S10, E3 In Pursuit of Knowing Hashem: Psychology or Metaphysics?

conversation # 3 of the series

In this conversation, Zev and I share a list of questions related to Knowing Hashem, and discuss whether it involves psychological transformation or mastery of metaphysical knowledge.

Links: https://open.substack.com/pub/shnayor...https://open.substack.com/pub/shnayor...https://open.substack.com/pub/shnayor...https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0727TH8X8

0:00 A list of questions and issues that relate to the project of knowing Hashem

2:30 What's the difference between talking about Hashem and talking about knowing Hashem?

7:30 Do the right words for the discipline of knowing Hashem exist yet?

23:15 Is knowledge of Hashem actually achievable or is it an ideal toward which we strive?

34:00 Where do animals fit in to knowing Hashem?

41:15 The difference between the message of the Prophets and the message of the Rambam and Kabbalists: Psychology or Metaphysics?

1:10:00 The prophets’ four-step training in Da’as Hashem

1:19:00 Testing thought across all of space and time

1:23:30 Universal thinking leads to good character traits

1:25:15 People of good character believe in goodness

1:29:30 When those people then find the goodness in which they believe – that is Da’as Hashem

1:38:00 Knowing Hashem as a kind of action, not a belief

1:44:30 Why the prophets and the Rambam/Kabbalists took different approaches to knowing Hashem

1:47:30 How it becomes easier to know everything