Not for the Jews Alone

"But the Torah has also taught us not to conceive of this our destiny and of the lot which awaits us because of it and for the purpose of its fulfillment, in terms of isolated phenomena. Even as it has taught us to acquire the proper, thoughtful appreciation for nature through God, and for the place of man in nature, so it also demonstrates to us that the founding and the destiny of our people is most intimately linked with the course of the history of mankind as a whole, which is no less guided by God than is our own. It teaches us to recognize that the purpose of our founding and our introduction into the midst of the nations was that we might teach mankind, and reclaim mankind for, the knowledge and recognition of God, and of its own destiny and task as assigned it by Him. At the very beginning, Abraham was appointed to be "the spiritual father of the multitude of the nations." It was through him, and through the generations that would follow him, that blessings were to come "to all the families of the earth." At the time of His very first intervention in the course of the history of the nations in behalf of Israel, God referred to the latter not as His "only son" but rather as His "first-born" son. In the same spirit, God declared the aim of the miracles He had wrought for the deliverance of His people in Egypt to be "that His Name might be proclaimed throughout the earth" (Exod. 9: 16). And it is repeatedly stated that a reason for the preservation of Israel among the nations was that all the nations might be brought back to a purer knowledge of God (Num. 14:13 ff)."

R' Hirsch, intro to commentary on Tehillim

Hyperreligiosity: Identifying and Overcoming Patterns of Religious Dysfunction

R.S. Pearson:

 

 "I must state first of all that I am not a psychiatrist and this work falls under the realm of "anctedoctal evidence." Anctedoctal evidence is nonetheless known to be very important in medical science. In no way should a person who was diagnosed with serious mental illness by a psychiatrist or psychologist look at this work as being a substitute for adequate psychiatric or psychological help. I believe it is fitting that someone who was once diagnosed as hyperreligious should write a book on this subject rather than someone with no religious belief. A person who has no religious belief may not understand the gray areas where the religious person makes certain important actions, which may be seen as sacrifices, for the benefit of their belief structure.  "Hyperreligiosity is the ill-fitting grasp of the role of religion and God in one's life. It is the disability that can lead to killing in the name of God, or isolation from others in the name of religion. Hyperreligiosity happens most often when one thinks that they know the mind of God, and that one can know all the ways of God. The Bible is one of the scriptures of the major world religions that clearly states this is impossible. There are psychological reasons why a person with hyperreligiosity needs to have the assurance that they know the complete mind of God.

This book will explore some of them and some possible ways out of the dysfunctions of hyperreligiosity.  "This is a very difficult work to write because religion often does great things for people that can not be easily measured by society. There has been a duality occurring in some therapeutic communities of those who might be termed "hyperreligious" by some psychiatrists and therapists and those who have spent many years in therapy and do not fall under this judgment. Psychiatry often admits it can't cure people. The very nature of being a part of the community of a local church on a weekly basis, year after year, is a consistent social achievement beyond some people's reach. Socializing with the same group of people on a regular basis is often more than what some who resort to psychiatry alone can say they have done."  continue reading  This is a promotional selection from the book containing the first twenty-seven pages.

The full book can be obtained via purchase at Amazon.com and other booksellers. Hyperreligiosity: Identifying and Overcoming Patterns of Religious Dysfunction R.S. Pearson Books by the Same Author Non-Fiction: Virtuism: Philosophy and the Aesthetics of Virtue The Experience of Hallucinations in Religious Practice Exhausting the Interaction of Words: Computer-automated Brainstorming with ParaMind Brainstorming Software Fiction: Motivated for the Cause: An Anti-novel Rubber Blue Biodegradable Robot and other Computer-Generated Writings Cast the Jewels into the Sea of Your Soul and Evoprayer: Two Short Anti-novels Hyperreligiosity: Identifying and Overcoming Patterns of Religious Dysfunction R.S. Pearson Telical Books Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Pearson, Robert Scott. Hyperreligiosity : identifying and overcoming patterns of religious dysfunction / R.S. Pearson LC Control Number: 2005930060 Type of Material: Text (Book, Microform, Electronic, etc.) 1st edition Seattle, WA : Telical Books, 2005. ISBN: 0-9748139-2-3 Copyright 2005 All Rights Reserved Telical Books P.O. Box 27401 Seattle, WA 98165-2401 U.S.A. Table of Contents Introduction Numbered Texts This book is for educational purposes only.

This book does not pretend to be a cure for mental illness. Therefore, if one does not feel mentally healthy, one should seek professional help instead of using this book for serious therapy. I must state first of all that I am not a psychiatrist or psychologist and I wrote this as a way of describing my own healing journey from hyperreligiosity. This book sometimes uses psychological terminology because I believe it is helpful for all people to understand psychological concepts. Introduction I must state first of all that I am not a psychiatrist and this work falls under the realm of "anctedoctal evidence." Anctedoctal evidence is nonetheless known to be very important in medical science. In no way should a person who was diagnosed with serious mental illness by a psychiatrist or psychologist look at this work as being a substitute for adequate psychiatric or psychological help. I believe it is fitting that someone who was once diagnosed as hyperreligious should write a book on this subject rather than someone with no religious belief.

A person who has no religious belief may not understand the gray areas where the religious person makes certain important actions, which may be seen as sacrifices, for the benefit of their belief structure. Hyperreligiosity is the ill-fitting grasp of the role of religion and God in one's life. It is the disability that can lead to killing in the name of God, or isolation from others in the name of religion. Hyperreligiosity happens most often when one thinks that they know the mind of God, and that one can know all the ways of God. The Bible is one of the scriptures of the major world religions that clearly states this is impossible. There are psychological reasons why a person with hyperreligiosity needs to have the assurance that they know the complete mind of God. This book will explore some of them and some possible ways out of the dysfunctions of hyperreligiosity. This is a very difficult work to write because religion often does great things for people that can not be easily measured by society. There has been a duality occurring in some therapeutic communities of those who might be termed "hyperreligious" by some psychiatrists and therapists and those who have spent many years in therapy and do not fall under this judgment. Psychiatry often admits it can't cure people.

The very nature of being a part of the community of a local church on a weekly basis, year after year, is a consistent social achievement beyond some people's reach. Socializing with the same group of people on a regular basis is often more than what some who resort to psychiatry alone can say they have done. It is hard writing a book on hyperreligiosity when you yourself know that you have aspects of it. The worse thing for the hyperreligious is to feel that they are somehow causing another person to be less religious. Instead, in solving the problem of hyperreligiosity in a person, one opens that person up for true religion, or better, true spirituality.

At times, in discussing one's hyperreligiosity, one may seem like one is trying to sound like a saint. But when one sees the problems associated with it, the listener begins to perceive that this is not the case. One begins to wonder how good of a life this is that we have chosen. This book is in no way an attempt to help people become less religious or spirituality-centered in their thinking. In fact, it is the opposite, an attempt to empower spiritual people away from the disempowering ideas found along the spiritual path. The word "hyperreligious" seems like it might seem to mean "very religious" or "ultra spiritual" in the way that we picture the qualities of a superhero. Hyperreligiosity can happen when the outer form that true spirituality flows through becomes distorted to the extent that it becomes the sole focus. Instead of people being more loving, helpful to others, and filled with what they experience as God's nature to help them in their life, they become suspicious, isolated, and full of an untrue image of God that they can mold to their personal desires. A type of hyperreligiosity can also happen when political groups use religious beliefs as a dividing line in the exercise of power, as a way to build sides so that other aims can be achieved. Hence political leaders in the past have called on the demon that is hyperreligiosity to awaken in the people so that war could be more easily approved. When hyperreligiosity does not exist in a person, there usually has to be very, very strong reasons to justify war to a human being, especially one that concerns oneself with religious thinking. Hyperreligiosity produces painful results in the way other mental illnesses produce painful results. It is the mental illness that seems officially sanctioned by God to the person who has it. It can be difficult reading this subject matter if you have been afflicted by hyperreligiosity in any way. One may begin to feel anger, even negativity. Temporarily, this state can be a better place to be. It is taking the chance at maturing as an adult, instead being caught up in acting out the Biblical admonition of being "like little children" to not just God in heaven, but to everyone, in every circumstance. If there is a better understanding of hyperreligiosity, many of the problems of the world can be further solved. But for a religious person to even admit the term "hyperreligiosity" as a valid term, is itself difficult. People talk about the changes that need to take place as changes in the heart, but religious texts such as the Bible, do not limit it in such a way. There needs to be a growth of wisdom, a growth of intellectual understanding of truth, for the world to change. Understanding that religious action is not always fruitful is a part of that knowledge and in fact much of the Bible itself discusses this. My disclaimer to this book is that if a person’s religion brings them to a state of being that one becomes like a Mother Teresa or an Albert Schweitzer, and truly helps many other people, that is wonderful. I would never make an argument against that type of behavior, only encourage it. I believe it is such individuals that caused the evolution of humanity throughout time. This work examines not so much how religion works miraculously in some people's lives, but instead focuses on when it works disastrously in others. I would be just as happy to write about religion's virtues because I strongly believe in religion and its ability to produce all the virtues. I noticed that there is not much written on this subject of religious mental illness by people who still uphold religious beliefs. I am in no way trying to make people "less religious" who have hyperreligiosity. Making Mother Teresa less religious probably would have also made her less helpful to the starving people of India. The aim is to find a way to free what religion actually is about and to know what the form of mental illness and societal dysfunction that hides in a religious costume is. The result will be freeing those with sincere religious desires to become more active in following the true spiritual life. There will be no limit to the time or money commitment such a life may have, but it will be free from the psychological shackles that this book describes. The hyperreligious notion of God can be a frightening one. It is a God that holds good things from people, and who demands that people live for religion, instead of having one's own life improved by religion. Some might think that their hyperreligiosity is justified by the Biblical command to love God with all one's heart, all one's mind and all one's strength. This book explores dysfunctional faith, that is, why a person can't love God with all their heart or all their mind or all their strength. If a person really loves God with all their mind, they may begin to see that the reason they are not like other people isn't necessarily because they are more spiritual, but may be because they were more abused by others and created defense mechanisms against this abuse. Religious texts themselves have a balance written in them that helps prevent a person from developing hyperreligiosity. The Gospels mention how Jesus taught us to not judge each other. Inherent in hyperreligiosity is the need of eliminating in others certain types of value and to only see certain values as existing in themselves. It is like the way the psychotic who may have come from a situation in which their value was threatened, creates a magical world by delusion of grandeur in which they now have great value to others. The hyperreligious has become threatened in their world and disempowered by people, and so they develop the need to devalue others and create value in themselves by their religious practice. But such can never be the basis of the spirituality religion tells us God wants, as we can read in the various scriptures. Religion does teach us that God hears and answers our prayers, gives us strength, and the like. The hyperreligious get stuck in this mode of trying to live in this life of favor, and to do so they must judge others in their mind as unworthy, especially when they have been abused by others. One can use this book as a part of one's spiritual arsenal when or if religion becomes unnecessarily a painful and hindering thing in one's life. It can be a note in one's song but not one's whole song. Numbered Texts 1 A famous founder of a religion, Jesus Christ, said, "I come that you may have life more abundantly." There is much in the Bible about having the good in life, being “the head not the tail,” being prosperous, and so on. There are also some things in the Bible about self-sacrifice, about martyrs who "did not love their life till the end." A person prone to hyperreligiosity has to personally come to a balance in their life where they can see that many of the self-sacrificial messages they are getting in their mind are not spiritual, but in fact are destructive. For some people who want their lives to point in that direction, there are circumstances when self-sacrificial impulses are spiritual and even heroic. If one has a great cause and finds he must essentially sacrifice his life to it, I see nothing wrong in that. The problem lies in making sacrifices to a cause that is not good enough. I feel this is most often the problem in mental health areas that have religious overtones. 2 If the hyperreligious could take into account the lowest and most painful scenarios of human life and try to act like a Christ to them, few could call that person hyperreligious. Even those who are not religious might call that person doing a great work of social service. Hyperreligiosity can be seen as a condition that produces no value for oneself or others. If something is producing real value for others, then it can be said that the person creating the value is consciously attaining an aim. Much of value was done in history by people whom the religious, and even the general public, calls saints, and who led self-sacrificial lives. This kind of self-sacrifice is not wrong, if such people have had a healing effect on society. Butler's "Lives of the Saints" contains many such accounts of saints who set-up schools, hospitals, and created favorable economic situations in their towns. In fact, such individuals created much of the progress on Earth. 3 The hyperreligious need to be cautious in what they perceive as God's answers to prayer. This is similar to the faith in the idea that the force of "gentleness" is going to solve all their problems. It is probably beyond most people's ability to love in such a great way that such love would cause them to be somehow martyred. Those who really love are not insulated from the real social world in the way that mental illness often separates people from that world. The loving that is said to lead to spiritual freedom, by people becoming one with the true spirit of God, is loving people outside of, and regardless of, the various aspects of power needed to climb the religious political order. God is said to live in that kind of love. 4 I do not disbelieve in the traditional body of spiritual literature that talks highly of self-sacrifice and clinging closely to God. I think it is largely religious motivation that has made life as good as it is. Yet, it seems like everything on this Earth, the religious life can be stretched out of proportion. Food brings us pleasure and is essential to life, yet many people are in poor health and develop illness because of overeating. The same things can be said for aspects of religion in certain people. When one tries to mold religion into a tool that one can use in any way one wishes, one sets up a dangerous process that can even slide into unconscious behaviors that one can not witness. The religious always must remember that God is in control, not them. Obeying some basic religious framework like the Ten Commandments in all one does is a good way to keep this in mind. 5 A healing therapy for the hyperreligious is to expose themselves to ideas about their sense of responsibility in the world. This healing sense of responsibility helps one live one's life under the laws of logic and not under self-deluding ideas, such as making God into one's personal butler of miracles. This is not to say that a healing sense of aloneness and solitude doesn't show a blessing from God. Most religious people know from personal experience that God does give one a comforting peaceful feeling in being alone. 6 God gave us certain attributes which we can hang our self-esteem on. For true healing and recovery, people often find themselves able to accept these in themselves. Dysfunctional religion can cause certain people to deny all these attributes in themselves. They can't have the ability to feel like they have these attributes and also live a life in their sense of religion. We are created to feel good about various things such as having health, financial security, a good personality or friendliness, attractiveness or intelligence. The hyperreligious who has these qualities deny themselves the ability to feel good about having them because they are seen as a type of pride. Because they can no longer feel positive about having these qualities, they then begin to feel that they are the opposite of these things. This is similar to body dysmorphic disorder, where attractive or average looking people feel that they are ugly and deformed. There are a whole range of ways to avoid accepting that one has the attributes of a normal person. The prolonging of this nonacceptance of one's own virtue, if held long enough, can erode the sense of self and is said to be the cause of psychotic breakdowns and grandiosity. 7 Traditional psychology teaches that having a meaningful relationship with the opposite sex, is a test of a person's psychological health and maturity. The hyperreligious often expect God to give them someone in marriage very similar to them in many respects, and they wait for such a person without initiating much of the usual courtship routines. Some seem to need to exhaust the action of giving God more than what He wants, as if His response is "Go do something else besides religion and you'll have your prayers answered. Just go do the thing you're praying for." 8 The hyperreligious should give themselves more exposure to "mainstream" understanding of religion and see where that leads. It seems only fair and just that they give themselves this experience. Perhaps then the virtues of peace, joy and love will make themselves better known, and some who are prone to having anger toward God will find this also fall away. 9 The hyperreligious must finally realize that their old ways of understanding their relationship to religious concepts are not going to be the catalyst for their dysfunctional religious patterns to cease. Their old ways are not going to help them really break free from dysfunctional religion and have a better life. They would need a whole blueprint of how they should be thinking to achieve the life they want. Since they do see a mature godly character to be a main ingredient for a complete life, and can continue to use this rule, they need to understand what the historical prerequisites for a godly character are. Granted, this may not be the same as a canonized saint or martyr's character, but in reality when one examines all the so-called pride and lack of humility many mental patients are trapped by their own infantile grandiosity into having, they can see that the selfopinion that they themselves have the character of a saint is most likely self-delusional. 10 No structure of any society is fashioned to indulge those who want something like a saint's disposition and also all their other human desires met. To some hyperreligious, only "evil" is rewarded by the monetary gain necessary to support oneself. A scrupulous moral worldview only works for those who must self-justify themselves when, all the while, their "evil" society never justifies them. 11 Life can be seen as an abstraction beyond what any person upholds, an abstraction that has self-check mechanisms to guide people when they are out of balance. All in some sense are victims of this and can only be freed by humility, from feeling the pangs of disappointment. But in the hyperreligious, the mind can continuously philosophize self-justification and excuses in a lack of humility to adhere to psychic comfort in old patterns. 12 Some hyperreligious men believe in staying a "boy man" just as some hyperreligious women believe in staying immature to not act like mature people in the outside world which they perceive as evil. Women, however, find masculine traits attractive, yet it's almost impossible for the hyperreligious "boy man" to justify masculine traits, even before a God of mercy and compassion. A catch-22 is that many modern women state they want a sensitive man but a sensitive man is often seen as weak, especially compared to many modern women who are equipped for life without a man in modern society. Those hyperreligious men born past the baby-boom generation who were taught growing up that they should be sensitive males need to understand the balance of traits between accepting their qualities which instinctively make them attractive to women, and understand the new modern women who is striving for equality. This is why many hyperreligious can not find a mate. The hyperreligious man is afraid of the masculinity that by historical definition risks offense. 13 One can postulate a grid of forces and characteristics in human life that fill the entire real needs in society. Some people have the bravery to construct skyscrapers. Some people have the nerve to open human bodies and perform surgery. Some need the sensitivity to construct beautiful music, and so on. There are many people who can't understand that the small traits in people that help make up these different psychologies in people do not make them less spiritual or benevolent, only different. The wisdom of the aphorism, "It takes all kinds of people to make a world," is often not understood by the hyperreligious because their psychology is set up to reward only people of a certain disposition. 14 Some topics in the study of the dysfunctional religious: 1) The tendency of a person dedicating their life to religion and their perception of God is to expect in some way that God is protecting them. Sometimes things are worse in the world than what we like to expect. Our views should not be childish in this regard. Bad things happen to good people. Spiritual texts teach us to be "wise as serpents but gentle as doves." For instance, hyperreligious people often can not detect when religious leaders are in fact abusive and corrupt. Likewise, those who are not attracted to religious groups may not see when their own ideas are self-abusive and corrupting the quality of their own life. 2) We should be careful what we believe supernatural forces do for us verses what we are responsible to do for ourselves. A good example of this is that even Creationists believe that some aspects of evolution are correct. God can be seen as creating the world but putting it on a "long leash" in the same way that God seemed to let some aspects of evolution change various natures of animal life on Earth. God created us and helps us, but expects us to live our lives and show what type of character we have by what choices we make. The hyperreligious tend to look at life as a man walking on stilts, with one leg being himself, and one leg being God, each event in their life as trading causative agents, one caused by himself, the next caused by God, or angel or demon, and so on. 3) God will not punish the hyperreligious for trying to understand what they are doing wrong in their religious systems and trying to have a good life and getting better, but basic spiritual concepts can not be thrown out in this attempt. Growth for the hyperreligious is not to become meaner to others, or to live for periods of their life without thoughts of God. One has to strike a balance, and for the hyperreligious, this takes extra knowledge and work, probably trial and error. One can't tread on basic human decency and standards of psychological maturity in the name of deserving a change. 4) The effects of Hyperreligiosity are related to how OCD, BDD and other potentially lethal mental illnesses destroy the quality of life. The hyperreligious should not allow religious ideas to justify conditions of mental illness by saying, "I'm just being holy." When the hyperreligious uses religion as a real help to help them overcome other types of mental illness, they may see that since they had some problems with their other mental illness, these problems may reflect in how they might have a problem understanding healthy religious thinking. 5) The religious must have sophisticated thinking tools to know whether "psychic" abilities or abilities to detect God or the supernatural are actually lowering the quality of one's life, or are in fact really spiritual experiences. 15 There are two levels of abilities that effect a person in their life. There is the level of their own abilities, and there is the level of the abilities needed in life to achieve their needs in life. Here is one possible graph of what they might be like in a person: ======= level of competence one needs to get one's needs achieved in life ====== level of oneself due to operating in hyperreligiosity, often manifesting as the making of excuses that "God didn't do this for me yet" or "God does not want this for me." Other types of mental illness also follow this model. 16 To the hyperreligious, the excuses of always knowing explicitly the exclusive will of God, or of feeling entitled to have God do things for them even without prayer, can create a multitude of problems. For instance, one might feel because of their hyperreligious tendencies that God does want them married. However, they may find it impossible to control their sexual drives and they may have a string of short relationships, breaking them up when they "finally realize" that God does not want them married or that God wants them to marry someone more dedicated to religion. 17 It is hard for the hyperreligious to not have religious books make them what is known as egodystonic, that is, negatively affect their coping strategies in life. Instead of seeing these books as beautiful and meaningful, unconsciously they may see them as a stumbling block in helping them create the life they want. This is because the hyperreligious religious aspirant doesn't look at these book’s stronger words against "sinners" as possibly pointing only towards the many in life who are not religious at all, and often really don't live rightly, but instead they are driven by their make-up to beat themselves up personally with these teachings. Understanding human nature better may help them overcome this. 18 Christianity can be made psychologically symbolic, that is, almost everything in Christianity can be said to be about life here and now and to bring a person to a type of the kingdom of Heaven on Earth by following its principles. Often sermons focus on aspects of how Christianity works on a psychological level. But Christianity cannot be made wholly psychologically symbolic, and in these subjects of Heaven and Hell, the saved and the damned, good and evil, are often where the hyperreligious loses touch with sanity. 19 There is a problem regarding the religious practice of stillness that is seen in esoteric and Eastern traditions. It is knowing what to be still about and what to be active about. Practicing stillness would obviously be an accessory to “sins of omission” in certain situations. If evil flourishes when good men do nothing, and if good men are merely sitting quietly for five hours a day in their rooms as their sole spiritual practice, then obviously there are conflicts among people in what different people understand as spiritual. 20 The hyperreligious may feel very alive when they fight their hyperreligiosity. God may not help us so much through magical thinking, but God will help us through constructive thinking. Whether something involves magical thinking or constructive thinking can make a litmus test of how well a hyperreligious person is doing in their therapy. It may guide them to feel good about things when they are thinking in a less "magical thinking" mode and indicate what type of response they can expect for what they want in life. 21 The whole structure of cause-and-effect must often be rebuilt by the hyperreligious. Some of the things they expected God would do, they must take responsibility for and do themselves. This isn't to say they can't pray, but their expectation of God must be humble. They should treat demanding or even expecting certain events from divine sources the way an alcoholic treats alcohol. If they actually need more money, to do something like take a long-needed vacation, why do they focus their prayer life on gratitude to God when the Bible just as clearly states that we are to be anxious for nothing and pray for all our needs? The normal religious idea is to be liberal in one's prayer life for such things. The hyperreligious feels above normal or wealthy people, and therefore can not even usually pray directly for more money or opportunities to make more money by honest work. 22 When ideas go against words from spiritual books, we must remember that those words are being interpreted by people's minds. Saying "God is love" can only have one interpretation: love is easily understandable to man. Loving people would very rarely choose to make one person suffer so that others can benefit. Often, focusing on the life of Jesus, the hyperreligious see all their suffering as having some kind of meaning for other people. People who suffer believing this delusion have a type of pride, and are freed by humility. The hyperreligious might not ascribe their suffering to some symbolic mystical act, but instead to some art or writing they are creating. One way for the latter hyperreligious to overcome this is to tell them it is important to note in studying geniuses who achieved post-humous fame, that often they had some degree of recognition in their lifetime. Geniuses, like Van Gogh and Kafka, who did not have any success at all during their life are rare, although a small minority usually do have to suffer when they are aware of future patterns before the majority can understand such patterns. 23 Going to church faithfully does not always produce a good quality of life. It's not hard to find the evidence to back up this statement. Priests, even though serving mass, also abused children. Christianity has been practiced for two thousand years but it has yet to produce a Golden Age on Earth nor did its founder ever claim it would. Much like any other major religious system on Earth, nations that followed it did not always treat the weak and handicapped with respect, nor did they respect people regardless of race or nationality. These are all things that have happened as Western society seemingly became more secular. It doesn't mean Western society became less spiritual, it may mean that avenues of a type of societal hyperreligiosity have been thwarted. These improvements were, however, still largely guided by leaders who had strong religious convictions. Often it was people of great Christian faith, people of great inner achievement, who were the leaders in such improvements. 24 To think that God develops the life we want to lead as the result of simply expecting Him to give it to us, and in the amount of time when we are still somewhat young enough to enjoy it and have a long life, is to play a risky game of chance. What we may need are lessons that any given church does not easily preach. The gifts of God come more likely from a type of character-building process where the results of a life of prayer and obedience are seen. One can't have a self-serving system of justification and projecting onto others one's own faults. One has to make sacrifices of their own superiority complexes to find humility not just before God, but before other men. 25 A hyperreligious person has to fully change his or her thinking into the conviction that the good one experiences when one fights his or her hyperreligiosity is actually also seen as good by God. This change is the enshrinement of one's new understanding regarding the understanding that one does have hyperreligiosity to be part of the good plan of God that saved them from so many bad things. Too much of a medicine is not a good thing. One can never be too spiritual, but too much of the outer forms of religion is not always a good thing. This is not like saying that one shouldn't sacrifice large amounts of their income for others, or even do something drastic like risk one's life for one's neighbor. All those things can be done by people who are not even very religious at all but are guided by a strong personal morality. 26 Religion commands us not to judge, but the hyperreligious often remember those parts of religious writings that are concerned with judgment. The hyperreligious probably is not psychologically enabled to understand the practicality of the idea of not judging, nor do they understand how not judging could possibly be a religious idea. That is, there is something in judging others that relieves them of the pressure of self-criticism that was inflicted on them by other human beings. Not judging becomes the one religious commandment they comfortably overlook. 27 The only definition of God that has any merit in being a definition that good and competent people also share is a definition that states that God is love. This in fact is a definition that comes directly from the Bible. The hyperreligious put themselves in uncomfortable situations when they expect something from a God who is love and do not get it. Their actual definition of God is probably a definition that has not been carefully examined by careful analysis. 28 Those who are hyperreligious and take an attitude against the dominant religion of their culture have to make sure they are properly educated first in the things of their native culture. Many hyperreligious people, as can be seen in the many Westerners who have been a part of destructive Eastern-based cults, tend to have formed negative opinions of the Judeo- Christian religion based on a mythological idea of the “noble savage” or some variation of it. Many people do not understand that ancient human history was full of barbarism and they criticize the Old Testament against a standard of ethics that in practice is only quite recent. The Old Testament had to address severe human barbarism and so its standards often don't sound very high when measured in a world that has had it's redeeming influence (although of course people will argue this) for approximately three thousand years. These people may point to the fact that there are even older religious tracts that spoke of treating neighbors with respect in these foreign cultures, but there are also widespread cases of barbarism in such Eastern cultures (see the book “Oriental Despotism.” by Karl A. Wittfogel (Yale University Press, 1967), to understand that Eastern cultures are inherently no more spiritually governed than Western ones). These facts are often overlooked by such people in a type of reverse-ethnocentricity. This imbalanced thinking often sets them up to follow goals which may not be logical. Truth becomes a hidden quality, very rare, since the mother culture didn’t have very much of it. This can manifest in what is known as “spiritual titanism,” or the following of human beings as God incarnate. Their thinking may believe: “Since there is so little truth, why isn’t this obscure person really God?” (Spiritual Titanism: Indian, Chinese, and Western Perspectives. Nicholas F. Gier). 29 Religious scrupulosity always devours a person's real needs for the sake of illusion and even a type of narcissism. The illusion fulfills the sense of wish fulfillment that Freud has shown to be a way of placating the actual need. The imagination provides that fulfillment of the actual need by creating an illusion to believe in. A hyperreligious person's narcissism allows them to have self-esteem when society can often deny the hyperreligious any esteem. 30 A definition of God must have all kinds of good qualities to it because it can too easily be unconsciously interchanged with the definition of any authority structure such as one's parents, one's state/political governing structure, cruel school teachers, and so on. Some people have the psychological need to depend on a magical situation occurring in their life instead of one based on the normal laws of life and logic. This makes them unable to drink of the reality of God into their being; a God of love who safely allows them their free will, or a God who heals disease instead of causes it. It makes them unable to act in large areas of life, like getting married, because they wait for God to "give" them a spouse. They believe God is preventing them from being married when it may be their own psychological immaturity that prevents them. We can not say that God does not prefer some to be single and therefore may prevent some from marriage, but the Bible does say that marriage is honorable among all and "he who finds a wife finds a good thing" implying free volition. It also condemns those who demand abstinence from marriage as heretical and demonic. The fact of the matter is, getting married, especially in modern times, often takes some form of psychological health and maturity, relatively speaking. If a hyperreligious person does not have such a nature, they can invent the excuse that God does not want them married and feel psychologically invulnerable. In truth, like many great artists, the drive to be religious can take all one's mental effort just like being a great artist often eclipses marriage in those who give all their life to their art. 31 The very idea of the miraculous can hold the hyperreligious back from being healed from their mental illness. The hyperreligious often makes opportunity for the miraculous in every aspect of life. Such a person must understand that a lack of waiting for some miracles to happen in one's life is not synonymous with a lack of faith or spirituality. A good rule of thumb here is that the biggest miracle in life is the miracle done by God in turning a person around, that is, making an alcoholic sober, or helping a criminal live a good life. These are real miracles that happen to people every day and can be seen as a type of miracle because more often than not, they do not happen to other people who are just like these people. Allowing a person to open the space in their life where God can heal them of their dysfunctional religious nature is a major therapeutic goal and can be a part of life that we call the miraculous. 32 If the hyperreligious do not operate under the laws of logic, they may find themselves waiting on God in vain to do certain things in their life. The hyperreligious won't see the logical outcome or explanation of many events because they believe doing so denies the power and reality of God by at least overshadowing or replacing God in some way. It is this antilogic paradigm that many hyperreligious live under. Living under such a belief structure allows one to not have to deal with one's reality, for one can have an excuse, one can even have God to blame when things don't work out. Ultimately, the hyperreligious may be entrenched in their hyperreligiosity because they can't stand to witness their own personal shortcomings, yet exactly what are short comings can be very subjective, because the mature spiritual person must be seen to be a different type of person than the average person. Many, such as Pitirim Sorokin in his book "The Ways and Power of Love," have done studies in this area, showing that lives wholly given over to the power of love can develop many exceptional traits of great value. 33 The hyperreligious have felt a deep pain by experiencing their own failure. They were forced to feel this pain, forced to feel the untruth that failing means a deep and unbearable humiliation so they have decided to make themselves omnipotent by having God on their side at all times. They even act as the special agent of God against the very rules of God, as in the case of those who believe they hear God tell them to kill. 34 The hyperreligious must be careful not to demonize past spouses or lovers when those spouses or lovers go against them. In doing this, the hyperreligious assumes that they themselves have merged with the perfection of God. Always occupying one's thoughts with God does not equate with becoming more spiritual. One might say this is more from occupying one's thoughts with helping one's neighbor, who may become a type of enemy to the hyperreligious as the result of a classic obsessional defense mechanism. 35 When spouses or significant others fail to see the great results of a life lived so close to God, the hyperreligious do not personally feel offended, but instead sees this as a proof that God does not want them married, for why else would He send such negative people in their life to be their partner? If God wanted them to be married, surely He would have sent them a subservient partner who had exactly the same beliefs as they. 36 Psychoanalytic thinking is one of the gems of man's achievements when it can be done in a way that doesn't outwardly deny normal religious understanding. Unfortunately, for many hyperreligious people, it is seen as a type of ideological nemesis. This too must most likely be overcome for the hyperrreligious to progress and mature. One way this may happen is for them to realize that there never was an ideal religious society before the birth of psychology, so in this way psychology is not at fault. Also, psychology has been able to treat people with respect who were even more stigmatized in the past than they are today. 37 Freedom from hyperreligiosity comes from knowing that God's greatest blessing and desire for one is to be more free from the unnecessary suffering in life, and to enjoy life more and feel more peace. For instance, it is not good to be neurotic all month just for the sake of trying to help someone once a month. One shouldn't need a month of neurosis to do one good deed. The writer of religious scriptures states that God's ways are not man's ways and are above and more holy than man's ways, and that God's way is to be loving of all people. To love life and to have joy is the possibility that develops when one is following God's way. Man's way is often to be hyperreligious: to be burdened by unnecessary suffering to the point that we have to make a God that we can form in our own image out of just a few deadly religious verses. And, like it says in the Bible, "the letter of the law killeth, but the spirit giveth life” (2 Cor. 3:6).

More on hyperreligiousity

"God gave us certain attributes which we can hang our
self-esteem on. For true healing and recovery, people often find
themselves able to accept these in themselves. Dysfunctional
religion can cause certain people to deny all these attributes in
themselves. They can't have the ability to feel like they have
these attributes and also live a life in their sense of religion. We
are created to feel good about various things such as having
health, financial security, a good personality or friendliness,
attractiveness or intelligence. The hyperreligious who has these
qualities deny themselves the ability to feel good about having
them because they are seen as a type of pride. Because they can
no longer feel positive about having these qualities, they then
begin to feel that they are the opposite of these things. This is similar to body dysmorphic disorder, where attractive or
average looking people feel that they are ugly and deformed.
There are a whole range of ways to avoid accepting that one has
the attributes of a normal person. The prolonging of this nonacceptance
of one's own virtue, if held long enough, can erode
the sense of self and is said to be the cause of psychotic
breakdowns and grandiosity."

R.S. Pearson

Rav Kook: Vayeira: Combating Evil

Rav Kook: Vayeira: Combating Evil
RavKookTorah.org

written by Chanan Morrison

(posted with permission)


Vayeira: Combating Evil
A careful reading of the Torah's account clearly indicates that Lot did not deserve to be saved on his own merits alone:

"When God destroyed the cities of the plain, God remembered Abraham; and He sent out Lot from the upheaval when He overturned the cities in which Lot lived." (Gen. 19:29)
Why was Lot not rescued on the basis of his own merits? He certainly did not participate in the infamous Sodomite cruelty towards visitors. Why was he allowed to escape only because "God remembered Abraham"?

Challenging Sodom

The need for God to destroy Sodom shows the importance of chesed (kindness) in our world. It demonstrated the extent of ruin that results from a society lacking this critical trait.

In any ideological conflict, opposition to a particular position can take one of two forms. Some people may reject a position on the basis of its expected consequences. But if they only denounce and point out its negative aspects, they are only partially confronting the objectionable position. True opposition is only achieved when we can present a positive alternative that promises to govern society in a better and more just fashion.

The problem with Sodom was not just that the people of Sodom were cruel. Rather, the very fabric of the Sodomite society was corrupt, based on their abhorrence of kindness. They based their municipal regulations on an ideology of selfishness and self-interest.

Lot and Abraham

To combat Sodom, it was not enough to merely reject their philosophy. It was necessary to present a comprehensive blueprint for a society guided by the traits of kindness and generosity.

Lot rejected the cruel ways of Sodom. By virtue of his association with Abraham, Lot recognized the importance of chesed. On a private level, he invited strangers and tried to protect them. But Lot was unable to present an alternative vision of society based on kindness.

Abraham, on the other hand, was a different story. His whole life was centered on developing and promoting the ideal of chesed. Abraham established chesed as a fixed and organized trait for both the individual and the community. As God Himself testified,

"For I have known [Abraham], that he will command his children and his household after him, and they will keep God's ways, doing righteousness and justice." (Gen. 18:19)
For this reason, Lot did not deserve to be saved from Sodom on his own merits. Unlike his uncle Abraham, he presented no alternative vision, and did not properly contest the Sodomite ideology of cruelty.

How to Fight Evil

This is an important lesson for us. Our rejection of ideologies that contradict the Torah's ethical ideals should not be limited to negative criticism. It is insufficient to merely point out the harmful or false aspects of an ill-conceived plan. Rather, we need to open an offensive front by presenting a positive outlook based on true values - just as Abraham and his vision of chesed stood in direct opposition to the Sodomites' philosophy of egocentric cruelty.

(Gold from the Land of Israel, pp. 46-48. Adapted from Ein Eyah vol. II, p. 250)

RavKookTorah.org This Dvar Torah: VAYERA65.htm

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Do we only criticize the world or do we make something better too? Are we a kindly community? I'll let you answer for yourself.

Across the spectrum: Moshe Shmuel Glasner

Rabbi Moshe Shmuel Glasner (1856–1924), a prominent Hungarian Talmudic scholar and communal leader, served as chief rabbi of Klausenburg (Cluj) from 1877 to 1923. In 1923 he left Klausenburg for Jerusalem where he resided until his death in 1924. He is best known as the author of Dor Revi'i, a classic commentary on the tractate Hullin, and as a supporter of Zionism and a founder of Mizrachi. (Wiki)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moshe_Shmuel_Glasner

Rabbi Chaim Hirschensohn

Rabbi Chaim Hirschensohn (1857 – 1935) was born in Tzfat, (city in the Galilee, Israel), to Rabbi Yaakov Mordechai Hirschensohn, who had emigrated there fromPinsk in 1848. In 1864, the family (which included Chaim's older brother, Rabbi Yitzchok Hirschensohn) moved to Jerusalem.

wikipedia.org

The Toxicity of Feminism

When I was dating, more than one woman asked if I intended to help my wife around the house. (Imagine if I had asked if they were going to help me in the office.) There's a widespread notion that a woman's job is harder and that the man must help her. I believe that reverse is the truth: A man's job per se is harder than a woman's. Let me explain. I'm talking about the Jewish man and woman and I'm talking about his job vis a vis mitzvah obligation, his mitzvah job. He has more mitzvot and more all-encompassing mitzvot. He faces more tests due to those mitzvot, namely Torah study, davening 3x day with a minyan, refraining from sexual immorality or even fantasy, positive-time bound commandments like tefillin, shema, succah, and lulav, and supporting the family. The woman has no mitzvot that compare to these in difficulty. Putting on a modest dress is nowhere nearly as difficult as reigning in relentless sexual desire. The former is a single choice made early in the day, the latter goes on all darn day long and nights too. Even modest deportment, while not easy, is not as hard as that. Neither is taking care of kids, while difficult, as hard as earning a living in the big, bad world. Kids are a whole lot cuter than bosses and customers. 

What makes the job of the man and woman equal is her being a help-mate. God has freed her from numerous mitzvot so that she can be a helper to the man. It would be impossible for both individually to keep all then men's mitzvot. With the woman helping the man, the man can satisfy his responsibilities. If the woman fails to be a helpmate, then she's going through life with a light load and not achieving her potential. "I will make for him a helpmate." God tells us his intention in creating Eve. Feminism by trying to destroy the whole concept, took women away from their purpose. If I may phrase it mathematically: a woman's mitzvot plus the role of dedicated helpmate equal a man's mitzvot. Their overall job is equal in difficulty only when she strives to be a helpmate.

You really see this with the unmarried people. You probably have heard the line that there are more good girls than boys in the shiduch world. To me, this line is based on nothing other than a quest to degrade the men, which by the way is an effective way to degrade a nation. What is it based on? What are the girls doing that makes them so wonderful? The boys are learning, davening, building careers. They drive to dates, pay for the dates, think of activities for the dates, ask for dates. They are doing nearly everything. The girls, not yet helpmates, don't do very much typically. Of course, they should be helping at home and perhaps even contributing more to the dates, but that's another discussion.

None of this means that the man does not help the woman. By providing spiritual leadership and supporting her financially, by protecting her from the world, the help he provides is lifesaving. When you drive through the NJ Meadowlands, keep in mind that the roads we take for granted were built on a swamp. Some man, likely Irish, trudged through that swamp in the dead of winter to build that road so that he could earn a few pennies to support his family. He was not getting career fulfillment in there. He was providing "help" if you want to minimize it by calling it that to his wife and kids. All the feminists who charge men with keeping the glamorous careers to themselves should go trudge through a swamp sometime. The feminists in their career envy are addressing of course the ruling class and project that on to all of society. Most men were workers in factories and farms. They had no career. And did the ruling class women have it bad? I would say not. They had a pretty sweet life actually even if they couldn't become Senators or Novelists. They also weren't called off for war. Let us note that a Kennedy boy was killed in World War II and Jack Kennedy was nearly killed. The girl Kennedy's slept safely in their beds in Boston.

God built an interlocking system for husband and life. He helps her through assorted mitzvot. She helps him by being a helpmate. The help he provides is often indirect. At work, he focuses on making his company money and for that they pay him. He gives the money to his wife who spends it. He studies Torah via intellectual contemplation of halahka and mitzvot and she shares in the merit. He praises Hashem in his tefilla and the family benefits. She just flat out helps him. It's much more direct but no greater in the quantity of help. 

Some are deceived by the indirectness of his efforts. They think he goes out every day to enjoy his fulfilling career when in reality he is being torn to pieces daily by screaming customers. Women over the last century have come to reject the notion of helper due to its apparent unfairness. This is an act of ingratitude to men who were sacrificing their whole lives for women, literally in many cases. Even today, 92% of workplace fatalities happen to men. That's 40,000 people a year in the USA. Add to that the ones who die from stress induced illness.

The women who scream about not being counted in minyanim should consider that minyan is a burden. It's 6 AM in the Winter in Poland or Minnesota. Who is required to trudge out into the cold to daven in a minyan?

If the wife is focused on getting the husband to "help with the kids" before and/or after his minyan then she is turning him into the helpmate. This is not to say that there aren't occasions where requesting help is justified. But that should be a matter of too much going on at once (two kids screaming) rather than trying to address some twisted notion that she has the bigger job because the hours are longer. The hours actually are not longer if you add in working, commuting, working at home, davening. learning, and everything else a man does. And minute per minute, his work is much more demanding. This is why she needs to maintain her identity of helpmate to him so that their tasks in life are equal.

This extends to the sexual realm as well. He needs lots of help there, especially in this day and age where he is getting titillated constantly. This new notion of a woman sleeping with her husband only when she's "in the mood" runs counter to the ideal of helpmate. Men's need for sex is way higher than a woman's. It isn't even close. And the halahka limits his recourse to marriage. This is not the case for gentiles. So while the gentiles have turned the world into a soft porno film, gentile men have varied outlets. The Jewish man has only one - his wife. He is utterly dependent on her. 

I never hear this concept mentioned when people pine on about the shiduch crisis. We hear all about the poor girls and how they suffer. Try to imagine the suffering of a 25 year old single man who has been aching for sex since he was 15 and struggling to restrain himself lest he engage in sin punishable by death.

One comes to see through all this the toxicity of feminism. It's demonic. I realize I'm not giving a full picture here of all the issues. There's a woman's side to the story. But you really don't need to hear it from me. You hear it every day. What you don't hear is a man's perspective and you don't hear anyone stress the essential nature of 'ezer c'negdo', being a helpmate. Without it, the whole system falls apart. Without it, the woman becomes corrupt, she becomes the government worker who performs minimal work as the pension builds. She becomes the cop who stands idly at the construction site. She's doing a little but not a full job. She becomes a taker as so many women are today. Feminism relieved her of her work load and her purpose.

When contemplating this subject, I often think of the Bob Dylan song "Like A Rolling Stone." He sang:

"You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns 

When they all come down and did tricks for you

You never understood that it ain't no good 

You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you  

You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat

Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat 

Ain't it hard when you discover that 

He really wasn't where it's at 

After he took from you everything he could steal.

How does it feel?"  

That's feminism. It seems so liberating and glamorous and clever. But it's really taking everything it can steal. The feminists, like many demagogues, make a living screwing with your head. They get positions in women's studies departments. They write books and give lectures. They get the thrill of undermining all of society and history. For an intellectual, there is no greater thrill. But they need an audience. And that is all of us, who sit there buying their nonsense, unraveling our families and our destinies.

Different Approach for Tinuk S'nishba

See the book Rav Weinberg talks about chinuch, pp. 109-100. He gives a whole speech about how children should be taught the plain meaning of Chumash and not fancy peshot because they'll be able to build on the plain throughout their lives, but if you give them too many explanations that will actually limit them because they'll get stuck on what they heard in 8th grade. He adds however that this does not apply to kiruv. There you are not teaching Torah but are trying to win them to a place where they'll be interested in Torah. "And for that you can do whatever will most effectively make them interested and respond to you." I believe he (and others) offered similar comments about resolutions to matters such as Darwinism and Cosmogony. It's one matter what you teach to frum kids and another to tinuk sh'nishba.

Rav Kook on “Light unto the nations” Now or After Moshiach

Rav Kook on “Light unto the nations” Now or After Moshiach Mikeitz: Joseph and Judah (posted with permission) Sapphire from the Land of Israel

The strife among Jacob's sons centered on two conflicting viewpoints vis a vis the sanctity of the Jewish people. Judah felt that we need to act according to the current reality and that, given the present situation, the Jewish people need to maintain a separate existence from other nations in order to safeguard their unique heritage. Joseph, on the other hand, believed that we should focus on the final goal. We need to take into account the hidden potential of the future era, when "nations will walk by your light"  (Isaiah 60:3). Thus, according to Joseph, even nowadays we are responsible for the spiritual elevation of all peoples.

So which outlook is correct - Judah's pragmatic nationalism or Joseph's visionary universalism?

The Present versus the Future

The dispute between Judah and Joseph is in fact a reflection of a fundamental split in the world. The rift between the present reality and the future potential is rooted in the very foundations of the universe. On the second day of Creation, God formed the rakia, the firmament separating the waters below from the waters above (Gen. 1:7; see Chagigah 15a). This separation signifies a rupture between the present (as represented by the "lower waters" of this world) and the future (the "higher waters" of the heavens). The inability to reveal the future potential in the present is a fundamental defect of our world; unlike the other days of Creation, the Torah does not describe the second day, when this breach occurred, as being "good."

Joseph and the Letter Hey

According to the Midrash (Sotah 36b), the angel Gabriel taught Joseph seventy languages. Gabriel also added the Hebrew letter hey from God's Name to Joseph's name, calling him "Yehosef" (Ps. 81:6). What is the significance of this extra letter?

The Sages wrote that God created this world with the letter hey, and the World to Come with the letter yud (Breishit Rabbah 12:9). In Joseph's view, each nation is measured according to its future spiritual potential, according to how it will fit in the final plan of kiddush ha-Shem, the sanctification of God's Name and revelation of His rule in the world. The particular role of each nation is indicated by its unique language. Without the letter hey, however, Joseph could not properly grasp the language of each nation, i.e., he could not ascertain the nature of their role in the future world. With the addition of the letter hey to his name - the letter used to create this world - Joseph gained the ability to understand the universe as it exists now. Joseph was then able to comprehend the languages of all peoples and assess their spiritual potential.

Joseph was able to discern the world's potential for kiddush ha-Shem with the help of a single letter. He used the hey, a letter which is closed from three sides, as this future potential is currently almost completely hidden. Judah, on the other hand, looked at the world's spiritual state as it is revealed now.

"Joseph, who sanctified God's Name in private, merited one letter of God's Name. Judah, who sanctified God's Name in public, merited that his entire name was called after God's Name" (Sotah 36b).

Two Types of Tzaddikim

According to the Zohar, Benjamin complemented his brother Joseph. "Rachel gave birth to two tzaddikim, Joseph and Benjamin. Joseph was a 'higher tzaddik,' while his brother Benjamin was a 'lower tzaddik'"  (Vayeitzei 153b). What are these two types of saintly tzaddikim?

The "higher tzaddik" is a conduit for the shefa (the Divine influence), drawing it down from above, while the "lower tzaddik" passes the shefa to the physical world below. Benjamin's role, as the "lower tzaddik," was to imbue our world with holiness. His whole life, Benjamin was concerned that the Temple should be built in the portion of Eretz Yisrael that his tribe would inherit. Why was that so vital to Benjamin?

The Temple is "a house of prayer for all peoples," allowing all to share in its holiness. "Had the nations known how important the Temple was for them, they would have surrounded it with forts in order to guard over it" (Tanhuma Bamidbar 3). The Temple has a fundamental role in Joseph's universal outlook.

The Monarchy and the Temple

The dialectic between Judah and Joseph finds expression in two institutions: the monarchy and the Temple. The monarchy, whose role was to protect the national sanctity of the Jewish people, was established in Judah's inheritance, in Hebron and Jerusalem. The Temple, whose role was to elevate all of humanity, was built on Benjamin's land. Yet the Temple was partially located on a strip of land that extends from Judah's portion into Benjamin's portion. This strip represents the synthesis of Judah and Joseph, the integration of the national and universal viewpoints.

Mikeitz, the name of the Torah reading, means "at the end." The Midrash Tanchuma explains that God established an end for all things. Just as Joseph's imprisonment ended in Mikeitz, so too, the conflict between Judah and Joseph will be resolved after a constructive period of development and change. The fundamental dissonance in the world will be repaired, and the rift between the present and the potential, between the lower and higher waters of creation, will be healed.

(Sapphire from the Land of Israel. Adapted from Shemuot HaRe'iyah 10, Mikeitz 5690 (1929))

The hardest job

The hardest job kids face today is learning good manners without seeing any.
Fred Astaire

More on hyperreligiosity

"A hyperreligious person has to fully change his or her
thinking into the conviction that the good one experiences when
one fights his or her hyperreligiosity is actually also seen as good
by God. This change is the enshrinement of one's new
understanding regarding the understanding that one does have
hyperreligiosity to be part of the good plan of God that saved
them from so many bad things. Too much of a medicine is not a
good thing. One can never be too spiritual, but too much of the
outer forms of religion is not always a good thing. This is not like
saying that one shouldn't sacrifice large amounts of their income
for others, or even do something drastic like risk one's life for
one's neighbor. All those things can be done by people who are
not even very religious at all but are guided by a strong personal
morality."

R.S. Pearson
.

Vayishlach: Jacob Arrived Whole

This piece of Torah from R' Kook sounds quite Hirschian to me.


Torah of Rav Kook - Vayishlach: Jacob Arrived Whole, adapted by Chanan Morrison
(posted with permission) Gold from the Land of Israel

Having survived the trickery of uncle Laban and the enmity of his brother Esau, Jacob finally returned to his homeland.

"Jacob arrived whole (shalem) to the city of Shechem in the land of Canaan" (Gen. 33:18).
In what way was Jacob "shalem"? The Talmud explains that he was "whole in body, whole in money, whole in his Torah knowledge"  (Shabbat 33b).

According to the medieval commentator Rashi, these three areas are directly related to Jacob's previous ordeals. Physically - Jacob healed from the lameness the stranger had afflicted upon him in their mysterious struggle at Peniel. Financially - he did not lack money, despite the expensive gifts he had offered this brother Esau. And spiritually - he had not forgotten his Torah learning, despite the long years of intensive labor at Laban's house.

Jacob's Holistic Perspective

In truth, Jacob's wholeness was not to be found in any quantitative accomplishments. It could not be measured by how fast he could run, by how many sheep he owned, or by the number of scholarly discussions he had memorized. Rather, Jacob's wholeness was in his holistic approach towards these diverse spheres.

People think that the pursuit of excellence in one field entails neglecting other areas. A person who seeks perfect health and physical strength will come to the realization that one needs money to attain this goal. But the pursuit of wealth can become such an all-absorbing goal that it may come at the expense of one's original objective – good health. Ironically, the anxiety to acquire wealth can end up ruining one's health.

It is clear that both good health and financial security help provide the quietude needed to refine character traits and attain intellectual accomplishments. However, these different areas, instead of complementing one another, often compete with each other. We suffer spiritually when our desire to strengthen the body and cultivate social living (which requires certain financial means) are not understood in their overall context.

The perfection of Jacob – the "ish tam," "the complete man" (Gen. 25:27) – was in his ability to live in a way that no single pursuit of excellence, whether spiritual or material, needed to contradict or detract from other personal goals. On the contrary, when they are understood properly, each aim complements and strengthens the others.

This is the profound message of the Talmudic statement. Jacob was whole in body and wealth, and from both of these together, he found the inner resources to be whole in Torah. Jacob exemplified the trait of emet, truth - "Give truth to Jacob" (Micah 7:20). He demonstrated how, in their inner depths, all accomplishments are united together; all reflect different facets of the same inner truth.

(Gold from the Land of Israel, pp. 73-74. Adapted from Ein Eyah vol. III, p. 209)

Samuel Mohilever

was a rabbi, pioneer of Religious Zionism and one of the founders of the Hovevei Zion movement.

Mohilever was born in Głębokie (now Hlybokaye, Belarus) and studied in the Volozhin yeshiva.

After the pogroms following the May Laws, he helped found the Hovevei Zion in Warsaw, and convinced Baron Edmond James de Rothschild to financially support a settlement called Ekron (now Qiryat Ekron).

Mohilever was made the rabbi of Białystok in 1883 and worked to promote Zionism by convincing Białystok's Jews to move to Petah Tikva, then a struggling settlement. (Wiki)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Mohilever

Torah tells you how to live. It doesn't replace life.

The anti-secular studies and activities orientation of many kiruv places can put excessive pressure on the Torah study experience to become a replacement for long cultivated joys. There's a big difference between saying to a person: taste this new soup, it's pretty good and taste this soup it's the best food ever invented and is going to be the only food you'll ever have again. You expect much more from the soup in the latter presentation. Pretty good recipe for failure and disappointment.

So too not allowing BTs to date. Many try to replace companionship and sex with religious observance and find themselves disappointed with that observance when it fails to deliver.

Torah tells you how to live. It doesn't replace life. And why should it? God created life just as He created Torah. He doesn't hate life. Many people take the Torah only idea to absurd degrees where they are not even living anymore. This is lunacy. It's cultist.

Torah also doesn't replace mental health, even though if taught correctly, it can help fix it. When an unstable person tries to find get instant Karma sanity in Torah, he often fails. You have to work on mental health issues as health issues. Torah life can give a good framework for healing, but the healing is a separate effort. Studying Gemara does not cure mental illness. It can even worsen it. Derech eretz kadma l'Torah. You have to get your sanity back before all the intense study.

Not Torah Only

“Rav Huna said: Whoever engages only in Torah study is compared to one who has no God, as it says: “For a long time Israel was without the true God” (Divrei Ha-Yamim II, 15:3). Rather, [one should be engaged in both] Torah study and acts of kindness (Avodah Zara 17b).

R Shach's Haskama for book on R Azriel Hildesheimer

I am not of sufficient stature to provide a letter of approbation for the great Gaon, disseminator of Torah and fearer of the Lord in Germany, our master, Rabbi Azriel Hildesheimer, of blessed memory. He lived in the generation that preceded the previous generation; great was his fame due to his good deeds. The Gaon R. Yitzhak Elhanan of Kovno referred to him as "the great Gaon;" many others praised him for his greatness in Torah and for his fear of God. Who am I to follow in the footsteps of kings? (Who are "the kings"? The rabbis.) Moreover, it is stated in Scripture: Do not stand in the place of nobles (Proverbs 25:6). Now that his grandson has undertaken to publish his (i.e., R. Hildesheimer's) novellae on various tractates of the Talmud, we wish him every success.... May the merit of his grandfather, the Gaon, assure him every success in every matter.R. Eleazar Menahem Shach 

(Haskama to 'Hiddushei Rabbi Azriel: Yevamos, Kesubos', Jerusalem 1984)

Must You Have a Rav?

I'm going to say something controversial. Haven't I done that a few times already here? I don't even notice it anymore, but I suspect from reactions I get that I do it fairly often We have become so regimented in our era that it's not difficult at all to anger people. You can quote R' Shlomo Zalman Aurbach and infuriate people with your alleged apikorsis.

So the following is going to seem radical. We hear all the time that you have to have a rav. You are asked, do you have a rav. You are advised, don't marry anyone who doesn't have a rav.

Here's what I want to say about that. It's wonderful if you can find a good rav. That's the concept of mentorship. The whole world understands that.

However, you do not have to have a rav. You may simply not be able to find one. There are all sorts of reasons for that. Here are some:

1) People including rabbanim are lacking in wisdom today. The world has become so complicated. Who is really broad and learned enough to navigate it for himself no less for others.

This becomes more complicated with baalei teshuvah. How many rabbis understand baalei teshuvah and the complexity of our journey. How many don't try to just turn you into a Haredi FFB? How many follow the Reb Yaakov principle of "helping to keep mitzvot" that I have posted at the top right of this blog?

2) People are busy. They are so busy. The world today is out of control busy for everyone. Orthodox Jews carry a double load. In the old days, your 10 kids bopped around the farm. Today, everyone needs a ride to school, help with homework, etc. That's part of it.

Also, we have become a cold society. Corporate. People aren't that interested in each other. We are really lacking in love and concern for others. We form organizations, but on a one to one level, we are really lacking.

I'll be frank and confessional here. I have lived in all sorts of towns, been part of all sorts of shuls. Rarely, did the rabbanim have any time for me. 30 seconds here and there. A fifteen minute appointment a year. Just no time. It is rare that I ever even received a Shabbos invitation to the rabbi's home. Actually, it happened just once throughout all the decades. I had been living in the town for a year and half and I was a bochur! And as you can expect, I am not the type who is invisible in the shul.

It's worse with the rabbis not in your town. As a Sabbath observant Jew, you can't stray too far from your home. What if the local rabbi is not your cup of tea? What if you are not his? But what's the alternative? It is very difficult to strike up a relationship with rabbis who don't see your face often. I can't explain the reasons, but I have found that rabbis don't take an interest in people who are not congregrants in their shuls. I have contacted dozens of people who I located over the Internet or by reference and have experienced nearly no interest. Two minutes on the phone. A few times I got back a brief email. Nothing ever after that. No how's it going or hey, I found something you might like. I have traveled an hour an a half to shiurim to people I contacted prior with emails and still barely a hello, certainly no kind of conversation. It's shocking. There have been a few exceptions to this, one who made alot of time for me and another who sent me a few things. But95% of the time nothing or next to nothing. It's very strange.

I have been shocked at times that these gentlemen didn't pick up on the fact that I might be looking for a rav, that I gravitated to them for a reason. Any rabbi who tells you that you need a rav better also be picking up talmidim of his own. I suspect that many do not, other than those who are paying dues in the shul or tuition at their school. You get my drift.

3) You might be too complicated to align perfectly with a single person. Maybe the answer is to have multiple rabbanim or mentors or confidants. You can use books too, you know. The answers to many of our questions are found in books. Most rabbis just give you the answer that they found in a book anyway. Once upon a time there were no books. Now we have lots of them and you can use them as rabbis.

4) You might be too intelligent for your local rabbi. You might be too worldly. A BT has seen alot in life. I'm not talking just about travel, but life experience. You have experienced total life transformation. Does the rabbi understand that necessarily?

The goal here isn't to disparage the rabbinate. It's to say, you might not be able to find a rav. Don't sweat it. It's not one of the taryag mitzvot. Do the best you can, like with anything.

I look at it like this. It's the end of days. People are nuts. Things are a mess. The rabbis are what they are. Maybe many are trying really hard. What really makes it the end of days is not just that it's hard to find a rav but that people expect to you when it's not feasible. That lack of logic is really bitter.

Some people find good rabbanim. Some swear by them. That's fine if it is truly productive. I have tended to not fit into either the Haredi or Modern derech so I haven't aligned too well with rabbanim either. If there were a Torah Im Derech rav I'd do much better. Haven't found that. I have learned that it's not good to force it. You'll try to force it if you think you must have a rav.