Terumah

The Death of Conviction

The Blessings and Pitfalls of Liberal Education

Open-Mindedness

Much has been written about the apparent absence in our society of passion directed toward any ideal beyond our personal needs and pleasures. Nothing in the contemporary secular conversation calls on us to give up or sacrifice anything truly valuable for anybody or anything else. Even marriage and the family unit, once considered sacred institutions worth sacrificing for, are easily discarded when they conflict with one's personal comforts.

The original cause of this condition, it seems, is the gift of liberty that our generation has been blessed with. Our open education has endowed us with access to a sundry of cultures, races, ethnic groups, and belief systems, liberating us from many a phobia caused by single-minded tribalism and religious or social dogma. This in itself is healthy: Open-mindedness diminishes bigotry and advocates tolerance and respect for groups and people different than us.

Yet like all blessings, this one too, does not come without a challenge.

Liberal education is not a goal in and of itself; it is a means to an end. Emancipated from dogma and indoctrination, you are empowered to choose a path with inner conviction. You can embrace a vision that is truly yours. Relationships, love, morality, faith, goodness, and commitment can now emerge from the depth of your being, rather than from social conventions and external pressures. But for this to occur, children and students need parents, mentors and educators who can show them how to utilize the blessings of open-mindedness to build character, to develop an idealistic personality and achieve moral greatness.

To our dismay, the opposite has occurred. We live arguably in the most sophisticated age, free to question all absolutes with the objectivity of reason. We have been redeemed, to a significant degree, from the maladies of bigotry, intolerance and prejudice that have plagued humanity for millennia. But instead of seeing our liberty as an opportunity to promote powerful moral commitments stemming from authentic and un-coerced desires, we utilized our zest to de-legitimize and trivialize any commitment that runs too deep. Many have retreated into self-centered solitariness, expending much energy in defending the principle that no choice is worthwhile enough to be taken too seriously. Is it possible that 5,000 years of the human search for truth were meant to culminate with no ideal larger than the quest for self preservation and gratification?

Our extreme and endless open mindedness has often diminished, rather than built, the character of the youth. It has deprived many of the millennia-long awareness that there are truths worth fighting for, ideals worth aspiring towards, relationships worth sacrificing for. Timidity and reservation became the staple of our generation. With all of our technological progress, the traffic fact remains that millions of Americans find it impossible to maintain stable marriages, to raise happy children and to find true meaning in their existence. Fifty percent of first marriages are likely to end in divorce, and one million new children are added each year to the “list” of broken families. Alas, we have come to know, in Oscar Wilde’s words, the price of everything and the value of nothing. We understand our bodies like never before, but have become distant from our souls. Moral feebleness, philosophical haziness, and even a weakened will to survive have become all too common. When you have nothing to fight for, are you really alive?

The Russian Novelists

I raised this issue with Russian literature Professor Dr. Andrew Kaufman Ph.D., co-author of the renowned Russian for Dummies. He wrote to me:

I have found that people whose lives are infused with clear injustices are less wishy washy on moral questions. That's what has fascinated me about the great Russian writers, whom I have studied for many years. They had no problem taking clear moral stands on issues, because they had stark evidence in front of them of the differences between justice and injustice, freedom and slavery, morality and corruption. Tolstoy and Dostoevsky among others, had no difficulty taking a clear moral stand on issues. These issues weren't intellectual abstractions to them. They were painfully real.

The American universities, on the other hand, have done my generation a real disservice. They've skewed students' perspectives, and only enhanced their naturally sheltered state. This generation of students has to it an internal softness. The newly enlightened young Americans have lost their moral nerve. They don't believe in absolute truths and higher ideals, because they are told in the universities that to do so would be ‘insensitive,’ or ‘undemocratic.’ It's a real problem, because when we cannot define evil as evil, we make sure it continues to exist and grow.

The Uniqueness of the Menorah

There is an intriguing element in the construction of the Tabernacle, discussed in this week’s Torah portion (Terumah). Of all the furniture and equipment to be built for the Tabernacle, only a few were required to be made of a single piece of gold. [1] One of them was the menorah, the five-foot-tall seven-branched golden candelabra, kindled every evening in the Sanctuary, casting its sacred glow on the surroundings. (The eight-branched Hanukah menorah is a commemoration of this nightly ritual in the Temple.)

”You shall make a menorah of pure gold,” the Torah instructs, [2] “the menorah should be made of a single piece of beaten gold.” The menorah was an elaborate structure, comprised of many shapes, forms and nuanced designs, yet it needed to be hammered out from a single ingot of gold; no part of it may be made separately and attached afterwards.

Rashi, the 11th century French biblical commentator, explains this instruction clearly: [3] "He should not make it [the menorah] of sections, nor should he make its branches and lamps of separate pieces and connect them afterward in the style of metal-workers which they call "soulder" in Old French. Rather, it should all come from a single piece. He (the craftsman) beats it with a mallet and cuts it with craftsman tools, separating the branches to either side… The craftsman draws the parts of the menorah out of the solid block of gold."

Why the Headache?

Now, you need not be a skilled craftsman to appreciate how difficult a task this was. The menorah was an extremely complex and intricately designed article. Why does the Torah demand it be hammered out from a single lump of gold? Why not construct the menorah from separate pieces of metal, and then weld them together?

What is even more intriguing is that the menorah was one of only three articles in the Tabernacle that the Torah required to be built in this fashion! Most other articles, like the table with the show bread, the altars, the washing basin, even the holiest article—the ark, could all be built from separate pieces of material. Yet the menorah, perhaps the most intricate article in the Temple, needed to be fleshed out of a single lump of gold. What is the message behind this?

The Torah, it has been suggested, is attempting to convey a profound insight into the human condition and the objective of education. If you ever wish to become a menorah, a source of light to others, you must ensure that you are made of “one piece.” To be a leader, a pillar of conviction and a wellspring of inspiration, you cannot afford to be dichotomized. You need to know who you are and what you stand for. You must be holistic.

Ambivalence and ambiguity make for good conversation at campus cafes, or on op-ed pages. Yet in all of their glamorous sophistication, they lack the capacity to inspire youth. Passion and conviction are the fruits of a deep and integrated sense of self. Children do not respond well to ambivalence, because it often leaves them with a sense of uncertainty and with a hole in their hearts. Judaism always understood that if you wish to live a self-contained life, you can be made of many pieces, dichotomized and fragmented. But if you wish to become a menorah, if you wish to inspire your children and students, if you wish to cast a light on a dark world and to kindle sparks and brighten lives you must be made of “one piece.” You may still struggle and wonder, yet you must know who you are, what you believe in, and why you are alive.

Why Were You Created?

For fourteen years I was privileged to attend the weekly addresses of a brilliant teacher, a man well educated in the sciences, arts and philosophies, who professed encyclopedic knowledge in the fields of physics, science (in the broadest sense of the term), history and literature, and mastery over the enormous body of Biblical, Talmudic, Halachik and Kabbalistic texts. He was also a profoundly open-minded individual, with a keen understanding of the complexities of the human mind. Yet in almost every one of his speeches and addresses, he would quote this apparently simplistic Talmudic statement: [4] “I was created in order to serve G-d.”

I often wondered why this extraordinary thinker felt compelled to quote this dictum again and again. Why the need to repeat something we have all heard hundreds of times? In retrospect I have come to understand that by reiterating this message continuously, sincerely and wholeheartedly, our Rebbe (teacher) wished to communicate to his disciples a powerful message: Appreciate diversity, tolerate otherness, and open yourself up to the colorfulness of the world. But never allow yourself to become emotionally and mentally torn in the process. Remember who you are and what you were created for. You were created to serve G-d, to fulfill His will and to build a world saturated with goodness and G-dliness. Do not allow life to become so complicated that you are no longer sure who you are and what you represent.

The wise and open-minded King Solomon knew a thing or two about the compelling force of cynicism. Just read through the book of Ecclesiastes. Yet he also understood that skepticism is a means, not an end. The final verse of this deeply disturbing biblical book is what is missing from today’s educational curriculum:

“The final word after all that is known is this: Fear G-d and Observe His commandments, for this is the whole purpose of man.”

[1]Three items were made of one piece: The menorah, the keruvim (the image of the children in the holy of holies), and the trumpets (chatzotzrot, used when the leaders wished to summon the people). All of them were made of a single piece of gold or silver.
I once heard an interesting perspective on this. Something made of one piece is more difficult to create, but it is much sturdier, longer-lasting, more of a quality product. The Menorah symbolizes the light of Torah; the Keruvim represent children, and the trumpets represent leadership. All of these traits, Torah scholarship, leadership, and raising quality children, can’t be acquired easily. They demand tremendous work. But if done the right way, which is not the quickest and easiest, the results will be a life-long quality product.

[2]Exodus 25:31.

[3]Rashi to Exodus ibid.

[4]Talmud, end of tractate Kedushin.

Comments (15)

Taste the Sugar

Monday, Feb 15 2010 - א' אדר תש"ע

Milton Rosenberg

Dear Rabbi Jacobson,

Your religious doctrines are alienating and far too judgemental. Your essays constantly advocate division and fragmentation, instead of seeing all of humanity as one. Why are you always criticizing various cultural trends?

A while ago you wrote an essay, A Tale of Two Mountains, about the need to create an objective and absolute distinction between good and evil. You reminded me of this
fable:

Once there was an ant who lived on a mountain of salt through countless generations. One day, while walking to the watering hole, he met an ant from another mountain, that was made of sugar.

"Where are you from stranger?" the salt-ant asked.

"I am from the sweetest mountain on earth, the sugar mountain," the other ant responded.

"I am sorry friend, but you are mistaking. My mountain is the sweetest and best place on earth. It has been written in our holy books of old just how sweet our mountain truly is."

The sugar-ant looked puzzled, and then said, "Dear friend, please come with me back to my mountain and experience it for yourself."

"OK, I will, but really my mountain of salt is the sweetest mountain on earth. It is written right here in this and that passage of the Holy Book."

But of course, when he went to the sugar mountain and tasted the sweetness, he knew!

Rabbi Jacobson: Stop pontificating division and crudness that you cull from religious texts. Experience the living divinity of Life, not your conceptions that limit the sacredness to fit your heritage-ego.

Milton Rosenberg
NY, NY

Violating the Classics

Monday, Feb 15 2010 - א' אדר תש"ע

Joshua Schlenger

I would like to applaud you on your clear and concise critique of the American college-campus mindset, which deprives its students of any solid intelectual or moral convictions upon which to construct their personality and world perspective. Liberal thinking is not about searching for the truth, but rather the idea that there are no truths worth searching for.

Being a student myself, I feel the great loss inflicted upon thousands of innocent students in the American college campus, that bastion of liberalism that does not recognize the existence of objective evil. What a tragedy for the future of our children!

What bothers me most, however, about the worldview of these college professors and students, though, is not their moral relativism, but how they automatically misinterpret the philosophers of old in order to gain credence for their ideas. This is especially true with regard to the ancient Greek philosophers and the latter day American Founding Fathers. Thus, while Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Franklin, and Jefferson all believed in a moral dichotomy between good and evil -- though I often disagree with their standards, especially with regard to the Greeks -- somehow modern-day academia feels correct in transposing their own ideology of ethical ephemerality into their mouths, which is surely a great disservice.

As you well know, Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, a scholar of non-Jewish literature in his own right, was well-known for his view (published in a 1997 essay) that the non-Jewish wisdom of years past could be used as a means to fortify the moral and ethical character of Jewish students. Nowadays, however, the university has abdicated its mission of instilling wisdom and virtue in its pupils so as not to offend those of the Marxist, Islamist, and anarchist camps (to name a few).

Once again, G-d bless you for your clear moral voice,

Joshua I. Schlenger
New York, NY

Look at our Proffesors

Monday, Feb 15 2010 - א' אדר תש"ע

Rand Pellegrino

Just as it is important to know who your Rebbi is, isn't it just as important to know who your college professors are? You lament about the menorah being of one piece that liberal thinking became an end in and of itself rather than a means to acheive profound and genuine moral greatness. The reason I beleive our Universities are so morally warped is the fact that almost all the professors are either the draft dodgers of the 60's or their students. They went straight from college into teaching and have never tasted the real world. They preach an extremly shelterd doctribe of openeness, disconnected from the authentic experience of life in all of its glory and horror.

I think that this the cause for the shallow and useless open mindedness of the campuses. In truth it is not open mindedness at all, for if you do not believe the way they do, you are not allowed to have a voice. Had we raised teachers that had tasted the real world for at least 5 years before teaching, I think they could have instilled in their students an open mindedness that is truly profound and inspiring.

Rand Pellegrino
Kaneohe

Call me a bit skeptical...

Monday, Feb 15 2010 - א' אדר תש"ע

A DC Wonk

“The American universities, on the other hand, have done my generation a real disservice. They've skewed students' perspectives, and only enhanced their naturally sheltered state. This generation of students has to it an internal softness. The newly enlightened young Americans have lost their moral nerve. They don't believe in absolute truths and higher ideals, because they are told in the universities that to do so would be ‘insensitive,’ or ‘undemocratic.’ It's a real problem, because when we cannot define evil as evil, we make sure it continues to exist and grow.”

I can't help but be reminded that adults have been complaining about unserious and lazy youth "these days" since the time of Ancient Greece.

I'm not sure the problem is better or worse than a generation or two ago. But whether it is or isn't, to lay the fault at the feet of American Universities is unfair finger-pointing.

Consider: our political leaders thought that segregation was good and correct until recently. Suddenly, in the 1950's it was incorrect. Changes like that are disorienting, because certain "truths" that were held for centuries are suddenly untrue.

To pick a more modern example: torture was always wrong. Moral peoples didn't do that. Over the last few years, however, it seems that torture is OK in a variety of situations beyond the "ticking time bomb" scenario. Is this change because the prior Administration was badly influenced by liberal universities? (I doubt it!) Again, this is disorienting.

To sum up -- I'm not sure if this generation is better or worse than prior ones; and, in any event, I'm not convinced the fault is any more the "universities" that seem to be the whipping boy of some, than other important aspects of society (such as out political leaders: both liberal and conservative).