The previous rather open ended post raised a question about past and present, and the tendency that Yisrael should have.
The blog's introduction mentioned the concept of "Hit'halech Lifanai V'heyei Tamim" and the idea of life as journey and becoming rather than being.
The Jewish people hear that message in many different and interesting ways. There's the world changing innovation coming out of Israel, the moral and ethical "light unto the nations", the religious imperative that Judaism is (and its launching of the main world religions), the concept of "Tikkun Olam" that graces the mission statements of charitable organizations everywhere...to name a few.
So I would like to give a parable to further open up the discussion, if I may.
There was once a man driving a car along a cliffside highway. A group of ruffians and hooligans, lying in wait along the road, began to pelt his car with stones. One of the stones hit the driver through the windshield, and the car tumbled down the embankment, tossing over and hitting the mountainside on its way down. Miraculously, the driver survived, nestled in his air bag and seat belt. The young punks continued to stone the car, but eventually they were chased away by the locals. As they left, they yelled that they'd be back.
The driver, however, decided to stay in the car. After all, that's where he was safe.
For 1000 years, the Jewish People had stones rained down on them by the local thugs, and hunkered down in their cars for safety. It is only now that for the most part, the hooligans have left. And so now we can actually ask ourselves - where do we want to go? What do we want to be?
Some of Yisrael doesnt want to go anywhere. Some deny "going" in its entirety. Some would rather go anywhere, because they want to break with their past. Some think that we have already gotten where we want to go, and all that is left is to wait for the world to catch up and understand. Some want to culturefy our religion. Some want to religify our culture. Some want a hodgepodge mixture of both. Some want to be a (Western) nation like any other.
And some dont care at all, and intermarry out, in their effort to run away.
Oh, and each has politicized their view, and define Yisrael by it, and therefore think that only they are Yisrael. [The others are heretics, fanatics, heathens, terrorists, backwards, secular, automatons, mistaken, apostates, etc.]
But we are all Yisrael. And we can finally have a real and meaningful dialogue on where we want to go.
Or, do we all want to stay in the car, clutching the seat belt?
I once heard "outside" a statement attributed to Rav Yoel Teitelbaum, zt"l.
ReplyDeleteSomeone once asked Rav Yoel how he understands the phenomenon of widespread Jewish intermarriage and complete assimilation.
The Rav answered that it was G-d's way of removing the "mixed multitudes" from Klal Yisrael, before the arrival of the moshiach.
I wonder if, perhaps, stubborn refusal to return to our sovereign national status is also a way of sifting out the "mixed multitudes", those souls who tagged along with Klal Yisrael for a free ride out of Egypt, but who never really wanted to join our nation.
Maybe those who languish in Exile, "buckled in" as it were, are merely fulfilling their appropriate role in Jewish history; the eruv rav have ridden the Klal Yisrael train for a long time, and now they have come to their final stop.
But youre assuming the seat belt is galus, and that we would want to go in the direction of a nation and land. Maybe we would choose to be a religion and leave the Middle East entirely, for arguments sake. I am asking where we want to go, with no assumptions that there is anywhere we should be winding up.
Deletel'maaseh, that's not what is happening. The fact that we have a mitzvah to live in our Land, several mitzvos that can only be done in our Land, and that our sages ordained that we should pray thrice daily and plead to resume Temple service in our Land... ....all seem to preclude the option of "choose to be a religion".
DeleteNot at all - what was decided then may not be applicable now...
DeleteKorbanos, for example. Some of the rishonim say korbanos were commanded only because the people then had a need for it, and that they dont apply today. Yes, they are daas yachid. But they are still a de'ah.
As the Talmud Muhvak of the Gadol Hador Rabbi Pinky Shmekelstien I can tell you bli safek you speak the words of Daas Toirah!! Make sure to feed Cuddles, God is going out of town for a few days.
ReplyDeleteBuch HaSheim I speak the eymiss and Daas Toireh ;)
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