Question

Hi Michi,
It seems to me that at some point I read that someone attributed to Orthodox Judaism a kind of narcissism. I searched a bit but didn’t find anything.
The term narcissism may be too blunt, or just not appropriate, but as far as I feel, it expresses what I sense as an excessive self-satisfaction on the part of the commandment-observant Jew with his own way of cleaving to the Holy One, blessed be He.
In my fantasies I still hope that the Jewish people will take it upon themselves to be the “responsible adult” on this planet, and will try to turn over every stone in order to improve the situation. Instead, the Jewish people are entrenched in positions according to which there is no one to talk to!
My impression is that Jews satisfy themselves by mentioning the 7 Noahide commandments, but it doesn’t seem to me that there are Orthodox Jews who are committed to changing the situation. Among Reform Jews there are relatively many more [based on my impression!] who are committed to change.
Before my eyes stands history—in which imparting faith in the one God to most of the nations of the world was carried out by the Christians and by the Muslims. True, Christianity sins with the Holy Trinity, and nevertheless!… I brought this up in order to say that we should not wait—or more precisely, we must not wait—for the gentiles to do our work.
[Wait, wait—calm down. Who made you decide that this really is our work?—I can hear the rebuke “in my mind’s ear.”] And now I will do something not to be done—I’ll skip lightly to a completely different subject [apparently!]:
I think it is agreed that a very large part of the violence in our world stems from 2 drives: forcefulness—the desire [the need] to be the one in control—and the second, the need to obtain material resources and to hold on to them, which not infrequently spills over into greed for its own sake. But the problem grows worse when existential consumption turns into overconsumption. The capitalist system does indeed encourage this consumerism. As a result, part of the human race keeps improving its standard of living, while the other part withers in terrible poverty.
But of course the process is much more complex: in order to spare themselves the need to share their bread with the hungry, the fortunate prefer to turn their heads aside so as not to see those who have nothing, or alternatively to attribute to them negative traits [which are sometimes justified, at least in part!] that prevent them from having greater earning power [or lead them to spend their wages irresponsibly!].
My impression is that Reform Judaism [forgive me—“the clowns!”] is less focused on cultivating our togetherness, and more on seeing the other! Orthodox Judaism places strong emphasis on our being a continuing link in the chain of generations.
Since the Torah can be interpreted in different ways, the sages did indeed interpret it—some in a more social direction, and some in a way that justifies capitalism.
And regarding negative traits that hinder economic advancement:
My older daughter—X—is an agronomist, and works on cultivating tomatoes—she lives and breathes genetics. After hearing from colleagues about the difficulties of instilling “Western” work norms in Africans, she developed a theory that the gene that produces attention deficit and concentration disorders is probably very dominant among natives in Africa, because it apparently has evolutionary advantages. But then—Rutham’s friend, Dr. Shoshan Haran from Kibbutz Be’eri, is also an agronomist, and in 2012 she founded an initiative to improve agriculture in Ethiopia. The initiative is called Fair Planet. And the thing works well. A kibbutz woman who cares gets things moving through the power of faith and vision! Alongside her, nearly 100 other volunteers from Israel are active. You can see for yourself if you go to Fair Planet’s home website. This initiative really does succeed in raising the standard of living of the local people in the areas where it operates.
Now to the heart of the matter: true, most secular people are immersed in the vanities of this world, but some of them feel uneasy. As long as they are busy establishing themselves professionally and economically and raising children, they cannot give expression to their feelings regarding the search for meaning in their lives.
As I said here at the beginning of my remarks—it seems to me that the religious public—Religious Zionists and Haredim—is satisfied with the framework of faith and community in which it finds itself and to which it is committed, and at most it is willing to invest in the poor of its own city.
Suddenly, just now, a new idea occurred to me that involves a kind of leap upward in fear of Heaven. And of course I do not mean scrupulous observance of the 613 commandments, but rather, I dare suggest [in sharp contrast to our instincts, and to what we were educated to think]—that we should be deeply committed also to human beings who are not close to us. And not only to our family, our people, and the community in which we live.
The reason is that if we do not understand and internalize that we are dependent on one another [even if not in the immediate term], then in the long run we will be dependent alongside one another…
Since adopting such thinking runs against our instincts, and does not benefit us in the immediate term, yet certainly improves the preservation of the world God created, I saw fit to call it a “significant ascent in fear of Heaven.” And another thought occurred to me: since my proposal runs counter to our existential instincts, then implementing it is in the category of “affliction of the soul,” operating over time, and therefore perhaps more significant than the Yom Kippur fast!…
So have a good week, you and all your household.