We are reading Rabbi Raphael Samson Hirsch’s Horeb paragraph by paragraph. Today, we look at paragraph number 3, which is in Section 1, called “Toroth,” Chapter 1, which covers the sovereignty of God.
In today’s paragraph, Rabbi Hirsch brings his argument about knowledge—that it must permeate not only the mind and one’s intellectual faculties but also the heart and one’s feelings, convictions, and personal connection—to Judaism. He says:
It is for this reason that Israel’s life-history opens with the words: “I the Lord, Who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, I the Lord am thy God.”
Hirsch then proceeds to elucidate this passage phrase by phrase, concluding our paragraph by stressing the twofold obligation of the Jewish people. Because God stepped into history and brought us out of slavery in Egypt to the Revelation, we have been created a second time:
While every man, as My creature, is called upon to be my servant, you have a double duty to devote yourself with all your power as an instrument of My service.
Surely, this interpretation reflects that Israel is meant to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
But what is really interesting is the idea that a person—and here we are talking about individuals—is an instrument of God’s service. That is, we each of us is a means through which His will becomes knowable and known in the world.
It’s a humbling idea, isn’t it, to think of yourself having that responsibility?
You don’t even need to work in a theistic or even a teleological frame: the idea is that people are fundamentally instruments and agents of knowledge.
I think that’s just cool and profound and liberating and connecting.