> 00:13:31,460 from the moment of creation and certainly from 301 00:13:31,460 --> 00:13:33,820 the creation of man onward. So God's relationship 302 00:13:33,820 --> 00:13:37,139 with the world is suffering. Precisely. And although 303 00:13:37,139 --> 00:13:39,480 the Orthodox doctrine tried to stamp it out, 304 00:13:39,559 --> 00:13:42,019 you can find biblical precedent for this kind 305 00:13:42,019 --> 00:13:44,500 of effect of God. You have God ruling that he 306 00:13:44,500 --> 00:13:47,159 created man of Genesis or the prophet Hosea describing 307 00:13:47,159 --> 00:13:50,279 God's rejection and grief over his unfaithful 308 00:13:50,279 --> 00:13:53,610 wife, Israel. Jonas is simply foregrounding and 309 00:13:53,610 --> 00:13:56,350 elevating that emotional vulnerability as a necessary 310 00:13:56,350 --> 00:13:59,129 divine attribute. And the second attribute flows 311 00:13:59,129 --> 00:14:01,789 directly from this emotional connection, the 312 00:14:01,789 --> 00:14:05,289 becoming God. This challenges the entire philosophical 313 00:14:05,289 --> 00:14:07,809 superstructure of Western religion, that idea 314 00:14:07,809 --> 00:14:10,289 of immutability and transtemporality. Yeah, the 315 00:14:10,289 --> 00:14:12,610 Platonic Aristotelian ideal insisted that God 316 00:14:12,610 --> 00:14:15,269 possessed a completed, eternal being, identical 317 00:14:15,269 --> 00:14:17,919 with itself, existing outside of time. Jonas 318 00:14:17,919 --> 00:14:19,620 just counters that if God is in any relation 319 00:14:19,620 --> 00:14:21,740 to the world, which is the cardinal assumption 320 00:14:21,740 --> 00:14:24,120 of any religious tradition, then he is affected. 321 00:14:24,379 --> 00:14:26,639 And to be affected is to be altered or made different. 322 00:14:26,740 --> 00:14:29,340 He's no longer alone. The eternal has temporalized 323 00:14:29,340 --> 00:14:31,779 himself. So the mere fact of a continual relationship 324 00:14:31,779 --> 00:14:34,879 with a dynamic creation means God experiences 325 00:14:34,879 --> 00:14:37,700 something new with every passing moment. He progressively 326 00:14:37,700 --> 00:14:39,480 becomes different through the actualizations 327 00:14:39,480 --> 00:14:42,639 of the world process. And this refutes a key 328 00:14:42,639 --> 00:14:46,620 modern philosophical anxiety. Jonas uses this 329 00:14:46,620 --> 00:14:49,240 to address Nietzsche's terrifying concept of 330 00:14:49,240 --> 00:14:52,200 the eternal recurrence of the same. Remind us 331 00:14:52,200 --> 00:14:55,080 briefly why that idea of eternal recurrence was 332 00:14:55,080 --> 00:14:58,539 so central to modern angst. Well, Nietzsche hypothesized 333 00:14:58,539 --> 00:15:00,580 that if the universe is finite in matter but 334 00:15:00,580 --> 00:15:03,509 infinite in time, then every single combination 335 00:15:03,509 --> 00:15:06,570 of particles must eventually recur, which means 336 00:15:06,570 --> 00:15:09,490 we will live the exact same lives, the same suffering, 337 00:15:09,590 --> 00:15:11,549 the same joys over and over again, infinitely. 338 00:15:11,830 --> 00:15:14,490 It's a vision of total meaninglessness, of an 339 00:15:14,490 --> 00:15:17,250 utterly indifferent dead universe trapped in 340 00:15:17,250 --> 00:15:19,590 mechanical cycles. And how does the becoming 341 00:15:19,590 --> 00:15:22,549 God destroy this fatalistic cycle? Because if 342 00:15:22,549 --> 00:15:24,610 eternity is affected by what happens in time, 343 00:15:24,750 --> 00:15:26,549 there can never be a recurrence of the same. 344 00:15:26,870 --> 00:15:29,129 God will not be the same after the experience 345 00:15:29,129 --> 00:15:32,059 of one world process. The divine essence itself 346 00:15:32,059 --> 00:15:34,340 carries the memory and the cumulative harvest 347 00:15:34,340 --> 00:15:37,340 of time. Every moment of existence, good or evil, 348 00:15:37,440 --> 00:15:40,559 alters eternity. Which means the future can never 349 00:15:40,559 --> 00:15:42,879 be a simple repetition of the past. That's powerful. 350 00:15:43,059 --> 00:15:45,620 It injects genuine, non -cyclical meaning into 351 00:15:45,620 --> 00:15:47,980 every action we take. Okay, so finally we have 352 00:15:47,980 --> 00:15:50,440 the caring and endangered God. Right. Caring 353 00:15:50,440 --> 00:15:53,100 is familiar, of course. But the danger is the 354 00:15:53,100 --> 00:15:55,820 consequence of his self -dissessment. This God 355 00:15:55,820 --> 00:15:58,879 cares deeply, but he is not some cosmic sorcerer 356 00:15:58,879 --> 00:16:01,259 who can guarantee fulfillment through sheer power. 357 00:16:01,659 --> 00:16:04,159 He has made his care dependent on the decisions 358 00:16:04,159 --> 00:16:06,899 and actions of his free, self -governing agents. 359 00:16:07,200 --> 00:16:10,419 And the fact of massive, irredeemable, evil Auschwitz 360 00:16:10,419 --> 00:16:13,139 being the ultimate example proves what, according 361 00:16:13,139 --> 00:16:15,480 to Jonas? It proves that God is taking a massive 362 00:16:15,480 --> 00:16:18,299 risk. Either the traditional, omnipotent God 363 00:16:18,299 --> 00:16:20,659 does not exist, or the God who does exist has 364 00:16:20,659 --> 00:16:23,440 given an agency other than himself a power and 365 00:16:23,440 --> 00:16:26,330 a right to act on its own. And this, by definition, 366 00:16:26,470 --> 00:16:28,629 means God has foregone the guaranteeing of his 367 00:16:28,629 --> 00:16:31,690 self -satisfaction by his own power once he created 368 00:16:31,690 --> 00:16:34,129 the world. He runs the risk of being disappointed, 369 00:16:34,490 --> 00:16:37,129 grieved, or even disfigured by human choices. 370 00:16:37,370 --> 00:16:39,269 And this brings us to what feels like the absolute 371 00:16:39,269 --> 00:16:42,629 core of Jonas' argument, the necessity of overthrowing 372 00:16:42,629 --> 00:16:44,750 the traditional doctrine of absolute, unlimited 373 00:16:44,750 --> 00:16:47,769 divine power. For Jonas, if we want a God that 374 00:16:47,769 --> 00:16:49,690 is compatible with the Jewish tradition and the 375 00:16:49,690 --> 00:16:52,389 reality of the Holocaust, omnipotence has to 376 00:16:52,389 --> 00:16:55,279 be discarded first. Yes. And he attacks this 377 00:16:55,279 --> 00:16:57,820 first with a purely philosophical argument. He 378 00:16:57,820 --> 00:17:01,259 calls the very concept of omnipotence self -contradictory, 379 00:17:01,279 --> 00:17:05,259 self -destructive, indeed senseless. This isn't 380 00:17:05,259 --> 00:17:07,180 just a theological quibble. For him, it's an 381 00:17:07,180 --> 00:17:09,599 ontological one. It's the famous paradox of power, 382 00:17:09,740 --> 00:17:12,500 isn't it? How can power be absolute without destroying 383 00:17:12,500 --> 00:17:14,500 the very condition that allows power to exist 384 00:17:14,500 --> 00:17:17,000 in the first place? Exactly. Power is inherently 385 00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:20,940 relational. If power is absolute, having no limits, 386 00:17:21,160 --> 00:17:23,339 it's not limited even by the existence of something 387 00:17:23,339 --> 00:17:26,599 else. So to maintain its absoluteness, it must 388 00:17:26,599 --> 00:17:28,859 logically annihilate anything outside itself, 389 00:17:29,079 --> 00:17:31,680 because any other existence constitutes a limitation. 390 00:17:32,039 --> 00:17:34,000 And if it annihilates everything else? It's left 391 00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:37,730 in solitude, with no object to act on. And power 392 00:17:37,730 --> 00:17:39,910 without an object to act on is powerless power. 393 00:17:40,279 --> 00:17:42,880 It cancels itself out. Absolute power ends up 394 00:17:42,880 --> 00:17:44,859 equaling zero. That's a brilliant conceptual 395 00:17:44,859 --> 00:17:47,220 move. It's like for power to be power, it has 396 00:17:47,220 --> 00:17:49,279 to be divided and relational. I think of it like 397 00:17:49,279 --> 00:17:51,460 absolute freedom. Absolute freedom where there 398 00:17:51,460 --> 00:17:54,220 are zero constraints is meaningless. Freedom 399 00:17:54,220 --> 00:17:56,759 needs walls to push against. It's the same principle. 400 00:17:57,119 --> 00:18:00,460 Power requires resistance. If power meets no 401 00:18:00,460 --> 00:18:03,519 resistance, it is equal to no power at all. The 402 00:18:03,519 --> 00:18:06,819 very existence of creation, even if that creation 403 00:18:06,819 --> 00:18:09,759 was granted power by the creator. fundamentally 404 00:18:09,759 --> 00:18:13,000 limits the initial agent to grant creation being 405 00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:15,940 is to grant it a power of its own therefore power 406 00:18:15,940 --> 00:18:18,960 is inherently divided and thus god cannot be 407 00:18:18,960 --> 00:18:21,619 omnipotent in the absolute sense so philosophically 408 00:18:21,619 --> 00:18:24,019 jonas has already proven omnipotence is illogical 409 00:18:24,019 --> 00:18:26,920 but the theological and religious objection the 410 00:18:26,920 --> 00:18:29,039 one driven by auschwitz that's the real catalyst 411 00:18:29,039 --> 00:18:31,500 and this is where he introduces The powerful 412 00:18:31,500 --> 00:18:34,140 trilemma. Right. The trilemma states that three 413 00:18:34,140 --> 00:18:36,640 attributes, absolute goodness, absolute power, 414 00:18:36,740 --> 00:18:38,700 and intelligibility cannot exist simultaneously. 415 00:18:39,259 --> 00:18:41,900 The conjunction of any two excludes the third, 416 00:18:42,019 --> 00:18:44,000 especially when you view them against the backdrop 417 00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:46,440 of massive, meaningless evil. So if we look at 418 00:18:46,440 --> 00:18:48,420 the Holocaust, the devastation, the fact that 419 00:18:48,420 --> 00:18:50,599 an omnipotent God watched six million people, 420 00:18:50,740 --> 00:18:53,839 including children, die in gas chambers, we have 421 00:18:53,839 --> 00:18:55,839 to confront the logical consequences of that. 422 00:18:56,019 --> 00:18:58,180 The trilemma forces an extremely uncomfortable 423 00:18:58,180 --> 00:19:02,220 choice. If God is good and all -powerful, then 424 00:19:02,220 --> 00:19:04,640 the existence of that evil makes his actions 425 00:19:04,640 --> 00:19:07,640 completely unintelligible. We can't grasp his 426 00:19:07,640 --> 00:19:10,180 motives or purposes at all. And if he is all 427 00:19:10,180 --> 00:19:12,380 -powerful and his actions are intelligible, meaning 428 00:19:12,380 --> 00:19:15,319 we understand his will, then the evil he allows 429 00:19:15,319 --> 00:19:18,019 suggests he is not good. Right. And if he is 430 00:19:18,019 --> 00:19:20,240 good and his actions are intelligible, then he 431 00:19:20,240 --> 00:19:22,200 must not be all -powerful because he cannot stop 432 00:19:22,200 --> 00:19:25,160 the evil. So which of these attributes must we 433 00:19:25,160 --> 00:19:28,509 sacrifice? Jonas argues that goodness and intelligibility 434 00:19:28,509 --> 00:19:31,150 are essential, which means power has to give 435 00:19:31,150 --> 00:19:33,690 way. Goodness is non -negotiable for religious 436 00:19:33,690 --> 00:19:36,230 faith. I mean, if God is not good, then what 437 00:19:36,230 --> 00:19:39,029 is the purpose of seeking him? But, and this 438 00:19:39,029 --> 00:19:41,309 is crucial for the Jewish tradition, intelligibility 439 00:19:41,309 --> 00:19:43,809 is also essential. And why is intelligibility, 440 00:19:43,809 --> 00:19:46,369 understanding God's will, so fundamentally necessary 441 00:19:46,369 --> 00:19:49,230 for Judaism, even when it seems impossible? Because 442 00:19:49,230 --> 00:19:51,470 the entire structure of Judaism rests on the 443 00:19:51,470 --> 00:19:54,230 premise of revelation. The Torah, The teachings 444 00:19:54,230 --> 00:19:56,650 of the prophets, the covenant itself, all these 445 00:19:56,650 --> 00:19:59,190 things imply that God has communicated his will, 446 00:19:59,349 --> 00:20:02,269 his intentions, and his demands to us. We're 447 00:20:02,269 --> 00:20:05,269 expected to follow his law, which means we must 448 00:20:05,269 --> 00:20:07,650 have some degree of understanding of his moral 449 00:20:07,650 --> 00:20:11,730 order. A completely hidden God, a deus absconditis, 450 00:20:11,930 --> 00:20:14,170 is just antithetical to the Jewish narrative. 451 00:20:14,430 --> 00:20:17,069 Yeah, if God were completely hidden and unintelligible, 452 00:20:17,250 --> 00:20:19,809 the entire edifice of law and ethical responsibility 453 00:20:19,809 --> 00:20:22,490 would just collapse. Exactly. So to preserve 454 00:20:22,490 --> 00:20:25,240 the religious core, The goodness and the knowable, 455 00:20:25,359 --> 00:20:28,180 if only partially, nature of God's willpower 456 00:20:28,180 --> 00:20:31,299 must be sacrificed. The existence of Auschwitz 457 00:20:31,299 --> 00:20:34,000 forces the conclusion that if God is good and 458 00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:35,980 his goodness must be compatible with the existence 459 00:20:35,980 --> 00:20:38,480 of evil, then he cannot be all -powerful. He 460 00:20:38,480 --> 00:20:41,059 has to be limited. Okay, so once we accept that 461 00:20:41,059 --> 00:20:42,980 God is limited, we have to define the nature 462 00:20:42,980 --> 00:20:45,339 of that limitation. A devout believer might try 463 00:20:45,339 --> 00:20:47,900 to salvage omnipotence by saying, well, God still 464 00:20:47,900 --> 00:20:50,559 has full power, but he chooses not to use it. 465 00:20:50,829 --> 00:20:52,750 you know, voluntary restraint argument, often 466 00:20:52,750 --> 00:20:55,029 for the sake of granting creation genuine autonomy. 467 00:20:55,329 --> 00:20:57,809 That's the most palatable middle ground for traditional 468 00:20:57,809 --> 00:21:01,650 theology. But Jonas insists this idea of voluntary 469 00:21:01,650 --> 00:21:04,589 restraint fails the Auschwitz test completely. 470 00:21:04,869 --> 00:21:07,250 And the failure hinges on the sheer magnitude 471 00:21:07,250 --> 00:21:10,549 of the evil. Precisely. If God is all -powerful 472 00:21:10,549 --> 00:21:13,509 and all -good, he might restrain himself to allow 473 00:21:13,509 --> 00:21:16,630 freedom to operate in matters of, say, minor 474 00:21:16,630 --> 00:21:19,920 corruption or injustice. But in view of the enormity 475 00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:22,720 of what humans inflicted on the innocent at Auschwitz, 476 00:21:22,799 --> 00:21:25,500 the industrialized murder of millions, a good 477 00:21:25,500 --> 00:21:28,140 God observing his rule of restraint would surely 478 00:21:28,140 --> 00:21:30,700 be compelled to break it. The moral imperative 479 00:21:30,700 --> 00:21:33,220 to intervene would shatter any prior commitment 480 00:21:33,220 --> 00:21:35,740 to non -interference. Right. A truly good father, 481 00:21:35,799 --> 00:21:37,779 no matter how committed he is to his child's 482 00:21:37,779 --> 00:21:39,720 independence, he intervenes when that child is 483 00:21:39,720 --> 00:21:41,799 being slaughtered. And yet no saving miracle 484 00:21:41,799 --> 00:21:44,920 occurred. The great silence was absolute throughout 485 00:21:44,920 --> 00:21:47,289 those years of horror. And this is the moment 486 00:21:47,289 --> 00:21:49,789 where Jonas draws the radical conclusion. Not 487 00:21:49,789 --> 00:21:51,769 because he chose not to, but because he could 488 00:21:51,769 --> 00:21:54,069 not intervene did he fail to intervene. So Jonas 489 00:21:54,069 --> 00:21:56,509 is forced to entertain the concept of a God who 490 00:21:56,509 --> 00:21:59,569 has divested himself of any power to interfere 491 00:21:59,569 --> 00:22:01,990 with the physical course of things for the duration 492 00:22:01,990 --> 00:22:04,430 of the ongoing world process. It's an absolute 493 00:22:04,430 --> 00:22:06,750 abandonment of the physical realm to the laws 494 00:22:06,750 --> 00:22:09,369 of nature and the freedom of man. God responds 495 00:22:09,369 --> 00:22:12,490 to the world only with the mutely insistent appeal. 496 00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:16,079 of his unfulfilled goal, not a mighty hand and 497 00:22:16,079 --> 00:22:18,599 outstretched arm. This radical finding, it just 498 00:22:18,599 --> 00:22:21,539 inevitably dismantles traditional Jewish orthodoxy, 499 00:22:21,539 --> 00:22:24,140 specifically Maimonides' 13 articles of faith. 500 00:22:24,319 --> 00:22:27,019 Oh, the implications are staggering. If God cannot 501 00:22:27,019 --> 00:22:29,440 physically intervene, we have to eliminate the 502 00:22:29,440 --> 00:22:31,460 assertions that God rules the universe through 503 00:22:31,460 --> 00:22:34,079 intervention, rewards the good, punishes the 504 00:22:34,079 --> 00:22:36,519 wicked, and orchestrates the literal coming of 505 00:22:36,519 --> 00:22:38,660 a conquering Messiah. All those expectations 506 00:22:38,660 --> 00:22:41,440 are tied to a display of mighty physical power. 507 00:22:41,789 --> 00:22:44,529 So what remains that preserves the Jewish essence? 508 00:22:44,829 --> 00:22:46,730 I mean, we can't simply toss everything out. 509 00:22:46,910 --> 00:22:49,910 What remains is the spiritual and moral core, 510 00:22:50,109 --> 00:22:53,670 the oneness of God and the concepts tied to the 511 00:22:53,670 --> 00:22:56,410 spiritual realm. So the call to the souls, the 512 00:22:56,410 --> 00:22:58,269 inspiration of the prophets, the eternal truth 513 00:22:58,269 --> 00:23:01,029 of the Torah, and the idea of election as a moral 514 00:23:01,029 --> 00:23:03,329 imperative, not a guaranteed divine protection. 515 00:23:04,430 --> 00:23:07,049 God's impotence refers only to the physical course 516 00:23:07,049 --> 00:23:09,430 of things, and this is vital because it avoids 517 00:23:09,430 --> 00:23:12,390 the Manichean trap. The idea that evil is caused 518 00:23:12,390 --> 00:23:16,190 by a co -equal evil force opposing God. Evil 519 00:23:16,190 --> 00:23:18,849 here arises solely from the hearts of men exercising 520 00:23:18,849 --> 00:23:21,470 their freedom. And this concept of divine self 521 00:23:21,470 --> 00:23:23,470 -restriction, while it's radical for mainstream 522 00:23:23,470 --> 00:23:26,109 thought, it does have a profound echo within 523 00:23:26,109 --> 00:23:27,990 the mystical tradition of Judaism, doesn't it? 524 00:23:28,009 --> 00:23:30,890 The Kabbalah. Yes, Jonas finds a powerful undercurrent 525 00:23:30,890 --> 00:23:33,190 there, particularly in the Lurianic Kabbalah, 526 00:23:33,190 --> 00:23:35,730 which acknowledges a divine fate that is bound 527 00:23:35,730 --> 00:23:37,890 up with the world's coming to be. The central 528 00:23:37,890 --> 00:23:40,769 concept here is Tzimtzum. Contraction or withdrawal. 529 00:23:40,890 --> 00:23:43,069 Can you tell us a bit more about how the Kabbalists 530 00:23:43,069 --> 00:23:45,890 used this concept? The mystics taught that the 531 00:23:45,890 --> 00:23:48,250 ends of the infinite and unknowable God was so 532 00:23:48,250 --> 00:23:51,069 vast that to create anything outside of himself, 533 00:23:51,349 --> 00:23:54,750 he had to contract, withdraw into himself. This 534 00:23:54,750 --> 00:23:57,490 created a kind of metaphorical empty space, the 535 00:23:57,490 --> 00:24:00,630 koal outside the infinite. If God hadn't retreated, 536 00:24:00,630 --> 00:24:02,130 everything would just be subsumed immediately 537 00:24:02,130 --> 00:24:05,049 back into the divine all in all. So creation 538 00:24:05,049 --> 00:24:07,789 itself was an act of initial, self -imposed limitation 539 00:24:07,789 --> 00:24:10,730 to allow a finite world to exist. That sounds 540 00:24:10,730 --> 00:24:12,950 like voluntary restraint. So how does Jonas' 541 00:24:13,089 --> 00:24:15,589 idea push Simpsom further? What's the radical 542 00:24:15,589 --> 00:24:17,750 step he takes? Well, the Kabbalistic Simpsom 543 00:24:17,750 --> 00:24:20,349 is generally understood as a spatial or conceptual 544 00:24:20,349 --> 00:24:23,650 withdrawal, often leaving residual divine energy 545 00:24:23,650 --> 00:24:27,180 to sustain the world. Jonas' myth takes the contraction 546 00:24:27,180 --> 00:24:30,079 to its absolute extreme. The renunciation is 547 00:24:30,079 --> 00:24:32,619 total as far as power is concerned. He ceded 548 00:24:32,619 --> 00:24:35,019 his power wholly to the finite, delivering his 549 00:24:35,019 --> 00:24:37,119 ultimate cause entirely into the hands of the 550 00:24:37,119 --> 00:24:39,660 world. Creation, in this view, was the single 551 00:24:39,660 --> 00:24:42,240 greatest act of sovereignty with which God consented 552 00:24:42,240 --> 00:24:44,680 to be absolute no more. So it transforms Simpson 553 00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:47,259 from just a precondition for existence to a complete 554 00:24:47,259 --> 00:24:49,359 operational divestment for the duration of time. 555 00:24:49,619 --> 00:24:52,720 Absolutely. The God of Simpson created the space 556 00:24:52,720 --> 00:24:55,779 for freedom. The God of Jonas surrendered the 557 00:24:55,779 --> 00:24:58,480 ability to override that freedom. Even when its 558 00:24:58,480 --> 00:25:02,059 use leads to cosmic devastation. And this non 559 00:25:02,059 --> 00:25:05,859 -intervening, divested God, it completely redefines 560 00:25:05,859 --> 00:25:08,740 the purpose and responsibility of humanity. If 561 00:25:08,740 --> 00:25:10,859 God is silent in the physical realm, he responds 562 00:25:10,859 --> 00:25:14,400 not with force, but with the mutely insistent 563 00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:17,079 appeal of his unfulfilled goal. He's waiting 564 00:25:17,079 --> 00:25:19,759 for the outcome. Which reframes the entire narrative 565 00:25:19,759 --> 00:25:22,559 of Auschwitz. If God was silent, then the true 566 00:25:22,559 --> 00:25:24,559 miracles that occurred could only have been man 567 00:25:24,559 --> 00:25:26,980 -made. Yes, they came forth solely from man. 568 00:25:27,339 --> 00:25:29,599 the deeds of the solitary, mostly unknown just 569 00:25:29,599 --> 00:25:32,420 of the nations, those who, at unimaginable risk, 570 00:25:32,559 --> 00:25:35,339 chose to help, save, or mitigate suffering. These 571 00:25:35,339 --> 00:25:37,500 individuals didn't shrink from utter sacrifice. 572 00:25:37,799 --> 00:25:40,279 Their actions were grace in the face of the unspeakable. 573 00:25:40,440 --> 00:25:42,640 They showed that even in the deepest spiritual 574 00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:45,500 degradation, human freedom can still choose good. 575 00:25:45,660 --> 00:25:47,460 And this leads to a new covenantal understanding, 576 00:25:47,819 --> 00:25:49,839 doesn't it? The relationship between man and 577 00:25:49,839 --> 00:25:52,240 God is basically reversed. Since God gave himself 578 00:25:52,240 --> 00:25:54,500 whole to the becoming world and has no more to 579 00:25:54,500 --> 00:25:57,630 give, it is now man's turn to give. to God. That's 580 00:25:57,630 --> 00:26:00,509 a radical shift from passive submission to active 581 00:26:00,509 --> 00:26:03,910 co -creation. Man gives to God by ensuring it 582 00:26:03,910 --> 00:26:06,789 does not happen or happen too often and not on 583 00:26:06,789 --> 00:26:09,309 his account that it repented the Lord to have 584 00:26:09,309 --> 00:26:12,450 made the world. Our ultimate purpose is to prevent 585 00:26:12,450 --> 00:26:15,210 God's grief and disappointment. And this resonates 586 00:26:15,210 --> 00:26:17,490 so deeply with the ancient Jewish lore of the 587 00:26:17,490 --> 00:26:20,450 36 righteous ones, the Lamb of Avniks. It ties 588 00:26:20,450 --> 00:26:23,670 in perfectly. This lore holds that the continued 589 00:26:23,670 --> 00:26:25,890 existence of the world depends on the hidden 590 00:26:25,890 --> 00:26:29,029 holiness of exactly 36 righteous individuals 591 00:26:29,029 --> 00:26:32,109 in every generation. Their superior goodness 592 00:26:32,109 --> 00:26:35,509 outweighs countless guilt and redresses the balance. 593 00:26:35,910 --> 00:26:38,750 They are the ultimate agents of the non -intervening 594 00:26:38,750 --> 00:26:41,849 God, sustaining the invisible moral realm and 595 00:26:41,849 --> 00:26:44,130 securing the possibility of peace through purely 596 00:26:44,130 --> 00:26:46,869 human actions. And this brings us to the profound 597 00:26:46,869 --> 00:26:49,470 confirmation Jonas found after writing this essay, 598 00:26:49,630 --> 00:26:51,980 The Diaries of Eddie Hillesum. This connects 599 00:26:51,980 --> 00:26:54,000 the abstract philosophy directly to the witness 600 00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:57,019 of the victims. Right. Eddie Hillesum was a young 601 00:26:57,019 --> 00:26:59,819 Dutch Jewess who was deported and later perished 602 00:26:59,819 --> 00:27:02,339 at Auschwitz. And her final writings provide 603 00:27:02,339 --> 00:27:05,680 a shattering independent confirmation of Jonas's 604 00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:09,119 theology of divine impotence and human responsibility. 605 00:27:09,880 --> 00:27:12,180 She was writing about this paradox from inside 606 00:27:12,180 --> 00:27:14,640 the system that was designed to eliminate God's 607 00:27:14,640 --> 00:27:17,740 goodness. And what she wrote is just astonishing. 608 00:27:18,329 --> 00:27:20,289 Her writings detail her struggle to maintain 609 00:27:20,289 --> 00:27:22,950 the internal spiritual dwelling place of God 610 00:27:22,950 --> 00:27:26,170 amidst the degradation of the transit camp. She 611 00:27:26,170 --> 00:27:28,529 wrote, I shall try to help you, God, to stop 612 00:27:28,529 --> 00:27:31,150 my strength ebbing away. But one thing is becoming 613 00:27:31,150 --> 00:27:34,150 increasingly clear to me, that you cannot help 614 00:27:34,150 --> 00:27:36,029 us, that we must help you to help ourselves. 615 00:27:36,309 --> 00:27:38,190 That is just an incredible statement. It's a 616 00:27:38,190 --> 00:27:40,569 profound reversal of the standard prayer formula. 617 00:27:40,589 --> 00:27:43,680 It is. And she continues, Alas, there does not 618 00:27:43,680 --> 00:27:45,519 seem to be much you yourself can do about our 619 00:27:45,519 --> 00:27:48,039 circumstances. Neither do I hold you responsible. 620 00:27:48,039 --> 00:27:50,539 You cannot help us, but we must help you and 621 00:27:50,539 --> 00:27:52,420 defend your dwelling place in us to the last. 622 00:27:52,980 --> 00:27:55,700 She concluded that God was present but powerless 623 00:27:55,700 --> 00:27:58,240 to intervene externally. Her duty was to protect 624 00:27:58,240 --> 00:28:00,359 the internal divine spark from being extinguished 625 00:28:00,359 --> 00:28:03,960 by external evil. Wow. That provides the ultimate 626 00:28:03,960 --> 00:28:06,839 corrective to that initial despair that Auschwitz 627 00:28:06,839 --> 00:28:10,180 allowed no room for martyrdom or dignity. If 628 00:28:10,180 --> 00:28:12,299 martyrdom is defined as protecting the spiritual 629 00:28:12,299 --> 00:28:15,559 truth, then Hilsum's act of defending God's dwelling 630 00:28:15,559 --> 00:28:18,220 place within her is the highest form of self 631 00:28:18,220 --> 00:28:21,599 -sacrifice and spiritual defiance. In her assertion 632 00:28:21,599 --> 00:28:24,259 that we must help God is the ultimate shift of 633 00:28:24,259 --> 00:28:27,180 agency that Jonas's framework demanded. It's 634 00:28:27,180 --> 00:28:29,220 a theology that is validated not by scripture, 635 00:28:29,380 --> 00:28:32,319 but by history and by moral experience. So we 636 00:28:32,319 --> 00:28:34,720 began this deep dive with the question of theodicy 637 00:28:34,720 --> 00:28:36,960 and the suffering of the righteous, the question 638 00:28:36,960 --> 00:28:40,420 of Job. And Jonas' synthesis delivers an answer, 639 00:28:40,539 --> 00:28:42,539 but it's one that is the complete opposite of 640 00:28:42,539 --> 00:28:44,380 the answer found in the biblical book of Job. 641 00:28:44,559 --> 00:28:47,480 Absolutely. The book of Job invokes God's unassailable 642 00:28:47,480 --> 00:28:50,460 plenitude of power, a power that man cannot question 643 00:28:50,460 --> 00:28:53,180 or comprehend. Jonas, however, invokes God's 644 00:28:53,180 --> 00:28:55,500 chosen voidance of power, his self -renunciation, 645 00:28:55,819 --> 00:28:58,279 as the necessary condition for existence itself. 646 00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:01,319 And yet, this vulnerable, dependent God is still 647 00:29:01,319 --> 00:29:04,700 worthy of praise. He is. This final synthesis 648 00:29:04,700 --> 00:29:07,019 argues that the divine renunciation was made 649 00:29:07,019 --> 00:29:10,500 so that we, the mortals, could be. Existence 650 00:29:10,500 --> 00:29:12,740 itself is the ultimate gift stemming from this 651 00:29:12,740 --> 00:29:16,079 initial total sacrifice. And it demands a life 652 00:29:16,079 --> 00:29:18,339 lived in profound gratitude and, more importantly, 653 00:29:18,500 --> 00:29:21,119 profound responsibility. The final synthesized 654 00:29:21,119 --> 00:29:23,319 answer to Job, then, is that God is not detached, 655 00:29:23,599 --> 00:29:26,380 judging from afar. No. The conclusion is that 656 00:29:26,380 --> 00:29:29,720 in him, man, God himself suffers. His destiny 657 00:29:29,720 --> 00:29:32,230 is bound up with ours. His success depends on 658 00:29:32,230 --> 00:29:34,309 our moral fidelity. It leaves us with a truly 659 00:29:34,309 --> 00:29:36,349 provocative thought, I think, about the enduring 660 00:29:36,349 --> 00:29:38,369 nature of faith, even when it's stripped of all 661 00:29:38,369 --> 00:29:40,930 its traditional power structures. Jonas cites 662 00:29:40,930 --> 00:29:44,000 the powerful lines from Goethe. All that ever 663 00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:46,420 stammers praising the Most High is in circles 664 00:29:46,420 --> 00:29:49,509 there assembled far and nigh. And we're left 665 00:29:49,509 --> 00:29:51,609 to reflect on whether this concept of a vulnerable, 666 00:29:51,829 --> 00:29:54,470 suffering, independent God offers more sense 667 00:29:54,470 --> 00:29:56,089 and meaning in the face of history's deepest 668 00:29:56,089 --> 00:29:58,910 tragedy, like the Holocaust, than the traditional 669 00:29:58,910 --> 00:30:02,269 assertion of unquestionable, unassailable omnipotence. 670 00:30:02,630 --> 00:30:04,569 It's certainly a concept that demands a different 671 00:30:04,569 --> 00:30:06,769 kind of life and a much higher level of ethical 672 00:30:06,769 --> 00:30:08,549 responsibility from every person who chooses 673 00:30:08,549 --> 00:30:11,210 to believe. What kind of world will you help 674 00:30:11,210 --> 00:30:14,009 God bring back from the odyssey of time? That's 675 00:30:14,009 --> 00:30:15,349 really the question Jonas leaves us with.