Naaseh Versus Nishma
As many of you know, legend has it the Jews all stood at Mt. Sinai to accept the Torah, and said, “Naaseh v’ Nihsma,â€? we will do, and (often understood to mean only then) we will listen–try to understand. This Shavous, like every Shavous, haredim across the world will give over their interpretation about how the main issue is “naasehâ€? – that is, doing. AND THEN worry about understanding. Hence, in Judaism, doing is more important than understanding. Doing is listed first! Obey (to rabbinical interpretation of) the Torah.
Now, sometimes the Torah lists the harder thing first, even if there is no difference in importance. But the question remains — isn’t the core of Judaism about doing?
Even if much of Judaism is the doing–the obeying of the Torah’s decrees according to clerical interpretation–never the less, just as the binding agent of a pill may be present in a higher volume than the active ingredient, so too the active ingredient of Judaism is still the nishma – the understanding, the learning.
Without the nishma, we are just another patriarchal band of nomads screaming at its bitches to cover up, while teaching them “the minimum of the minimum.�
Without nishma, we are just another primitive civilization seeking to tame the elements through celebration of too many festivals, and by offering too many goat sacrifices.
Without nishma, we are just another infuriated Semitic tribe all but consumed by xenophobia. The Moabites are depraved. The Edomites fucked us over. The daughters of Mideon are all whores.
Without the nishma, we are just a one hit wonder — a surviving proto-Islamic sect.
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In Ishbitz, they would say that Nishma is the end of naaseh, and once we can say we really understand a mitzvah, is when we’ll be able to fufill it through Kavana, without needing the maiseh.
So, in order to continue doing the naaseh, jews have to tell themselves that they still don’t understand what they are doing them for, that there’s something else going on, or else they/we’d have complete flexibility over all our rituals. saying that we don’t understand how it works is the only way we’re able to continue doing Jewish the way we do.
I heard someone else elaborate on this point: when we said naaseh v nishma, we became liars. Naaseh, ok, fine, we’ll do it. But Nishma, we refuse to do until the end.
And this is the secret of the Jesusism “I have come not to abolish the law, but to complete it”– That is, tell you what the law is about, so you’ll focus on that, and let the law itself fade away, once our hearts our made righteous and devoted to love and caring.
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