Timeless Torah

High Holidays and America! Now there’s an oxymoron, if there ever was one. High Holidays are about penitence, prayer, fasting and introspection. America is December 31st revelry, overindulgent parties, football mania, and year-end bonuses. And yet America has been for the most part, good to the Jew. It opened its doors (maybe a little late), it offered religious freedom (though, for some, with a price tag of assimilation) and allowed the Jew to participate in the wonderful American dream. A dream that offers any man or woman, regardless of race, creed, color or gender, the ability to be successful, and perhaps, to make it to the top. All one has to do is provide elbow grease, self-determination, creativity and diligence.
The most wonderful thing about the American dream is that it can be - and often is - made true. Case in point: Arnold Schwartzenegger, the current poster boy of the self-made man. But what works for the Arnolds of the world, is very dangerous for us Jews.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not knocking the financial acumen that we Jews have carefully cultivated through our years in the Diaspora - skills that have spawned innovative ideas and revolutionary products. American Jews have succeeded beyond anyone’s realistic expectations. Our co-religionists have made their fortunes and secured their fame in everything from liquor to technology, from Hollywood to medicine.
But nearly 3,300 years ago Moses warned the Children of Israel, “Beware... lest you eat and be sated, build good houses, your herds and flocks multiply, your silver and gold increase, and your heart grows haughty... and you will say to yourself: ‘It is my own power and the might of my hand that has accumulated this wealth for me.’” Such an attitude, Moses continues, inevitably leads to national suicide.
Why this double-standard? Why is it ok for Tom, Jane and Spot to skip merrily through their self-made lives, while a self-made attitude spells catastrophe for Shira and Chaim? That is the price we pay for being a miraculous people. For thousands of years we’ve been mocking the odds. But being a miraculous people has a flip side - it also means that our very existence is without precedence or rationale. As we are only too well aware, by all laws of history and nature, we should have vanished long ago. For us to survive, let alone prosper, requires constant divine intervention.
Our Sages tell us that one of the built-in laws of creation is that G-d deals with us “measure for measure”, that is, if we say, “I’m a self-made man”, G-d says, “Ok, make yourself. The laws of nature will determine what happens to you.” And that is a very dangerous situation for a Jew to find himself in.
Does rejecting the creed of self-reliance mean that we don’t have to work as hard as the other guy? Unfortunately, no. The difference between the self-made man and the G-d-made man is not that the latter need not catch the morning train. G-d may help you strike oil, but unless you build the pipes, tankers and refineries, they won’t be much use.
The difference is that you may work as hard, but not as obsessively. And while it may be exhilarating to stand on the top of a pedestal of your own making and proclaim, “My power and the might of my hand have accumulated this wealth for me,” that’s also a very lonely place. However by partnering with the One who wrote the rules and runs the show, you will find not only success, but safety as well.
Yehuda Abraham, the New York gem dealer is the alleged money launderer of a missile-smuggling plot. To him, it may have been just another transaction. But I find it interesting that somebody who deals in precious stones would divert into money-laundering. Precious stones were part of the holy garments worn by the High Priest as a reminder of the awesome responsibility he had in representing his people in the Temple. All Jews must remember our collective responsibility. But that what happens when you exchange your PARTNER for a partner. .
America should not be the melting pot where Jews dump their timeless heritage to feed the golden calf. Our Patriarch Jacob spent years wheeling and dealing thanks to his “hospitable” uncle, Lavan. But, before he returned home, he engaged in some heavy soul-wrestling with an angel and received a new name - Israel. In Hebrew, this comes from Yishar El which means, “G-d’s honest one.”
As we write this article we find ourselves in the Going back to School Season. Some patriots are keen to buy products “Made in America”. But let us not forget with the High Holidays around the corner that eternal value has already been “Fashioned at Sinai”.