Freedom

We most often think of the stimulus/response theory in connection with Pavlov's experiments with dogs. The basic idea is that we are conditioned to respond in a particular way to a particular stimulus. We are slaves to our environment. Whatever happens to us determines what we do.

Victor Frankl was a determinist raised in the tradition of Freudian psychology, which postulates that whatever happens to you as a child shapes your character and personality and basically governs your whole life. The limits and parameters of your life are set, and, basically, you can't do much about it.

Frankl was also a psychiatrist and a Jew. He was imprisoned in the death camps of Nazi Germany, where he experienced things that were so repugnant to our sense of decency that we shudder to even repeat them. His parents, his brother, and his wife died in the camps or were sent to the gas ovens. Except for his sister, his entire family perished. Frankl himself suffered torture and innumerable indignities, never knowing from one moment to the next if his path would lead to the ovens or if he would be among the "saved" who would remove the bodies or shovel out the ashes of those so fated.

One day, naked and alone in a small room, he began to become aware of what he later called "the last of the human freedoms" – the freedom his Nazi captors could not take away. They could control his entire environment, they could do what they wanted to his body, but Victor Frankl himself was a self-aware being who cold look as an observer at his very involvement. His basic identity was intact. He could decide within himself how all of this was going to affect him. Between what happened to him, or the stimulus, and his response to it, was his freedom or power to choose that response.

In the midst of his experiences, Frankl would project himself into different circumstances, such as lecturing to his students after his release from the death camps. He would describe himself in the classroom, in his mind's eye, and give his students the lessons he was learning during his very torture.

Through a series of such disciplines—mental, emotional, and moral, principally using memory and imagination—he exercised his small, embryonic freedom until it grew larger and larger, until he had more freedom than his Nazi captors. They had more liberty, more options to choose from in their environment; but he had more freedom, more internal power to exercise his options. He became an inspiration to those around him, even to some of the guards. He helped others find meaning in their suffering and dignity in their prison existence.

The Talmud teaches us that, "a prisoner cannot free himself from his prison." No one rises up out of the pit by tugging at his own hairs. He needs someone else to pull him out. How does one gain the freedom to choose their response? The redemption from Egypt gave us the ability to do so. It is in that sense that the sages say, "not only has the Holy One freed our ancestors, He also freed us with them." How so? By making us aware of an entirely different aspect of our choices and actions. The moral dimension. Something may be enjoyable to do, but not right. Before we would have done it without question. We would have been enslaved by our stimulus response. Now we can think about what we are doing. Is it right? If not, I can choose not to do it. That is the only true freedom.

The sages say that "no one is free except one who studies Torah." Seemingly, the opposite is true. The Torah contains rules which restrict our lives. Don't kill. Don't steal. How does that make one free? Because these moral principles enjoin us to rise above our automatic responses. The choice is now on a level that is entirely in our control. Will we do what is right or what is wrong? That is the one thing that is entirely up to us.

Like happiness, self-actualizing is an effect, the effect of meaning fulfillment. ...If he sets out to actualize himself rather than fulfill a meaning (out there in the world), self-actualization immediately loses its justification.
-Victor Frankl, The Will to Meaning, p.38

It is this message of freedom that the Haggada is meant to teach us. "Not only has the Holy One freed our ancestors, He also freed us with them." It is this vital message that must be passed on to the next generation through the expert interactive teaching technique of the Seder. This is the special gift we Jews have inherited and must pass on. Freedom.

The story of Victor Frankl is quoted from The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey.

Noise and Music

There once lived an engineer. He would listen to machines for noisy gears and there he knew the problem lay. Then he would fix them, ending the noise.

One day he met a musician. "Play me some music," he said. The musician played a short tune on his violin.

"That is not music, that is noise," the engineer said. "I know noise very well. I work with noise every day. That is noise. I can fix it for you. The problem is that the string of the baton is rubbing against the strings of the violin."

"That certainly is music and not noise. I know music very well. I work with music every day. That is music." insisted the musician.

"Then you are a charlatan. You claim that you work with music but all that you can show me is noise. Perhaps music doesn't exist at all. You have made it up."

"But I have shown music."

"What you have shown me is not music but noise, and I can prove it."

"How?"

"Play one note on your violin repeatedly." The musician did as instructed. Soon, people nearby called out, "Stop that dreadfull noise!"

"I have proven to you that it is noise," the engineer said.

"To the contrary, when I played a tune, everyone enjoyed it and did not complain, but when I played as you instructed they all complained. This shows the difference between noise and music very clearly," said the musician.

"You are a liar. You made up this story about music youself just to fool people," the engineer said.

"You are a fool. You can't even see what is right in front of your own face," the musician said. They both walked away in disgust.

The G-d Microscope

How did we all get here? G-d must have created the world.

"But that goes against science!" some protest. "It wasn't G-d, it was the Big Bang who created the world."

The Big Bang? Is that a nickname for G-d, like the Big Cheese? Who created the Big Bang? Was it an even Bigger Bang?

"You are just stubbornly refusing to accept the findings of modern science!" they will say.

Does belief in G-d really contradict science?

Did G-d create the world? The question is a metaphysical one. Science does not have the tools to address it, much less argue with it. It is a question of the underlying nature of reality.

Science only deals with the most superficial, those things which are exposed, visible to the eye. The scientific method involves trying different things and watching the results. If the results have some semblance of consistency we presume that we can expect the same in the future. There are some deep questions which never will be and cannot be answered through these means. They remain hidden beneath the surface, beyond the reach of scientific inquiry.

The question is only relevant to science in the sense that science must defend it's borders. Those who pronounce upon such matters in the name of science have overstepped their bounds. They distort science and transgress it's principles of empirical observation. They must be opposed by those who would defend the integrity of science.

In days past, science could not tell you what matter was made of, because that was too small to see. They built microscopes, and we could see the tiny parts that things were made of that we never knew existed. They built huge, powerful electron microscopes, enabling us to see atoms. They built enormous particle accelorators, and we can see subatomic particles, protons and nuetrons.

Perhaps someday they will build one large enough to see even the things that those are made of. But will they ever build one large enough to see G-d? Imagine if they did. What would he look like? If he looked any different than they expected, they would deny that it was him. So he would look just as they expect. They would look into the viewer of their miles-long microscope and see an old man with a long white beard grinning back at them. So that is what everything is made of. Would that prove the existance of G-d? No. The athiests would use that as proof of their cause as well.

They would say, "This shows that there was no need for an intelligent designer of the world to create such a complex being as man, it was built into the very building blocks of creation and therefore bound to happen. We only exist because we are patterning after the most basic element that they saw in the microscopes. More random than anyone had imagined."

"But you have seen G-d with your own eyes!" you will say.

"No," they will answer. "Who is to say that what we saw is G-d? The reason that it looks like a person is not because it is one. It is far too small to be a person, much less anything more powerful than a person. It is we who look like it because we are made out of it."

Don't think so? This is already what they say about revelations of G-d such as DNA. DNA proves evolution because it is far too complex to have been designed that way. Something so intracate must have evolved over millions of years. Everything works together too well to have been set in place by some supreme engineer.

Friday Night

A poem by my friend Dovid


It's evening.
Friday night.
I have retired from the week and entered the hallowed atmosphere of Shabbat.
I've spent the evening praying in Shul in a beautiful congregation. The prayer is so sweet, as we sing together, and welcome the Shabbos queen.
Then we all wish each other Good Shabbos and return to our homes.

It's time.
The Shabbos candles are glowing softly, the family awaits.
We sing Shalom Aleichem together to welcome the Shabbat angels who have accompanied us back from Shul.
We follow with Eshet Chayil.
We make kiddush and sanctify the Shabbos day and declare it holy.
A day unto G-d.

We sit around the table to beautiful, body and soul warming food. We talk, we chat, we speak words of Torah. We talk about the important things in life, we get a chance to communicate once in the busy week.

Everything is still.
Peaceful.
Quiet.
No phones.
No emails.
No distractions.
Serenity.

We sing the Zmiros, the ancient tunes so beautifully composed, whose holy words shine in the night.
We say Birkat Hamazon - grace after meals, thanking G-d for His infinite beneficience upon us and His endless gifts.

It's time.
I open the front door.
It's cold out, dark.
I slip my coat on and my hat, wish my family Good Shabbos, and brave the elements as I walk the few streets to my destination.

I walk up the path.
The door is ajar.
I walk in.
Some others sit around a long table.
Anticipatory.
The Shabbos candles flicker gently on the table here too.

At the head of the table sits an elderly-ish Rabbi with a big fluffy white beard, piercing sharp blue eyes, a hint of playfulness on his face.
He's surrounded by books. Holy books.
He warmly wishes us Good Shabbos as we enter, and then buries his head back in those books.

The room is filling up.
The table is full.
Others sit on benches, some on armchairs.
Some sit in the adjoining room.
Everyone is waiting.
Silently, expectant.

It's time.
The Rabbi lifts his eyes from his books and starts to speak.
His voice is warm, his tone jovial.
He begins to discuss the Torah portion of the week.
He quotes certain verses.
He raises glaring problems and difficulties.
Then he expounds on the solutions and approaches of various commentators.

As he talks a picture begins to form in the mind.
It is one of a jewel - multifaceted.
As each interpretation is masterfully given over, another facet of the Jewel sparkles, until, finally, the facets sparkle all together like a multifaceted jewel being held in the light.
The begining of the verse is tied to the end and the end to the beginning.
Nuances of expression or seeming ambiguities or superfluities are all explained and made clear.

Stories are told.
Of great men.
Intellectual giants and spiritual masters.
Witticisms are generously interspersed and jokes are told in passing.

There is an atmosphere of divinity in the air.
Everyone is in another world.
G-d's world.
The world of holiness and pure wisdom.
Of spirit.

The intense, uplifting Shabbat atmosphere enters your soul, and you bond with that greater Oneness.
Before you know it it's over, and refreshments are brought.
Cakes and biscuits and apple pie, which the Rebbetzin [Rabbi's wife] has personally baked in the early hours.

We stay behind and chat with the Rabbi.
His eyes twinkle as he engages us in lively interchange.
Questions are answered masterfully, more stories are told and pearls of wisdom exchanged.

Finally, it's time.
We wish each other a Good Shabbos and part ways.
As I walk out the door into the cold, crisp air of the late Friday night, I know I am deeply privileged to be part of a world where every week we can partake of a small piece of heaven.
And as I leave the house behind, I leave my heart behind with me, wishing that I could stay forever in the house of G-d.

And in my heart I wish that every Jew could experience this too.
It's time.

Our Ancestors

Excerpted from a paper by Philip Levens

Why Study the Past?

In America, history is a subject often slept through in school. Valuing the past and tradition goes against the grain of our national mind set. We are a nation whose collective memory views the Second World War as a black and white documentary and anything before that as ancient history. After all, who has time for the past? What matters is the present, the here and now. And there's nothing wrong with that. That's why our ancestors immigrated to America in the first place. They wanted a chance to live in freedom, unencumbered by tyranny and prejudice.

So why should we take time out from our fast paced lives to be concerned with ancestors we never knew? Because to a large degree the past determines the future. If we don't know where we came from, how will we know where we're going?

There is something within us that says life is more than just us. We are part of a puzzle that can only be understood over time or perhaps from an infinite vantage point, the view that G-d has. If we could step back far enough and see the strands of destiny we might understand the purpose for everything.

Who Were They?

Our immigrant ancestors were working class. They spoke Yiddish at home and more often than not worked sun up to sun down. They had large families to feed and didn't have money or time for vacations; sometimes barely enough money for food, but they got by, nobody starved. They weren't heroic or famous men and women but they were exceptionally good parents who loved and cared for their children. In fact, if there is a common theme that runs through their descendants memories, it is how good their parents were to them.

They didn't keep comprehensive records of their ancestors. The record ends with the immigrants, their parents names just vague memories. Any further research would have to continue in Europe. If we could go back further it would most likely be more of the same, good, hard working people trying to make the best of their lot in life, which was sometimes incredibly difficult. So difficult in fact, with pogroms, poverty, war, the Depression, and the perils of emmigration, that we can hardly imagine how we would have managed... or even survived.

We owe them a great debt for entering into the unknown, for traveling to a new world, a blank page where they dreamed of writing a new script for their futures, and for the future of their children... and we are, all of us, their children. Their memories are perpetuated in the lives of their children and grand-children, through the generations into the stream of history that flows into the ocean of eternity.

How Are We Connected?

We are these people in so many ways; in the obvious: eye color, height, weight, all of which are determined by genes, a circulating pool where certain traits might not re-surface for several generations. We are a mind boggling combination of DNA from an army of ancestors.

But we are not just connected through biology, we are also linked in nearly imperceptible ways, certain gestures, mannerisms, a way of walking, the timber of a voice, even the way we view the world... the subtle things that spell the mystery of uniqueness.