Obsession with cars, analyzed

Chassidus refers to something called רצון הנעלם בעצמותו, which translated into English means roughly that I can want something, but so deep down that I myself am unaware of my wanting it. OK, the obvious question comes up: if my desire is so repressed that I am not aware of it at all, then of what meaning is that desire?

The explanation I heard a few years back made use of a well-known Talmudic saying, that "a man who does not have a home is not a man". The meaning of this, Chassidut explains, is that essential to every person's is the existence of a private domain, where he gets to be himself. Not in any function or capacity (student, teacher, passenger, customer, client, worker, etc.), but just himself. This same idea goes to explain what we are trying to accomplish down here; to make this physical world a place where G-d Himself, as it were, could feel at home.

This need is implanted in the human existence; while not necessarily emerging for a long time, it is deemed to be hard-wired into the human psyche by definition. Fair enough; in the real world, we do indeed place much emphasis on a home. Someone without a fixed address is not simply deemed to be that much poorer than others; "homeless" is arguably the most pitiful label we can give a person.

That said, what of those who focus more on an expensive car, with every trapping possible, than on their home?

The difference between a home and a vehicle is primarily in their inherent purpose. A vehicle's purpose is by definition utilitarian: to get me from here to there. The meaning of a home, as said before, is not simply a place to sleep. In it lies a value that transcends utility; it is where one becomes himself. But a car has many of the same characteristics that make a home unique; it, too, is a private domain where more and more people are finding their expression. Why is a car that different from a home?

Because if one's whole passion is in something mobile, in something the point of which is to transport him somewhere else, that makes him someone who has no life in the present. One whose very being consists of getting somewhere else, anywhere and anything but here and now. בלשון החסידות, the quintessential חיצון.

Just a thought to reflect on before Rosh Hashanah...

Blogging is being put on hold

I would like to announce to my rather limited but loyal readership that I am putting my blogging on total hold for the time being. This month, the month of Elul, is a month that Jews from time immemorial have set aside as a time of introspection, of soul-searching, of resolution to make the next year better than this one has been. It is a time when, as Chassidut has us know, there is a G-dly revelation in this world that beckons even to those who would prefer to believe that they are beyond hope. A time for renewed acceptance of our commitment to fulfilling our G-d-given mission on earth.

In this spirit, I have come to the realization that as enjoyable as this blogging exercise may be, it is not what I ought be occupying myself with, at least not at this sublimely holy point in time.

I expect to meet up personally with some of you in the upcoming month. May you and the Jewish people in Israel and abroad be inscribed for a good and sweet year, both materially and spiritually.

Brilliantly Direct

I have been staying away from WND and Joseph Farah for a long while. I did not at all like his response to the Jewish reaction to the Passion movie. Ever since then, his evangelical leanings have crept more and more into the open. Yes, Israel's best friends today are evangelical Christians, but one can be at least a little discreet about it. Farah wasn't. From speaking about the "Judeo-Christian" values that shaped america, he started more and more to drop the "Judeo" part.

However, I'm back these days. WND remains one of the lone voices in the anything-remotely-close-to-mainstream media that speaks the truth about Israel, calling a spade a spade. Farah's understanding of American politics is also strikingly deep.
This article is one that I find fitting for someone who truly believes in the American ideal. He is direct and to the point. He is good.

Reminiscing...

Today I was studying a Chassidic discourse, a Ma'amar, that I had not looked at for several years. Nearly a decade ago, I was a young, impressionable yeshiva bochur, a child for all practical purposes, exactly at the age that was open and thirsting for some guidance, direction, meaning. The age when an authentic call to morality, to a higher responsibility, to service of G-d, would make an indelible mark on his thinking and approach to life.

The Ma'amar (ד"ה אחרי ה' אלקיכם תלכו, ה'תרצ"ז) dealt with the different levels in which we as Jews relate to G-d simultaneously; as children, and as servants. The Rebbe proceeds to elaborate on the difference; the child is by definition devoted to his parents, and anything that is dear to the parent will be of necessity likewise dear to the child. No commitment is required on the child's part; the relationship is natural and automatic.

The Ma'amar then proceeds to the relationship between a (true) servant and his master; the servant has no inherent interest in doing what he does for his master, receives no renumeration, will never inherit his master. If it would be up to him, he would do anything but serve his master. Nonetheless, once he has become a servant, he is characterized by total, single-minded devotion to the master's command, with no expectation of renumeration ever. He knows no rest from his labor; even when he sleeps, it is a sleep that can at any moment be cut short because he must arise to do his duty. With time, his servitude becomes second nature, to the point that notwithstanding that he has no personal interest in whatever he may be doing being done, his ultimate hapiness in life is to see his master pleased by his toil. The master's hapiness becomes his own hapiness: his identity is his own no more; but since he has surrendered himself to serving his master, his self-definition is that of a servant; that which pleases his master, is what makes him rejoice. The analogy in our service of G-d is obvious.

In this age of "freedom", where unhindered pursuit of self-gratification is the norm, when any bounds, at least those of basic humanity, are anything but the norm, the idea of one being entirely given over to a calling that will bring him no immediate happiness is anathema. But it is the type of radical idea that will readily capture the heart of one searching for a deeper truth.

Many years have passed, and all it took was one short look at that Ma'amar to bring me back to those days of confusion, clarity, longing and security that mark a child raised in a morally strong environment passing into the turbulence of adolescence. It is refreshing to know that those feelings are not entirely gone yet, not entirely swept away by the "stability" of ceasing to look for anything (baalabatishkeit בלע"ז); they are dormant just beneath the surface, waiting to be reawakened.

Emotions are a beautiful thing, but they are not enough; they must be harnessed into some useful change in one's day-to-day life. We are in Elul; time to get moving.

More evacuation details

From the NY Times: Police Begin Seizing Guns of Civilians.

Go through this article and read the details. The weapons confiscation in advance, amid people dead on left and right. The ban on civilians having weapons of any kind (this is America, anyone remember the Second Amendment?). The "option" being offered of "voluntary evacuation" before being forced out. The choice of using police rather than National Guard. The "support" being offered by the president from the dry comfort of Washington. Even if I would believe that Gaza has nothing to do with this hurricane, I would say that it has been used as a textbook lesson in this evacuation.

Moment in the limelight

According to several news reports, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin considers himself important enough as to make the invective he hurled in the direction of the federal government and the President reason enough to assasinate him. During the time he should have been running his city, it seems he was busy reading Robert Ludlum novels.

The problem is not that there are stupid people in this world. The problem is that in a country that is the very symbol of democracy, the result of the system is that this kind of moron, a crybaby who will swear at the President and anyone else in sight for money instead of using his own city's emergency plan and saving some lives, gets democratically elected by a city of 500,000.

The isolated acts of heroism in this story that is at the same time both horrific and pathetic, do help restore some confidence in humanity. But not much.

A teenager who had never before driven a bus, "stealing" one and driving a busfull of people to the Astrodome is gallant heroism. Putting him behind bars and describing his actions as "an example of extreme looting" is heinous. Again, Farah is right on the money when he says that American society has possibly already decayed past the point of no return.

Every occurence is a challenge and an opportunity, on both the personal and the communal level. Let's see if we can stop blowing it.

The Arabs are doing a fine job so far

Arutz Sheva: Arab Mob Kills Moussa Arafat.
If Israel was indeed trying to pull out "unilaterally", it could at least have done so in style. We could have done it years back, and we should have taken with us the telephone, the electricity, the hospitals, everything. You want the land? Here it is: take it. Nothing more. Why should we repay your terror by not only leaving, but leaving a full ready infrastructure for these animals?
We would have been back in Gaza, by the Arabs' own request, within weeks.

Auschwitz - Reflections

Standing first from the watchtower then from the memorial and looking out at the monstrosity known in the world's concience as Auschwitz. Among the feelings that sink in, the starkest is simply awe: awe at the sheer size of the beast; awe at the efficiency of the machine of death that man built. To have come up with something like Auschwitz, one must be nothing short of an absolute genius. The arrangement of the bunkers; the cordoning off of the gas chambers/crematoria from the rest of the camp, so that no SS could enter, but “shipments” of doomed Jews could get there in a moment's time. Awe at the German orderliness and efficiency leaving its mark at every step of the way, here of all places. This camp is a brilliant conception, art even; only that at its' very core, it is a machine of death.

At no point in time did the Lubavitcher Rebbe's clarion call to moral awareness ring more clear:

“If there was ever any doubt whether just and righteous behavior is possible only when based on the realization that such is G-d’s desire, or it is also possible when based on mortal considerations, on human wisdom and doctrines and behavior codes — all doubts have been resolved in this generation. The same people that prided itself on its scientific and philosophic accomplishments, that prided itself on its sons who devoted decades to intellectual inquiry and research and who authored books on these subjects, that had so many students pursuing knowledge — that people wrought the most horrific and evil of deeds.
The holocaust was not the result of one mentally unbalanced individual who coerced others into helping him. Everyone who was there, I amongst them, saw how enthusiastically that folk accepted him, expressing the hope that he would bring to realization their heartfelt longing to slew ‘Deutschland uber alles’.
The only way, then, to ensure that people behave decently and morally, is a code of conduct not of human invention but based on the fulfillment of G-d’s will. In the words of the Rambam: “‘They should accept (the Seven Noachide Laws) and do them [not because they may be logically appealing, rather] because G-d commanded them in the Torah and let us know of them through Moshe Rabbeinu.’”

Surprisingly, there were many more non-Jews than Jews there. I brought up this point in conversation with several of them. Not surprising was that most of them agreed with me far more enthusiastically than your average Jew.