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Recently, a high school student contacted me. He was writing a newspaper article on the phenomenon of "Holocaust denial," and wanted to hear my thoughts on the subject. He provided me with a few questions to choose from, and I picked one. In the end he only used a couple of sentences from my response. Here is my complete answer:
What leads people to become Holocaust deniers? One answer: It is obviously a form of antisemitism. But that simply begs the question: What leads people to be antisemitic? To me, this question leads straight down into the dark, mysterious underside of the human mind. What is it about the human mind that makes it capable of irrationality, hatred, violence?
I think that we tend to forget how young human consciousness is in terms of “geologic” time. Civilization is merely a thin veneer, and scratching the surface may be enough to uncover a fearful, potentially vicious animal response to perceived threat.
Having been trained both as a psychologist and more recently as a rabbi, I tend to think about societal problems in terms of the psychological realm. What was it in this person’s life that led to this warping of their soul? What experiences of cruelty, what absence of loving attention, what bitter life experiences, led them to be the sort of person who is motivated by hatred and fear? What unconscious projections lead to the portrayal of Jews as the reviled Other? (And right now in this country, we see it happening against Muslims too, and also in the fearful projections in both directions of the political “right” versus “left.”) Yet how is it that some people are able to respond more resiliently to painful life experiences and develop instead into caring and compassionate lovers of truth? These are deep mysteries.
January 24, 2011
January 17, 2011
Opening to Life's Blessings
In chapter 19 of the biblical book of Exodus, the Israelite people are preparing for the revelation at Mount Sinai. God is giving Moses instructions about how it’s all going to happen. Here is the first instruction Moses gets:
“Say this to the people: You yourselves saw what I did… and how I carried you on the wings of eagles and I brought you to me. And now, if you will really listen to my voice and keep my covenant, you will become for me a treasure among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine….”
You will become for me a treasure among all the peoples. The standard understanding of this biblical verse is that the Jewish people will be somehow special, or privileged, or “chosen.”
The Chosen People. What does it mean to say that we’re the Chosen People? Oy, Jews (and non-Jews) have been arguing about that for the past two thousand years! So instead of going in that direction, I would like to share another interpretation of this verse – an interpretation which I think is relevant to us regardless of religious identity.
Rabbi Mordechai Yosef Leiner, a chasidic master who lived in Poland in the early 1800s, suggests that the Hebrew word for treasure – segulah – should be understood in the sense of treasure box – a vessel or container capable of receiving and holding treasure. Read the verse this way, he says: If you will really listen to my voice and keep my covenant, I am going to make you like a treasure box, capable of receiving the good things and blessings that I am going to give you.
What can this mean for us? And how can this be relevant to those of us who don’t believe in a God who is a Someone who talks and gives instructions? Here is where I think this interpretation is pointing us:
If we really pay attention to Reality, to everything that IS (which is another way of saying God) – if we strive to be mindful, curious, paying attention to what is really happening around us and inside us, seeing Reality and not just the projections of our own minds… then we indeed become like a treasure box, open to receiving the blessings that life has to offer.
“Say this to the people: You yourselves saw what I did… and how I carried you on the wings of eagles and I brought you to me. And now, if you will really listen to my voice and keep my covenant, you will become for me a treasure among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine….”
You will become for me a treasure among all the peoples. The standard understanding of this biblical verse is that the Jewish people will be somehow special, or privileged, or “chosen.”
The Chosen People. What does it mean to say that we’re the Chosen People? Oy, Jews (and non-Jews) have been arguing about that for the past two thousand years! So instead of going in that direction, I would like to share another interpretation of this verse – an interpretation which I think is relevant to us regardless of religious identity.
Rabbi Mordechai Yosef Leiner, a chasidic master who lived in Poland in the early 1800s, suggests that the Hebrew word for treasure – segulah – should be understood in the sense of treasure box – a vessel or container capable of receiving and holding treasure. Read the verse this way, he says: If you will really listen to my voice and keep my covenant, I am going to make you like a treasure box, capable of receiving the good things and blessings that I am going to give you.
What can this mean for us? And how can this be relevant to those of us who don’t believe in a God who is a Someone who talks and gives instructions? Here is where I think this interpretation is pointing us:
If we really pay attention to Reality, to everything that IS (which is another way of saying God) – if we strive to be mindful, curious, paying attention to what is really happening around us and inside us, seeing Reality and not just the projections of our own minds… then we indeed become like a treasure box, open to receiving the blessings that life has to offer.
January 3, 2011
How does trust happen?
[excerpted from my remarks on the occasion of being installed as Rabbi at Temple Kol Tikvah, 12/5/2010]
Pharaoh has two dreams which he cannot understand – seven fat cows eaten by seven skinny cows, seven fat ears of grain eaten by seven skinny ears of grain – and he is very anxious. Joseph (a young Hebrew slave at this point) is fetched from prison to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams. Joseph explains that the dreams are one, that both are prophesying seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine. Joseph then gives Pharaoh some management advice about how to prepare for the famine, and Pharaoh accepts his advice and puts Joseph in charge of carrying out the plan.
Here is what’s amazing about this story: Pharaoh trusts Joseph. Pharaoh puts his faith in Joseph. Pharaoh hands Joseph the authority to radically restructure Egyptian society. And on what basis? All that Pharaoh knows about Joseph up until this moment is what he heard from his royal butler: that Joseph once successfully interpreted two dreams while he was in prison. Oh yes, and the Torah tells us that Joseph was extremely good looking. But other than that, what does Pharaoh know about Joseph that would give him cause to trust him?
After Joseph presents his dream interpretation and management advice, the Torah tells us: Va-yitav ha-davar b’aynay Faro, u-v’aynay kol avadav. And the thing – or the word – seemed good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants.
How does trust happen? Apparently, something about what Joseph says – or perhaps the way he says it – leads Pharaoh to trust him. Pharaoh is convinced that Joseph’s words come from a divine source – which still begs the question of what it was about those words that led Pharaoh to that conclusion.
And we might also assume that there was something about Pharaoh himself that led him to trust Joseph and to recognize the divine spirit moving through him. So we could say that trust happens in the interaction between the minds and hearts of both of the people involved.
How does trust happen? Ultimately, it takes a leap of faith, doesn’t it? It takes a leap of faith to choose to trust someone. Think about it: For the first seven years of Joseph’s master plan, as they are stockpiling grain in anticipation of the famine, the Egyptian people have no way of knowing if there is indeed a famine coming.
It takes a leap of faith to do most things in our lives. How about in your life right now? What leap of faith are you taking?
Pharaoh has two dreams which he cannot understand – seven fat cows eaten by seven skinny cows, seven fat ears of grain eaten by seven skinny ears of grain – and he is very anxious. Joseph (a young Hebrew slave at this point) is fetched from prison to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams. Joseph explains that the dreams are one, that both are prophesying seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine. Joseph then gives Pharaoh some management advice about how to prepare for the famine, and Pharaoh accepts his advice and puts Joseph in charge of carrying out the plan.
Here is what’s amazing about this story: Pharaoh trusts Joseph. Pharaoh puts his faith in Joseph. Pharaoh hands Joseph the authority to radically restructure Egyptian society. And on what basis? All that Pharaoh knows about Joseph up until this moment is what he heard from his royal butler: that Joseph once successfully interpreted two dreams while he was in prison. Oh yes, and the Torah tells us that Joseph was extremely good looking. But other than that, what does Pharaoh know about Joseph that would give him cause to trust him?
After Joseph presents his dream interpretation and management advice, the Torah tells us: Va-yitav ha-davar b’aynay Faro, u-v’aynay kol avadav. And the thing – or the word – seemed good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants.
How does trust happen? Apparently, something about what Joseph says – or perhaps the way he says it – leads Pharaoh to trust him. Pharaoh is convinced that Joseph’s words come from a divine source – which still begs the question of what it was about those words that led Pharaoh to that conclusion.
And we might also assume that there was something about Pharaoh himself that led him to trust Joseph and to recognize the divine spirit moving through him. So we could say that trust happens in the interaction between the minds and hearts of both of the people involved.
How does trust happen? Ultimately, it takes a leap of faith, doesn’t it? It takes a leap of faith to choose to trust someone. Think about it: For the first seven years of Joseph’s master plan, as they are stockpiling grain in anticipation of the famine, the Egyptian people have no way of knowing if there is indeed a famine coming.
It takes a leap of faith to do most things in our lives. How about in your life right now? What leap of faith are you taking?
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