The Light of Truth

I overheard two conversations recently. I say “overheard” because I tried very hard not to eavesdrop, but the conversations were so loud that it was impossible not to hear.  The topics were as polar opposite as you could get but they were both fascinating for the same reason: they contained distortions of truth.

Conversation #1

The first overheard conversation took place between a Jewish mother and daughter and two Jewish men in their 20’s who were obviously well known to the family.  The nub of the conversation was that one of the young men was trying to persuade everyone else that taking a particular illegal substance wouldn’t actually do anyone any harm unless, of course, you were already mentally unstable.  The daughter argued with him to the contrary, giving examples of people who had succumbed to the misery of drug abuse, but this Jewish man just wouldn’t have it.  Apart from feeling a deep sense of sadness about the prevalence of drug taking amongst Jews, what was remarkable was how we can tell ourselves such untruths and totally believe it.

Why do people take drugs?  I’m by no means an expert on the subject, but I remember that about 20 years ago I was with some non-Jewish work colleagues and the subject came up about drug-taking, which seemed to be a common activity even at that time. I asked them why they took drugs.  Well, it’s like taking alcohol, you know … to relax.  Can’t you just be happy or content without taking anything? The response was silence.  They’d never even asked themselves the question. There seemed to be an assumption that happiness was something to be ingested, not something that could be accessed internally.

Conversation #2

The second conversation took place amongst a group of young non-Jews and there seemed to be a “group leader”.  At first I thought they were maybe training in counseling because the conversation seemed very introspective-orientated, until the “group leader” mentioned G-d and church.  Oh, I thought, this will be interesting [I wasn’t expecting to hear anything true according to the Torah, but how mistaken was I!]. The group leader was telling the others about his developing relationship with G-d and how sometimes our relationship with our parents is indicative of our relationship with G-d.  If we don’t have a deep relationship with our parents [for example, can you discuss with a parent anything meaningful to you or is the conversation always about superficial things, like what’s on TV, clothes, sport, work etc], it’s harder to develop a deep relationship with G-d.  In other words, G-d is our Father and Mother spiritually and our parents are the physical manifestation of that spiritual reality and should be the natural channel to access G-d. The other thing he said was that to the extent that we judge other people harshly, so too will we be judged harshly by G-d, “measure for measure” [group leader’s words!].

It was quite extraordinary to listen to, because it was so close to the Torah view and there was genuine wisdom to what he said.  However, against the backdrop of a faith that believes in “a son of…” it becomes another distortion [without going into all the other differences].  Although we have lived in very difficult times as Jews throughout our diaspora, you can see from this very small conversation how the Torah has permeated the cultures we have come into contact with, which is one of the purposes of our current exile.

Rebbe Nachman says nothing in the world is accidental, everything that happens to a person is for a reason, so for some reason I had to hear these conversations.

One thing that struck me is on the one hand how much we have been negatively influenced by the “outside world” – a world either devoid of Torah values or a distortion of Torah – did you know for example that prior to the Second World War, most Jews in Europe had assimilated, some even to the point of accepting baptism?  On the other hand, I am equally amazed by how much the Torah has influenced the rest of the world in terms of morality and relationship to the One G-d and that under even the most oppressive times until recently Jews retained their inner happiness solely because of our relationship with Hashem.

Now during Chanukah, the Festival of Lights, the Jewish people were so enticed by the Greek value system, which seemed very enlightening at the time. Ultimately, it nearly led to our spiritual demise. To an extent, we are still under this influence!

Perhaps It’s Time…

Perhaps this is the time to look at our own lives and examine do we have any relationship with Hashem? If we feel we do have a relationship, is it a deep one?

Perhaps this is the time to ask myself – am I ingesting anything foreign into my soul, whether physical or ideological? Sometimes, the ideological foreign substances are harder to identify because they are so ingrained into our consciousness. Nonetheless, they will cause the most profound dissonance within our being and a concurrent detachment from Hashem.

Perhaps this is also the time to realize that the unadulterated truth about who we are, our purpose, and the mysteries of creation are not out there in the other cultures, it’s very close by. The Torah is “not hidden from you and it is not distant…Rather to perform it.”   The matter is very near to you – in your mouth and your heart.