|
|
|
When the utopian idealist met the hardnosed realist in the park By Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb
Eavesdrop on the conversation. You'll walk away enlightened
We both loved to take long walks, and the frequency with which our paths crossed constantly amazed us. We also both enjoyed long talks, and the beginnings of some of those discussions went back to our sophomore year in high school.
Eli was a self-described utopian. He had a clear picture in his mind of what an ideal world would look like. Although I too am somewhat of a utopian, compared to my old friend I am a hardnosed realist.
Many of our past discussions were concerned with what we both believed was the unfair distribution of wealth in the world. Personally, we were both acquainted with stupendously wealthy individuals. We also had mutual friends who were totally destitute.
Our most recent chance encounter found us reviving that old familiar topic. The news media that particular day were bemoaning the widening gap in the United States and many other countries between the very rich and the very poor.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes "must-reading". Sign up for the daily update. It's free. Just click here.
Eli had served for many years as the Torah chanter, or baal koreh, in his synagogue. He had no trouble precisely recalling the following verse, and even singing it aloud for all in the park to hear:
I could not resist the temptation of reminding my good friend that he had used that very text so long ago when we were both members of our high school debate team. He argued the cause of socialism while my duty was to defend capitalism. We had both outgrown the simple assumptions of adolescence, and, at this point in life, Eli was no socialist.
But he still nurtured a penchant for an ideal world, a world without man-made discrimination.
I did not have to look very far for a verse which countered Eli's source. Although it has been very many years since I served as a regular Torah reader in the synagogues I attend, I had sufficient experience as a Torah chanter myself in years gone by to attach the traditional mellifluous tune to the words:
After all these years, we both must have reached a new level of maturity, for we soon decided that to continue debating the issues of idealism versus realism would be pointless at our age. I granted him that we were indeed encouraged by the Torah to try as best we could to construct, if not a perfect world, then a vastly improved one. If we could not achieve the ideal of "there shall be no needy among you," we could at least "open our hands" to those who were needy.
And Eli conceded that until we can attain an ideal world in which there are no needy, we had better scrupulously follow the Torah's urgent plea that we "open our hands" to those who seem to "never cease to be needy." "Until we achieve the ideal," concluded Eli, "we had better face the reality and be fervently charitable."
We parted ways, and were each fairly certain that it would be a while until chance brought us together once again to revive old arguments on a common park bench. Was I in for a surprise!
The very next evening I received a rare telephone call from an unusually excited Eli. He opened the conversation by exclaiming loudly that he had discovered a story that he had to share with me.
It seems that he had come across a relatively new book, in Hebrew, on the weekly Torah portions. It was simply entitled Perashos, Portions, and subtitled "A New Look at the Portions of the Week". The author, Chaim Navon, compiled the book from the weekly columns he had written for the Israeli newspaper, Makor Rishon.
Eli was particularly impressed by an old story that neither of us had heard before.
How shocked was the disciple when his master reprimanded him severely and called him a traitor to the cause.
The disciple objected, "All I did was help a poor person! Did you not teach us about the plight of the poverty-stricken worker?"
The master replied, "We are expecting the revolution, which will be a comprehensive and absolute solution to the problem of poverty. By relieving this man and his desperation for even a moment, you were providing a temporary solution to his situation. That will delay and postpone the ultimate Revolution."
It is natural for humans to desire perfection. But they cannot allow that desire to get in the way of dealing with the ugly realities of life.
This week's Torah portion, in verses which are separated by a few mere lines, drives home this important point. We must strive with all our might for a society in which poverty (and for that matter, all forms of human misery) is eliminated. But in our striving we cannot lose sight of the realities. Poverty exists and we must ameliorate it. We must expect that at every step along the way to the ideal world which we are commanded to create, there will be pressing problems that must be addressed immediately, even if that means that the long-term larger goals must be temporarily postponed.
A lesson for the ages, and a lesson for today!
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes inspiring articles. Sign up for our daily update. It's free. Just click here.
Interested in a private Judaic studies instructor — for free? Let us know by clicking here.
Comment by clicking here.
Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, PhD is currently the Executive Vice President, Emeritus of the Orthodox Union.
© 2012, Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb
| ||||||||||||||||||
