The Jewish rejection of the banality of life is behind the miracle of Chanuka. Without opening up and pursuing a personal path to the Divine our stark limitations are, almost comically, rooftop shout obvious. They are the repetitions of personal cycles that have played out the same way for millions and millions of lives over thousands of years. I understand the tendency to reject this. To say that life must be only that which is demonstrable, thoroughly experienced and understood. Science, evolution, money in the bank. To then claim further, that those that seek refuge in the unseen are taking the easy way out. The opium of the masses. The burden of finding life long joy and continious purpose for the solely empirical can be intensely immense. The gravity of our banality cannot be quieted for long. It takes some serious inner strength, and creativity, to persevere. I respect that. That in itself can become the meaning of life.Then, the accusation that the religeous are too weak to take on this true challenge. That the religious hide from constructively embracing the banality of it all. Ironically I think this charge from the empiricist is based on the clear eyed sensation one can get when facing a crisis. It is quite jarring when you face a crisis with determination and a plan and the guy next to you, who should also be in crisis, is whistling with euphoric nonchalance, seemingly in ignorant bliss. Yet really the crisis is felt by both just as deeply. Where to look for answers, for a plan, for truth and logic? In the limits of the human heart and mind, the toys of technology, the art of the banal? In pharmaceuticals or television? In dollar bills? In the ever repeating cycles of pain, pleasure, success, failure , love, hate, creativity, sickness, health, demise? Chassidus teaches that the Greek hellenists hated the Jews because they saw how the Jews were able to fully transcend the banality of the human experience through their bond with G-D . It was a deep provocation to the Greeks own human suffering. They wanted the Jews to come down, to deal with the crisis of banality as all others do. The rest is history. The flame of Jewish transendance burns yet bright. The doorway to G-D is within us, its handle always near.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 09:46:41 +0000
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