Following Purim we are approaching Pesach- time of Freedom and Awakening, as everything in the world is yearning for the new beginning. It's difficult to see the change when we are part of it, and it happens in a slow course of natural evolution, but I guess it's easier to notice in such a vibrant and dynamic country as modern day Israel. Living here since 1991, moving to Australia in 1996 and coming back four years later, and finally, leaving to New York in 2004, and coming back two years ago, in 2011,gives me perspective of the last 20 years plus, still not much for a state, but quite enough to notice the difference - when I first came here in 1991, as a young lad hardly speaking any Hebrew, I found myself in a large melting pot of Israeli society, that was struggling to absorb huge Russian Aliya. Ultra-Orthodox sector, where I was going to be " absorbed", was particularly " troubled" by the newcomers, who brought with them new reality of shops open on Shabbat and selling pork, and general disinterest to religion. It's not surprising then, to learn of the strong dislike towards Russians in the Ultra-Orthodox community. It went both ways- with Russian newspapers often attacking " backward Haredim " and publishing all sorts of stories of their corruption, etc. Secular-religious war was always an issue in Israel, but on the wave of Russian Aliya of early 90-ies it came to a new high! I found myself in a weird position of someone who belongs to both camps- which probably pushed me to think how to bridge the huge gap between them. In early 90-ies, Russian-speaking religious Jew was still a rare sight, and most of my Russian-speaking friends and family had a very hard time accepting my religious identity.
On the other hand, Russian influx also had tremendous effect to change the status-quo of Israeli politics- shifting it to the Right. If in 1992, following successful campaign of Rabin, many Russians voted for him, they wouldn't give their votes to the Labor again-following the shock of Oslo accords and the unleashing campaign of hatred to the settlers after the assassination of Rabin.
This was a time of great division in Israel- between the Right and the Left, the religious and the secular. Time of great hatred, one must admit, coming from all sides of the spectrum.
I'm far from saying that we cured this issue- and we saw some remnants of that old hatred played on again to gain some political dividends ( think of the notorious Shas ad, using conversion for incitement against " Russian goyim ") - but Israelis in large didn't buy it- and it was strongly rejected as non-kosher by all major parties. Disillusioned by the promises of the existing political powers, many Israelis voted for the new voices- Yesh Atid party of Yair Lapid, representing mainly the Secular Left, and the new National- religious party of Naftali Bennett. These two have much in common despite their obvious differences- both are arguing for the necessity of a major change and restructuring in Israeli society, to allow the struggling middle class to benefit from the good shape of Israel's economy, both are representing large groups of Israelis who wish to go beyond the existing conventional "rules of the game" - saying no to political maneuvering and sectoral politics of the small parties who only act as lobbying groups for their sector of society ( Ultra- Orthodox, National- religious, etc ). It's significant that Bennett managed to get large number of the secular voters, and Lapid got supported from both Right and Left.
New Israel is emerging in these elections- Israel that is seeking to redefine itself. Who are Israelis, what are they standing for, and what's our national identity based on? We don't have clear answers to these questions- but I think, we start to realize that THESE QUESTIONS ARE VERY IMPORTANT- and maybe, this understanding is going to BRING NEW AWAKENING!
Finally, I can't overlook something that deeply moved me- the recent speech of MP Calderon, which already became famous. She pulled out the volume of Talmud, and said-
This book changed my life!
She argued that secular Zionists were building this country largely unaware of our Jewish heritage- and it's time to claim it back! Her remarks were both personal and sincere, and many MP's came to give her a warm hug afterwards. Granted, one speech is not enough- but let's hope it's a sign of a new beginning!
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Fresh look at Amalek within us
These days we are commanded to remember the Evil of Amalek- often viewed as the Arch-enemy of G-d and his people. As we remember from the Torah, Amalek attacked the Jews at the point of their journey from Sinai to the Land of Israel, demonstrating his total rejection of any Divine intervention into human history, and even willing to cross the desert and confront the Jews, solely to show his animosity. Later we meet Amalek's descendant Haman in the story of Purim, and Haman's hatred of the Jews pushes him to seek the first Final Solution in the Jewish history. We celebrate our victory but should still remember what Amalek and his descendants did to us, fulfilling the Mitzva of " Mechiyat Amalek"- erasing his memory.
Here comes the question- by remembering Amalek, we seem to be doing just the opposite- we NEVER FORGET! So how are we erasing his memory then?
Another important question is " Who is Amalek? " With Sennacherib ( ancient Assyrian conqueror) mixing the nations of the world, we don't have any way to trace the original tribes of the past, so says the Talmud ( and our common sense strongly agrees ) So WHOM are we supposed to " erase" anyhow?
Answering this question, most contemporary Rabbis point to Amalek as a symbol- symbol of Evil, such Evil that acts out of no benefit, simply motivated by blind hatred. In our times of the horrors of the Holocaust many came to associate this with Nazism, and the like. Others explain, that we must eradicate Evil from our hearts and minds ( various explanations given usually pointing to different bad character traits that we must eradicate - Pride, Anger, etc )
I think we can actually combine both perspectives, if we ask the following question-
HOW THE HOLOCAUST BECAME POSSIBLE?
How otherwise decent people committed such acts of violence and despicable brutality on a massive scale? During the Nuremberg Trials, many Nazis claimed that they simply followed the orders. This brings forth another question- To what degree are we humans capable of doing Evil, when we are " simply following orders ", not seeing ourselves as personally responsible for the outcome of our actions?
This very question was asked by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram, who conducted his world famous experiments on obedience to authority figures. His experiment was conducted in 1961, right after the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem. Eichmann’s defense that he was simply following instructions when he ordered the deaths of millions of Jews roused Milgram’s interest. In his 1974 book Obedience to Authority, Milgram posed the question, "Could it be that Eichmann and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were just following orders? Could we call them all accomplices?"
Milgram was interested in researching how far people would go in obeying an instruction if it involved harming another person- how easily ordinary people could be influenced into committing atrocities for example, Germans in WWII.
In his experiment, the volunteer was asked to help in study of the effect of pain on human memory- and for this purpose was supposed to give an electro shock to the " learner" - each time increasing the voltage for every wrong answer. There were 30 switches on the shock generator marked from 15 volts (slight shock) to 450 (danger – severe shock).
Before conducting the tests, Milgram polled fourteen Yale University senior-year psychology majors to predict the behavior of 100 hypothetical teachers. All of the poll respondents believed that only a very small fraction of teachers will be willing to administer severe levels of shock.
Yet the reality proved truly shocking results- about 65% of the "teachers" in the test administered the maximum level of shock ( potentially lethal ) to their " students" - this despite the fact that they clearly heard them screaming, knocking on the wall etc. This experiment was repeated in different countries, with similar results.
Here's what Milgram wrote about it in his book -
Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority.
This experiment seems to tell us something frightening about the human nature- when confronted with difficult moral questions, we often choose not to take responsibility and simply yield o authority.
Judaism brought into the world the idea of Man created in the Image of G-d, his Freedom of Will and thus Moral Responsibility for his actions. If this is what Judaism stands for, we can understand what the essence of Amalek is- essential Doubt that Man possesses such Greatness, stripping him from any G-dlike identity. After all, we are simply more advanced animals. It's not a coincidence, that Hitler actively promoted this vision ( later referred to as Social Darwinism )
“Truly, this earth is a trophy cup for the industrious man. And this rightly so, in the service of natural selection. He who does not possess the force to secure his Lebensraum in this world, and, if necessary, to enlarge it, does not deserve to possess the necessities of life. He must step aside and allow stronger peoples to pass him by.” - Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf.
And possibly this would answer our first question- we OUGHT TO REMEMBER, WE MAY NOT FORGET- what such vision of man and such philosophy does to humanity!
We ERASE Amalek's memory by recognizing the traits of his philosophy in our own hearts and minds! This paradox of remembering to erase the memory in fact is teaching us another lesson-
AMALEK WILL NEVER DISAPPEAR! Our human nature is in constant conflict between Good and Evil, and this would continue on- to help us make the right moral choices, and to elevate us to serve G-d with Love and Compassion, with our Free Will and desire to do Good, eradicating cruelty and herd mentality from our midst!
Happy Purim!
Here comes the question- by remembering Amalek, we seem to be doing just the opposite- we NEVER FORGET! So how are we erasing his memory then?
Another important question is " Who is Amalek? " With Sennacherib ( ancient Assyrian conqueror) mixing the nations of the world, we don't have any way to trace the original tribes of the past, so says the Talmud ( and our common sense strongly agrees ) So WHOM are we supposed to " erase" anyhow?
Answering this question, most contemporary Rabbis point to Amalek as a symbol- symbol of Evil, such Evil that acts out of no benefit, simply motivated by blind hatred. In our times of the horrors of the Holocaust many came to associate this with Nazism, and the like. Others explain, that we must eradicate Evil from our hearts and minds ( various explanations given usually pointing to different bad character traits that we must eradicate - Pride, Anger, etc )
I think we can actually combine both perspectives, if we ask the following question-
HOW THE HOLOCAUST BECAME POSSIBLE?
How otherwise decent people committed such acts of violence and despicable brutality on a massive scale? During the Nuremberg Trials, many Nazis claimed that they simply followed the orders. This brings forth another question- To what degree are we humans capable of doing Evil, when we are " simply following orders ", not seeing ourselves as personally responsible for the outcome of our actions?
This very question was asked by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram, who conducted his world famous experiments on obedience to authority figures. His experiment was conducted in 1961, right after the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem. Eichmann’s defense that he was simply following instructions when he ordered the deaths of millions of Jews roused Milgram’s interest. In his 1974 book Obedience to Authority, Milgram posed the question, "Could it be that Eichmann and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were just following orders? Could we call them all accomplices?"
Milgram was interested in researching how far people would go in obeying an instruction if it involved harming another person- how easily ordinary people could be influenced into committing atrocities for example, Germans in WWII.
In his experiment, the volunteer was asked to help in study of the effect of pain on human memory- and for this purpose was supposed to give an electro shock to the " learner" - each time increasing the voltage for every wrong answer. There were 30 switches on the shock generator marked from 15 volts (slight shock) to 450 (danger – severe shock).
Before conducting the tests, Milgram polled fourteen Yale University senior-year psychology majors to predict the behavior of 100 hypothetical teachers. All of the poll respondents believed that only a very small fraction of teachers will be willing to administer severe levels of shock.
Yet the reality proved truly shocking results- about 65% of the "teachers" in the test administered the maximum level of shock ( potentially lethal ) to their " students" - this despite the fact that they clearly heard them screaming, knocking on the wall etc. This experiment was repeated in different countries, with similar results.
Here's what Milgram wrote about it in his book -
Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority.
This experiment seems to tell us something frightening about the human nature- when confronted with difficult moral questions, we often choose not to take responsibility and simply yield o authority.
Judaism brought into the world the idea of Man created in the Image of G-d, his Freedom of Will and thus Moral Responsibility for his actions. If this is what Judaism stands for, we can understand what the essence of Amalek is- essential Doubt that Man possesses such Greatness, stripping him from any G-dlike identity. After all, we are simply more advanced animals. It's not a coincidence, that Hitler actively promoted this vision ( later referred to as Social Darwinism )
“Truly, this earth is a trophy cup for the industrious man. And this rightly so, in the service of natural selection. He who does not possess the force to secure his Lebensraum in this world, and, if necessary, to enlarge it, does not deserve to possess the necessities of life. He must step aside and allow stronger peoples to pass him by.” - Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf.
And possibly this would answer our first question- we OUGHT TO REMEMBER, WE MAY NOT FORGET- what such vision of man and such philosophy does to humanity!
We ERASE Amalek's memory by recognizing the traits of his philosophy in our own hearts and minds! This paradox of remembering to erase the memory in fact is teaching us another lesson-
AMALEK WILL NEVER DISAPPEAR! Our human nature is in constant conflict between Good and Evil, and this would continue on- to help us make the right moral choices, and to elevate us to serve G-d with Love and Compassion, with our Free Will and desire to do Good, eradicating cruelty and herd mentality from our midst!
Happy Purim!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
