In the Guide for the Perplexed, Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon explains that it is a Sin to overpraise HaShem. His saying has a resounding support in the Talmud:
| A certain person, reading prayers in the presence of Rabbi Chaninah, said, 'God, the Great, the valiant, and the Tremendous, the Powerful, the Strong, and the Mighty.' The Rabbi then said to him 'Have you finished all the praises of your Master?' |
So what is the problem with the Rabbi? Does he dislike people from praying vigilantly to God? No! What Rabbi Chaninah means is this:
'If it is not because of the praises for God is written in the Torah and if it is not selected from the Prophets by the Men of the Great Assembly, we will not be saying all the praises,'
However, this make us further confuse, what on earth have I do wrong praising Lord Almighty?
The answer require a lot of thinking. Let's give it a parallel situation, a king that owns 600 silver coins is being praised by his subjects for having 600 bronze coins. Is this not a humiliation? The point of this situation is that, we cannot sufficiently praise HaShem and I do not even know is the word 'Praise' applicable to HaShem. However, I think it is okay since the Men of the Great (who are prophets) used the word 'Praise' in the Siddur.
The main point is this, as a man, what do we know about the Creator? We know naught because we cannot comprehend the true essence of Him. We can only feel a tiny minuscule spark from Him and no more. Subsequently, prayers that we utter everyday, if it is not written by Moshe Rabbenu, Tzaddikim, David HaMelech, Prophets, and the Men of the Great Assembly, prayer will be blasphemous as we do not know what ist he Real Essence of God is. If not for God to Reveal Himself in Horev, we will never know that God has so many 'attributes'; such as mercy and anger. What we can see is that the Torah speaks the Language of man. That's why anthropomorphic action are ascribe to God by God Himself. Who will dare to Praise Him Merciful if He Does not Say so in His Torah? Do we know the degree of 'mercy' that God Possesses with our limited mind?
So the lesson is, don't overdo with Praising, or else we will be Blaspheming God for we will never truly know how Great God Is! The True Essence of Him will never be comprehended.
1 comment:
What I could understand here is that since we know very limited about the LORD HaShem, thus we shall not just praise HIM with any saying we want. Just like a person, who does not know you, and suddenly praising you by saying a lot of good words, it will sounds very fake and not sincere.
Even human don't like to accept insincere praising, can we do this unto LORD the Creator?
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