God’s truth

 

In my humble opinion the following is the truth – Judaism’s approach to truth – namely, man is a composite of basically three operating systems – the first is our mind – unlike animals, we have a unique ability to direct our actions based on the strength of our convictions.

 

The second, is our heart; our emotional world – in common parlor – our instincts – as Kabbalah teaches, our primary instincts are love of pleasure and fear of pain – now, when we, like a drug addict, are simply addicted to a pleasure, we lose our objectivity.

 

And finally, unfortunately, we are all born with a real demon – satan – called ego, a desire to be better than others and certainly no worse.

 

So Judaism’s approach to this conundrum, for when the instincts or the ego are in full swing, we lose our rational objectivity, we lose our convictions, and as we all know, we have a perfected ability to rationalize our behavior.

 

(This is why Hitler genuinely thought Jews were evil; as antisemitism, caused by ego’s jealousy, genuinely creates the belief, that those who are hated, are to be despised, as THEY, not the hater, is evil.)

 

So to overcome this terrible dilemma, to our morality, Judaism teaches: to be moral, one must be willing to submit to the God, and primarily the teachings, of God through Moses; handed down through the Jewish scholars, century after century, and elucidated in the Code of Jewish Law.

 

Until we submit humbly to the fact, that we are incapable of being rational when we are being irrational; incapable of being objective, when we are subjective; then we cannot truly overcome our innate ego, and instincts’s ability, to override our idealism, conviction, and genuinely loving hearts!

 

However, in line with a lecture I heard from the Dean of Yale Divinity school, Dr. Gregory Sterling at the U.N., one of the great traps of all faiths, is the notion of supremacy.

 

In other words, our ego is an expert at finding any point in which it can believe that we deserve to be better than another, and where better than in the very convictions, we hold dear.

 

Hence, the great irony of religion is the great wars, jihads it causes; for the very religion meant to induce peace, becomes the ego’s conviction of moral superiority, hence both justification for jihad against infidels (as we currently see) as well as the more subconscious jealousy over the (Jews/Americans for example) whom are seen in the eyes of those who are jealous, as unjustifiably being happy.

 

What to do? What to do?!

 

The answer of course gets back to the idea in Judaism – that if you are following God’s commandments out of a sense of duty – in other words, the very way God created us, is the very solution to the problem – for by nature, we don’t wish for anyone, including God to be our master – by nature, we abhor masters and love personal choice – so the very fact that there is an internal dichotomy / war / division between my instinctual, egotistical and conviction sides, means, that as long as the reason I follow my convictions is out of a sense of duty, not out of a sense of ego – which remarkably in Judaism, as our sages teach us, the commandments were given to refine man – hence for example, keeping kosher works on humbling my ego, by the very fact, I have absolutely no idea other than my conviction, why I am obligated by God to eat this, instead of that.

 

It is our very lack of understanding, our very lack of being able to perceive the reason behind so many of the commandments, that effects that state of refinement, the commandments are meant to induce!

 

This is a very great and lengthy subject which we can’t do justice to, in this article, but to conclude:

 

Though of course as a Rabbi and Jew, I believe this to be true; I must likewise respect the genuine feelings that others have; be they Christians, Muslims, even atheists; for to disrespect their conviction, would be to effectively say, “all people must believe as I believe” which leads into the third category:

 

Ego – in other words, the notion of respect must be a two way street, and hence, though one should respect a moderate Muslim, one should absolutely have zero place in their lives, for listening to a radical Muslim.

 

You may ask, “if you are bound to respect the beliefs of others, why differentiate?” and here is the difference:

 

Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk said: What’s the difference between one who loves truth or hates falsehood – they do seem obviously similar – he explained, s/he who loves truth, will find the truth – s/he who hates falsehood, will find what’s despicable and hone in with disgust and revulsion, hatred, and hence the jihadist approach against the falsehoods of this world!

 

And this is the true difference between radicals, be they in any religion: Jews, Christians, Muslims, even atheists; for once we God-forbid cross the line to anger, what is at stake is not the information, not the truth; rather the notion that “you hold a different belief, and I am entitled to subject you.”