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 good Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, the progenitor of Rabbinic Judaism, took one other course. Smuggled out of the town, he didn’t plead for vengeance and even survival. He as a substitute requested the Roman normal for permission to construct a faculty within the small city of Yavneh.
From the ashes of disaster, Yochanan planted seeds that might result in a Jewish flourishing.
This humble however visionary alternative stays one of the vital 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 wreck can’t be met with wreck, however by the audacity to construct one thing new.
At this time, America faces an analogous problem. In an period of hyper-politicization, too many people have turn into addicted to ripping down slightly than build up.
Conservatives establish themselves by what they oppose, progressives by what they resist, and even moderates really feel disillusioned by the unending cycle of concern. Quite than viewing ourselves as purely good and the opposite aspect as purely evil, we should embrace humanization and see that the purpose just isn’t dominating the opposite aspect, however creating a brand new, shared society collectively that may have fun distinction slightly than be defeated by it.
The irony is placing. We see demonstrations in every single place, however present little creativeness to resolve issues. Streets fill with protests, however what animates most of them is aversion, not aspiration. A fast scroll via social media can remind us how civic life has turn into a theater of reactivity.
I perceive the attract of fine hassle intimately, having spent a few years locally organizing area registering voters in missed neighborhoods, becoming a member of picket strains, blocking New York Metropolis site visitors and talking in areas the place Orthodox rabbis should not typically discovered, reminiscent of church buildings and mosques. I proceed to imagine that braveness means bearing witness to injustice. However after a long time of “combating the ability,” I’ve realized that opposition with out development is merely refined complaining.
To face opposed however with no plan is probably beneath a naked minimal. It lets us dodge the tougher work to think about what might be, and to forge what is going to final. Rosh Hashanah this week reminds Jews that creation of the world just isn’t completed, and about our ongoing want to finish the duty. The idea of teshuvah — typically translated as repentance, although the precise time period is extra like “return” — provides 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 considering feels pointless when low cost character assaults get all the eye. Politics rushes to fill the vacuum, turning each challenge into tribal warfare. Just like the zealots of Jerusalem who knew solely the sword, we’ve satisfied ourselves that each battle should be in both complete help or full opposition with nothing in between.
Latest 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 function. Quite than screaming the identical stale political tropes louder and louder, we’d restore a societal discourse about our inside lives with a watch towards rebuilding a extra stabilized civic tradition of shared values and dialogue.
Secondly, we should restore the bond between character and thought. The Greeks known as it ethos: mind flows from who we’re. At this time, politics obsesses over positions whereas ignoring the ethical and psychological roots beneath them. Either side demonizes not solely rival leaders but in addition their followers; a grave mistake. Yochanan noticed that most individuals should not pushed by malice however by the seek for coherence and dignity. Misreading human motives ensures impasse.
Most vitally, we have to relearn the right way to depend upon one another. Our ideas and character don’t develop in a vacuum; they’re fashioned via our interactions with each other. Authorities businesses, nonprofits and spiritual establishments ought to assist rebuild connection for social cohesion and non secular renewal. Because of this 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 essential and to be a part of one thing bigger. Within the absence of that, many search out extremist teams not as a consequence 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 might 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 inner alternative.
America immediately is equally known as to maneuver past the cycles of negation and interact within the difficult work of rebuilding shared areas for dialogue concerning the widespread good that may be heated however by no means violent. Resistance has its place, and it may well hold 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 combat, 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.
