Independence is a familiar concept. There is financial independence, political independence and so forth. What is spiritual independence?
Jewish tradition (Avot 5:7) describes a typology called a ‘golem’ indicating someone who is ‘unformed,’ unrefined. For example one of the characteristics of a golem is someone who interrupts when someone else is speaking. Intelligent people do this, people who have many good character traits but they (we all) lack refinement. Like an unfinished vessel a golem is missing some finishing touches. (Maimonides) (See Pirkei Kinyan Da’at p. 26)
What makes him incomplete is ignorance – not ignorance from lack of education but ignorance in things he should understand on his own without the need for anyone to teach him.
In the Biblical creation story a human being became a ‘living soul.’ Animals are also alive but there is something extra that human beings have and animals lack, that give humans an extra measure of ‘aliveness.’ That extra ‘something’ is consciousness, one of the two defining characteristics of being human along with the power of speech.
Speech develops at an early age. In contrast, consciousness develops much later. The author writes: “Consciousness creates spiritual independence. A person uses consciousness and the core self to understand things for which no instruction or education was received. This makes humans more ‘alive’ than animals…”
A person with consciousness is more ‘alive’ because he’s compared to a spring of living waters that flow independently, as compared to a barren field that has to be constantly watered.
Until you have consciousness you are unformed. If you do your God-given tasks that have been revealed to you through revelation you are considered God-fearing but you haven’t added anything of your own and therefore you’re not yet a fully formed person.
The author continues: “The foundation for obligations in God-given tasks is understanding of the heart. The revelatory experience of the Jewish nation standing at Mt. Sinai obligates them in additional tasks they didn’t know about before receiving that revelation. However, once revelation has taken place these new tasks have to be fulfilled with consciousness and understanding of the heart.
The multitude of religious laws and teaching do not change the necessity for consciousness one iota. The entire corpus of Jewish law hinges on a person having consciousness.
We don’t judge a person’s character based on his education but on the understanding he gets to on his own.
A verse that expresses this well is: “Do not be like a horse, like a mule with no understanding, who is restrained by his bit and his bridle.” (Psalms 32) External restraints are needed to hold back a horse. A person’s restraints should be internal. Only a person with no internal awareness requires external restraints like a horse.
We’re familiar with that small still voice within us that says ‘no’ to what’s wrong. We silence it. We refuse to hear the voice of consciousness.
To be spiritually independent means to not depend on outside restraints but to be capable of self-restraint from within and in this way take on a human form as humans were designed to have.
The capacity for autonomous understanding, when no externally imposed law is telling you what to do (or what not to do) is a sign of consciousness. There is an acerbic comment made by the rabbinic scholars that an animal carcass is preferable to a Torah scholar. This remark was based on the assertion that such a person, in spite of all of his vast knowledge who is missing consciousness is worse than a dead animal. At least the animal was once a living creature. This person who has no capacity for autonomous decision making has never lived! (p. 74)