by Rabbi Yisrael Rutman

This year is the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s demonstration of the telescope to officials of the city-state of Venice. Although people had been gazing at and tracking the stars since ancient times, all that was known, all that could be known, were the few thousand stars visible to the unaided eye. In the years to follow, ever more powerful telescopes would reveal that the heavens contain not thousands, not millions, but billions and billions of stars, and that our solar system is but an infinitesmal blur amid the stellar throng.*

What to do with the expanded universe bestowed upon us by astronomers? What does it mean for us? The argument is often made that if the universe has a Creator, he could not plausibly be concerned with us. Why should he care about the fate of the inhabitants of this obscure speck in the vastness of space when there are immense galaxies—and who knows what else—to occupy His attention? It is not befitting so great a being as the Creator to imagine him focussed on our insignificant affairs.**

But there is a flaw in this argument. Only if one assumes that God is limited, that with so much “on his plate,” he cannot afford to give of his attention to us. The unconscious assumption is that God is like a mere human being, however much greater, whose resources cannot accomodate everything.

In the Jewish conception of God, there is no such limitation. God is infinite. Not only can he concern himself with mankind on this little planet, but to think that he is incapable of doing so because he is otherwise occupied is, in fact, to diminish God. It is to reduce the infinite to the finite.

The Torah tells of the struggle between Yaakov and the angel of Esav. When Yaakov, on his way to the Land of Israel, stops at night to retrieve some small vessels, the angel assails him and a desperate battle ensues. The Midrash says that the dust raised by their struggle reached upward all the way to God’s Throne of Glory.

The Midrash can be understood symbolically, as follows: The issue over which they fought was the relationship betwen God and creation. Esav contended that it was foolish of Yaakov to be so concerned about households items of little value. Yaakov, for his part maintained that no, if God blessed him with certain possessions, however humble, there was a reason for it, and he was responsible for their proper care and use. He could not simply leave them behind. Esav argued back that God could not possibly care about the petty affairs of men. The Midrash states that the dust of their struggle reached the Throne of Glory, meaning that indeed Yaakov was right; the smallest doings down here make their impression even in the furthest reaches of divinity.

This idea is reflected in the everyday blessing Asher Yatzar, which is recited after performing one’s bodily functions. In thanking God for the wondrous human body, we say that “it is revealed and known before Your glorious throne” that if any of the orifices and cavities of the body would cease to open and close as needed, “it would be impossible to survive.” Why is God’s glorious throne mentioned here? For this very same reason, to remind us that even in the holiest place of God’s own abode, so seemingly remote from human life, God watches over us and sustains us.

The struggle between the conflicting worldviews of Yaakov and Esav did not end with them. It continues to the present day. Through our awareness of God’s providence, and accepting responsibility for the best use of our lives and possessions, we carry on Yaakov’s legacy. And doing so, our prayers and deeds reach the very Throne of Glory.

* Amazingly, the Talmud (Brochot 32b) says that there are about a quadrillion stars in the heavens. This, centuries before the telescope was invented.

** Actually, the question was posed long before the telescope expanded our awareness of the universe. As King David wrote in Psalms:

When I look at Your heavens,
The work of Your fingers,
The moon and stars
That you have established—
What is man that You think of him?
Mortal man that You remember him?
(Psalms 8:4-6)

Yet, the Psalmist’s conclusion is not that mankind is of no significance. Rather, he takes as axiomatic that…

Yet, You have made him little less than God,
You have crowned him with glory and splendor.

Sources: Rabbi Mordechai Dovid Neugroschel, commentary to The Kuzari, Volume 1, Pp. 73-4; Rabbi Yosef Tzvi Salant, Be’er Yosef, Volume 1, Pp. 94-5, quoting the Vilna Gaon.

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