Presence

I didn't get a chance to write up the past week's Scholar in Residence with R. JJ Schachter. I made it to three out of four of his speeches; the shiur at the 8:15 minyan was interesting, but I won't go into detail here as it was very technical and without the sources, difficult to follow. I don't recall what was said at the main minyan (it's been a week). I missed the afternoon shiur (Penny went in my stead), in which R. Schachter discussed various customs of Jewish communities in Europe in commemoration of tragedies, ultimately addressing the question of whether Yom HaShoah has historical precedent or not (the short answer: it does).

The final speech, during seudas shlishis, was interesting, but I was hoping for a bit more depth. R. Schachter discussed the objective and subjective components of religious experience. He described the objective as the quantitative fulfillment of the commandments (davening three times a day, eating the proper amount of matzah), in contrast to the subjective, the more qualitative experience of a religious act (how does davening affect me, or what the experience of a the seder conveys to me). The source sheets quoted many passages from writings of R. Soloveitchik, particularly the newer books (Worship of the Heart, and one other).

I noted that when describing the subjective experience, R. Schachter tended to describe the resulting outcome as an experience of the Divine Presence. Although in somewhat of a different vein, it reminded me of much of what I was thinking at the time I started this blog. At the time, I was working through how to approach the concept of God from a non-objective perspective. Epistemologically speaking, an objective knowledge of the existence of God, at least as far as I figure, is impossible; I began to work through a subjective approach. What I was left with was experience. From there, I began to build a phenomenology of experiencing the Divine, or what it means to be in God's Presence. This wasn't really what R. Schachter was talking about, but I found the common association with the subjective (which in his terms meant relative, while in mine, more non-rational) and Divine Presence.

I also had an opportunity to talk with R. Schachter in a more informal setting. What I really wanted to ask him, but did not get the chance, related to the thought of R. Soloveitchik. From my limited reading of the Rav's writings, I get the sense that he views religious Man as inherently in a state of conflict. So much of the Rav's writings end in his outlining a basic division in Man that draws him in opposite directions. The Rav will outline the rules of engagement, so to speak, between the competing tendencies, but it seems that Man is always left embroiled in this conflict, never reaching a state of peace. My inclination is to identify this as the general character of what is commonly referred to today as Modern Orthodoxy, which, in my opinion, leaves one in this sort of conflicted, unresolved limbo-state between faith and reason. The "modern" component allows one to give credence to science, while at the same time, the "orthodox" component draws a line in the sand, over which, you do not cross. The end result is a constant state of conflict where one must challenge himslef to believe in that which, logically, he has accepted to deny. I'm wondering if this is an adequate characterization of the general conflict I sensed in the Rav's writings (the first question being, does this conflict exist in the Rav's work, and second, does it reduce to these terms).