Parashat 'Vayetze' (5760)

With God's help, on the eve of the holy Sabbath, Parashat 'Vayetze,' 5760

'A Righteous Person in the City': The Social Significance of Spiritual Pursuit

Our portion opens with the words, “Jacob left Beersheba,” and continues, “and went toward Haran.” Rashi explains

that the verse means to teach us that when the righteous person is in the city, “he is its splendor, he is its radiance, he is its majesty,”

and when he leaves it, “its splendor departs, its radiance departs, its majesty departs.” Jacob's dream is then described, in which

“a ladder was set on the earth, and its top reached the heavens.” On the ladder ascended the angels who had accompanied Jacob until

his departure from the Land of Israel, and they were replaced by those who descended, whose role was to accompany him outside the Land. At the end

of the portion, when Jacob returns to the Land of Israel, angels of God encounter him (the angels of the Land of Israel), who return

to accompany him, and once again replace the angels of the diaspora. It seems that the entire framework of the portion is meant to teach

that the righteous person is accompanied by angels throughout.

A description of a person accompanied by angels sounds to our ears—which are not accustomed to thinking in terms of angels

and other spiritual-mystical beings—old-fashioned, even mythological. Beyond the question of who accompanies the

righteous person, we generally do not so well understand what the righteous person himself is; ostensibly, we are all flesh

and blood. As an anecdote, the general public in Israel was astonished a few years ago at the funeral of Rabbi Shlomo

Zalman Auerbach of blessed memory of Jerusalem, when some three hundred thousand people gathered to accompany him. There were

those who asked at the time (Tom Segev in Haaretz, if I remember correctly) whether the religious are the ones detached from reality, or

whether perhaps it is precisely the general public that is detached from it. Not to recognize a phenomenon on such a scale is

a real detachment from reality. The question is whether the existence of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman had any

significance even for those who did not know him and ostensibly were not influenced by him.

Our portion teaches us that there is such significance. The righteous person gives the city its splendor, its radiance, and its majesty.

There are those who do not know how to discern this splendor, radiance, and majesty, just as they do not discern the angels that accompany

them, but they exist. At that funeral, it seemed that anyone could tangibly feel

those 'mystical' phenomena.

There is a common criticism of the ultra-Orthodox world, which assigns its sons to Torah study all their lives and does not

give them an education that is productive and useful to society. On the other hand, the ultra-Orthodox public argues that its goal is

to produce 'righteous people.' As the Sages said, a city that does not have ten 'men of leisure' is not a city. Even the ordinary activities

of such a community are not meaningful in themselves, for they too draw their significance from those

'men of leisure.' Society certainly needs to exist, but the meaning and purpose of that existence are for the sake of

spiritual pursuit, and not for the sake of existence as such.

Many of the critics rely on Maimonides, who sharply rejects study as an exclusive occupation,[1]

while others respond with the words of the author of the Kesef Mishneh, who explains why the people of Israel nevertheless customarily

do so.

In the modern world there is greater awareness of the social importance of spiritual pursuits. There is a clear

understanding that society must subsidize academic research (not necessarily applied), art, literature, sports

(?), and the like, since an enlightened society should include people who engage in the spiritual dimensions of

reality, beyond the prosaic, animal-like planes of mere existence and survival.

In such a reality, when all of society recognizes the importance of spiritual pursuits, one cannot argue against

Torah study that it, of all things, is not productive—'a priestess should not be treated worse than an innkeeper.' It seems to me

that Maimonides too, in such an age, would agree to the permission—and even the obligation—for part of society to engage only

in spiritual matters and detach itself from 'productive' occupations. Instead of the model Maimonides presents, in which each individual

person has a share in material life and a share in spiritual life, modern society accepts this collective structure.

None of this exempts anyone from the obligation to engage in spiritual life, but the

main task today is divided among different parts of society.

A large part of the public today is unaware of the spiritual effects of Torah study. A certain

type of exemplary people, 'righteous people' in the full sense of the term (not merely wonder-workers), people

who work on their character traits and improve them, are found mainly in a world dedicated to such labor.

There is a kind of person who is inaccessible to the general public, and sometimes it does not even have the tools

to understand the power they possess. Such a person, even if he appears detached, is not occupied

with himself. His very presence in society is an asset to society as a whole, and if he does not exist in a society, then

“its splendor departs, its radiance departs, its majesty departs.”

In conclusion, let us ask ourselves how one can really explain the social understanding (which, as noted, exists

today much more than in the past) that one should allow and subsidize the spiritual pursuits of individuals, especially those

whose work is inaccessible to the overwhelming majority of the public and says nothing to it.

What is at work here is a 'mystical' understanding that the essential nature of a human being is that of a creature that strives toward the transcendent,

and not one that lives only a material life like an animal. A human being is a creature that is, as it were, 'a ladder set on the earth

with its top reaching the heavens.' It seems that here we can all see, or touch, a spiritual aspect of

the reality around us, for which it is difficult to offer an explanation in 'earthly' terms. Is it not simpler to say

that these are 'angels' accompanying spiritual pursuit? Does the concept of 'angels' sound any less intelligible than

the 'mystical' phenomenon we have just described?

Have a peaceful Sabbath

This may be deposited for respectful disposal in any synagogue or religious academy. Comments are welcome.

———————–

[1] However, in many cases these critics seem less careful about the other side of the equation

in Maimonides' words, where he states that every person, beyond his secular occupations, must devote as much as

he can to Torah study.

Biton12.doc