Q&A: Right and Left
Right and Left
Question
Hello Rabbi!
1. Why is the left more intellectual than the right?
How is it that most of the intelligent people in the country are on the left?
2. I’ve come to the conclusion that the right has better intuition and the left has more reason, and sometimes intuition is more important.
What does the Rabbi think about this insight?
3. Why, in order to clean your hands, do you need a washing cup—is a faucet not enough?
And if you would say it is as it was in the Temple, then why did they wash there by pouring from a vessel? And if you say there were no faucets then, today there are.
With blessings and appreciation
Answer
First, let me just sharpen the point. The left is more intellectual than the right, but not more intelligent. As is well known, there are foolish things that only intellectuals are capable of saying. Notice that you are using those two terms interchangeably.
- There are quite a few explanations for this. A willingness to deviate from what is accepted is characteristic of educated people. That does not mean that deviating from what is accepted is therefore more correct.
- See my opening remark. I think you are right as a generalization. It seems to me that in one of my columns I brought what my son says: in the lower deciles of the population, people are on the right; higher up, they are on the left; and at the very top, it is right again. But I think the more accurate picture is the one that distinguishes between intellectuality and intelligence.
- Who said it is for the purpose of cleaning? Beyond that, you yourself mentioned that in their time there was no faucet, only dipping in water or washing with a vessel. When water is poured from a washing cup, the water comes with force, and perhaps that is more effective than dipping.