Just as we depend upon God, God depends upon us TB Baba Batra 74

We hear very often how much we depend upon God and it’s true. But we don’t learn how much God depends upon us to fulfill His plans and desires. The following story on God’s impotence, so to speak, to redeem the Jewish people without us to doing our share of the work.

“Rabba bar bar Ḥana continues his account. That Arab also said to me: Come, I will show you Mount Sinai. I went and saw that scorpions were encircling it, and they were standing as high as white donkeys. I heard a Divine Voice saying: Woe is Me that I took an oath; and now that I took the oath, who will nullify it for me?

When I came before the Sages, they said to me in rebuke: Every Abba is a donkey, and every bar bar Ḥana is an idiot. You should have said: Your oath is nullified. The Gemara explains: And Rabba bar bar Ḥana did not nullify the oath because he reasoned: Perhaps God is referring to the oath that He will not flood the earth again. But the Sages would argue that if that were so, why say: Woe is Me? Rather, this must be referring to God’s oath of exile upon the Jewish people.” (Sefaria.org translation)  

This is not the first time God regrets one of His actions. Before God called upon Noah to build the ark, the Torah records: “YHVH saw how great was human wickedness on earth—how every plan devised by the human mind was nothing but evil all the time. And YHVH regretted having made humankind on earth. With a sorrowful heart, YHVH said, “I will blot out from the earth humankind whom I created—humans together with beasts, creeping things, and birds of the sky; for I regret that I made them.” (Genesis 6:5-7) God needed Noah in His second attempt to create the world anew.

Judaism has always understood the power of words. Even when God takes an oath, He must fulfill it. He needed a Sage like Rabba to nullify His oath exiling the Jewish people. Rabba, whose full name was Rabbi Abba bar bar Hana, understood sometimes when you want to help, you make things even worse. He was afraid that the oath that God was referring to was the oath not to destroy the world with flood waters again. Perhaps God was so angry at humankind again, and wished to destroy the world again. Rabba certainly didn’t want to nullify that oath.

The rabbis deride him for being overly cautious and not listening carefully. God is lamenting about the existential state of the Jewish people in exile. God needs us to further along the redemption process. Rabba missed his opportunity and I think the Gemara is trying to teach us that we shouldn’t miss ours. We are idiots if we just sit him on our behinds, do nothing, and wait for God to redeem us.