Old/New World Discourse: Yerushalmi Dazed

The Old World does not equal the New World in any sense of twinning. Here, one can experience, within a short stack of hours, those qualities that are otherwise impossible to grasp: the shining faces of yungermen exiting a Jerusalem shiur; the daytime streaks of lights from Shemyim; and the stars which twinkle, in a distinctive fashion, only above Tzion.

On a more mundane level, in this land of Benyamin, also within a short stack of hours, one can witness barefoot school children seeking dumpster kittens (our very own Missy Oldest likely leads this parade of shoe-challenged youth), dumpster cats breeding new generations while avoiding Jerusalem cab drivers, and Jerusalem cab drivers acting with laxity when encountering other vehicles, yet with earnestness when encountering all manners of human emergencies.

Given Jerusalem's pronounced quality of life, I am no longer convinced that it is Israel that deviates from the rest of the world; I think it is the rest of the world that deviates from Israel. Consider that by deviating, I mean by "stray[ing] from cultural norms established by geography or by history" (see: "Metaphor, Part I: Socially Deviating Israel," June 07, 2007). Who is actually straying? Not us. Israel has been here forever. The mores of Israel remains the undergirding force of all of the world's monotheistic religions. The cure offered by Israel is not so much one of sand or stone, or of salted waters and reified air, but of truth.

Well, sort of. Leadership can be exhausting both in terms of intrapersonal costs and in terms of interpersonal negotiations. When maintaining or integrating a set of expectations about normative attitudes and behaviors, one ordinarily encounters resistance. Resistance can be demoralizing. In short, people with good intentions become people who make bad choices due to lots of pressures.

Rather than pick on the politicians (whose qualities have forever been pundit fodder), let's explore the example of a high school teacher and the example of individuals gathered during a Kotel prayer session. In both cases, leadership qualities, which are valuable to Jews, but not necessarily to the rest of civilization, were displayed.

In the case of the teacher, an individual subjugated his personal needs for the needs of the greater good. Sometimes this ordering of priorities is correct, sometimes it is not. To determine a given circumstance's hierarchy of value, consult your rabbi.

Regardless, the teacher in question, on principle, joined the union. The union went on strike. The students in the teacher's class began to fall further and further behind in their bagrout preparation. The teacher, a dedicated professional, who became an educator for many reasons, none of which involve salary, found himself, consequently, losing out on the fulfillment of his ideals; he could not make a difference in the lives of his students if he could not teach them.

The teacher quit the union and returned to his classroom. His choice cost him the protection he was otherwise afforded as a union member. His choice also stigmatized him among his peers.

Was the teacher correct in his assessment in the long run? In the short run? Ought a teacher with financial obligations to a family make a different choice than a teacher without such obligations? It can only be ascertained that this particular teacher put his students’ wellbeing before his own.

In another case of exceptional middot, for the purpose of hearing the Birkat Kohanim of Mo'ed Sukkot, many people collected within the Kotel courtyard. Somehow, despite the contrary spatial constraints, room was made for everyone to pray.

Somehow, too, room was made for everyone to leave after completing their prayers. Although that stream of Jews, given their vast numbers, was caused to slowly withdraw from the center of centers, there was little rowdiness in their egress.

In that case, too, the welfare of the collective was put before the welfare of the individual. It would have been more convenient for the tourists, for the businessmen and for the housewives to push and shove, as a minority did. It would have been more expedient for them to aim their pretend cell phones-turned-into-lasers at the crowd, to clear their personal way, as, again, a minority wished to do. However, for the most part, the members of that group acted in accordance with a higher scheme.

Was it correct for the greater number to be tolerant of the insolent few? Could a means have been derived that would have assured all of the participants of a quicker exit? I don't know. I did appreciate the stones and the residents of the Old City more that morning, however, than I have any time before or since.

Whereas The Boss, through the gross vehicle of destiny, and through the minute vehicle of happenstance, controls our biology as well as controls the molecular component of our psychology, it is up to us to take charge of the other elements of our plans. We need to spin our lives favorably through our actions, through our words, and, especially, through our thoughts.

We can perceive, as of individual hardships, such events as the financial sacrifice that the aforementioned teacher was going to have to make one way or another, or as the sensation of being smashed in a throng of thousands of worshippers for more than two hours. Alternatively, we can choose to understand such goings on as remarkable moments that can catapult us into higher domains. Our take on our experiences depends upon our lens. We have the ability to forfeit the world's eyepiece and in its place to insert our own. The view from Torah is also the view that we encounter when perched, literally or figuratively, over our world's holiest city. I suggest that it is us who have established the norm.

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Little Smile:

Many Israelis regard denizens of the New World as refrigerators on feet. A Jerusalem cab driver (see: "Signs of the (Old) Times," Sept. 26, 2006) once told me that among all of the natural and man-made wonders of North America, his parents found the most amazing wonder to be the girth of the locals.