The Difficult History of Religion and Freedom

Middle East Fears

Fears are mounting over the growing crisis in the Middle East.

Even as the current pharaoh of Mitzrayim (the Biblical name for Egypt) has now bowed to the will of the masses, stepping down and ceding power to the military, a great vacuum is bound to emerge, and its powerful effects will ripple through the entire region and the world.

Remember, President Mubarak has held on to power with an iron fist for close to 30 years, squashing all resistance and dissent. So it will not be a simple process to fill the void left in this country of over 80 million people – the most populous of all Arab nations.

Understandably, the entire world, and especially Israel and the surrounding Middle East are deeply concerned about the future of Egypt’s direction, and how it will impact, as it were, the fragile peace and equilibrium of the region.

With so many forces at work – and so much combustion and anger built up over the years of oppression – the outcome of the current upheavals is totally unpredictable and uncertain.

Will the army maintain the status quo, just with a leader by another name than Mubarak? Will an autocracy be replaced by a theocracy? Will it take the shape and follow the footsteps of Iran? Will secular Arabs take control? Will – and can – a true democracy emerge in Egypt, or does the country not have the necessary infrastructure for a free government? Will then anarchy and civil war break out between battling factions? Will some madman take control in the vacuum and press the “wrong buttons” that will unleash bedlam and destruction in the entire region?

These are all very possible – but terrifying – scenarios. And the doubts are worse than all. The unknown evil is harsher than the known.

Hardly anyone predicts a happy – and peaceful – ending.

Indeed, I too am guilty of contributing to this pessimistic forecast. Last week this column painted a very precarious picture of the region, spelling out the need for Israel to be vigilant and non-conciliatory due to the volatility of the situation, which only exposes and amplifies how Israel is surrounded by hostile nations and cannot rely on any promises and treaties that can easily be abrogated.

Some of you readers rightly criticized my fearful tone, for which I apologize. Because inciting fear was the farthest thing from my intention. My point was that we have to be realistic to the facts on the ground. Awareness is half the cure. Only by soberly recognizing the true personality of the region, can we ever hope to discover peace.

In that vein, allow me to add this: Particularly, as believers, there is no

doubt that despite the hostilities surrounding Israel, the holy land is the safest place on earth, G-d watches over it with special providence, and the Jewish people will continue to thrive and grow.

At the same time there are things Israel can do to make peace with their enemies. But it has to be based on strength not weakness; awareness not denial. Israel can play a major role in taking the lead and initiative, showing a shining example and being a light unto nations in this current upheaval. I will write about that in detail in my next article.

So now for part 2 of this series – the good news.

What is the Solution to the Fermenting Middle East?

Now that we have established that the current uprisings are a more honest reflection – no matter how raw it may be – of the true status of the Middle East (and we therefore need to be vigilant accordingly), let us discuss what is the deeper meaning of these world-changing events.

I submit that a thorough historical analysis of the current upheavals, will interestingly and surprisingly provide us with an optimistic forecast for the future of this ancient region!

But this is predicated on the premise that awareness is half the cure of a disease: As long as we live in denial about the events in Egypt, or try to minimize and convince ourselves that this uprising is just an anomaly, which will soon disappear – we will be doomed to suffer as a result. On the other hand, half the cure is awareness of the festering problems. Defining the problem – by coming to terms with these events, facing them head on and dissecting their underlying causes – allows us to find the solution.

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Roots of Dissent

Reports from the mass demonstrations in Cairo’s Tahrir Square tell us that the hundreds of thousands of protesters who took to Egypt’s streets were driven by their accumulative misery and frustration of their impoverished and repressed lives under Egyptian rule.

Their tidal wave of anger and fury was not about Israel, but about Arab unemployment, Arab poverty and Arab despair of a better future.

Everyone in the world has been telling us for years that the problem in the Middle East is peace with Israel, settlements, Gaza, occupation. If israel makes peace with its neigbors our problems will go away.

The masses that fixated the world’s attention for the last 18 days – first in Tunisia and now in Egypt – have sent a major wake up call to the world: Our problems are local. And not necessarily isolated to radical regimes, but even the so-called “moderate” Arab states, like Egypt, friendly to the West. They have brought our attention to the real issues that are threatening the stability and peace of the Middle East: the repression and poverty plaguing these nations. The protesting throngs are demanding freedom, democracy, social justice, rule of law and economic equality.

“More than 40 percent of Egyptians live on less than $2 per day. Nearly 30 percent are illiterate, and Egypt is on the list of failed states. Under the three decades of President Mubarak’s rule, Egyptian society has lived under a draconian “emergency law” that strips people of their most basic rights, including freedom of association and of assembly, and has imprisoned tens of thousands of political dissidents. While this Orwellian regime has been valued by some of Egypt’s Western allies as “stable,” providing, among other assets, a convenient location for rendition, it has been in reality a ticking bomb and a vehicle for radicalism.” So writes Mohamed Elbardei in a recent New York Times article.

Why are the Egyptians Finding it so Difficult to Establish a Free Society?

Why the Egyptians are finding it so difficult to establish a free society – and the way they can ultimately achieve their goals – can be answered by looking at history, which was  fraught with the same battle: How to establish freedom and respect human rights in a world dominated by power, control and greed.

This has been the human race’s challenge from the beginning of time. So the Egyptians are not alone: their search for freedom is the same one that societies have been seeking from time immemorial.

The Birth of Freedom

What lies behind the human search for freedom? And why does it come so difficultly? If freedom is the basic birthright and the natural state of every human being – why has it not emerged earlier in history? Why is it a novelty just emerging in the last few centuries? Why has it come with so much hardship? And why does it continue to come so hard in Egypt and in other countries around the world?

This is perhaps the single biggest question, and its answer can provide us with direction, and also tell us where we should be expending our resources. Are we wasting billions of dollars trying to impose democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan, for example?

The obvious answer, the one we hear all the time, is that people in power don’t want to relinquish it. They are riding on top, with enormous wealth, control and honor at their disposal, why should they just walk away and cede control to others or to the people?

But that only answers the immediate difficulty in establishing a free society. The question is how did the situation arise in the first place that allowed for one person to take control over so many others, and repress their rights in the process?

This brings us to the next level of understanding the evolution of human history: Once upon a time freedom was a privilege, not a right. As a result, the history of the world is one of single leaders: Pharaohs, monarchs, despots, fascists, whatever you want to call them – took control, without the slightest consideration for individual rights and personal freedoms. The common justification was that the people were inferior in any case and not fit to make their own decisions. Thus the need, for the God-King – yes, many of them were considered deities – to rule and set the guidelines that governed people’s lives. No need to elaborate on the cruel consequences and abuse of such absolute power; history is a witness to that (barring the few exceptions of benevolent despots, who proffered compassion and kindness on their subjects)

Only in the last few hundred years did freedom become a right – not just a privilege or a gift bestowed by another human being – a G-d given birthright inherent in every human being by virtue of being created. As the American Founding father so aptly described in their Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among them are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

But this only carries the question over to a larger dilemma: If these “truths” are indeed “self evident that all men are created equal” and these rights are indeed “inalienable,” “endowed” to us by our Creator – why then did it take thousands of years for man to discover these essential truths?!

Some social evolutionists may argue that man was simply more primitive in the past, and therefore was content with the tribal mores of allowing one leader to control the pack, without the slightest need to exercise any higher aspirations for freedom and individual rights.

Whatever you think of that argument, I find it sorely lacking, and especially, considering the fact, that we have documented evidence going back several millennia – to Biblical times – of people seeking freedom and the expression of their basic human rights.

Regardless, allow me to propose the Torah perspective on this mystery.

The answer lies in the fundamental understanding of the nature and purpose of existence itself.

G-d created our universe with the distinct objective of establishing a partnership with the human being: G-d would provide the resources and we humans would develop them. We would tame and civilize the otherwise unrefined world into a Divine home. In one sentence: The purpose of our being is to spiritualize the material universe, and fuse matter and spirit into one cohesive unit, in which the material is a seamless channel for the flow of Divine energy.

The challenge is this: Our universe was deliberately crafted in a way that conceals its purpose and its Designer. This allows us the great gift and responsibility to reveal the purpose and its Designer; to reconnect the structure with its Architect, the portrait with its Artist, the composition with its Composer.

Without going into an explanation for all the reasons behind this concealed architecture, suffice it to say that it gives our lives purpose and meaning: We are not playing out the preordained script of a puppeteer. Our choices and actions actually make a difference; we have the option and power to either buy into the concealment and go about our lives driven by self interest, or to transcend and see through the veil and fulfill our mission of transforming the dark universe into a beacon of light.

This concealment creates a tremendous tension between matter and spirit – which in turn defines the heart of all the conflicts throughout history – which ultimately can only be relieved through spiritualizing the material, and finding balance and integration between G-d and the universe He created.

With this inherent existential tension in mind, we can understand why discovering truth, respecting basic human rights and freedoms, achieving unity amidst diversity, is such a painstaking and difficult process. It reflects and captures the entire purpose of existence – and realizing that does not come easy. The stakes are high and the resistance is strong.

The difficulty is only compounded by the fact that the earth is populated by diverse people, cultures and nations, each with their own way of seeing things – only making it more challenging to find a common path, that respects both our individuality and our higher calling.

The Battles of History

In essence this defines virtually every battle fought throughout history. Some leaders simply exercised raw arrogance and brute strength to seize power. What drove them was either ego, honor, money, control, vengeance, envy and a list of other motives, some more devious than others – and at times perhaps some benevolent cause as well.

Others saw themselves (delusionally or not) as deities, and felt that they were bestowed with special powers to lead their people.

And yet other leaders grew out of the thinking that the “masses are …” and people cannot be trusted with self-determination. Their inferior petty concerns, their myopic vision, their distractions and seductions by immediate needs and pleasures, simply wouldn’t allow them to be responsible citizens living in an orderly way. Therefore, this argument went, the need for strong autocrats to maintain order and prevent chaos and anarchy. Never mind that the fact that such unchecked absolute power corrupts and becomes abusive. It’s still worth it, or so this thinking goes, anything is better than total mayhem released by unleashing individual interests.

Religion, interestingly, came to counter this approach to leadership. Arguing that humans are all flawed, our only hope is to place our confidence in the Lord above. Only a moral system of law and order based on the law of G-d can be absolute and endure, and protect us from the whims of any individual – layperson or leader.

Sadly, but predictably, religion was also hijacked by some, who rendered it into another weapon to serve their own interests, or at least interests that did not respect the individuality of their subjects. Through the ages many “religious” leaders arose who abused religion, often with the same claim, ironically, of the despots they were trying to displace: People can’t be trusted. They need to be told – commanded – and even compelled to do what is right. Discipline is always necessary, but what happens when in the name of discipline and order one individual takes control and abusively imposes his will on others, claiming that this is G-d’s will.

Even if it is G-d’s will, 1) who says that you are the final authority on the matter? 2) and what if you are wrong?, 3) G-d’s will is also reflected in the fact that He created every human being in His Divine Image. So G-d’s laws cannot undermine or annihilate the fundamental rights and freedoms G-d gave to every person on earth.

The rest, as they say, is history. Give people power and they can’t be trusted. Give them absolute power, and they can absolutely not be trusted. Over the last few millennia societies have been controlled either by secular and/or religious monarchs and autocrats, some worse than others.

The other extreme option of secularism without faith has equally failed. The ideas espoused by the thinkers of the Enlightenment, that reason will trounce faith, has not held up, and cannot survive. Because, as the founding fathers so clearly understood: Without the absolute, inalienable rights guaranteed to us by our Creator, Who created us all equally, all freedoms will be arbitrary.

The challenge is to balance the two. To revisit the faith of Abraham, father of all nations, who pioneered the path of integrating G-d in this selfish universe.

What’s the Solution?

So what’s the solution? Well, that is the difficult narrative of history – of why it is so difficult and it took so long for people to come to terms with balancing all the forces – of: self interest, religion, self indulgence, secular autocracy, democracy, socialism and other forms of rule – attempting to maintain some control.

Think of it like the maturing process of a child growing into an adult: Maturity doesn’t come easily. It’s filled with awkwardness, pain, unknowns, uncertainties – as the old gives way to the new, as the innocent child gives way to the complicated adult. History is like an organism is macrocosm: It has gone through and continues to go through growing pains, as it moves from a dark universe wandering in search of its Maker, an untamed population seeking its purpose – a lost world trying to find its balance, between morality, self interest, corruption, faith, and all other forces unleashed by the dissonance between what we do and who we are.

Every nation, every religion, every community, even every home and family – from the beginning of time till this day – faces and will be faced with the challenge of finding a balance between individual interests and common good, between personal freedoms and G-d. We all will have our day of reckoning – to make our peace with G-d.

The Jews in ancient Egypt had their time.

The United States and Europe had its time. Faced with the oppression from King George, the founding fathers chose liberty. They broke away from British rule and charted their own course toward freedom.

Now it’s Egypt’s turn. It’s interesting and ironic how everything comes around. Egypt of old was the oppressor of the Jewish people; today the Egyptians are being oppressed by their own Pharaoh.

But the story is the same – as old and as new as history itself: Freedom will not die. The individual dignity of every person will not be annihilated. Created in the Divine image, the free spirit of every human being endures. No despot, no autocrat, no amount of money and power, no measure of oppression and torture, can hold the divine human spirit down. It may take millennia, but it will have its day.

Egypt – leading the way for the entire Middle East – is now having its day; its rendezvous with destiny.

All the forces of history are converging – and clashing – in this ancient land of the pharaohs: Old word vs. new world; poverty vs. wealth; power vs. the masses; faith vs. modernity; religion vs. secularism; freedom vs. oppression.

As just in the days of old, the new Egypt can learn much from the old Egypt. Pharaoh argued that he knows best what is good for his people. Ignoring the favors done to him and Egypt of the past, turning the land into a superpower, the new Pharaoh “announced to his people, ‘The Israelites are becoming too numerous and strong for us. We must deal wisely with them. Otherwise, they may increase so much, that if there is war, they will join our enemies and fight against us, driving us from the land.’” Armed with this great excuse – the good of the people – the Egyptians thus enslaved the Israelites “to crush their spirits – and their bodies with hard labor” and “to build up the cities of Pithom and Ra’amses as supply centers for Pharaoh.” “They made the lives of the Israelites miserable with harsh labor… all the work they made them do was intended to break them.”

“But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more the Israelites proliferated and spread.” (Exodus 1:8-14).

This oppression lasted for 210 years – a little more than two centuries! But finally, the free spirit in the people, led by Moses sent by G-d, prevailed – and Pharaoh was forced to let the people free. The key message of the Exodus was that you humans are exclusively “My (G-d’s) servants,” “not servants to my servants.”

This is the essence of freedom: No human need ever serve another human. Each of us, by merit of our birth, is a unique individual with inherent rights and freedoms, which no one can take from us because no one gave them to us. In the words of the Declaration of Independence cited above: “all men [which includes women] are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.”

Mitzrayim today is now facing the challenge that the Jews faced 3400 years ago.

All confrontations between an old order and a new one are inherently difficult. Every change from the past to the future is inevitably challenging, and fraught with fears and uncertainties. Or else it wouldn’t be real change.

Christianity had its time for accounting: After centuries of oppressing and terrorizing the Western World with its religious beliefs, it finally came to a breaking point, which led to the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason, rebelling against the blind and absolute power of the Church. The long agonizing search for freedom and human rights finally took hold and was institutionalized in the US Constitution and in different variations in Europe, and then continued and continues to spread across the globe.

This battle, mind you, still continues, and we have not yet achieved full balance and integration between religion and modernity, and faith and reason. But the process is well under way.

Now is Islam’s time. For all its beautiful ideas and noble values, Islam is now facing the same challenges that all people and religions have faced – balancing the powerful forces of faith in a secular world. Not through autocracy or fundamentalism, but discovering how to be free, within the framework of faith and social justice.

With the Egyptian rebellion against Mubarak’s rule, the long held belief and “solution” that the only way to maintain order is through forceful autocratic rule, has been exposed for what it is: Untenable. Even if one were to argue that it had its place and played its role during the 20^th century, its tenure is now over.

In this sense, the world is indeed flat. Young Egyptians, gazing through the windows of the Internet, have gained a keener sense than many of their elders of the freedoms and opportunities they lack. They have found in social media a way to interact and share ideas, bypassing, in virtual space, the restrictions placed on physical freedom of assembly.

Economically and technologically the word may be flat. But spiritually, ethically and religiously – the world is round, very round. The diversity of people, nations and cultures will always keep this world round.

Our challenge now is reconciling between all these conflicting forces – finding the proper delicate balance today, and preparing the ground for tomorrow.

Hence, as explained, the maturity process is not simple or fast. You can’t simply go from total slavery into freedom, without first building infrastructures that can carry and perpetuate the freedom.

Egypt – as all those before them, and those to follow – will have to find ways to reconcile between the powerful forces – of freedom, faith, order and peace – tugging in different directions.

The challenge is twofold: One, to achieve freedom – respecting the equal dignity and inalienable rights of every human being. Two, creating an organized system and order that works and allows freedom to flourish. Because freedom doesn’t help people if they are plagued by poverty, disease and corruption. Freedom must come together with a system of implementation.

In a nutshell this is the story – and challenge – of all history:

And this is the inside story behind the developments in Egypt: Just as in days of yore, when the Jewish people were freed from Egyptian bondage, so too today, the Egyptians themselves are now trying to free themselves from the modern day Pharaoh. Yet, this freedom does not come easily.

Democracy vs. Freedom

One more key point:

People often confuse the idea of freedom, which rests on the principle of inalienable individual rights, with the idea of democracy, which rests on the principle of unlimited majority rule. But what if the Egyptian majority wanted a dictator or an absolute fundamentalist religious leader? Is something right and moral just because a majority wants it?

  Whatever its virtues, democracy is not freedom. As Toqueville warned in his classic Democracy In America, a democracy can be just as tyrannical as a dictatorship once the voters decide to vote themselves money from the treasury.Democracy is a method of deciding who shall rule. It does not determine the morality of the resulting government. Democracy is not to be worshipped as an idol unto itself. Arguably, if there was democracy in the middle ages or earlier, it would have destroyed the world. Wise and seasoned democracy – one that will support true freedoms and equal rights – requires an infrastructure than can handle it. It took centuries if not millennia to build just such infrastructures, and they are still quite vulnerable.

So while we support freedom it has to be balanced with humility before G-d. Especially when there are religious passions raging. The only way to balance freedom with religion is by making our peace with G-d. Like Abraham taught.

Egypt’s search today – and all revolutions against oppressive regimes – is for freedom, not merely democracy. A government that will honor and respect all people’s rights, even that of minorities. And it will take much work and time for that type of freedom to take hold, amidst all the chaotic forces swirling in an Egypt that for decades (and perhaps forever) have deprived its people from their basic rights.

That is the great challenge today: Not whether autocracy is better than theocracy, or unbridled freedoms, which can lead to chaos. The challenge is how to ease Egypt into a smooth (as smooth as possible under the circumstances) transition from its past into a new future.

Thank You, Egypt

We should be thanking the Egyptians today for reminding us all of the true challenge in the Middle East today. The enemy is not Israel and not other scapegoats. The enemy is repression and the violation of the fundamental basic human rights that every human being deserves.

Hopefully, this revolution will not be hijacked by interest groups, and serve as a healthy wake up call to us all, to the entire region, to the entire world: Time has come to make our peace with G-d and with each other.

Islam is at a crossroads. Just as Christianity before it evolved from oppressive leaders tyrannizing the masses, until it arrived at a place of restoring human dignity (in a country like the USA), Islam too can now embrace the core principles of its faith – those it shares with other major faiths – honoring and celebrating the dignity of every human life, while balancing and integrating it with the forces of modernity and coexistence with others.

We are entering into a new stage of maturity: A balance between the passions of faith and the sobriety of reason, an integration of spiritual values and material success.

Our world is making its peace with G-d.

Based on this analysis, we can derive a formula how Israel should respond to this crisis. Stay tuned for part 3 of this series.

The World is Round Part 3

From the latest tremors rippling through the Middle East you get the sense that we are living in historical times, and we are in the midst of a tectonic global shift, that will only be appreciated and recognizable in time.

Is there anything that we can do to precipitate these changes – and help ensure that they are peaceful, with the minimum of tension and uncertainty natural to all upheavals?

After addressing how the recent Middle East uprisings demonstrate the volatility of the region necessitating Israel to be especially vigilant in its negotiations (The World is Not Flat), and then how this crisis reflects the difficult but promising history of reconciling freedom and faith, defining our challenge today to allow these events to bring our world to a better place (The World is Round) – I would like to now, with your permission, address what we can do about the situation, and the leading role Israel can take in this process.

When President Anwar Sadat (Mubarak’s assassinated predecessor) traveled to Jerusalem with his gesture of peace, it was considered a bold and historic move (and indeed, it ended up costing him his life). Never before had an Arab leader, no less one who had just attacked Israel in the Yom Kippur War, reached out and actually came to the holy land with an outstretched arm.

Some considered it a brilliant move – that is for Egypt. After all, in return for a peace treaty Egypt received the entire Sinai and all its resources, plus the billions of dollars in US aid – now accumulating to over 600 billion dollars (you read that right)! Not a bad deal, would you say?

Whether it was equally brilliant for Israel is another story. Without getting into a debate about the issue (especially considering the new situation on the ground in Egypt today), I submit that Israel now has an opportunity to launch a far bolder peace initiative – which can actually transform the entire region.

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Last week’s column discussed the fact that there is nothing fundamentally new about the current difficulties facing Egypt – and the entire Middle East – in trying to establish a free society. This has been the human race’s challenge from the beginning of time: How to establish freedom and respect human rights in a world dominated by power, control and greed.

Indeed, this battle is part of the inherent existential tension between matter and spirit, between a life driven by self-interest or by a higher calling; between survival or transcendence.

We addressed the long difficult history of discovering freedom and balancing it with order. How the solution is not the millennia old model of totalitarian leaders controlling the masses, or religious authority imposing its will one the people. Neither is the answer the other extreme option of secularism without faith (espoused by the thinkers of the Enlightenment). Because, as the founding fathers so clearly understood: Without the absolute, inalienable rights guaranteed to us by our Creator, Who created us all equally, all freedoms will be arbitrary. The challenge is to balance the two – faith and reason.

Yet, finding this balance is a long process, a slow but consistent evolution of emerging individual rights. And the journey is fraught with hardships: The friction between faith and modernity, reconciling religious passions with free inquiry; the struggles to integrate spiritual values in a secular world; and the greatest challenge of all – to bridge heaven and earth and ultimately make our peace with G-d.

Similar to the maturing of a child into an adult, history is the story of an old order (of autocratic rule and denial of human rights) growing and maturing into a new order (of freedom and social justice). Maturity is a long painstaking process, as the old gives way to the new, and a lost world grows up and tries to find its balance, between morality, self interest, corruption, faith, and all other forces unleashed by the dissonance between what we do and who we are.

Every nation, every religion, every community, even every home and family – from the beginning of time till this day – faces and will be faced with the challenge of finding a balance between individual interests and common good, between personal freedoms and G-d. We all will have our day of reckoning – to make our peace with G-d.

And that time of reckoning has now come full force to the Middle East.

Islam today is at a crossroads. Just as Christianity, earlier in history, evolved from oppressive leaders tyrannizing the masses, until it arrived at a place of restoring human dignity (in a country like the USA), Islam too is now faced with the challenge of embracing the core principles of its faith – honoring and celebrating the dignity of every human life – while balancing and integrating it with the forces of modernity and coexistence with others.

With the new emerging Middle East landscape the entire world is entering into a new stage of maturity – to discover balance between the passions of faith and the sobriety of reason, an integration of spiritual values and material success.

Israel’s Historic Role

Here is where Israel can play a crucial leadership role:

Of all the nations throughout history struggling with the balance between the Divine and the mundane, the Jewish people are the first and the oldest. More importantly, in their struggle they have endured the harshest of circumstances – “paid a heavy price” – and are here to tell about it.

As war-seasoned veterans with unparalleled credibility, the Jewish people living in the Biblical Holy Land of Israel, are perfectly positioned to now lead the way in proposing a bold new peace initiative – and the timing couldn’t be better.

Before presenting this radical peace plan, a short introduction is in order.

Many different Middle East peace plans have been attempted and have failed. All those plans were predicated on a flat world mentality: Land for peace, economic agreements, cultural exchanges, sharing technology and resources. What all these plans did not take into account was the religious factor: The Muslim world is saturated with faith and passion. Many in the Muslim worlds disdain the West (including Israel, whom they perceive as part of the West) for its blatant secularism, consumerism and decadent indulgences. This contempt – for good or for bad – has been exploited by some, and has also bred radical Islamism, which calls for jihad – holy war – against the Western infidels, the “Crusaders and the Zionists” (as the Western world is derisively referred to), to the point of literal war.

The Western world’s response has always been a defensive one – either conciliatory efforts, trying to find some common ground, attempting to isolate and weaken radical Islam’s sway, or outright hostility, waging battle against terrorism.

The world may be flat politically, economically and technologically. But spiritually and religiously – the world is round, very round. The Western intellectuals who obstinately hold on to the idea (of the Enlightenment) that faith will succumb to reason are simply living in denial. Let them visit the Muslim world and see what dominates there. Religion should not be confused with radicalism. Faith plays and will always play a major role in society. As such, the diversity – the roundness, so to speak – of world cultures will and should always remain intact, and indeed, enrich the human experience.

Assimilation and dilution of our diverse paths would be a tragedy. G-d created us a diverse people, and we should not attempt to annihilate the uniqueness of different faiths, each should shine with it own distinct light. Yet, at the same, they are all bound to one g-d, with each one recognizing that we are all complementary parts of one grand cosmic composition. Each needed and each needing the other.

We don’t need a flat and square universe. We need a round one – a circle, as it were, which has no top or bottom, no beginning or end – every one is equal, contributing his indispensable strengths, all united by the Divine circle.

In a flat word all that may be needed to create peaceful coexistence is equal rights and economic opportunity. But in a round diverse world – where at work are also powerful forces of religion and passionate voices of faith – humility and commitment to a higher calling is the vital ingredient in achieving global harmony.

This “round” factor – which is driven by faith and passionate religion – has never be addressed in any of the peace talks. Indeed, due to the fears associated with religious issues, diplomats and peacemakers deliberately ignored it, but it always remained the invisible “elephant in the room.”

Since all previous peace efforts have failed, why not try an entirely new approach?

No one has ever attempted a “religious” solution, or better put, a solution that takes into account the religious passions of the Muslim/Arab world.

The New Peace Initiative

The new peace initiative described below solves that issue: Instead of the defensive (and even apologetic) mode of the past, one that smacks of weakness, and certainly does not address the religious issues, Israel should come out with an offensive (the best defense is offense) and declare:

Dear brother and sisters. We are all children of Abraham, “father of all nations.” Our great common ancestor, Abraham, pioneered a path that would integrate material life and G-d, a life in this physical selfish world that would be aligned with G-d’s plan for us all. Just like today, Abraham and his children struggled to find the formula for this exact balance.

In Abraham’s home, and then in his son Isaac’s home, brothers battled over these issues: First Ishmael and Isaac, then Esau and Jacob.

So you see my dear brothers and sisters, we share ancestors who also battled with each other. Ishmael – the father of the Muslim/Arab world. Esau – the father of the Western/Roman/Christian world. Isaac and Jacob – the father of the Jewish world.

We, the Jewish people, received the Torah at Sinai – which formalized G-d’s mandate to the human race, teaching us how to reconcile and fuse our material and spiritual lives.

1300 years later Christianity was born, followed 700 years later by Islam – embracing the core values of Sinai, which were first initiated by Abraham.

From then till now, history is witness to the battles that you and all of us have fought through the ages. Much blood has been shed in the religious wars that have plagued the last two millennia.

But we as Jews – living in the holy land of Israel – can tell you, that though it is a difficult and arduous journey, we have endured. And despite the difficulties, we have learned through hard earned experience that there is a path of shalom – of peace and balance.

But balancing faith, freedom and integration in our material world is a long and  extensive process; one that takes time to achieve maturity.

Yes, dear friends, it’s been a long journey.

But now, we have an unprecedented opportunity. As you fight for social justice – and take to the streets of Cairo, Bahrain, Tripoli (and whatever cities will erupt in the coming days and months) – as you emerge and demand your G-d given rights and freedoms, we reach out to you offering any support we can in finding the right balance of freedom and order, faith and modernity.

Second, we extend our hands to you in peace – not artificial peace (based on fear, money or other external and superimposed forces), but a true peace, in which we live together, side by side, as children of Abraham, disciples of Sinai, learning how to find Divine harmony within our diversity.

We reach out to each of you to make true peace – out of strength, not weakness and pressure.

Your faith and values can teach the world many vital things. But we all can learn from Abraham how to temper our faith and allow it to saturate the secular world, not through aggression and destruction, but through inspiration and love.

Because, after all, marrying heaven and earth is a process, one that takes time to mature to find the right balance.

As Jews we have been here, done that. We have seen it all, and stood at the abyss many times. Like no one else, we have suffered the brunt of history’s battles – the wars between religion and paganism, faith and reason, and we have found the balance.

Why Will this Succeed?

Why does this peace initiative have a great chance of success? Because it takes the bull by the horns and addresses the core issues at stake, above all – the Muslim hostility to Jewish control over the Holy Land.

As long as Israel remains in its status quo, and makes feeble attempts at achieving peace with its Arab neighbors – and doing so like a modern Western nation (distrusted by the Muslim world) – Israel will always remain a scar, an open wound on the landscape of Muslim sensibilities and territory; a demoralizing reminder of their shame and fall of the Ottoman Empire and the great Muslim civilization that was meant to emancipate the world. Every time a new Arab/Muslim child will look at the map of the Middle East, he or she will see a vast seamless expanse of Muslim lands, with one black eye – the sliver of Israel – darkening the horizon.

Under such humiliating circumstances, the most you can expect from Israel’s Arab neighbors is a cold and artificial peace (like the 30 years of peace with Egypt). And even that – a peace bought with money or arms. Or one sustained by the deterrence of superior Israeli arms. Is that true peace? Can a peace driven by fear or other external forces be maintained?

But imagine if Israel were to rise to the occasion (not as another modern Western country on the Mediterranean) as the eldest nation in history, and declare for all to hear: We are the children of Abraham and we call on all our brethren to embrace Abraham’s vision of global harmony, all nations united under one G-d. Here is a time-tested path to that takes into account our diversity and differences, and yet allows us to be at peace with each other and with G-d. A proven method that integrates faith and freedom, religious passion and refined empathy – in ways that do not burn another, but warm each other.

Abraham walked through this region close to 4000 years ago. He began his journey in what is presently Southeastern Iraq, traveling northwest, until he arrived, guided by G-d, in the Promised Land.

The time has finally come for Israel – a country that is almost 4000 years old – to fulfill its calling, something that the entire world will respect, and is surely (at least unconsciously) waiting for: To be a light unto nations.

Just like the Bible remains the greatest best-seller of all timed, continuously outselling any other book ever published, Israel is the Biblical land that everyone looks toward, and waits for it to fulfill its duty and lead the way to world peace.

With the current upheavals rocking the Middle East, the timing couldn’t be better.

Israel exports many important commodities to the world at large. Much has been written about Israeli innovation in technology, and how Israel has the most companies on Nasdaq, second only to the USA.

But its most valuable export by far still remains hidden and unknown (or locked in insulated yeshivot).

And that export is captured best in the words of Isaiah (2:3):

From Zion shall go forth Torah; and the word of G-d from Jerusalem.

Here is the full context: It shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of G-ds house shall be established on top of the mountains and all the nations shall flow unto it. And many nations shall go and say, let us go up to the mountain of G-d and we will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths, for from Zion shall go forth the Torah; and the word of G-d from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

This is Israel’s greatest export – Abraham’s global vision, which accounts for all nations living under one G-d.

Imagine what would happen if Israel charted this new course today – becoming the number one exporter of this vision? How would that affect the region? The world?

Is there a leader that is bold enough, daring enough, courageous enough, wise enough to rise and offer us this spiritual vision?

You may call me a dreamer, but I’m not the only one…

Middle East in Turmoil

Few articles about the uprising in Egypt were more infuriating than Thomas Friedman’s column in this week’s New York Times. Titled B.E., Before Egypt. A.E., After Egypt, Mr. Friedman argues that Israel should not be perturbed by the upheaval in Egypt, and now, of all times, grab the opportunity to make peace with the Palestinian Authority!

You heard that right. Amidst this erupting storm, he asserts that Israel should simply ignore the spreading agitation, and strike a deal with the Palestinians. In his own poetic words:

“This is a perilous time for Israel, and its anxiety is understandable. But I fear Israel could make its situation even more perilous if it succumbs to the argument one hears from a number of senior Israeli officials today that the events in Egypt prove that Israel can’t make a lasting peace with the Palestinians. It’s wrong and dangerous….

“To put it bluntly, if Israelis tell themselves that Egypt’s unrest proves why Israel cannot make peace with the Palestinian Authority, then they will be talking themselves into becoming an apartheid state — they will be talking themselves into permanently absorbing the West Bank and thereby laying the seeds for an Arab majority ruled by a Jewish minority between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.”

Imagine this scene: Your home, say, in the suburbs of Westchester, is surrounded by sworn enemies who don’t want you there. But you have encircled your home with powerful defenses, to protect you from your hostile neighbors. Your strong walls repel the enemy, and even when they do breach it from time to time, you have enough firepower and ingenuity to defeat them. Indeed, after several enemy incursions you came away with some extra land buffering you from your neighboring enemies.

Why you continue to live among enemies and don’t move away to friendlier pastures is another story. But you have resolve and fortitude to remain just where you are, despite the menaces around you.

One fine day, one of your adversarial neighbors, calculating that a peaceful approach may work better than war, approaches you offering his hand in peace. In return all he wants is the land you conquered from him in defending yourself against his attack.

You agree. Peace is achieved. Or so it seems. What happened to all this neighbor’s previous animosity? Did it just disappear? Did his entire family – and large family – all suddenly covert to being your friends?

Absolutely not. The only thing that changed was that this particular neighbor, defying the resistance of his family and all his other neighbors, felt that for the time being a peace treaty with you served his interests better than going to war. And it didn’t hurt – perhaps this was even the primary motivation – that a wealthy financier in a distant land contributed 1.7 billion dollars to his coffers, basically buying him the power he needed to remain in control, despite his many local detractors.

Some 30 years passed. The peace held. But the ferment did not. Indeed, the powerful leader, fattened by the riches bestowed upon him, creating an artificial sense of normalcy, became corrupt and the hatred of his people to him only grew. Until finally the bubble burst and the dissent erupted into the streets, calling for his head.

Suddenly, in one fell swoop the entire perceived equilibrium was exposed to be nothing but a veneer, coated and cushioned by billions of dollars, which did nothing to change the hostility of your neighbors to you.

Given, you had 30 years of peace from this particular neighbor, and did not have to concentrate your energy and defenses to this border. But overnight you realized that nothing had fundamentally changed. Your enemy remained your sworn enemy. And to boot, you had given up your buffer – miles and miles of land that could serve as a deterrent, which you cannot reclaim.

As volatility spreads around you, you are left dazed. What will happen now that this so-called friendly neighbor turns on you?

Meanwhile, during these three decades, your other neighbors weren’t sleeping. They built up their forces and new voices emerged clawing at your walls, clamoring for a piece of you.

But, never fear. Pundits and writers from lands afar assure you – from the comforts of their suburban living rooms – that these neighbors are sincere in their quest of peace. Never mind that they were and many of them remain your mortal enemies. Never mind that every Friday their imams spew hatred and venom against you and your family. Never mind that many of them refuse to recognize your legitimacy. Never mind that of all times, now we see the profound instability of your neighbors’ governance, clearly signaling how nothing can be relied on or predicted in this region.

Forget all that, tell us our Western peace-loving friends, and just make peace with whoever is willing to give you the honor of taking a piece of your property!

The problem with these writers is that they see the world through the distant lens of wealth and modernity, completely clueless – or if we were benevolent, putting on a good act of making themselves intentionally oblivious – to the sworn enemies swarming around you.

In their naïve and condescending minds, the Western secular model – shaped by the Enlightenment (emphasis on the world light, as opposed to the dark Middle Ages) – will prevail over (what they consider to be) the primitive religious passions of the Muslim world. Never mind, that there are only 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, and it remains the fastest growing religion on the globe, quickly overwhelming Europe.

I submit that it’s not just about naivette. This particular writer is invested in his own position, and as is common among strong-headed and arrogant thinkers, whose minds have also swelled beyond proportion due to their success as best selling authors, instead of seeing reality and acknowledging mistakes, he digs further in. In addition, he so despises the religious right who insist on their Biblical rights to their land, with Messianic aspirations, that he cannot see clearly even when his own family is being mugged.

Moreover, he and most of his Western colleagues are unaware – perhaps due to lack of real exposure to on-the-ground realities – of the powerful religious passions of these neighbors. Their faith sees you as a profane and heretical intruder – like an open gnash wound – amidst their holy lands. As long as your home exists, their homes are compromised.

And no amount of iphones, computer technology, McDonald burgers and Coca Cola will change this fact. For 99% of your neighbors – despite many of them undoubtedly being peace loving – religious faith is far more important than peace. If they were not afraid of losing a war with you or were not subdued by a few wealthy leaders, they would turn on you in a flash – as an infidel desecrating their sacred space.

If anything, your unstable neighbor has proven that you cannot trust any illusion of stability around you. Thus, the need to be even more fearful of “peace treaties” with other neighbors.

Now, he tries to make the point that if you do not make peace with these close neighbors, you will be stuck with becoming an apartheid state — “permanently absorbing the West Bank and thereby laying the seeds for an Arab majority ruled by a Jewish minority between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.”

First of all, even if that were true – which it surely isn’t – the alternative is far worse. Your neighbors don’t want you there. They never did and never will. Yes, they will sign a peace treaty with you to get what they can now. But who is to assure that the same thing won’t happen with them that happened to your neighbor to your west?!

Especially considering that there are many other neighbors who are invested in your elimination, and will not rest until they incite and turn all your neighbors against you (even those that are neutral), and silence those that want to live with you in peace.

Second, the apartheid argument (which has become so popular) is simply groundless and based on a patently false premise. Before the early 60’s there was no such entity called “Palestinians.” Indeed, in March 1977 the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview with Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee member Zahir Muhsein, who said: “The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct ‘Palestinian people’ to oppose Zionism. For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan.”

If so, did anyone ever consider the option that Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and other surrounding Arab countries should be compelled to absorb their own brethren – just as Israel absorbed the over 1 million Jews expelled from Arab lands after 1948?! If you want to prevent apartheid – and the mingling of nations at odds with each others – why shouldn’t the Arab countries welcome with open arms their own brothers and sisters?! Why is it incumbent on Israel to absorb them?

As wise people, why doesn’t anyone consider – starting with the self-proclaimed expert on the issues, Mr. Friedman – that perhaps this whole Palestinian state thing is a ploy to simply gain a stronger foothold in and around Israel. And one day, this will help serve as a springboard for the conquest of Israel.

And this is not some theory. Most if not all Israel’s neighbors are at best openly tolerant of Israel (behind the scenes is another story) and at worst, call for its destruction and will do everything to mobilize all the neighbors toward that cause. Any semblance of order and restraint is either due to the large sums coming from the US sugarcoating the deep unrest in lands like Egypt, or from a small number of wealthy leaders in Saudi Arabia controlling their citizens.

The underlying combustion cannot be contained forever, no matter how much money and oil swathe the region in layers of denial and delusion. We now are witnessing this festering agitation surfacing, and it will surely ripple through the Middle East with unpredictable results.

This is the sad history – and true nature – of this region. And no matter how many columns Mr. Friedman writes and how many books he sells, this tragic reality will not change.

Mr. Friedman is invested in teaching us that the world is flat, and increasingly shrinking as our global economies become so enmeshed, and our social networks connecting us all, effectively turning everything international local.

But wake up and smell the coffee, my friend: The world – especially when it comes to religious passions – is quite round.

So, what then is the solution to the fermenting Middle East? What is Israel – that sliver of land surrounded by hundreds of millions of hostile neighbors – to do amidst all the storms thundering around it?

Stay tuned for part two of this article.

Who’s Digging Out of What?

A Snow Shoveling Meditation

As I was digging out of the snow this sparkling New York morning – yes, shoveling is one of the Divine gifts I have been endowed with – I felt troubled by something.

With every pile of snow I scooped up and dumped on the side, a gnawing feeling grew inside of me.

What was bothering me? I was, after all, cleaning up the snowy mess that blanketed the Northeast last evening. Along with so many good neighbors, we were doing our civic and moral duty to clear a path through the mountains of snow – 19 inches fell over New York this time around – to allow people to walk the streets unencumbered.

And while we were being responsible citizens, the city had launched its army of plows and salters combing through arteries to clear the roads for traffic. This time they got it right – unlike the blizzard a few weeks ago, when streets remained unplowed for days, to the chagrin of New Yorkers, calling for the Mayor’s head.

So what could possibly be disturbing me as I joined my compatriots across town waging war against the onslaught of this latest snowstorm – breaking records for snowfall accumulation in this region?!

And a war it is, indeed. Just read the venerable New York Times’ screaming description of this snowfall, lines describing the snow as if it was a terrorist attack (I added the bold for emphasis):

And then – as I stood armed with my shovel attacking the snow, pondering on this war we were all waging against the enemy called snow – I realized why I was so disconcerted.

Snow is a blessing from heaven. Indeed, the mystics explain that snow is rooted in the loftiest supernal heights – an expression of Divine compassion (tiferet). And even higher: Atik Yomin – the highest level of them all. As in the verse in Daniel (7:9): “and atik yomin – the Ancient Days sat [on the throne] and his garments were as white as snow.”

In 1904 a snow fell on the small city of Lubavitch, and the Lubavitcher Rebbe at the time, the Rebbe Rashab (yes, the one renowned for his classics Samach Vav and Ayin Beis), wrote an entry on the topic of snow – exploring its profound cosmic roots and its psycho-spiritual significance.

Based on these and other writings here is a short version of the spiritual meaning of snow, summarized from a series of my classes during the great blizzard of 1996. (Please email us, if you’d like to receive the full, unedited, transcript of these classes.)

And here I am – one of a multitude of self-righteous shovelers – sweeping away these heavenly white angels, as if they were monsters from outer space. Here we are declaring war on the snow attacking our comfort zones.

Snow is divine tiferet and atik yomin incarnate, snow benefits both the body and the soul (Zohar III 157a) – and here we are shoveling it away making a path for us to walk through, annoyed at this nuisance, anticipating  its  melting away…

As I scoop up another shovel of snow, I pause. I stare at the snowflakes, so vulnerable, so gentle, so tender. And I think: Why are we so convinced that we are where it’s at and the snow is an intruder, disturbing our lives, thus compelling us to shovel and cart it away. Perhaps it’s the other way around: Snow is where it’s at and we are the intruders…

Here we are – armed to the hilt, with shovels of all shapes and forms, ice picks, snow blowers and whatever else we can concoct – sweeping away and discarding these white messages from heaven.

Yes, I understand, I understand that we need to get to work, we need to be able to walk the streets without the danger of slipping, we have many important matters to deal with, etc. etc. etc.  Yet, perhaps just perhaps the snow is not falling as a result of some meteorological disturbance, but  is a message from above to place life in perspective.

It reminds me of the memorable words of one sports superstar. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks the baseball season was – shockingly! – suspended for a few days. Simply unheard of in the United States. (Pundits pointed out at the time that even during World War II the games went on…). One interviewer asked this baseball slugger when he thinks we will get back to real life, and play ball again.

Listen to his incredulous reply: “You think that baseball is real life?! Baseball is just a game – with absolutely no consequences. Who wins or loses does not change the world in any way. It certainly doesn’t have life and death consequences. Real life is 9/11 – where people actually died! 9/11 cut down these people’s lives, changing the future forever; permanently altering the trajectory of the lives of all their surviving families! It’s time to free ourselves of our delusions and get our priorities in place.”

But we all have our games, and while playing them we think that they – and us – are the center of the universe. Suddenly a snowstorm dumps its white magic on us and disrupts our lives. We see this intrusion as an alien invasion, and we do everything in our power to wage war against the enemy falling from the sky, uninvited.

My shovel hits a particular obstinate clump of snow and ice, and I aggressively go on the attack to dislodge this… this… this annoying interloper. But then my thoughts go back to the mystics’ take on this white heavenly traveler, who some feel originates not from earth but heaven (Midrash Bereishis Rabba 12:11).

How trapped are we in our perceived reality? Why can’t we step back from our routines and just take in the white flakes silently blanketing our toxic universe like a pure and clean blanket warmly embracing a child.

White snow. To appreciate the gift just imagine if the falling flakes were black…

And I wonder how many other blessings in our lives we are ignoring or even discarding as if they are rubbish?!…

As I lift yet another bundle of the powdery snow, I see from a distance the weaving paths that have been cleared amidst the heaping snow hills all around. We really don’t have room for this divine snow in our lives. And I remember what a young girl once asked her pregnant mother: “Mommy. How do you make room inside yourself for another person?” Gulp. Men have problems making room outside of themselves for anyone else but themselves. A woman has room for another life inside herself. And not just room; she carries a child inside her belly, inside her very being. The growing fetus becomes part of and impacts her entire life, 24/7!

And here we have a problem with the heavenly snow crowding us out. We must remove it from our presence. We need our room…

What can I say? Snow shoveling offers us many lessons. Especially if you have a fertile imagination.

[Obviously, we are all concerned about the hazards that the snow can pose for some, especially travelers caught in the storm. These words here are not meant to deny the fact that we need to protect ourselves from any severe weather.]

Time will come when we will shovel away the snow. And it will ultimately melt. But perhaps we can just leave these glistening crystals alone for a while, allow them to fulfill their mission from above, and allow us the time needed to absorb that message.

But no. We are too busy. We must go on with our lives. Not to mention the fact that as the day and night wear on the snow will harden and freeze and be much harder to shovel later. Yes, that is a problem. So we head out at dawn to carve out our trails amidst the “atik yomin” snow coverings…

I have finally finished cleaning the snow-covered steps. Now comes the street. But before I continue, I look at the clumps of snow that I have dumped on top of the clean mounds. With each shovelful, I think, am I throwing away another pile of tiferet or atik yomin?!…

Some people wait their entire lives for a revelation. Leonard Cohen’s Waiting for the Miracle resonates for many of us. “ I waited half my life away…”  Let alone a revelation and miracle coming from the cosmic pinnacles of “atik.” Indeed, the Arizal says that the Messianic revolution will be a revelation from the inner dimension of “atik yomim.”

And here we are flippantly shoveling away, clearing the snow from our paths and boulevards, ensuring that not one speck of these white sparks clutter our journeys…

Here we are suffering from “snow fatigue”…

Ironically, we actually call it  “digging out of the snow.” Hmm. Digging ourselves out of… atik yomin… Digging ourselves out of blessings from above…  Sounds delightful. And once we dig ourselves out where do we exactly end up?

Mind you, with all these sublime ruminations, I did not, as I well should have, stop shoveling. I too am guilty of our collective insanity and blindness to what truly matters in life.

But, at least I’m not in denial, or so I convince myself (there you go: I had to soothe myself in some way). At least I know I am one of the abusers of the world… (you know the joke? Forget it).

Indeed, a neighbor’s young child offered to help me shovel the snow. I told him to go inside and have a nice warm drink. It’s bad enough that we adults are defiling the white glory. No need to get innocent children involved in our pollution. He will grow up and have his day – or hopefully he will be wiser…

But here is my final confession:

Instead of taking pride in the clear paths I have just sculpted between the surrounding snow mountains, I look at the last few snowflakes that I had just so rudely shoved to the side. I pick up a flake on my finger. But it melts before I know it, as if saying: “No, you cannot own me…”

I look closer and stare at the vulnerable and gentle snowflake – and wonder what message it has brought to me this fine morning.

I stare at the tender flake and shed a tear. “I am so sorry for hurting you…

“Come again tomorrow, please. I shall not shovel you away. I promise.”

Beyond the World of Logic

Baal Shem Tov Insights – Issue 32

Summary

Who is closer to the truth – adults or children? Ostensibly it would seem that a mature adult, whose mind and emotions are fully developed, would be able to access the truth more than an undeveloped child. Indeed, for many years, until just recently, secular psychology saw a child as a “dumb” adult in the making.  Religious Puritans even saw children as “born in sin” and as little savages that needed strong measures to keep them in line!

The Baal Shem Tov – and Torah in general – sees things, shall we say, a bit different. Actually quite different; a perspective which is the exact opposite than the secular view: A child is the closest possible thing to the truth. The simplicity of the child touches – far more than any adult – the simplicity of the Essence of all existence! Indeed, it is the developed mind of the adult that conceals and blocks the experience of pure truth…

In this week’s insight, discover the moving way the Baal Shem Tov describes himself as a child… A powerful story captures the life-altering words of the Baal Shem Tov to a great scholar who was left confused in his ponderings on the existence G-d.

Above all, we will learn how to tap our single most powerful resource: Your inner child.

*  *  *

What is a Child?

Who is closer to the truth – adults or children? Ostensibly it would seem that a mature adult, whose mind and emotions are fully developed, would be able to access the truth more than an undeveloped child. Indeed, for many years, until just recently, secular psychology saw a child as a “dumb” adult in the making.  Religious Puritans even saw children as “born in sin” and as little savages that needed strong measures to keep them in line!

The Baal Shem Tov – and Torah in general – sees things, shall we say, a bit different. Actually quite different; a perspective which is the exact opposite than the secular view: A child is the closest possible thing to the truth. The simplicity of the child touches – far more than any adult – the simplicity of the Essence of all existence! Indeed, it is the developed mind of the adult that conceals and blocks the experience of pure truth…

I Am A Child and Believe

The Midrash on this week’s Torah portion (on the verse ¹ “and He said, I am the G-d of your father”) refers to Moses as a “child.” As it is written: “A pesi believes everything”. ² What is the meaning of pesi? A child. Because in Arabia, they call a child a pasia. ³

The Baal Shem Tov told his students: ⁴ “After all the profound levels of understanding that I attained in the supernal roots of the Torah and the mitzvos, and after all the spiritual pleasure that I experienced, I put everything aside to serve G-d in simple faith. Ich bin a na’ar un gleib – I am a child/fool ⁵ and believe! And ⁶ even though it is written: “A fool believes everything,” it is also written: ⁷ “G-d protects the fools.”

The Perplexed Scholar

Rabbi Shmuel Kaminka related the following story with the Baal Shem Tov: In the city Satinov there was a scholar who once, on a Friday following the prayers, immersed himself in deep contemplation on the existence of G-d. Poring over different philosophical texts from the early philosophers, the scholar could not reach any clarity, to the point that he remained perplexed and confused in his ponderings.

Sensing the scholar’s predicament, the Baal Shem Tov came from Medzibush to see the scholar. The Baal Shem Tov approached him and said (in Yiddish): “Ihr klert tzi es iz doh a Go-t. Ich bin a na’ar un gloib.” “You are wondering whether there is a G-d. I am a child/fool and believe.”

With these words the Baal Shem Tov left him and returned to Medzibush. The scholar thought to himself: “who revealed to this man [the Baal Shem Tov] this secret of what I was thinking? Clearly this is a proof and a sign that there is a one and only Creator, Who reveals secrets to those that fear Him.”

The Aristocrat and the Pauper

In another place the Baal Shem Tov offers us a beautiful and profound analogy to explain King David’s words in Psalms: ⁸ “A prayer of the pauper when he enwraps himself and pours out his words before G-d.” ⁹

Two people were invited to see the great king with the opportunity to ask for whatever they wish. One, an educated, sophisticated aristocrat. The other, a poor, illiterate pauper. The aristocrat was the first one to arrive for his appointment. As he entered the magnificent palace, he was taken by all the beautiful architecture and furnishings, the exquisite collections of art and literature, the wide variety of exotic fruit, spices and wines from around the world, the sheer majesty of the king’s glorious domain. As he made his way from chamber to chamber, he became completely mesmerized by all the surroundings. In fact, because of his excellent education and sophisticated taste, his deep appreciation for all these treasures completely seduced him, to the point that he lost sense of time and… missed his appointment with the king!

Then came the pauper. With no education, no taste, no etiquette, he walked through all the beautiful chambers, oblivious to the magnificence around him, and went straight into the king’s inner sanctum. There he asked the king for everything – for wisdom, riches, beauty and the ability to appreciate and acquire the majestic treasures of the king.

Says the Baal Shem Tov: When you stand before the Heavenly King pray like a pauper. Suspend all your faculties, your sophistication, your intelligence and knowledge. And just stand “naked” and innocent before the King, enwrap yourself and pour out your words before G-d. Then you will get all your wishes fulfilled, including all the Divine revelations.

The Power of Innocence

The Baal Shem Tov is obviously not advocating illiteracy. He is teaching us an invaluable life lesson.

Each of us has two dimensions to our being – mirroring two dimensions in the Divine experience:

1)      Our expression. The way we express and reveal ourselves through our faculties. In Chassidic language this is called “giluim,” literally revelations, defined expressions – which includes all the ways we manifest in this world. These expressions all have distinct parameters and limits.

2)      Our essence, which is beyond any form of defined expression and limited parameters.

As human created in the Divine Image, these two dimensions within us is rooted in and evolved from two dimensions of the Divine:

1)      Giluim. Divine expressions. How G-d expresses Himself through wisdom, majesty, beauty and all the Divine emanations and attributes in the cosmic order. Though they are all expressions and extensions of the Divine, each has its own definitions and parameters.

2)      Atzmus. The Divine Essence, which is beyond any form of expression and definition.

Touching the Essence

There are times – and perhaps this defines most of our lives – when we experience and relate to the “revealed” expressions of the Divine. Just as most of the time we engage life through our own defined expressions. This is clearly a very important part of our lives – the way we interact with each other and with G-d in a defined expressive fashion.

But, when you want to connect with the Essence of G-d, with G-d Himself as he stands in His pure and innocent Essence, beyond any form of expression, then you need to suspend your defined “giluim” and stand like a “pauper,” stripped of all sophistication, knowledge and taste, and pour your soul out to G-d the King.

If you allow your aristocratic attainments and your sophisticated appreciations to control you, then you may reach great heights, but you will only be able to access and relate to the Divine revelations. And as such, you will be seduced by the magnificent manifestations at each station of the journey, but you will miss your destination – your appointment with the King Himself, the Divine Essence, as He stands in His own inner sanctum.

The only way to access Atzmus, the Essence, is to suspend your faculties and stand like an empty-handed pauper, like an innocent child, and pour your heart out to the King.

The Power of the Child

This is what the Baal Shem Tov told his students: “After all the profound levels of understanding that I attained in the supernal roots of the Torah and the mitzvos, and after all the spiritual pleasure that I experienced” – after all the giluim – “I put everything aside to serve G-d in simple faith. Ich bin a na’ar un gleib – I am a child and believe! And even though it is written: “A fool believes everything,” it is also written: “G-d protects the fools.”

Based on this, let us now revisit the psyche of the child and that of the adult. The innocent child, precisely because his faculties are not yet developed, is the closest we will ever be to the truth – to our own essence and to the Essence of G-d.

The simplicity of the child and his innocent faith touches – far more than any adult – the simplicity of the Essence of all existence! While the developed mind of the adult, may experience great revelations, but at the same time it conceals and blocks the experience of pure truth.

The sophisticated adult can miss his appointment with the King. The child will not.

No matter how old you are, each of us has our inner child intact. Nothing can be healthier than getting – and staying – in touch with your child, with your own innocent essence, and allowing it to inform all your giluim, your defined experiences, expressiond and faculties.

Learn from the Baal Shem Tov – a scholar far greater than any one of us – how to suspend our intelligence for something far greater:

I am a child and I believe!

Sometimes, the wisest one of them all is the fool…

Sources: Yesod HaAvodah (by Rabbi Avrohom of Slonim) Letter 24. Likkutei Dibburim vol. 3 491c. Keser Shem Tov Hosafos section 155-157. Sichas Shabbos Parshas Shemos 5725.

© Copyright 2013 The Meaningful Life Center.
This is one issue of a weekly series which was produced by MLC to honor the 250th anniversary of the Baal Shem Tov’s Yahrzeit (5520-5770), presenting a weekly insight and directive of the Baal Shem Tov, explained in relevant terms and applied to contemporary life issues. The Baal Shem Tov, founder of Chassidism, was one of the greatest mystics in history; his teachings offer us a fascinating and enchanting perspective on life and its challenges.

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