Bob Schwartz

For HB on his birthday. Zolst leben un zein gezunt.

I am going to build a church some day. It will have a holy of holies and a holy of holy of holies, and in that ultimate box will be a random number table.
—Gregory Bateson

Chance plays a repeated part in the Hebrew Bible.

In the Purim story, the evil Haman employs a lottery—“pur” meaning “lots”—to determine the date on which the Jews will be eliminated.

On Yom Kippur we recall the story of the sacrificial goat:

And Aaron shall place lots upon the two he goats: one lot “For the Lord,” and the other lot, “For Azazel.”
And Aaron shall bring the he goat upon which the lot, “For the Lord,” came up, and designate it as a sin offering.
—Leviticus 16:8-9

Then there is the mysterious Urim and Thummim:

Inside the breastpiece of decision you shall place the Urim and Thummim, so that they are over Aaron’s heart when he comes before God. Thus Aaron shall carry the instrument of decision for the Israelites over his heart before God at all times.
—Exodus 28:30

We don’t know exactly what the Urim and Thummim were supposed to be. Like the lots drawn to choose the goat, they are binary, perhaps as simple as two stones—heads or tails, a flip of a coin.

One perspective is that when it comes to decisions, big or small, there may be a point beyond which reason does not work. What lies beyond reason is different for different traditions and philosophies. It may be God, it may be the nature of reality and our mind. We are told to look and keep looking. Meanwhile, we experience the limitations of reason. Something will happen, a choice will be made, but who can know what’s next? It’s a beautiful and necessary mystery.