Summarized by Shmuel Goldberg
Translated by David Strauss
Our parasha contains a central but somewhat obscure verse: "You shall be tamim with the Lord your God" (Devarim 18:13). What is the meaning of the word tamim, often translated as "wholehearted"? What does it mean to be "wholehearted with the Lord your God"?
The verse is located following the prohibition against using sorcery and supernatural means to foretell the future:
When you come into the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to do like the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you one who passes his son or his daughter through the fire, one who uses divination, a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or one who consults a ghost or a familiar spirit, or a necromancer. For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you. You shall be tamim with the Lord your God.
For these nations, that you are to dispossess, hearken to soothsayers, and to diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not given you [to do] so. The Lord your God will raise up a prophet for you, from the midst of you, of your brothers, like me; to him you shall hearken. (Devarim 18:9-15)
It seems here that the command to be wholehearted, tamim, is a point-specific injunction that goes along with the preceding prohibitions: to be wholehearted with God means to refrain from engaging in the abominations of the gentiles that are specified in the passage.
On the other hand, the same term, tamim, also appears in Tanakh as part of a more general moral characterization and imperative: Noach is called "a righteous man, tamim in his generations" (Bereishit 6:9); Avraham is commanded to "walk before Me and be tamim" (Bereishit 17:1); and Iyov is called tam – "and the man was tam and upright, and one who feared God, and shunned evil" (Iyov 1:1). None of these contexts include any reference to the specific prohibitions mentioned in our parasha, which implies that being tamim is something broader.
How, then, are we to understand the command in our parasha: in the context in which it appears, as a command to distance oneself from specific prohibitions, or in light of other instances of the word, as pointing toward a more general character and behavior?
I shall try to go in both directions.
Faith Versus Inquiry
As noted, the context of the verse in our parasha is the prohibition against following the abominations of the nations, and in particular, their supernatural methods of foretelling the future. God forbade us to do so; He sent us prophets instead, to whom we must listen. It is in this context that the commentators on the spot address the command to be tamim. For instance, Rashi writes:
"You shall be wholehearted with the Lord your God" – Walk before Him wholeheartedly (be-temimut), put your anticipation in Him, and do not [attempt to] investigate the future; rather, whatever comes upon you, accept it wholeheartedly, and then you shall be with Him and [be] His portion. (Rashi, Devarim 18:13)
The wholeheartedness, temimut, here entails not engaging at all with the question of what will be in the future, but rather accepting whatever God brings. A similar idea emerges from the Ibn Ezra's commentary on "walk before Me and be wholehearted" (Bereishit 17:1); these words preface the commandment of circumcision, and the Ibn Ezra understands them to mean that Avraham should not ask any questions about circumcision. Both Rashi and the Ibn Ezra imply that temimut is simple faith in God, without thinking or inquiring too much – with regard to the intellectual understanding of the mitzvot and their rationales, and with regard to the future of the individual. There is a theological problem in the very desire to know what the future will bring, beyond the specific prohibitions of divination.
At the opposite extreme stands the Rambam's explanation of the verse, which is part of his general understanding of the reason for the prohibitions of sorcery. Regarding all the sorceries and divinations mentioned in the parasha, the Rambam writes:
All the above matters are falsehood and lies with which the original idolaters deceived the gentile nations in order to lead them after them. It is not fitting for the Jews who are wise sages to be drawn into such emptiness, nor to consider that they have any value, as it is stated (Bamidbar 23:23): "There is no augury in Yaakov, nor divination in Israel." Similarly, it is stated (Devarim 18:14): "These nations, that you are to dispossess, hearken to soothsayers, and to diviners; but as for you…not so [has the Lord your God given you]."
Whoever believes in these things and the like, and thinks in his heart that they are true and a matter of wisdom, but that the Torah forbade them [despite their truth], is foolish and feebleminded. He is in the category of women and children who have underdeveloped intellects. The masters of wisdom and those of perfect knowledge know with clear proofs that all these things which the Torah forbade are not matters of wisdom, but [they are] nothingness and emptiness that attracted the feebleminded and caused them to abandon all the paths of truth. Because of this, when the Torah warned against all these empty matters, it is stated: "You shall be tamim with the Lord your God." (Hilkhot Avoda Zara 11:16)
The Rambam understands that the temimut about which God commands us is wholeheartedness of the mind: we are not to believe in sorcery, which is all nonsense, falsehood, and deceit; our minds must instead be whole and sound. This view is diametrically opposed to that of Rashi. While Rashi says one should not ask questions or investigate, as the very inquiry as to what will be in the future is forbidden, in the Rambam's view, investigation and inquiry are welcome. Methods involving error and nonsense are prohibited, but correct methods of inquiry are not at all contrary to the will of God. The wholehearted service of God, according to the Rambam, is service of God in which man investigates, clarifies, delves, and understands, distancing himself from superstition and adhering to Divine wisdom.
Turning to a Prophet
Between these two extremes stands the Ramban, who holds the very opinion of those the Rambam criticizes for believing about sorcery and divination that "they are true and a matter of wisdom, but that the Torah forbade them." According to the Ramban, there is some truth in the diviners whom the gentiles consult, and there is also no problem in desiring to consult them. He is forced to explain that the phrase "abomination of the Lord" (Devarim 18:12) does not apply to all the prohibitions enumerated, but only to those that are connected with idolatry. The prohibition against inquiring about the future is not included in the phrase "abomination of the Lord" – for, as he writes (on Devarim 18:9): "All men desire to know the future and engage in many such sciences to know it."
At the same time, unlike Rashi and the Ibn Ezra, he agrees with the Rambam that there is no problem with such inquiry per se; according to him, we should do so through the prophets of God, who inform us of the future with greater certainty than the sages and wizards of the nations. While they guess what is to happen according to the natural course of events, the prophet hears the word of God, which is above nature:
It is He who knows the truth about all future events, and we are to inquire about future events from Him alone, [i.e.,] from His prophets or from His pious ones – meaning, the Urim and Tumim. We are not to inquire from astrologers or anyone else, or to trust that their words will be fulfilled no matter what. Instead, if we hear any [prediction] of them, we should say: "Everything is in the hands of Heaven, for He is the God of gods, supreme above all, omnipotent over everything, changing the set order of the stars and constellations at His will, 'who annuls the signs of the impostors, and makes fools of diviners' [Yeshayahu 44:25]." (Ramban, Devarim 18:13)
The commandment to be wholehearted with God, according to the Ramban, means we are to inquire about the future specifically from a prophet, and to remember that the divinations and prognostications of soothsayers are partial and subject to God's will.
It may be asked about this position of the Ramban: Does the whole difference between a prophet of God and the divination methods of the gentiles lie in the level of accuracy? Is it only that God warns us that when we want to know what grade we will get on the test tomorrow, we should go to a prophet rather than a soothsayer or an astrologer, so that we will get a more accurate answer? Is that the prophet's job? True, prophets foretell the future, but their primary role is not simply to tell us what grade we will get on tomorrow's test. I read about Yona the prophet in the recent issue of Kushta de-Milta.[1] Did Yona go to Nineveh simply to tell them what would happen in the future, that "in another forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown" (Yona 3:4), and then, by chance, the people of Nineveh decide to repent and the decree is annulled? Obviously not! Yona's prophecy was meant to effect a spiritual transformation in the people of Nineveh, by informing them of the future that awaited them.
The prophet's role is to show a person, or a nation, the big picture: what path they are on, where they are now, where they are headed, what their situation is, what reality they are living in. Part of this general picture is the future, but the prophet's prognostication is not an end in itself; the prophet instills the future he reveals with the import of God's word, and he reveals it so we can recognize our ways and status and correct them. This, in my understanding, is the fundamental difference between the words of a prophet and the gentile methods of divination – which seek to know the future but do not understand the spiritual meanings that it teaches. For this reason, we are forbidden to resort to them but must hearken instead to the prophet of God.
Perfection of Personality
Thus far, we have seen various interpretations of the command, "You shall be wholehearted with the Lord your God," in accordance with the context in which the verse appears. The issue is distancing from the ways of the gentile nations and adhering to God, and the Rishonim disagree about how these goals are to be accomplished. On one extreme, we find Rashi, who says one should not ask too many questions about the future, while at the other extreme stands the Rambam, who maintains that one should investigate and try to understand the ways of God, and in between is the Ramban, who says one should inquire into the future in the context of avodat Hashem, serving God.
But as noted above, the commandment to be tamim can also be understood as teaching a more general principle regarding the service of God, which stands on its own. This seems to be the understanding of Chazal in the following midrash:
"Happy are they who are wholehearted on the path (temimei derekh), who walk in [accordance with] the law of the Lord" (Tehillim 119:1)…. The Holy One, blessed be He, asked of Avraham only that he be wholehearted, as it is stated: "Walk before Me and be wholehearted." And so Moshe said to Israel: "You shall be wholehearted with the Lord your God." It is not written here: "before (lifnei) the Lord your God," but rather: "with (im) the Lord your God." If you are wholehearted, you are with the Lord your God. Why? Because He too is wholehearted, as it is stated about Him: "The Rock, His work is wholehearted" (Devarim 32:4). (Midrash Tehillim 119:1)
According to this midrash, the meaning of "You shall be wholehearted with the Lord your God" is that we should be wholehearted together with God. Temimut is one of God's ways, so when we are tamim, we fulfill the obligation of walking in His ways.
What is the wholeheartedness of God that we are asked to emulate? Wholeheartedness denotes completeness and perfection – Onkelos translates tamim tehiyeh as "be perfect (shelim)." God is one and He is perfect. He is not divided into different attributes or different states, but is wholly unified in perfection. So too are we to be whole. As we are in the yeshiva, so we are to be outside the yeshiva. There should be no gap.
Sometimes, when a young man comes to the yeshiva, he wants to race ahead, to take on new stringencies, to be someone else. Of course, there always has to be a small gap between what a person is now and what he aspires to be – otherwise he will not progress. But that gap cannot be a large one; it cannot require a leap. For if there is too great a jump in a person's behavior, if he tries to be on a level that he has not really reached, he will not be whole; there will be a gap between his personality as it is expressed in different places. This gap can also create a lack of sincerity within a person; he may indeed want to aspire to the level to which he has jumped, but he does not really aspire to be there now. And in any case, such a great leap is not sustainable; when he leaves the yeshiva, he will return to where he was.
Furthermore, one should not enter a yeshiva as a place of detachment from his life outside it. The yeshiva is supposed to be a place where a person undergoes a journey of growth and development, from one spiritual place to another. Ultimately, he will leave the yeshiva, and he is supposed to illuminate the world with the light he received there. If, after leaving the yeshiva, he returns to the place from which he started, what has he accomplished? And so, one must proceed at the proper pace and in wholeness.
Harav Amital would often say that people think that wherever the Mishna Berura writes that a yerei shamayim (God-fearing person) should act with stringency, the reference is to the reader – but it is not so! Stringencies are good and important for those for whom they are appropriate, but not everyone is a yerei shamayim; that is a rank to be earned!
The wholeness of a person's character should be manifested in the other direction as well: when a yeshiva student is not in the yeshiva, he should remember that he is not supposed to be a different person. The personality that he expresses within the yeshiva should be expressed outside the yeshiva as well. As stated, the yeshiva is a place where a person grows and from which he is supposed to emerge with his entire being at a higher level than when he entered, and with the capacity to influence those around him to advance and elevate themselves as well.
May we merit to grow in the yeshiva, to illuminate the world and sanctify it, from inner wholeness – "You shall be wholehearted with the Lord your God."
[This sicha was delivered by Harav Baruch Gigi on Shabbat Parashat Shoftim 5782.]
(Edited by Sarah Rudolph)
[1] Issue no. 3, in the article of Harav Yaakov Medan, "Masa le-Nineveh be-Ikvot ha-Mabit."
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