Freedom and Belonging

The "Belonging" that is dictated by nature (as opposed to a freely-chosen, values-driven "Belonging") does not relate to one's need to distinguish between good and evil.  In contrast, the "Belonging" born of choice is willing to give anything a chance - even evil. 

Whereas the Belonging that happens naturally and not as an act of choice - ignores good and evil, the Freedom that happens naturally, and not as an act of choice, does address good and evil, but only the external good and evil.  It ignores the tempter within.  For this reason (because natural Freedom never develops a working relationship with the real dynamics that produce good and evil) natural Freedom develops an attitude of hatred and fear toward evil.

Good and Evil in Service of God.

“I give before you today a blessing and a curse.”

“A blessing that is also a curse…two types of good, and each contains a blessing and a curse.  This giving holds a blessing and it holds a curse as well.”  (Ohr HaHaim)

The distinction between blessing and curse is not to be found in the heftsa, in the object, or in the real-world situation.  It is to be found in the freely choosing human being.

This does not mean that he has the ability to choose between one situation that is clearly defined as a blessing and another situation that is clearly defined as a curse.  Rather, it refers to his innermost, primal intention – whether his intention is kidush Hashem, to sanctify God’s Name, or the opposite, God forbid.

If he has intended by his behavior to effect a kiddush Hashem, and to demonstrate God’s Presence in the universe, through obedience to the Godly Presence – even when this opposes the ways of nature and natural logic, and therefore would seem to be a curse, meaning a situation fraught with the threat of failure and sin, being unnatural, nevertheless – this situation becomes sanctified and transformed into a blessing and a mitsvah, as seen in the Talmudic assertion: “A sin for the sake of Heaven is greater than a mitsvah not for the sake of Heaven.”  Meaning to say, Re’ay:  “See here,” I command you to serve God and to worship Him in every situation, whether it appears to be a blessing or a curse.

“Past the Path of the Setting Sun.” 

In Tractate Sota 33 there is a debate as to which direction is intended by this verse.  “Every opposite direction - that is its meaning: One may be in the east and one may be in the west.”

When the sun sets, one seems to experience a sensation of having been passed over, of having been eluded by the universe.  Creative activity has drawn to a close.  One's activity of relating to reality - and to what is beyond reality - has come to an end.

 Yet then a Jew davens minha, offering the prayer of the day’s end, opposite the setting sun, making it clear to himself that life goes on, because the purpose of activity has not been in relation to the universe but in relation to the Creator of the universe – a sign of the stability and permanence of worship despite and within an ever-changing reality.

Since the scope of worship is so broad, and is included in and applied to ephemeral, fleeting, and even opposite circumstances, there is a need for choice, be’hira, for weighing choices between good and evil.  Choice, when approached correctly, can be decisive, as mentioned above.

How critical this specifically Jewish perspective is - may be seen in the behavior of young people, when faced with [what we see today as] a confused, upside down, fickle generation.  Youth respond with an attitude of apathy – running away from responsibility and commitment, which require decision and weighing choices.  Modern man is apprehensive about expressing an independent opinion that might obligate him in some way.

Expressions such as - “Like”, “you know”, “kind of”, “forget it”, “nothing”- comprising nearly every second word in most any sentence formulated by young people – are a symptom of fear of commitment.  

Along comes the Torah and obligates one to arrive at a decision – to choose. 

“And you shall choose life.” 

The act of choice, of taking a stand, requires guidance.  It is this guidance that the Torah intends to provide, for one who wishes to choose and to commit himself.  Therefore the Torah instructs as follows:

1.  Distance yourself from the condition of the total negative, from the condition that has no chance of being turned from a curse into a blessing – i.e. avoda zara, idolatry.

2.  Relate each and every act, even an act so basic as eating meat, to a sacred place, for this will bestow spiritual meaning on the natural act. 

In this way, one can relate in both directions – to what is permanent and to what is changing; to one’s value-based relationship and commitment to the Holy Land in the Sacred House of God’s choice, and to the meat that one is eating.

This is the “doing” that grants tangibility to the “being”, to the value-based innermost space.

“And it shall be to the place that God shall choose…to have His Name dwelling there, there shall you bring all that I command you.” 

This is eating meat while distinguishing between duty and pleasure.

But with a few small restrictions: Kosher slaughtering requirements, sprinkling the blood, the prohibition against eating blood, covering the blood, distancing oneself from the laws of the goyim, the nations, in everything concerning the enticements of idolatry.

The subject of the prophet, too, deals with the need to simultaneously address the permanent and the ephemeral: Distinguishing between the true and false prophet – not according to his ability to work miracles, but rather according to halachic principles written in the Torah. 

Here too we see the preference for the permanent and for the principle-based, over the emotional response to ephemeral impressions (such as miracles).

“And to Him you shall cleave.” 

Ibn Ezra: “With the heart, from beginning to end.”  This will teach you how to relate to your own existential situation.  Your relationship must encompass all aspects: That which is tangible/ephemeral, that which is principle-based/ permanent, and that unique form of personally merging these two, which is incumbent upon you, according to the purpose of your existence.

There is also the need to relate to evil.  However, there is a difference between how one must relate to relative evil and how one must relate to absolute evil.  Relative evil has already been mentioned as being part of the challenge in the worship of God; in essence it is an aspect  of the good.  In contrast, one's relationship to absolute evil must be looked at as the relationship to idolatry; every aspect of the attitude taken toward idolatry applies similarly to any absolute evil. 

For example: Ir hanidahat, “the distanced city” that has turned en masse toward idolatry.  Halacha requires that it simply be wiped out.  One is commanded to ignore temptations of emotion and tenderness.  Feeling must attach itself to the absolute, and must free itself from dependency upon external stimulants that arouse pity.

Emotion must turn toward the supreme source of compassion, to plead for compensation.  It may not succumb to external sources of stimulation. 

“Let your eye not pity him.  Utterly smite all the inhabitants of that city by the point of the sword…and He will give you compassion and He will have mercy on you, if you will obey God.”

From the principle that emotion must attach itself to the absolute, we derive the prohibition against self-mutilation as a form of mourning for the deceased.

“For you are a people sacred to God.”

Because of this same principle, we do not pity the eved nirtsa.  A Canaanite slave woman is permitted to the eved ivri, the Jewish slave, because slavery is humiliation, and when there is no pride there is no lust, and the Jewish slave's relationship with the Canaanite slave woman expresses the purely monetary interest of the owner, who wishes to breed additional Canaanite slaves.

However, the eved nirtsa, the Jewish slave who expresses the wish to permanently continue his condition of slavery, who relates to the Canaanite slave woman he has been given with an attitude of egotistical love, is demonstrating both pride and lust.  He therefore proves  that his limited period of slavery has not been adequate to uproot his arrogance.  This being the case, “he shall be his slave forever".

Relate selectively to eating, and to all your other natural needs.  Differentiate between the animals that may be eaten and the animals that are impure and may not be eaten.  The prohibition against cooking meat in milk is in order to protect your personal sensitivities, your emotion of compassion toward all living things which could become numbed by the type of eating that entails cruelty to animals..

Your relationship to money must reflect this sensitivity as well:

“Tithe – you must tithe.” 

Shmita: Rest the Land every seventh year. 

Tsedaka, charity:

“But nothing – for there will not be a poor man among you.”  

The Ohr HaHaim states: “Do not think when you see a poor man that he is [nothing] lesser.”

Do not be like the Calvinist Protestants, who view worldly success as a sign of success in Heaven.  And do not be like the Catholics, who views worldly failure as a spiritual virtue.

Rather, relate to the poor man as to another human being: He represents an opportunity to fulfill the mitsva of tsedaka.

Relate to him also from his own personal perspective – for every calculation is different.  One poor person differs from the other, according to his spiritual level. 

Although from the general perspective

 “...there will never cease to be poor in the land”

– which the Ramban explains as meaning that in principle if Yisrael will keep the Torah perfectly there actually will cease to be poor in the land – nevertheless from the point of view of the private individual, there are many and various calculations and considerations, reflecting many unique realities, and these do not reflect only good and evil. 

The Torah’s flexible and differentiating attitude toward the poor person supports our central assumption that evil is something one is required to relate to as an aspect of one’s worship of God.  Rather than relating emotionally to evil, one must exercise free choice and personalized, differentiating, principle-based judgment, in order to overcome the multiple levels and guises of evil.