I’m in the middle of reading R’ Rabbi Zeller ob”m’s collection of remarkable stories about remarkable people entitled, “The Soul of the Story: Meetings with Remarkable People“. It’s a great collection of short vignettes about David’s soul-searching experiences in India, with Shlomo Carlebach, and in California during the 60′s. I’m struck by a couple of things:
- In the book, Zeller takes off to India during college in search of Truth. There he meets up with numerous other Searchers of Truth and Guides along the way. Here the process of the search is sublimated above all. Do we have an equivalent search in Judaism? Should we? Does the current yeshiva system foster this or is this a more mishnaic type existence?
- What’s interesting with Zeller’s search in mystical India is that joy doesn’t play a role. Joy certainly played a role in Reb Shlomo’s teaching and in chassidus in general. I believe Joy is really important to creating a vibrant torah-oriented Judaism. But the contrast with the role Joy plays in Eastern religions is interesting. Eastern philosophies may emphasize the individual’s search. Is joy more a communal experience in Judaism?
Just some food for thought.
Zack,
Thanks for your post. As I tend to be somewhat long-winded, I’ll only respond to your first point … for now.
Rabbi Shmuel Goldin, in his new book Unlocking the Torah Text (www.israelbooks.com), bemoans the custom that many have of checking their mezuzot whenever something bad happens. This is not to say he’s against checking a mezuza, and indeed he notes that it is Jewish law to check one’s mezuza regularly. What upsets him, though, is the fact that many people feel more comfortable searching for a flaw ‘outside’ of themselves rather than doing the hard, spiritual work of checking themselves.
Perhaps this point can be related to your question. Searching in Judaism is not unimportant; to the contrary, the process of searching, to find oneself as well as to search within oneself, is crucial. But it also is quite hard … and far too often an easier, more accessible — though also less valuable and meaningful — option exists. Why improve myself if I can find the flaw in someone else? Either way, I’ll feel better about myself (as Rabbi Israel Salant once quipped: There are two ways one can become taller than those around him; either elevate oneself by standing on a stool, or knock the person standing on a stool next to you off his stool).
For this reason, the search is often abandoned, but not b/c it’s not valuable but rather b/c it’s too hard. This might even be part of the original sin described in the beginning of the Torah. Eve fails to obey God’s command not to eat from the tree of knowledge. Notice the differences between God’s command and Eve’s understanding of the command. God says she can eat everything in the garden except from the tree of knowledge; Eve only hears don’t eat from the tree. God specifies the tree in question, and notes that it is something in the nature of this tree that makes it forbidden; Eve hears only that ‘some’ tree is forbidden, that it’s entirely arbitrary. And finally, God tells Adam and Eve that there will be a punishment if they disobey; Eve forgets about the punishment and divorces cause and effect, simply noting that she will die, but for no good reason.
Again to Rabbi Goldin: Eve time and time again tries to msytify God’s command, and make them appear illogical and random, when in fact they are not arbitrary at all. Eve prefers to think that God’s commands are superstitions, which means of course, that she can’t really have any impact on them. They’re all illogical and random, so nothing I can do can matter. BUT THAT IS NOT THE CASE. They are not random, and thus if Eve chose to work on herself she would not be punished. She could control her own destiny. She simply preferred not to.
I think there is a little of Eve (and Adam) in all of us. We all want the easy way out, and that sometimes means envisioning a world without order, and about which we can have no influence. For once we CAN have influence, we must actually do something. Part of that something is the SEARCH. It’s a big part of Judaism, just something many of us would prefer to avoid.
Hi Ian,
Not longwinded, your comment goes right to the heart of the matter. Like you, I agree that an essential part of Judaism is this interpersonal search. What I think you’re aiming at (with this blog, with Shir Hadash) is to “institutionalize” the search and to provide a guide to the individual’s process. When one travels to India, he/she meets up with throngs of other people looking for something and throngs of people (of differing quality) willing to provide something for them. As you say, since joy is integral to this process, I feel like we need a new group of spiritual leaders with the skills, motivation and commitment to both Torah and spiritual fulfillment at the micro and macro level to help get us there.
[...] 11th, 2007 by rsap A few days ago Zack Miller posted a couple of comments on the book by Rabbi Dovid Zeller, z”l. In that post, Zack raised the [...]
I’d like to jump into the fray on this soul-searching topic and say that practically speaking, and judaism is an extrememly practical religion, I wonder how one, say in my situation, mother of 5 kids, might be expected to spend time finding themselves while barefooting around india. Not to say that a journey of that sort is not meaningful (and perhaps a lovely respite from the 5 kids), it most certainly could be. But I think that Judaism, while not disallowing a journey of that sort, encourages a journey via “regular” life events- daily prayer, life-cycle events, holidays- which leaves room for a mother of 5 to find herself. How many of us have come to practicing Judaism, perhaps prompted by esoteric questions, but seduced by the soulful Shabbat meal? in fact, on my own personal journey, the depth of those “regular” life experiences are simultaneously staggeringly profound, remarkably transforming and naturally integrated into my life. I think that is what Judaism + life are meant to do for us.
That said, Judaism, at least biblically, has great regard for those who journey and seek. What else, in fact, can “lech lecha” mean, then “go forth” on a physical and spiritual journey? And Moshe and David, shepards, spending time wandering alone, in nature. Not to mention the formation of the Jewish people, wandering, in the desert, relying on Gd for sustenance and survival (not entirely unlike the Sadhu lifestyle Rabbi Zeller writes of). But this isn’t the type of search that can really be mandated. As Rachel said in her post, the searching person will seek.
Aren’t we asked to look to both the written Torah- that of the searching to find ourselves and Gd- and the oral Torah- the codified laws that are Practical Judaism- to find our way?
The second question Zack raised regarded joy, communality, Judaism, and Eastern religions. I agree that R. Zeller’s experiences in India seem to have many parallels with, as well as some differences from, Jewish practices. For example, the “night hike” on which R. Zeller underwent a transformative experience while stepping in “cow patties” seems as though it could parallel many a students’ epiphany while exploring Israel; at the same time, R. Zeller’s experiment as a Sadhu, a person who does no work and relies strictly on charity as a form of sustenance from God, seemed somewhat outside the common frame of reference of modern-orthodox Jews (although theologically there is a lot to explore here).
These concepts also makes me think of my experiences with Torah Yoga taught by Diane Bloomfield. Indeed, I feel that the yoga I experience in Diane’s classes is both communal and joyous, but this may because she teaches in a “Jewish” fashion and not because the Eastern forms of meditation are joyous. It is so interesting that Jews drawn to Eastern philosophies find parallels there, while Judaism is classically defined as the founding Western religion. To me it seems that both of these categorizations miss the mark, as much as they are both on target.