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February 13, 2012
Binyamin Rose: Back to the Bunker: How a life-risking act by a Christian family during the Holocaust saved a family and built a thriving community a world away
Menachem Wecker: Business Schools Teach Real Estate Despite Troubled Housing Market
February 10, 2012
Lisa M. Krieger: Man with defibrillator demands access to his own heart's information
David G. Savage: Why activists may not be in a hurry to have High Court rule on alternative marriage
February 9, 2012
Laura McMullen: 10 Least Expensive Public Schools for Out-of-State Students
Kimberly Palmer: How to actually enjoy -- relaxing, financially -- your vacation
February 8, 2012
Warren Richey: Why momentous Prop. 8 ruling might not satisfy gay-rights groups
Menachem Wecker: Though Controversial, LL.M.'s Can Lead to Specialized Legal Jobs
The Kosher Gourmet byDana Velden: Going to the bother of making soup? You know it better be good. This CREAM OF TOMATO SOUP certainly is! And it's a cinch to make, too (Includes techinques and serving secrets)
February 7, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Caught off-guard? President's Super Bowl interview with Matt Lauer gives those who need a reason not to vote for him, a darn good one
Suzanne Bohan: Leaping lizards! Tiny reptiles advancing robot design
February 6, 2012
Jonathan Tobin: Iran Threatens Israel With Destruction, But the New York Times Doesn't Hear It
Jeffrey Fleishman: In newly democratic Egypt, tens of democracy activists jailed, to stand trial; their groups are 'threatening the stability of the homeland'
Julie Deardorff : Researchers say antioxidants may not be that effective and could do more harm than good
Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
February 3, 2012
Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
Caroline B. Glick: Obama: Of course I intend to prevent a nuclear holocaust . . . in a few months
Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
Jeannine Stein: An inflated ego and thinking you're 'all that' doesn't just make others sick of you, it can make you ill
Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
Jordan Rau: In quest to grow, Catholic hospital system will announce this morning its break from church
Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
David Francis: Where to Invest in 2012: With stocks expected to rebound, opportunity abounds for investors
January 13, 2012
Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz: Thriving through touch: Gentle massage helps older people with low mobility improve in mind and body
January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
Warren Richey: Supreme Court says no to new rule on eyewitness testimony
John Fauber : Statins found to raise diabetes risk in postmenopausal women
Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
The Kosher Gourmet by Joseph Erdos: This mushroom and barley soup has an intense -- almost nutty -- flavor that mixes robust with Middle East. It has creaminess without cream
January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
The Puzzle Master
By Rabbi Yonason Goldson
Reframing tragedy by rethinking life's greatest mystery
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Are you one of those people who can't pick up a new novel without skipping to the back and reading the end first?
If you are, you probably find that others consider this practice contemptible. And with good reason: the rest of us appreciate that the art of story telling is incomplete without the tense progression into the unknown, the gradual revelation of information, the systematic arrangement of data until the twilight of uncertainty finally gives way before the dawn of comprehension — all of which is lost when you know the ending before you begin.
If you are the type who reads the end of the novel first, you're probably also the type who hates jigsaw puzzles. For many of us, the laborious process of sifting through a thousand tiny pieces quickly becomes a passion bordering on obsession. To arrange chaos into order, to witness the slow emergence of sense out of senselessness, these produce within us a thrill of mastery and power to which we otherwise have rare access. But if you can't stand mystery, puzzles are a source of tedious frustration.
Of course, those of us who do enjoy the challenge of solving puzzles are not limited to jigsaws. Crosswords, Sudoku, anagrams, riddles, and brainteasers of every kind offer endless ways to pit our intellect and imagination against contrived disorder. Some of us like to chip away slowly at the boundaries of concealment, like a prisoner chiseling his way toward freedom through his dungeon wall. Others attack each new problem with frenetic zeal, seeking to best their previous records of time and difficulty. But if you belong to the read-the-back-of-the-book-first crowd, no doubt you skim through puzzles hastily and, just as quickly, flip to the back pages for every answer.
An engaging story is itself a kind of puzzle, depending heavily on mystery and obfuscation. From antiquity to the present, storytellers have exploited our love affair with the unknown to produce some of the great epics and adventures. Will Odysseus return to his wife and homeland? Will Prince Hamlet avenge his father? Will Frodo Baggins destroy the Ring of Power? Will Harry Potter defeat Lord Voldemort? The unfolding of the narrative hinges upon the unknown, without which the story would lose its magic.
Ironically, the most successful sagas, like the modern classics Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, leave their audiences with a sense of melancholy at the end. Having invested so much in the adventure, the resolution produces not contentment but disappointment. And so the best stories are those we can read again and again, losing ourselves in the struggle against time, against fate, against evil, against all odds. Discovery happens all along the way, even when we know the ending … but never with the same excitement and tension of our first reading through.
THE MYSTIQUE OF MYSTERY
Why is the human psyche designed this way? Why do we revel in mystery? Why do we love problem-solving so intensely that we create problems just so we can solve them?
Mystery appeals not only to our imagination, but also to our inner conviction that worldly existence extends beyond the apparent randomness of personal and global events. Puzzles appeal to that same part of us, the part that seeks to unravel the threads of confusion that surround us and weave them into sense and order.
For all that, there is one mystery that many of us find intolerable. "It is not in our power to explain the tranquility of the wicked of the suffering of the righteous," declares the Talmud. The greatest puzzle of all — the mystery of Divine Justice — remains not only unsolved but unsolvable. And it is precisely this insolubility that makes the mystery intolerable. We can accept a puzzle that is beyond our ability, but we abhor a problem that has no solution.
But let us reread the words of the Talmud more carefully: the sages have not asserted that the eternal question of why bad things happen to good people, and vice versa, has no answer. Rather, they have stated that the answer is not in our power to explain. And the reason why this is so is eminently understandable.
The Almighty has placed human beings into a world wherein the veil of physical nature conceals spiritual reality. The mission of mankind is to recognize the Creator through the ordered system that governs the workings of our universe. Paradoxically, that recognition depends upon our awareness that the human mind, no matter how extraordinarily complex in its arrangement of neurons and synapses, is fundamentally incapable of fully grasping the infinite mind of G-d.
THE RATIONAL LIMITS OF REASON
This is not to say that the Almighty demands, or even wishes, blind faith. The workings of the world testify to G-d's design, while the necessity of His hiddenness as a prerequisite for free will makes perfect logical sense: if the inevitability of divine justice were clear to all, how could any of us rationalize any choice contrary to the divine will?
But even further, if we were able to explain every aspect of G-d's creation, if we could identify the plan and the justice behind every single divine act, then we would effectively negate the infinite nature of the Creator by reducing Him to the level of our own understanding. Once we accept that G-d is truly infinite, truly eternal, and truly divine, only one realistic course remains before us: we must strive to understand the principles of ultimate justice even as we concede that its particulars may always elude us — until all is revealed in the End of Days.
To make this contradiction easier for us to bear, the Almighty created us with a love of mystery, with an insatiable thirst for problem solving. Throughout the year we rejoice in the search for divine truth and justice that defines the purpose of our existence. We embrace the darkness as the means through which we struggle toward the light.
But on one day each year, on the anniversary of his greatest tragedy, the Jew gives full expression to the pain of darkness and confusion. On the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av, we mourn not only the destruction of our Temple and the exile from our land, but all the tragedies that have befallen us in our long history of seeking spiritual clarity.
On Tisha B'Av we fast, we sit on the floor, and we mourn our bitter separation from the One who provides true illumination and understanding. But then we arise, shake off the trappings of despair, and return with renewed eagerness and enthusiasm to engage the mysteries of creation that we know will one day be made clear for us and all the world to behold.
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Comment by clicking here.JWR contributor Rabbi Yonason Goldson teaches at Block Yeshiva High School in St. Louis, MO, where he also writes and lectures. Visit him at http://torahideals.wordpress.com .
© 2009, Rabbi Yonason Goldson
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