Steve Ornstein – The need for individual awareness
After putting up so many wonderful blogs by some very talented and experienced people I have decided to scratch out my own “rant” about topics that have been affecting me recently.
Growing up in the sixties being involved in too many head-cracking demonstrations against the Vietnam war and getting arrested to boot, had its limits and effectiveness. This also included my co-leadership role with the late Jerry Rubin, of Yippee fame, successfully gathering thousands to march on the Fort Dix N.J. military installation. This was the first time in the U.S. there had been a demonstration on any military base. My actions had resulted in my arrest and a warning that if I ever put one foot on any military base in the U.S. again it would be an automatic fine and jail time.
I then reflected upon the results. What did we truly accomplish and what changes did we help instigate by our ego driven notion for change. There was a hidden desire to create chaos because so much of it resided within and striking out at the authority of the day resulted in self-satisfaction regardless of the end game. Certainly the anti-war leadership at the time was problematic and driven by the same personal profiles of the folks already in power.
Dropping out of “politics” of the day led to “drugs” of the day and searching for the so-called lost Steve in the mix. This was a multiple year adventure crossing continents and my first experience of Israel in 68 on my way to India. But this for another time.
Today it seems as if the same basic problems of yesterday plague us today. Here in Israel and globally. Political, egotistical and opportunistic leaders and most of the opposition thrive on personal attacks with little substance.
So what does our future look like? In Israel we have social problems that need to be addressed by our government officials.
To quote Rabbi Jonathan Sacks from his Weekly Torah commentary:” Do not ill-treat a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in Egypt. Do not oppress a stranger; you yourselves know how it feels to be a stranger [literally, “you know the soul of a stranger”], because you were strangers in Egypt.
Mishpatim contains many laws of social justice – against taking advantage of a widow or orphan,
The first and last of these laws, however, is the repeated command against harming a stranger. Clearly something fundamental is at stake in the Torah’s vision of a just and gracious social order. This emphasis on verbal abuse is typical of the sages in their sensitivity to language as the creator or destroyer of social bonds. As Rabbi Eleazar notes, harsh or derogatory speech touches on self-image and self-respect in a way that other wrongs do not. What is more, as Rabbi Samuel bar Nahmani makes clear, financial wrongdoing can be rectified in a way that wounding speech cannot. Even after apology, the pain (and the damage to reputation) remains. A stranger, in particular, is sensitive to his or her status within society. He or she is an outsider. Strangers do not share with the native born a memory, a past, a sense of belonging. They are conscious of their vulnerability. Therefore we must be especially careful not to wound them by reminding them that they are not “one of us.”
But words are not enough ! Politics is not enough! Self-righteous rants by the far-left and the far-right pretend to care by going negative but result in little substance for those in need.
If this is true then how can we as individuals and as part of one of the greatest social experiments of all time actually correct and change inequality within our society ?
Today I mostly scan the rants filled with hatred by the younger generation(s) and many of my contemporaries. This leaves me with nothing more than a wall of noise that just won’t go away as a constant mantra of nothingness disguised as words and emotional transference.
Looking inside, sitting quietly in meditation, Jewish that is, and even sharing some prayers that fit the moment(s) of thoughts and emotions that pass by until a deep and expanded silence fills this void. An understanding of “nothing and everything” prevails. In this “quietness” a human being begins to emerge out of the ashes of my thoughts and emotions. Radical amazement as set forth by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
“Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement. ….get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.”
Here and Now everything becomes clear and obvious. To use Abbie Nathan’s signature promo for his radio station on a ship off the coast of Tel Aviv,
THIS IS THE VOICE OF PEACE.
Maybe out of this knowledge we can truly begin Tikun Olam, Repair the world, through conscious awakening ?
Together in this light of understanding , we stand under and allow our empty vessel to be filled with the light of our Torah: the ethical and moral values we have been gifted!
Can we as a people living in Israel have the clarity of being to be a “light unto ourselves and the rest of the world”? We certainly have signs of this thru our action in a variety of disciplines be they technological, medical advances or our willingness to help in disaster and rescue relief globally.
It is time to bring clarity by rejecting the violence of words and emotions that divide us and start working together to solve the problems we live with.
Being “clear” one understands that we all have different perspectives on life, Halleluyah, but are united as ONE nation, One people that transcends our uniqueness as individuals. Together we are unstoppable. We are then capable of enjoying everyone’s uniqueness in the wholeness of who we are as a Nation and as the State of Israel.
