The Book of Blessing

Chapter about God desiring acts of obedience from his servants, even if they oppose Him and do not act accordingly, and His disliking acts of disobedience, and even if the sinners commit such acts, this does not diminish His kingship and does not entail as a necessary consequence that any of His attributes is deficient.

As discussed, God wants His servants to glorify His law and propagate it, yet some of them resist doing so. It has also been noted that God dislikes repulsive acts, yet even if they occur, this does not necessarily entail [God’s] deficiency. This is because God desires actions of two types. First, He desires His own acts, and if He requires [something to happen], it necessarily happens. Otherwise, it would indicate God’s deficiency or incapacity. On the other hand, if one of us wants an act [to be carried out], and it does not occur, it indicates one of these two things [i.e., our deficiency or our incapacity]. If God wants the acts of others, which is the second way, there are two possibilities. If God wants an act performed by one other than Himself, in whatever manner, it is inevitable and necessary, since the failure to do that on the part of the servant [would] necessarily indicate [God’s] imperfection. Compare this to a king or a sultan or the like. If he wants another person to carry out an act in the above-mentioned way, and it does not happen, it indicates [his] imperfection and other similar things, which are not possible with regard to God. And if He wants someone to carry out an act, with free will [the second possibility], then the nonperformance of the act belongs [solely] to the servant and does not affect God’s kingly rule and power. For if a king wants his subjects and protected minorities [dhimma] to carry out an act from their own free will, and they do not carry it out, this does not indicate the king’s imperfection. Compare this to the desire of the kings of the Arabs and Byzantines, when they desire their protected minorities to perform what they [i.e., the kings] believe to be from God’s religion. Failure to realize this does not indicate the deficiency of these kings. [Similarly,] God wants servants to carry out acts of obedience and to refrain from acts of disobedience out of their own free will; their opposition to this does not diminish His authority and power. How would this diminish His power, when He is capable of [simply] exterminating the disobedient, as the Bible says, when God said to Pharaoh, “Surely now had I put forth My hand, and smitten you and your people with pestilence, you would have been cut off from the earth” (Exodus 9:15). But God knew the wisdom of letting him survive, as is expressed by His words: “But for this cause have I made you to stand, to show you My power and that My name may be declared throughout all the earth” (Exodus 9:16). [ . . . ]

Chapter about the necessity of sending the messenger.

It has already been established that God imposed an obligation and the way to know it is through the intellect. For instance: refraining from injustice; expressing gratitude toward a benefactor; refraining from lying that brings no benefit and averts no harm—and the duty to know God through all His attributes and those things without which knowledge cannot be perfected, like that the world is created. These and similar things we do not need tradition to know. But there are other duties that can be known only through hearing about them, such as keeping the Sabbath and the festivals, and many things related to purity and impurity in connection with eating, drinking, touching, wearing tzitzit [ritual fringes], offering sacrifices, and comparable things, too many to list. Since [divine] wisdom obligated us in this and there was no way for us to know these requirements by way of intellect, we needed to obtain such knowledge through tradition. God could have made known all of this to us through a self-evidently divine utterance, as when He addressed us with the ten statements [commandments]. God could have set His angels, who are near to Him, as the intermediary between us and Him. However, He turned to the sons of Adam [i.e., human beings] because of their connection, and He turned toward the intermediary, without speech, since knowing that a speech is indeed His speech requires a miracle, as I will explain. And he [Moses?] communicated it after the seclusion that the messenger requires.

Moreover, hearing His speech causes permanent destruction. It is for this reason that the nation said to Moses: “Speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die” (Exodus 20:15). And he said as well: For who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? (Deuteronomy 5:22). Then they appointed the messenger as the intermediary, saying: Go you near, and hear (Deuteronomy 5:23). And since the matter was thus concerning His speech, it was necessary according to His wisdom to send the messenger from among the sons of Adam, to be the intermediary between Him and them, but God knows best.