Hitchhiker’s Guide (28)
Make every effort to present yourself before God as a proven worker who does not need to be ashamed, teaching the message of truth accurately. 2 Timothy 2:15
Make every effort – What is the role of Torah in our quest for righteousness? Is it just a rule book, an instruction manual, or the voice of God to Man? And if it is “God’s words,” then how precisely are we to make it work today, two thousand years or more after it was written? Do we just follow the interpretations of the rabbis? Or rely on the “leading of the Spirit”? After Boyarin’s investigations yesterday, you may wonder about the authenticity of any such approach.
But Paul seems adamant about making an effort regardless of the obstacles and limitations we face. His verb is spoudázō, the Hebrew equivalent of bahal, “to disturb, to alarm, to hurry.” In other words, “Do It Now!” Luzzatto notes the urgency of our quest for righteousness. He offers two prerequisites:
“Whoever wishes to keep watch over himself must comply with the following two requirements. In the first place, he must know what constitutes the true good, and is therefore to be striven after, and what is unquestionably bad, and therefore to be avoided. Secondly, he must be able to classify each of his actions as either good or evil. He should do this at all times, while he is active no less than when he is quiescent. He should not enter upon any course of action without first determining its character.”[1]
With this in mind, coupled with Paul’s sense of urgency, we can appreciate an enlarged role for Torah. “Torah . . . is a mystical garment acquired by souls who prepare themselves by accepting responsibility for another.”[2]
“Thus, after we learn to pause and reflect, Torah provides us with the discourse by which to evaluate ourselves and also with the tool by which we can expand the training of watchfulness toward the horizon of infinity.”[3]
In other words, we don’t rush to study Torah in order to learn the rules of the game. We make every effort to absorb Torah because it allows us to measure our progress toward living responsibly. We need the stories, the poetry, the history, the teaching, the precepts—we need it all—because each part helps us evaluate how we’re doing. We can identify with God’s desire and Man’s resistance, with blessing and punishment. We see ourselves in all these slices of human interaction, and that makes Torah ours. It’s no longer words on the printed page. It becomes an attitude toward life, a way of being in the world—God’s way of being in the world. No wonder Paul wants us to hurry. There’s no time to waste if we’re going to become human.
Step 28: Study as hard as you can in the time you have.
Topical Index: Torah, spoudázō, hurry, effort, 2 Timothy 2:15
[1] Moses Hayyim Luzzatto, Mesillat Yesharim: The Path of the Upright, p. 40.
[2] Ira F. Stone, in Moses Hayyim Luzzatto, Mesillat Yesharim: The Path of the Upright, p. 41.
[3] Ibid.
