Translated from Hebrew by Dr. S. NAthan

l'ilui nishmat Esther bat mordechai
l'ilui nishmat mayer hirsh ben laibel

    It seems to me that the root cause or the factor most central to that state we call "shock," lies at the seam line where one's personal, private, human, subjective element encounters the system, or the element of systemization. As mentioned in last week's Torah reading, Re’ay, an individual is unable to attain true, full self-expression while he is encompassed within – steeped in and enslaved to – a system, because in a systematic context it is the system that is decisive rather than the human being. It is not the office bureaucrat but rather the rules of the game that make the law, or the bureaucracy, or science, etc. They determine the course of events.

      When the German murderers - may their name be erased - claimed this justification, the answer to them should have been: A human being does not exist only as a detail within the system. He exists simultaneously outside of the system, within his own subjective self. Nor may you claim that he exists only within himself, because then too his judgment would be impaired.  Similarly, being only outside, being purely systematic -  implies being outside of oneself as well and therefore outside of one's own awareness.

      Human beings require a situation that enables them to exercise judgment at a level that is balanced between the rational rule and the heart’s ponderings. Human beings need to attach themselves to "the third scripture that resolves contradiction," i.e., to the values-driven, Torah-law dimension of height, as well as to the realm of the heart.

      Law and order are expressed in halacha, Judaism's practical application of Torah law.   The Torah deals with those points of encounter where law and order, coming from one direction, meet with one’s heart’s imperative and one’s conscience, coming from the opposite direction. The outcome: A logic that is comprised of common sense attached to the sublime dimension of height.

      This condition is not found within the existential system, as a given. Rather, it passes into human beings by way of a personalized Divine Providence, as in “He will give you compassion and He will have compassion upon you" - and every devoted servant of God would do well to pray for this state of affairs. It is here that sin is born, and it is here too that the opportunity to repair is born. This is what is meant by “everything is in the hands of Heaven.”  That is, both the object and the subject.

      Fear of Heaven refers to the initiative taken by a human being to enslave himself to the Cause of all causes. This is the third scripture, and it is only from this position that a human being may enjoy the status of ally to the Master of the universe, possessing decision-making capacities and responsibilities as well as the authority to rely on his own heart’s insight, as per the Rambam’s comment regarding the status and stature of a judge, in Hilchot Sanhedrin 24.

      It seems to me - regarding the question of when the judge should rely on his own authority, as granted in the verse, “you shall do whatever they shall instruct you,” and when he should not - that there is no systematic definition of balanced judgment. When is one’s existential situation dependent upon oneself alone, and when must one accept God’s decree upon oneself and keep silent? All the while knowing clearly that it is a question of “Toward what purpose?” rather than a question of “Due to what cause?” All the while knowing clearly the full extent of one’s own responsibility and one’s own ability to control and change the situation.

      Shock, depression, and a loss of control derive from one of two sources: Either a) stewing in one’s own overly-subjective juices or b) becoming a cog within a system that one has become overly-reliant upon. If one has for example been utterly confident – with a perfect faith – regarding the ability of science to control a situation, or the expertise of economists, or the power of the military, etc. and then suddenly, without prior warning, the system collapses, one is left out in the cold and utterly helpless.

      Although we ordinarily avoid numerology, it seems clearly significant that the gematria, the numerical equivalent of yirat shamayim, fear of Heaven, is thirteen times the word mazal, fortune or astrology. There are twelve mazalot, twelve signs of the zodiac, yet yirat shamayim is above mazal, as it says: “Everything is in the hands of Heaven, except for yirat shamayim.”

      We see than that all of the topics in this week's Torah reading deal with the point of encounter between the human being and the system, whether it is the system of legislation, or of prophecy, or of the zodiac, etc. Extreme instances of despair, such as suicide, occur when a human being collapses from the effect of having pinned all hope upon a system that has ultimately proven disappointing.