Central Themes
When talking about the many legacies of the Rebbe, people will often tell you
about a vast collection of talks and ideas. This is simply not true. There is no
such collection. A collection implies some sort of cornucopia, with a scattered
assortment gathered into a single basket. The Rebbe's ideas all grow from one
tree, and can only be properly understood as they remain hanging on that tree.
In other words, there are consistent themes throughout absolutely everything
the Rebbe ever said or did. And, without much trouble, we can even see a single
core theme, the trunk of the tree that carries all those branches, which carry
the twigs, which carry the fruits. What the Rebbe did was to demonstrate what a
vast diversity of ideas and applications could be born by a single simple idea.
Let's take one theme that the Rebbe often described explicitly. I will give a
few examples of its application and then dwell on one that is very important to
us today, concerning the dynamics of education and government, especially when
they are in conflict.
Balanced Protocols
The processes that comprise our world can be described dichotomously. A
process can mean a dynamic within physics or biology -- how nature works. Or
within the human psyche, between individuals or within a society. Or it can be a
process of history. In all of these, there are those that work from the top
down, and those that build from the bottom up. A healthy system, person,
lifestyle, society, etc. is a balance of both of these protocols. This is all
pretty straightforward. But then the Rebbe discusses situations where these two
come into competition or conflict with one another. Which one steps aside for
which? This becomes very fascinating.
It is particularly fascinating today, because we live at a time where these
two protocols are at war, with western civilization on one side, and the world
of Islam on the other. I'll explain later how this works.
Let's start with a dynamic very central to Jewish thought: G-d and the human
being. We like to credit Abraham with the discovery of G-d. Now G-d is a pretty
top-down idea: A single authority over all that is. He designed it, He created
it, and He calls the shots.
In fact, classic Jewish tradition does not attribute this discovery to
Abraham. Neither does it ascribe to Abraham the discovery of Divine Providence.
Noah also spoke with G-d, and so did several others, all the way back to Adam.
In fact, citing the Talmud and Maimonides, the Rebbe describes how "the age of
Torah" didn't begin with Abraham's discovery of G-d. Rather it began with
Abraham's discovery of the human being. That is, when Abraham demonstrated that
G-d was a subject for human discussion. That is really what toppled the old
paradigm of the priestly cult and god-kings: As long as "the higher truth" came
down from above, and only from above, then those on top could hold on to their
authority by screening the truth for those beneath them. The fact that there was
an early tradition of a single, all-powerful, invisible G-d didn't help much,
since those who held on to this tradition were not in power. And even if they
were, they did not know how to communicate this to the common people.
Abraham wasn't working from a tradition -- he discovered G-d on his own, as
they say, he "pulled himself up by his bootstraps". Therefore, he saw no problem
in discussing the matter with others and bringing them to achieve this same
cognizance, as Maimonides puts it, "each person according to his understanding."
That's what we call a bottom-up process. In today's marketplace, Abraham would
be a grass roots activist.
So Abraham's unique contribution was this combination of two ideas: one as
authoritarian as you could get, but balanced by an appreciation of the
individual and each one's particular perspective. What about when those two came
into conflict? So, here, the Rebbe discusses the difference between Abraham and
Noah. Noah was told by G-d that He's fed up with human beings, so He's going to
flood the world and wipe them all out. How does Noah respond? He asks G-d,
"So what are my instructions?" And he follows those instructions,
building an ark for his family and a sampling of the zoological spectrum. Noah
obeys authority.
Compare that to Abraham's response in a similar situation. G-d tells Abraham
that he's upset with the evildoing in Sodom and Amorrah, so He's going to wipe
them out. How does Abraham respond? With the absurd: He starts bartering with
G-d. Abraham considered his faithful obedience to G-d and his belief in the
human person, and decided that it was worth it to argue with G-d for the sake of
the human being. The bottom-up protocol took priority over the top-down.
Abraham didn't dispose of G-d for the sake of his humanitarianism. After all,
Abraham's concept of the intrinsic worth of human life was entirely within the
context of a G-d who gives life. What Abraham did was to make clear that G-d was
only G-d if He did justice, if He was concerned with the individual.
You could say that Abraham discovered the "person" -- that a human being has
worth and significance just for the fact of his righteousness, regardless of his
position in the hierarchy of power.
Moses' Decision
Moses took this a step further. For Moses, even righteousness was not a
prerequisite. People have worth, period.
Moses was an even greater populist than Abraham. We all know Moses for his
radical statement to Pharaoh that the slaves are people and deserve a vacation
for religious freedom. When Moses got the people to Mount Sinai, he struck the
greatest blow to the priestly cult in history: He required that every last
person be there for the divine revelation of ultimate truth, men, women and
children. Yes, he taught a Divine Law, with Divine incentives, reward and wrath
all bundled together. But he first asked the people if they were ready to accept
this. He personally explained it to them, and he even taught them to each write
it down as a personal possession.
So, again, a balance of two opposite dynamics, Divine decree and populist
involvement. As with Abraham, the test for Moses was when they came in conflict.
After the people had rebelled against G-d and against everything Moses had
taught them by forging a golden calf and worshipping it, Moses had some
explaining to do. G-d told Moses He was about to wipe them out. As for His
promise to the forefathers, He would make Moses into a great nation instead.
So Moses had a choice: His G-d or his people. And in one of the Rebbe's most endeared passages, Moses says to G-d, "If this is what you are planning to
do, then erase me from the book you have written." The people won.
The Rebbe points out that the greatest act of Moses' life was not liberating
the people from Egypt, nor bringing them the Torah. It was the moment when he
came down from the mountain with the tablets of G-d, saw what the people were
doing around this calf, and realized that if they would receive these tablets
now, they would be doomed to annihilation. And so, he smashed the tablets. If
there are to be no people, then there is no point in this Torah, in G-d's law.
Again, Moses didn't give up on Torah -- he went back up the mountain to try
again. But this time it had to be a different sort of Torah. Not G-d-made
tablets that descend from above. These second tablets would be human-made,
inspired by the repentance of the people, and with forgiveness built in.
There are so many other examples: In the dynamic of Torah from heaven and
human reason, a balance must be achieved. The Torah is G-dly wisdom and that
can't be changed, but human reason is central.
The sages discuss which is greater, study or the performance of good deeds?
To know what G-d has to say, or to do it? They answer that study is greater,
because it brings to good deeds. The Rebbe observes, if so, then good deeds are
greater, since all the greatness of Torah is that it brings to good deeds. In
other words, both are vital, both have a greatness the other needs, but at the
center of the dynamic lies that which comes from below -- the deeds of man.
In several discourses, the Rebbe explains a deeper rationale behind this
logic. The heavens, the Rebbe says, are created for the sake of the earth. All
that is above is created so that which is below can rise up. The purpose behind
the entire creation is, as the Midrash states, because G-d wants a dwelling
place in a lowly world. In other words, the mundane, the ordinary, the visceral
human experience should become G-dly. Therefore, the whole universe is designed
in this way, that all that is above is subject to the good of that which is
below.
The Wandering Government
Now we arrive at a very practical example, one with pertinent application in
this city.
When the Jewish people had first settled the land of Canaan, a terrible civil
war broke out. An outrageous and brutal rape and murder occurred in the
territory of Benjamin. The other tribes were outraged. The Book of Judges tells
us that close to 70,000 people died in the ensuing battles.
In the ancient Midrash, Tana d'Bei Eliyahu Rabba, the sages ask why did so
many have to die? Their answer is very revealing. Because, they say, the great
assembly of judges and rabbis that Moses and Joshua had left behind sat in their
place next to the Holy Tabernacle and judged the people. What should they have
done? In the language of the Midrash, "they should have lifted their skirts
above their knees, girded their loins with iron girdles and wandered from town
to town, one day in Hebron, one day in Lod, and taught the people civil
behavior."
The Rebbe cites this passage often, with a twist. He notes that the proper
place of this assembly, known as "Sanhedrin," is next to the
Holy Tabernacle. If they move from this place, it's not just a matter of travel
expenses. If they are not there, the law is that no court throughout the land
can serve a capital sentence. According to some authorities, their power is even
more limited. So here we have a very poignant instance of just what we are
talking about: We are sacrificing the power of the governing body to
administrate and adjudicate for the sake of teaching the people civil behavior.
It gets even more fascinating. The Midrash doesn't tell us that they should
have sent agents, appropriated funds to hire teachers and built schools. The
judges themselves were to leave their place and go to the people. As one
commentary explains, the people must see they are taking this seriously.
The core of the matter, the Rebbe writes, comes down to: What is the purpose
of this assembly of sages? Obviously, law, governance and education all fall
under their domain. But which task lies at the center? Is their principal task
to mete out Divine law and govern the people, and in order to do this, the
people must be educated? Or is their principal task to educate the people, and
law and governance are there only so that people can be educated? Are the people
to be educated for the sake of better governance, or does governance exist for
the sake of the people's education? The opinion of this Midrash is apparently
the latter, because we see the power of governance is sacrificed for the sake of
education. And without that sacrifice, the stability of the nation is at risk.
In a letter to a leader and thinker of the Kibbutz movement, the Rebbe says
this quite explicitly: The idea behind a community is to provide a nurturing
environment for the individual. Society exists for the sake of the individual,
and not the other way around. In Talmudic law, an entire community is sacrificed
for the protection of one of its citizens.
Protocols at War
We see that Jewish tradition is a tightrope between two protocols, which
often become paradoxical. It is interesting to note that in our times the globe
is torn between two cultures, both finding their birthplace in the Jewish
nation, at war. One culture grasps the top-down protocol, with all human life
subject to the supreme will of Allah, and condemns the western world for its
shallow and self-serving humanism. The other grasps the idea of the human person
that Abraham and Moses also introduced and condemns the "fundamentalism" of
today's Islam.
Either extreme is destructive. Worship of a deity who offers paradise for
blowing up civilians is not friendly to the planet. But neither does worship of
the human being make for a sustainable society. Without a supreme authority upon
whom to hang an absolute standard of right and wrong, right and wrong rapidly
fade into the mud. As the Rebbe put it, if the only reason a child has to not do
wrong is because he might get caught, then he learns to get good at not getting
caught.
We stand for balance. For a society of more than two dimensions. We stand for
a society that is obsessed with the concerns of each of its citizens, while
recognizing the supremacy of Divine authority -- "one nation under G-d."
So a senator or congressperson or supreme court judge may say, that's very
nice, but it's not our job to take care of the spiritual welfare of our nation.
To this, the Rebbe tells us, on the contrary: the entire purpose of a nation, of
law and order, of freedom and of government is the spiritual growth of each
individual. This is the only way a society can establish stability. True, there
is reason not to mix in, but you can at least remove hindrance from such, by
allowing the subject of G-d, of the soul, of human purpose and meaning in life
into the schools, as a subject of discussion. That is why the Rebbe strongly
advocated a "moment of silence" in all public schools. This way, at least the
parents are led into discussion of the subject with their children.
When fighting evil, we must take extra precautions not to be soiled, rolling
in the mud with our enemy. Law and order, justice and the security of its
citizens are Divine missions of every governing body, but they are not its
principal task. The principal task of government is to provide opportunity for
every individual to grow, physically, mentally and spiritually, and to reach the
greatest potential of human expression that that individual is able to reach; to
teach people civil behavior and engage them in discussion of spiritual growth.
I look forward to soon seeing the members of the Senate, of Congress and yes, of
the Supreme Court girding their loins and traveling to the kindergartens of
America to ensure that this is happening. Because, as the Rebbe sees things, the
kindergartens are the true capitol of the land.
