The Educator's Role:
Bridging/Mediating Between Private and Public Domains

The Rabbi's Role:
Replacing Society as a Role Model
 
Society, while educating the individual, also ignores him, grinds him, and erases his individuality in its great melting pot.

Moses the Humble, entirely unaware of his own personal needs or of the needs of the individual – because in his eyes everything is purely a reality of Godly Presence – never suspects the meraglim, the "spies."  It never occurs to him that the spies might find it difficult to digest the reality of Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel as a general and all-encompassing reality – as a global, political reality that reflects a global Godly Presence.

The public domain in a certain sense did not exist in the desert: A public domain does not  depend only upon physical space and area but mainly upon the open spaces of human interaction.  The desert was not compatible with individual needs, and also not compatible with group needs.  Rather, the desert had become an utterly Godly reality – and was thus compatible with the group, but was even more and mainly suited to the private individual.  The desert was essentially an anti-institutional reality

The meraglim were important private persons, but had no real importance for the group.  They find it difficult to accept the idea that they  will not be leaders when they come to the Land, because they do not understand that the Land will require leaders who possess awareness of, attachment to, and responsibility for the group.

The group has its own rules of survival as everyone knows, and these differ absolutely from the needs of the private person.  The law and the bureaucratic system prove how a group can threaten a private person, how it can devour him and cancel his existence.

The Land of Israel has a characteristic feature that is unique to it alone: It is compatible with both the group and the private individual.  The private individual finds, within the public realm of this land, the most prime and powerful expression of his own uniqueness – and he accomplishes all this without causing harm to either general public or private interests.

In the Diaspora, the individual finds his own personal redemption not through the group but directly through service of God.  “Malchya lelo Torah”, ulelo avoda.  There is no public service, other than gemilut hasadim, which means acts of kindness between private individuals.  In the Diaspora, the reality of the group is separate from the reality of the private individual, and any attempt to bring them closer together risks endangering them both.

Based on this principle, we may understand the seriousness of the sin of the meraglim.  Moses perceived the spying expedition as a sort of courting period, meant to reinforce desire, anticipation, and love for the Land.  He was therefore not concerned in the least, and sent them off...

In the Holy Land: 
A World Devoid of Natural Law; Only Godly Law Applies Here.

The meraglim were seeing only their own private needs, as being in conflict with what they saw in the Land – gigantic, global forces and institutional frameworks, where the individual is crushed under the gigantic wheels of a monstrous machine. 

Their error was in not seeing the uniqueness of this particular global aspect – that here was a new type of global framework, peculiar to this Land alone: In which ‘global’ would not be at the expense of the individual, but would actually strengthen him.  We find here a lack of trust on the part of the spies.   Theirs was a failure to believe in the Godly reality, which determined that all the laws of the game of this place were purely qualitative / spiritual / itaruta dili’eila: “A Land on which God, your Lord, keeps His eyes, from year’s start to year’s end.”

The ramification of their error was “a lament for all generations”?  Why? Because this galut disease shows no signs of improvement whatsoever, and therefore the private individual Jew in exile is still apprehensive about living in Israel – mainly because the government of the Land of Israel is very far from fulfilling the demands of the Godly reality, and does not consider the private individual; it is this issue that separates the Jew in exile from the (global) giants who govern the Land of Israel.

This is a Land that requires the person “rising” to it, i.e. the oleh, the immigrant to Israel, to view the public welfare as being his own personal goal as well, and to not fear that he will be harmed by this.  He is not only required to take this view, but to actually attach himself to the group in practical terms.

The need for institional frameworks (hospital, police, school, law, logic, morality, family, job) begins only after human potential – the direct connection between one individual and another – has been fully exploited.  This is the case with regard to making efforts to exert positive influences upon individuals.  A father attempting to protect his child from negative influence and harm, a spouse attempting to protect a spouse –first they must attempt to fully exploit the channel of direct influence: “Face to face I shall speak to him.”  “They are all men”.  “One man from the tribe of his fathers shall you send.”  For God’s greatness will be seen “eye to eye.”  “As one man.” 

Seeking the help of outside parties, of the social establishment, is legitimate only under survival conditions, and not under circumstances where mutual human relations obtain.

The Laws of Brute Force and Survival:

Superfluous and Even Counterproductive

For Mutual Human Relationships

Brute force and survival do not apply and are even superfluous in situations where human quality is found, sheltering beneath the Godly umbrella of the dimension of height.  An existential situation where the dimension of height is lacking creates a situation in which two scriptures contradict each other and no third scripture resolves this contradiction.  Conflict then forms between the personal and the general.  In such cases, subconscious phenomena develop in various directions – ranging from the self’s being erased and consumed by the general group to the rebellion of the self against the general group and a denial of the fact of  belonging.

Anti-Semitism and Hatred Make Use of the Channel of the General Group in Order to Pour  Hate Upon the Individual. 

This is because group hatred does not entail any human factor, in that the group excludes the private indivudual.  Therefore hatred of a group to which a private individual belongs is an expression that requires no exact investigation, no going into the details of the maligned behavior.  Collective accusation slips from the public domain into the private domain, causing more damage than any accusation of a private individual, because it need not withstand the test of any specific reality or practical criticism.

Alternatively, as well, it is convenient for an individual to cherish a non-legitimate view with the excuse that it is accepted by the general group – and therefore the individual is freed from the obligation to rigorously examine it and determine whether it is true or not.  It is convenient for the individual to don the robes of public opinion in order to evade any criticism that might be directed toward him personally.

In this Land, there is no fixed relationship between the individual and the group.  Everything is determined from on high, according to the spiritual situation – in order to balance the spiritual situation, and in order to neutralize the direct influence of the group upon the individual.