The Mishna on Amud Beis records a polemic between Roman philosophers and our Jewish sages:
The gentiles asked the Jewish Sages who were in Rome: If it is not God’s will that people should engage in idol worship, why does He not eliminate it?
The Sages said to them: Were people worshipping only objects for which the world has no need, He would eliminate it. But they worship the sun and the moon and the stars and the constellations. Should He destroy His world because of the fools?
The gentiles said to the Sages: If so, let Him destroy those objects of idol worship for which the world has no need and leave those objects for which the world has a need. The Sages said to them: If that were to happen, we would thereby be supporting the worshippers of those objects for which the world has need, as they would say: You should know that these are truly gods, as they were not eliminated from the world, whereas the others were eliminated.
A similar polemic is recorded in Bava Basra 10a:
Turnus Rufus the wicked asked Rabbi Akiva: If your God loves the poor, for what reason does He not support them Himself?
Rabbi Akiva said to him: He commands us to sustain the poor, so that through them and the charity we give them we will be saved from judgment.
Midrash Tanchuma (Tazria 5) records another dispute between Turnus Rufus and Rabbi Akiva:
Tyrannus Rufus the wicked asked R. Akiva, “Which works are the more beautiful? Those of the Holy One, blessed be He, or those of flesh and blood?” He said to him, “Those of flesh and blood are the more beautiful.”
Tyrannus Rufus the wicked said to him, “Look at the heavens and the earth. Are you able to make anything like them?” R. Akiva said to him, “Do not talk to me about something which is high above mortals, things over which they have no control, but about things which are usual among people.”
He said to him, “Why do you circumcise?” He said to him, “I also knew that you were going to say this to me. I therefore anticipated [your question] when I said to you, ‘A work of flesh and blood is more beautiful than one of the Holy One, blessed be He.’ Bring me wheat spikes and white bread.” He said to him, “The former is the work of the Holy One, blessed be He, and the latter is the work of flesh and blood. Is not the latter more beautiful?”
Tyrannus Rufus said to him, “Inasmuch as He finds pleasure in circumcision, why does no one emerge from his mother’s belly circumcised?” R. Akiva said to him, “And why does his umbilical cord come out on him? Does not his mother cut his umbilical cord? So why does he not come out circumcised? Because the Holy One, blessed be He, only gave Israel the commandments in order to purify them.”
There is a common thread in these polemics, even if different answers are given, which might just be to win points in a debate. The gentile philosopher and challenger harps on the ways in which God appears to have left the world incomplete—whether it is regarding circumcision, removal of idolatry, or the inevitable existence of persons who need to rely on charity due to disability or other circumstances. The gentile argument is a powerful one, implying, God forbid, that God could not achieve the final perfection, or to imply that the world as it is is perfect, and there is no need for man to add onto anything.
The Rosh Dovid (Miketz) expands on this theme. He states there is a tradition that during the Greek tyrannical rule at the time of Chanukah, they sought to eliminate three specific mitzvos: Bris Milah, Shabbos, and Kiddush Hachodesh (the declaration and sanctification of the beginning of the new month). These three mitzvos are the strongest enactment of this Jewish theological belief that, for whatever reason, God expects man to finish the job.
Bris Milah is obviously a voluntary act to perfect the human body via the performance of this mitzvah, signifying a covenant between the Jewish people and God. Shabbos is not just a declaration that God created the world in seven days; there’s also an implication of what happens after those seven days. Meaning to say, God created the world, and now on day eight, so to speak, he stopped creating but man works the world and builds things in the world. So man celebrating Shabbos is not only testimony that God created the world, but also de facto testimony that there is an expectation that we do something with this world after He gave it to us.
Likewise, the Jewish calendar is not fixed. It doesn’t just follow the movement of the sun or the movement of the moon. Rather, it’s constantly readjusting with leap years and leap months in order to align the lunar year and the solar year with seasons. But what that means is, the final step of reality is based on the observation of the new moon and the declaration of Beis Din. Once again, God set the planets in motion, but leaves the final determination of reality and how to live with it up to humans.
We then have a theological truth and tradition that even if it doesn’t completely make sense, God left the world incomplete in order that we take the final steps to complete it. If you would like, you can stop reading here. As it says in Mishlei (25:2): “It is a glory for God to keep things concealed.” This verse is understood by the mystics to mean that not all theological principles are meant to be publicly discussed. They can be subtle and nuanced, and therefore not for everybody, because if they’re understood incorrectly, they could lead to heresy.
However, we live in the year 2025, where there is exposure to many other philosophies and ideas so that I think it is safer to expand a bit on these concepts. However, whatever I write below is at best half the story, and I will try to hint at the other half without stating explicitly.
There is a mystical concept known as Nahama De-Kisufa, which translates as “Bread of Shame.” (Imagine a beggar who must beg for his food, but all the while feels humiliated at being a “nebuch case.”) This deep idea is expressed by the Ramchal in Derech Hashem (Part One, The Purpose of Creation, Ch. 2):
God is the greatest form of perfection, and part of His perfect goodness is bestowing this goodness. He therefore designed a world where we can have autonomy and ability to choose, so we can earn our reward. While we can never be fully independent as God is, because there can only be one God, God gives us a shot at the sense of perfection and fulfillment. A sense of fulfillment and mastery cannot be given to someone as a gift, just as you cannot give self-esteem or confidence.
God designed the conflicted human personality with its ability to be noble and sublime but equally able to be evil and small. This is in order that what we choose to do is done so freely and has meaning.
You might ask: if God can do anything, and He only wants to be gracious, why can’t He “rig the system” and give us the feeling of satisfaction of accomplishing, even if we are not? The answer is that God cannot do that, any more than He can make a stone He cannot lift, or make 1+1=3. This is not considered an imperfection or shortcoming on God’s part when He is “bound” to a truth.
For more on this, see Ralbag’s commentary on Iyov (7:21), where he quips, “Even though a rooster can say ‘cock-a-doodle-do’ while a human cannot, we do not say that the rooster has a superior quality to that of a human.”
People are not happy when they feel overwhelmed and hopeless, but are also just as miserable when they have no challenges. We do not feel happy by trying to be happy. God built us to feel good when we are working to accomplish meaningful goals. If we do not feel overwhelmed, and we feel we are on a level and fair playing field, the hard work is exhilarating and not draining.
While there is a certain logic to what the Ramchal said, it might also feel circular. That is to say, we feel good earning things, but couldn’t God have made us differently so we felt good another way?
And that is where I will stop to ask you to consider going beyond a first-grader’s understanding of God, and that He is not just a big magician in the sky that could do all kinds of tricks, How indeed does a timeless, utterly perfect, never changing (because to change from one state to another implies that there was something lacking that now needed to become something else), omniscient, and omnipotent being connect with the physical, temporal world?
And yet, our tradition tells us He does. But how?
When you understand that, you’ll understand why the question above is really not a question, and that the theological principle that God wants man to complete the world is not only a tradition that we can accept as dogma, but the most logical way to understand how the world came into being and the way in which God relates to it. If you are able to see the full implications of this idea, it will answer many other questions as well.
Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation
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Rabbi Simcha Feuerman, Rabbi Simcha Feuerman, LCSW-R, LMFT, DHL is a psychotherapist who works with high conflict couples and families. He can be reached via email at simchafeuerman@gmail.com