Man’s Efforts Have An Effect

Akeidat Yitzchak (AY) was a great medieval Torah authority.

In Akeidat Yitzchak no. 26, he provides a fascinating lecture on the various reasons for a person’s success.

According to Akeidat Yitzchak (AY), in many cases Man’s efforts do matter.

I. A summary of the Akeidat Yitzchak on 4 different circumstances where a person’s success may or may not be solely controlled by Hashem:

1. Righteous person + Good Mazal: Little exertion is required for a person to acheive success.
2. Unrighteous person + Good Mazal: He will not prevail over Hashem’s will, despite his best efforts.
3. A person born with average skills and intelligence, and average Mazal: The Torah is addressing this large group of people – this person must certainly exert himself, his successes or failures are due overwhelmingly to his own efforts or lack of efforts. He is operating under the laws of nature – “One employs every known medication to ward off infection”.
4. A Righteous person with negative Mazal: His efforts plus Hashem’s assistance will neutralize the negative Mazal.

II. A Summary of Recent Hareidi Torah Philosophy (referencing the 4 above):

1. Everyone is assumed to belong to either category 1 or category 2 in the list above.
2. No. 3 in the AY list above has been completely deleted, so that a person’s success is never dependent on his efforts at all.
3. The effect of “Mazal” has been usually deleted from all 4 of the list above.

Thus in normative Hareidi philosophy,a person must make minimal token efforts but they have no real effect on the results. If a person is failing to achieve results, it is assumed to be a decree from Hashem, it cannot be due to the person’s lack of effort.

This deterministic viewpoint I believe has caused severe damage to Hareidi communities.

The fatalistic “religious” viewpoint promotes a very negative effect on society by discouraging and minimizing the value of Man’s efforts.

According to Akeidat Yitzchak, it seems that most people must make an effort, not simply because making an effort may be a mitzvah, but because the effort does have an effect.

Torah vs. Greek Chochma

The three sons of the Biblical prophet Noah were Shem, Ham, and Yefet. Torah tradition teaches that mankind has descended from those three sons and their wives.

The Torah teaches that Yefet, who was the ancestor of the Greeks, will dwell in the tent of Shem, who was the ancestor of the Jews. Rav Hirsch zt”l understands the meaning of the name Yefet in psychological terms – Yefet is the ancestor of the Greeks whose minds were expanded in philosophy and science.

We see that the ancient rabbinic sages accepted some ideas from the Greek philosophers, or perhaps the Greeks learned those ideas from the rabbis. There was some overlap between rabbinic thought and Greek thought, and also some definite conflicts – the Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim repeatedly attacks the claims of the Greek philosophers that the Universe is eternal.

The Ramban in his perush on Breishees referred to the initial point of matter that the Universe began with as hiyuli, IE formless matter known to the Greeks as hyle.

Rabbeinu Bachya in Chovos HaLevavos mentions Aristotle’s ideas in a number of places.

Some ideas from Greek or medieval metaphysics that the rabbis accepted are still useful ideas in the modern age. The concept of matter and form seemed to have been widely accepted by the rabbis, and this concept has been revived in a mathematical form in 20th century Quantum Mechanics.

If I recall correctly, Rav Meir Triebetz in some of his shiurim on the hashkafacircle.com website cited Rav Tzadok as claiming that Greek philosophy is the chitzonius (external aspect) of the Kabbalah. There is definitely some evidence for this.

“I quoted also the pious and wise of other nations whose words have come down to us, hoping that my readers’ hearts would incline to them and give heed to their wisdom, as for example, the words of philosophers, the ethical teachings of the ascetics, and their praiseworthy customs. Our Rabbis have already said regarding this (Sanhedrin 39b): One verse says: ‘after the ways of the surrounding nations you have done’ (Ezekiel 5:7). How can this be reconciled? As follows – their good ways you have not copied; their evil ones you have followed.”
(Introduction to Chovos Halevavos-Duties of the Heart)