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Jewish World Review Nov. 17, 2008 / 19 Mar-Cheshvan 5769 The End of the Age of Reason By Rabbi Yonason Goldson
Given how bleak our world now seems, the most likely psychological response would be at least confusion, perhaps panic, and understandably despair. But a review of the course of human history predicted over 1500 years ago suggests an entirely different reaction
Thirty years ago, scientists predicted that we were headed into the next ice age, until they began telling us that life on earth is threatened by global warming. For a decade the oceans calmed and lulled us into forgetfulness of the storms that once ravaged our coasts, returning with a vengeance to strike not only the Gulf Coast and the Caribbean but also such unlikely targets as San Diego and Nova Scotia. Wildfires sweep again and again through California (the wealthiest state in the country, and possibly the world), even in mid-November.
All of this is old news, even as it continues to dominate the headlines. So is the global economy, so recently thought robust and secure, which has suddenly collapsed amidst a series of easily predictable blunders that were predicted by virtually no one. Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, AIG, and others — the most secure financial institutions in the business, touted by the venerable finance magazine Baron's only a year ago as the most secure investments on the market — collapsed almost overnight. Billions of dollars disappeared; the wealthy became impoverished. Even the big-three American automakers, the backbone of national industry, are tottering on the edge of insolvency.
STRANGER THAN FICTION
Politically, the rebirth of a broken and bankrupt Russian to join the ranks of the world's great economic powers in less than a decade and revive the cold war echoes the rebirth of Germany under the National Socialists in the 1930s. Similarly, the rise of a politician utterly unknown only four years ago and lacking any substantive experience or credentials to become the first African-American president of the United States would defy human imagination had it not already come to pass.
The most likely psychological response would be at least confusion, perhaps panic, and understandably despair. But a review of the course of human history anticipated by the Talmud over 1500 years ago suggests an entirely different reaction:
Confidence.
THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME
The sages tell us to look forward to a time when children will have no respect for their parents, when heresy will become widespread and none will give rebuke, when the last penny will disappear from the purse, when those who trust in truth will wander like sheep. More cryptically, they tell us to look forward to a time when the generation has the face of a dog.
Whereas dogs are best known for their loyalty, the sages foresaw a time when an entire generation would have only the face of a dog — maintaining the appearance of valuing loyalty while essentially forsaking the quality in favor of personal advantage and self-interest.
Moreover, a dog walks out in front of its master, appearing as if it were the leader. The time would come, predicted the sages, when leaders would, dog-like, constantly look back for approval from the court of public opinion, standing out in front but asserting none of the qualities of leadership.
THE IRRATIONAL IMPERATIVE
Indeed, this interpretation becomes even more compelling given a more literal translation of hesik haDa'as: the failure of reason.
The great philosopher Rabbi Elyahu Dessler observed that, when we fail to recognize the hand of the Almighty in the blessings He bestows upon us, we may compel Him to force our recognition through the travails to which He subjects us. As he witnessed the specter of Nazi Germany from his home in northern England, Rabbi Dessler recognized the shadow of divine retribution sweeping over Europe during the Holocaust. To his discerning eye, the meteoric rise of a failed painter who, in six short years, resurrected a broken German nation and built the continent's greatest military power revealed the hand of Providence as clearly as any open miracle.
Reason had failed European Jews, who had themselves failed to see the Almighty's presence in their midst during the many years of prosperity they had enjoyed before Hitler came to power. In a supernatural reversal of fortunes, the unreasonable suffering of millions forced them — and us — to look at the world through entirely different eyes. History demands that we learn its lessons; and history has little patience with us when we don't.
Whether the era of ultimate redemption will arrive heralded by divine emissaries descending from the heavens or humbly, as the prophet says, riding on a donkey — either way, the inexplicable seismic shifts in climate, economics, politics, and human psychology warn us to expect the unexpected, to trust in neither our intellect nor the might of our hands, but only in the merit of our good deeds, our concern for our fellow men, and our commitment to the sanctity of Divine Law. By following this prescription, we can be confident — not of an easy passage, but of a secure and safe harbor at our journey's end.
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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 .
© 2008, Rabbi Yonason Goldson
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