|
Jewish World Review Jan. 14, 2000 /7 Shevat, 5760
A Torah life not only provides the discipline necessary
to make oneself a better person, but also the incentive to do so
THIS PAST SUMMER I participated in a symposium on the coverage of
Orthodoxy in the mainstream Jewish media at the American Jewish Press
Association annual convention. I argued, inter alia, that the typical portrayal
of Orthodoxy as something from the Dark Ages leaves American Jews
unable to interpret the reality around them. Armed with that disinformation,
American Jews are, for instance, incapable of understanding how their
children -- products of the finest secular educations -- could become
observant Jews.
I had occasion to recall that discussion recently. Gathered around my
Shabbat table were an early '80s Yale graduate, who had gone on to a
successful business career, a woman who three months ago worked for the
Larry King Show, and another young man who, after graduating from
Harvard Law School, clerked for the US Supreme Court. Each is currently
learning in a yeshiva or seminary in Israel.
Over the years, I have listened to the stories of hundreds of such Jews. No
two are alike. Given the prejudice against religious beliefs with which they
grew up and in which they were educated, each Jew who becomes religious
is a miracle.
Miracles cannot be replicated. Each journey involves a unique combination
of emotional and intellectual elements. Yet some common themes do recur.
In most cases, the road to observance begins with meeting an Orthodox Jew
who seems qualitatively different from anyone previously encountered. That
Orthodox Jew, usually a teacher of some kind, offers a vision of life lived as
a whole, a life unified by the awareness that all of one's actions are in the
presence of G-d; a life without the usual bifurcations of modern existence -
work/family, public morality/private morality, work/leisure. Through that
mentor, Matthew Arnold's famous epigram -- "The Greeks taught the
holiness of beauty; the Jews the beauty of holiness" -- comes to life.
Experiencing a Shabbat or other Jewish holiday with a large Orthodox family
is another standard part of the journey. Many are amazed to be exposed for
the first time to a world in which each child is considered an incomparable
blessing, incapable of being subjected to any cost-benefit analysis. Having
been raised with an emphasis on the generation gap, young secular Jews are
attracted by a world in which traditions are passed down from one
generation to the next and bind those generations together. In a world in
which the anomie of individual existence has replaced traditional
communities, the emphasis on communal life, and the many ways that is
expressed among Orthodox Jews, draws those from the outside.
On the intellectual level, many of those who become Orthodox have lived
for years with a profound sense that there must be some moral order to the
universe. Yet their search through the world's philosophies has led them to
conclude, along with the great Polish philosopher Ledzek Kolokawski,
"every philosophical system begins by assuming that which it seeks to
prove."
They recognize that without G-d, morality becomes largely a question of
each person's prejudices, and, to paraphrase Groucho Marx, they have no
wish to live in a world in which they set all the rules.
"Without G-d, everything is permitted," says Ivan in The Brother's
Karamazov. Unable to deny Dostoyevsky but unwilling to accept that
everything is permitted, some of the brightest and most sensitive young Jews
search for G-d instead.
Once they accept that a moral order can only be founded on G-d, it follows
for many that G-d must have revealed His will, for how else could finite man
know the will of an Infinite G-d? Forms of religious expression that are left
to individual discretion or popular vote, and, as a consequence, change
every Monday and Thursday, cannot satisfy the thirst for contact with an
objective moral order.
Some of the most talented and accomplished of these spiritual seekers have
lived for years with an overwhelming sense of responsibility, a feeling that
their natural gifts obligate them to cure all the world's ills. For them, the
knowledge that it's G-d who runs the world - not them - comes as a relief.
But that knowledge leads neither to quiescence nor an end of striving.
Nearly 2,000 ago, Rabbi Tarfon summed up their newfound attitude: "The
task is not yours to complete; neither are you free to leave it off."
No Jewish idea is so powerful as the belief that everything we do or think
has consequences. Every moment provides us with an opportunity to either
imbue the world with holiness or the opposite. There is nothing neutral, no
standing still; at any given moment we are either raising ourselves spiritually,
and the world along with us, or we are lowering ourselves. We are either
conduits of G-d's blessings to the world, or plugs stopping up channels.
A Torah life is a demanding one. It insists that we can change ourselves in
fundamental ways. True, each of us is born with a basic nature, a
combination of good and bad qualities, but our innate nature does not define
us. We have the power to overcome the bad qualities and to emphasize the
good. In short, we are what we make of ourselves.
Thus the final attraction of a Torah life for many of our best and brightest is
that it not only provides the discipline necessary to make oneself a better
person, but also the incentive to do
Reason and madness
By Jonathan Rosenblum
JWR contributor Jonathan Rosenblum is a columnist for the Jerusalem Post. He can be reached by clicking here.
12/27/99: Love sweeter than wine
11/23/99: When lives are at stake, where's Israel?
11/17/99: The Mortara Affair Revisited
11/08/99: Do religious Jews make lousy parents?
10/28/99: Heed the heart
10/14/99: Tell me you love me --- please!
09/27/99: True Jewish rejoicing
08/09/99: Many Ways to be a Jew
07/15/99: Abolish the Three Weeks?
07/08/99: Memories of Entebbe
05/17/99: The Leadership We Deserve
05/10/99: Still a Hero
03/18/99: Israel’s "Little Rock Central High"?
02/19/99: Why Israel's fervently-Orthodox are mad-as-....
02/04/99:Those ornery Orthodox: Myth and Reality
02/01/99: Keep the money