When Jerusalem fell to Rome in 70 CE, the entire of Jewish civilization confronted collapse. Because the Temple was leveled and ransacked of its holy treasures, zealots mounted a determined, doomed protection, and hopelessness appeared the one path ahead. But the nice Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, the progenitor of Rabbinic Judaism, took one other course. Smuggled out of town, he didn’t plead for vengeance and even survival. He as an alternative requested the Roman common for permission to construct a college within the small city of Yavneh.
From the ashes of disaster, Yochanan planted seeds that may result in a Jewish flourishing.
This humble however visionary alternative stays one of the consequential in our historical past. It was additionally profoundly counterintuitive: At a second when violence appeared the one logical response, Yochanan staked the Jewish future on mental rigor, creativity and neighborhood. He understood that destroy can’t be met with destroy, however by the audacity to construct one thing new.
Immediately, America faces an identical problem. In an period of hyper-politicization, too many people have grow to be addicted to ripping down relatively than build up.
Conservatives determine themselves by what they oppose, progressives by what they resist, and even moderates really feel disillusioned by the endless cycle of shock. Somewhat than viewing ourselves as purely good and the opposite aspect as purely evil, we should embrace humanization and see that the purpose shouldn’t be dominating the opposite aspect, however creating a brand new, shared society collectively that may have a good time distinction relatively than be defeated by it.
The irony is hanging. We see demonstrations in all places, however present little creativeness to unravel issues. Streets fill with protests, however what animates most of them is aversion, not aspiration. A fast scroll by way of social media can remind us how civic life has grow to be a theater of reactivity.
I perceive the attract of fine hassle intimately, having spent a few years in the neighborhood organizing house registering voters in neglected neighborhoods, becoming a member of picket traces, blocking New York Metropolis visitors and talking in areas the place Orthodox rabbis are usually not usually discovered, corresponding to church buildings and mosques. I proceed to consider that braveness means bearing witness to injustice. However after many years of “combating the ability,” I’ve discovered that opposition with out development is merely refined complaining.
To face opposed however and not using a plan is maybe under a naked minimal. It lets us dodge the more durable work to think about what could possibly be, and to forge what’s going to final. Rosh Hashanah this week reminds Jews that creation of the world shouldn’t be completed, and about our ongoing want to finish the duty. The idea of teshuvah — usually translated as repentance, although the precise time period is extra like “return” — presents a mannequin. It’s not about going again to some golden age, however about reorienting towards our greatest selves and a greater world.
First, we should break away from consuming information like junk meals, filling ourselves with outrage that leaves us intellectually malnourished. Deep pondering feels pointless when low cost character assaults get all the eye. Politics rushes to fill the vacuum, turning each concern into tribal warfare. Just like the zealots of Jerusalem who knew solely the sword, we’ve satisfied ourselves that each battle have to be in both complete help or full opposition with nothing in between.
Current occasions underscore this want. A 2024 Gallup ballot discovered that 80% of U.S. adults see deep divisions over core values and don’t see the nation as united and as missing a shared sense of goal. Somewhat than screaming the identical stale political tropes louder and louder, we’d restore a societal discourse about our interior lives with an eye fixed towards rebuilding a extra stabilized civic tradition of shared values and dialogue.
Secondly, we should restore the bond between character and thought. The Greeks referred to as it ethos: mind flows from who we’re. Immediately, politics obsesses over positions whereas ignoring the ethical and psychological roots beneath them. Both sides demonizes not solely rival leaders but in addition their followers; a grave mistake. Yochanan noticed that most individuals are usually not pushed by malice however by the seek for coherence and dignity. Misreading human motives ensures impasse.
Most vitally, we have to relearn the best way to rely on one another. Our ideas and character don’t develop in a vacuum; they’re shaped by way of our interactions with each other. Authorities businesses, nonprofits and non secular establishments ought to assist rebuild connection for social cohesion and non secular renewal. For this reason the loneliness epidemic in America is being considerably felt proper now: It’s not nearly having buddies, however about being acknowledged.
People yearn to really feel necessary and to be a part of one thing bigger. Within the absence of that, many search out extremist teams not because of their beliefs per se, however for a way of neighborhood.
The shofar calls us to return to our greatest selves, and calls for each the humility to query our assumptions and the generosity to think about that our perceived opponents may need insights we lack. Additional in reflecting on the politicians that I really feel most repelled by, I see that their vices are ones that all of us maintain. My exterior critique presents an inside alternative.
America at this time is equally referred to as to maneuver past the cycles of negation and have interaction within the difficult work of rebuilding shared areas for dialogue concerning the frequent good that may be heated however by no means violent. Resistance has its place, and it will probably maintain us afloat in tough waters. However solely non secular authenticity and impressed ethical originality can carry us collectively to shore. Yochanan didn’t simply survive disaster; he remodeled it into alternative.
That is what America wants now. The braveness not simply to battle, however to construct.
Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz is the president and dean of the Valley Beit Midrash and the creator of 30 books on Jewish ethics.
