Understanding the times we live in – The Rebbe
By zevi770 · February 12, 2012
History is a process, with each generation growing out of the ones that preceded it.
Hundreds of years ago, before mass communication and world travel, people were hardly aware of anyone outside their own village.
Monarchs ruled with an absolute authority.
In the Middle / Dark Ages, people’s lives were controlled by institutionalized religions and an inflexible society that imposed a profound values system, though often at the expense of individual freedoms.
During the so called Enlightenment of the early eighteenth century, a new breed of free thinking began to flourish, and democratic ideas began to sweep Europe.
Napoleon, following the French Revolution of 1789, espoused the ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity, promising emancipation to the oppressed.
But this newfound freedom exacted a severe spiritual toll, leading to a state of permissiveness, moral anarchy, and G-dlesness.
All too often, freedom translated into lack of boundaries; set free from the bonds of authority, man often gravitated to his most base desires, abandoning many of the healthy traditions of a G-d fearing society.
The Enlightenment, coupled with scientific revolutions, and a new liberalism, divided people into two groups: those who embraced science so absolutely that they rejected G-d in favor of atheistic dogma leading to a wholly materialistic lifestyle and those who rejected science and reason in favor of religious dogma leading to a wholly religious lifestyle.
Both groups essentially sought to answer the same question: What is the meaning of our existence and of truth?
This conflict would rage until science – and technology its afterbirth – would render established religion practically irrelevant for many people.
In the mid twentieth century this tide began to turn.
People began to realize that the technological, political and cultural advancements of the previous two centuries were hardly a solution to the human condition and search for truth and meaning of life.
The upheaval in the wake of two world wars led many to query whether the path that mankind had chosen would lead to happiness.
Materialism, which had seemed to be the means to a fulfilling existence, suddenly began to look very very empty.
As the century wore on, our soundings began to look less and less familiar.
Whereas in previous generations people’s lives followed clearly mapped out patterns, nothing seemed certain anymore.
Every area of modern life – economics, politics, science, medicine, – seemed to be in a state of flux.
Since the information explosion, there has been even more change, resulting in a constant revision of past attitudes.
The only thing that hasn’t changed throughout these centuries is mankind itself and our search for meaning, purpose and truth.
But as the twentieth century draws to a close, we have learned (this was written a few years ago) that we can no longer look for solutions from without – that we must begin to look within ourselves.
Even though we have never been so materially prosperous, we feel a deep unease.
Where are we headed?
What are we to teach our children?
What has become of the world we thought we knew?
Do not feel alone if you ponder such questions, for tens of millions of people are feeling the same way!
Why do we feel so restless???
Because it has become more and more apparent that no amount of materiel comfort can truly satisfy us, that no amount of reason can truly answer our questions about the meaning of life, that the greatest technological wizardry cannot comfort our souls.
This realization has created an intense void in men and women around the world.
Whenever there is an imbalance between conflicting forces in our lives, a deep inner tension emerges.
After experiencing major changes in our external world and being faced with the challenges and catastrophes of our century, a new demand for balance beckons.
The shifting reality in which we are living, upsets our existing frame of reference, creating unease and restlessness.
We now live in a place that is split between materialism and spirituality.
Most of us live in one world or the other, and are unable, or afraid, to straddle the chasm that divides them.
If you live primarily in the material world, you might consider the spiritual world too demanding or rigid.
If you live primarily in the spiritual world, you might consider the material world too self-serving or rootless.
Both attitudes are the result of the same philosophical flaw: that G-d and the universe cannot coexist.
This flaw was the undoing of the two extremes of belief in previous centuries – atheistic materialism and dogmatic religion.
We now have the luxury of hindsight to appreciate the shortcoming of such a compartmentalization.
The challenge we face today is to truly unite the forces of matter and spirit.
This means acknowledging the dichotomy between body and soul within ourselves; and creating a harmony between our materiel and spiritual drives.
Our unique generation offers a unique challenge: to find a language that can reach deeper into the soul, an unconventional language to deal with an unconventional problem, to apply eternal spiritual truths to contemporary life.