Passover is around the corner. It is a time to celebrate the fulfillment of the dream of all people––to be free. Yet, when I thought about this holiday, I realized a great majority of the time, when a religious Jew raises a cup of wine, the Jew says “l’chaim,” meaning ‘to life,’ but with no mention of freedom. So I wondered, why is it religious Jews celebrate life, and why is it in America most other Jews give higher worth to freedom, and most of the time assume life? Why is it the opposite true in America? What are the consequences of one view of the world vs. the other view of the world? These questions haunted me for a while, so one day I decided to see if I could find the answers. I think I did. But for now, I’ll only address the question, “Why does the observant Jew celebrate life, why does this Jew lift a cup of wine and say l’chaim, and never mention freedom?” Especially when freedom is the dream of all people.
I learned, for the Jew to assume life is to be unaware of the purpose of Torah. To assume life is to fail to receive a very important message relating to Passover. Thus, it is through an awareness of life, and life’s purpose, and life’s meaning that discloses the purpose of Torah, and the main purpose of the first Passover Seder, which has remained very well hidden for over 3000 years.
Life is built on a story that connects the past with the future. We call this connection the “bond of life,” and it is through this bond that empowers the Jew to deliver God’s message through time, to each next generation, regardless of the Jew’s status among the other peoples of the world. Through the bond of life, the Jew is empowered to deliver the message to each next generation, even if a slave. That bond, the connection between the past and the future, is the family. As such, to celebrate life, for the religious Jew, is to be very much aware of the purpose of life. Each generation connects to the next generation, always leaving behind a record of one’s family history, a heritage. Thus, to teach each next generation about his or her Jewish past is the purpose of a Jew’s life, for this keeps the memories and the lessons of the past as part of the everyday story of life.
For the religious Jew, through being a part of the same way of life, in effect, participating and sharing that way of life, a Torah life, the bond of life continues, thus, sustaining the unity of the family and the entire Jewish community day after day, and from generation to generation. Thus, to celebrate life through being aware of the purpose of life, unity, continuity continues endlessly. It is this certainty of life’s journey that begets feelings of contentment, peace, and joy, and the feeling that the future is always bright. It is through sharing the same way of life, through being aware of the purpose of life, that seals the bond for each generation, because this ensures that the lessons, messages and memories of the past relating to one’s family life, and one’s Jewish heritage, will be learned and cared for, for what they truly are, treasures.
The religious Jew knows very well, the past is the guiding light of the future, and the main transmitting source, through sharing and continually learning about a Torah way of life, is from father to son, mother to daughter, from generation to generation. This method of teaching Torah, and a Torah way of life to each next generation, is the great secret to the success of the Jewish people. It is the underpinning of family unity and the source of unifying the Jewish people from generation to generation for endless generations, and the proof is when it all began, which was during the very first Seder, over three thousand two years ago, and continues as the foundation of observant Jewish life to this very day. This is indeed, the very well-hidden other meaning of the Passover story.
Through the darkest days and years of the Holocaust, Torah’s message continued to flow, unabated while families remained together, from father to son, mother to daughter those messages, those memories, and lessons were taught. This pathway to the future, the bond of life, has the power to unite families and a people for generations, and the proof is, this way of teaching and the unity of each next generation was first established on that first night of Passover over three thousand years ago. This is the other meaning of the Passover Seder. The bond of life, the connection of every generation to the past, life itself, the source of unifying every generation of every form of life, was established on that first Passover night, as strength of the Children of Israel, the unifying force of the Jewish people until this very day. That was the Jewish family, through a shared way of life.
Torah is built for the purpose of sustaining and continuing the unity and strength of the family, which sustains the strength of a people, because all religious Jews share and participate in the same “way of life.” Torah’s central message achieves both. The foundational prayer, Shema Yisroel, the very prayer contained in Tefillin, established the “invisible link” that connects every Jew to Hashem, and every Jew to his or her children, and grandchildren every morning, every afternoon and every evening. This weekday practice by the Jew, connects every Jew to each other through a shared past, and through a daily way of life, and therefore serves as a guiding light for the Jew and the Jewish people towards the future. Thus, it is the Shema Yisroel, that re-states every day the source of strength for the Jewish people, that source is the unity of the Jewish family, and it is through the Jewish family that empowers Hashem’s message to ultimately be delivered to the world. This practice spiritually began at what could be thought of as the first ‘Seder,’ on the eve of the Children of Israel’s departure from Egypt. That source of unity, the deliverer of Torah’s message in the most practical terms, is the family.
Thus, the Passover story is not only about achieving freedom from the Pharaoh of Egypt, the more important message is how to sustain the unity and strength of the Jewish people, which was established on that first Seder night,…that’s what’s missing from the Haggadah. The Passover Seder established the pathway that leads to freedom in any generation.
The first Seder marked the beginning of a long journey through time, and to start the Jewish people off on the right foot, to introduce the process by which Torah would be taught from generation to generation, that is, even before receiving Torah, these first Jews, for sure without even being aware of it, were directed by Torah’s central message (Hashem), the Shema Yisroel. The commandment that we must teach our children, and they must teach their children, served to define the pathway, and the source of unity of the Jewish people for three thousand years was set in stone on that very first Seder night.
The great secret to Jewish success was forever established, through the youngest son’s asking his father four questions, and the family participating in answering those questions. From generation to generation, the Torah’s messages of life would be taught from father to son, mother to daughter, day in and day out, would define the future of every Jew and the Jewish people. “LIFE,” THE LINK BETWEEN THE PAST AND THE FUTURE OF EVERY INDIVIDUAL, WOULD SERVE AS BOTH TEACHER AND SOURCE OF UNIFICATION OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION. Torah achieves both family unity and the unity of the Jewish people through a Torah observant life, but the success of Torah is 100 percent dependent on the bond of life that is reflected by the observant Jewish family. Amazingly, this source of unity, this source of educating each next generation, was established before the Jews were set free, while the angel of death passed over every Jew’s house.
Thus, the other meaning of the Passover Seder, from my interpretation, isn’t about achieving freedom as much as it is about establishing the one pathway that could unify the Jewish people forever, thus empowering the Jewish people to deliver Torah’s moral message in every generation, thus empowering G-d’s chosen people to stand up, speak out, declare that all people are free, all people are equal, in every generation when the need arises. The guiding light are the moral laws of Torah, and the main teacher of those laws are parents and family, the source of life for every generation, and the beneficiary is every Jewish son and daughter, thus the Jewish people, and ultimately the world.
Freedom of the body is different than freedom of the mind. Freedom of the body relates to the ability to move, but freedom of the mind comes from a perspective that empowers the mind to see the world, the universe and the story of life through a wide open, objective lens. This is what Torah offers, that is, the ability to see the world, the universe, and beyond in all of their glory, through one perspective. It is through freedom of the mind that we find hope in the future, and not through freedom of the body. The entire story of the universe and life are all contained in this one perspective, nothing is missing. Thus, the message of Torah, the state of reality, thus the state of truth that all people share can be seen through this perspective guiding the human mind, “IN THE BEGINNING G-D (INFINITE DARKNESS) CREATED THE HEAVENS (THE UNIVERSE) AND THE EARTH (LIFE/THE HUMAN BEING).” This is a view of all that there is, was, and could forever be. Thus, this is a mind that has achieved a state of total, absolute freedom.
No people in the history of the world, other than the Jewish people, ever achieved a life built on peace, love and compassion for others, from one generation to the next, while at the same time having to live in a world experiencing so much hate from other peoples. This success is the direct result of the main message of the Jewish people, the very message of Passover. To teach every Jewish child Torah, thus, to teach the foundation of a moral code of law that has the power to establish world peace. The proof is Jewish success as a people, notwithstanding the generations of persecution, and misery.
Jewish success can tracked back to the true meaning and purpose of the first symbolic Seder night, as the angel of death passed over every Jewish household, and the question was asked “Why is this night different from all other nights?” Hiding behind the scene of that first question and answer, was Hashem establishing the pathway for Jewish success over the long journey from generation to the next one.
What happened in a Rockville, Maryland high school last week relates to one of the questions I have spent years trying to answer: “What went wrong with America?” You see, what happened in Rockville is happening every day under different sets of circumstances all across America, and as I noticed, at an increasing rate as time passes.
How could the education of anyone, illegal alien or citizen, be of more importance than the safety of children? Absurd? Of course it is, but that is exactly what set the stage for the rape of a young girl. The Rockville school district placed two older boys of college age, who by law are adults, in a high school with much younger children because the boys couldn’t speak English. I think the theory was based on the difficulty of learning in an atmosphere with people of their own ages, inasmuch as the older people are much more advanced than high school kids.
I’ll repeat, the Rockville school system chose between the safety of children and a person’s right to an education. In other words, some “intelligent” adult(s) put on the side, or completely discounted the potential sexual attraction these young men might have while living in an atmosphere with younger girls many hours each day, five days a week. I submit, whoever made that decision, an intelligent adult(s), has not only lost touch with reality, that person(s) has a mind that is morally deficient, and should instantly be permanently removed from the Rockville school system. You see, whoever made that decision should have known the danger, and because the first obligation of every official of every school system is to protect every student, I submit, whoever made that decision is directly responsible for what happened to that young girl.
So the question is, how could any intelligent, well-educated individual or people make such a decision? I ask this question because, as I said, decisions like this have been happening at an increasing pace all across America, and in fact, I myself have been the victim of such thoughtless thinking twice in just this past year alone.
As I sit here and write, the City of New York is building a homeless shelter right next door to a shopping center I own, and adjacent to my shopping center, within 150’ from the shelter, is a New York City public high school with over a thousand teenage students. All of whom will be in the line of sight of as much as 175 homeless men, five days a week.
Now my second problem: Last summer, my “new” neighbor decided to build a fence along our shared boundary line, which runs parallel with my 300 foot-long driveway and separating the two is a mere five feet. Both of our homes are part of a subdivision of forty homes, and not one other home in the entire subdivision has a fence along a shared boundary line. When I confronted my new neighbor about his fence, his answer, “I own this property, it’s my right as a property owner.” My response to him was, “Yes, I understand that, but you also have a neighbor to live next to.” It didn’t matter to him. While these are all completely different circumstances and of varying levels of danger, what they do have in common is that with my neighbor, the Rockville Board of Education, and the City of New York, all three decisions discounted the impact of their decisions on the others involved. Each decision is best described by this phrase, “It’s all about me.” So the question is, how is it that so many people today are so self-centered that they won’t even consider “the other guy,” or just won’t let their minds go a bit further to see who else might be affected by a decision? How’d that happen? What happened to the golden rule? Why is it different today? What happened to respect for others?
So “what went wrong with America,” or “how did such a high percentage of people become so self-serving? I submit, America is broken because of the failure to consider the consequences of one’s actions on other people, which in effect is the composition of a family, and the composition of a neighborhood, and the composition of a government, and the composition of a country, America. So the question is, why is it today, other people are so easily discounted when an individual makes a decision? Why is the percentage of thoughtless, or self-serving people today so high? What caused so many Americans to guide their lives through such a narrowed perspective of the world? A perspective that is based on “myself.” This is the question that had to be answered, or put another way, what is it about the American way of life that causes tunnel vision, that establishes such selfishness, greed, a lack of respect, an attention deficit that refuses to see the consequences of one’s thoughts and actions on other people? Why is it that today, the percentage of people who think this way is so high? What went wrong with America? Sure, there were always selfish people, there were always people behaving badly, but something always kept the percentage at a low enough level so as not to so adversely affect the future of America. Today, disrespect for others is running rampant.
I found the answer to my questions in the most fundamental message of America, because it has not been delivered to the American public correctly. WE ARE A NATION OF PEOPLE THAT HAVE BEEN TOLD BY AMERICA’S LEADERS THROUGHOUT OUR LIFETIMES, AND OUR PARENTS AND GRANDPARENTS LIFETIMES, THAT THE PATHWAY TOWARD FULFILLING OUR DREAMS IS THROUGH OUR INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM, OUR INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS AS HUMAN BEINGS AS GUARANTEED BY THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, AND AS STATED IN THE BILL OF RIGHTS. AMERICA’S MESSAGE, THEREFORE, IS INHERENTLY FLAWED, IT IS BUILT ON A VERY NARROWED PERSPECTIVE OF BOTH THE WORLD AND THE STORY OF LIFE AS DEFINED BY NATURE. THE WAY THE MESSAGE IS DELIVERED STATES THAT LIFE’S JOURNEY IS “ALL ABOUT ME.” But life’s journey is never only about me, and herein lies America’s main problem.
I submit, that for every time you’ve heard a president of our country, as well as any of our political leaders, talk about how precious life is, how precious family is, how precious America is, you’ve heard a thousand messages about how precious an individual’s freedom is, and how precious an individual’s rights are, and how precious equality is. In other words, drilled into the minds of tens of millions of Americans is the idea that “I am what matters most,” or, “I can do what I want, it’s a free country,” and to me, that is a big problem, because to live as part of a society, if there is to be any chance of achieving lasting peace, that idea can’t work. PEACE REQUIRES MUTUAL RESPECT, AND THAT NECESSARILY MEANS A PERSON CANNOT BE FREE TO DO WHATEVER HE OR SHE WANTS. The point is, delivered incorrectly, while America’s message had the power to lead America to the heights of economic, technological, and scientific greatness, and a better quality of life for so many more people, hiding in the background, America’s message also had the power to destroy people’s lives, and to destroy America, both through the moral breakdown that eventually results from truly believing the message, “that I am entitled to my rights, my freedoms.” America is falling due to the public hearing the wrong message from our leaders over and over again, a message that rarely ever is based on the truth. If living in peace is the goal of each of us, if achieving peace in the world is America’s goal as a nation, I submit, the way the message has been written in the Constitution, and delivered by America’s leaders throughout America’s history, most of us, America, and the world will all fail.
The Constitution of the United States, the guiding light of American law, thus the guiding light of our people from generation to generation, by the way it was written, left out any mention of the very subjects that determine a moral way of life, which happens to be the pathway to achieving a “more perfect union.” Why do I say that? Because the Constitution is silent when it comes to the relevance of life, family and country (America) relative to a person’s freedom. As such, the meaning and purpose of freedom is misunderstood. Freedom is placed on the highest pedestal, on the tiptop of the highest mountain in terms of the goal of America. Yet, the truth is, freedom is no more than a tool to serve life. Yes, freedom is indeed the pathway that leads to a higher quality of life, but it fails as an idea that can lead to a peaceful, meaningful life.
Absent of life, family and country, freedom has no value, but with life, family and country freedom derives everlasting value, and so, the values which establish freedom’s worth are missing in the Constitution, which is exactly why freedom has run rampant all through modern day America.
If there is no reference to the worth of life in the Constitution, than an individual’s freedom will seem of higher value (Roe v Wade). If there is no reference to the meaning and purpose of family in the Constitution, than an individual’s freedom will seem of higher value (thus a divorce rate which climbed to 50%), and if there is no reference to America’s value as an idea, as protector of life and freedom, than freedom will again seem of higher worth (the reason burning the American flag is so misguided, and why a global society matters more than America). As such, the future was inevitable by virtue of the way America’s message was delivered. Reduced to mere assumptions, the moral values established through the worth of life, and taught and protected through family life, the most treasured of all gifts, and America, our beloved country, are all absent from America’s message, all taken for granted, and therefore, destined to be diminished in terms of relevance. Thus, reduced in value by virtue of assumption, this eventually gave rise to a new America–the America of today, a society that is no longer built on family, no longer built on the relevance of America, but instead, today, a great percentage of American’s focus of attention is on just one person, “me,” and the future built on a global society. Today, for way too many Americans, little else matters other than oneself, and for sure that is a morally bankrupt individual. You see, moral values are only necessary in a world with other people, but if no one else matters but me, moral values, if known, will eventually be lost. With an assumption, taken for granted, awareness is gone, and out of sight out of mind. Without a moral standard, if “I only matter,” if life, family, and country no longer matter, morality will fall, and society inevitably collapses. I submit, herein lies the source of deep division in American society.
There is a reason the human being must search for truth. In fact, it is compulsory. What I have come to learn, over the course of years of intense reflection and investigation, is that we are all pre-programmed to search, and that this search is, deep down, always for truth. I also discovered how our need to search, and “truth” as object of this search, act together to empower the human being to fulfill a very special purpose.
You see, I have come to understand that to find and define the main universal truth that hides within the fabric of nature, and controls the story of life, not only reveals how the universe and nature works, but this truth also reveals the presence of Abraham’s living G-d. Moreover, this truth reveals both the secret to living a long, healthy, happy and meaningful life, as well as the secret to achieving world peace. As such, to find and define nature’s and life’s most central truth, is a very big deal. It has the potential of proving both the existence of Abraham’s G-d, and the existence of a universal agenda in play since the dawn of time. The point is, I learned, the purpose of man (the human being), in searching for truth, is no different than a moth that flies off into the night for the purpose of reaching a faint and distant light. Inevitably the moth will reach that light, which means, inevitably, so too will man. This is man’s purpose, to reach the light that emanates from this special truth.
I believe I succeeded in identifying and defining this main, universal truth—that faint and distant light—and I believe that I, just like the moth, reached that light. You see, I learned that the search to find and define nature’s and life’s truth, is man’s destiny, for to understand the nature of this unique and special light, nature’s most central truth, is to learn that it is the driving force behind human free will. Thus, I learned that nature controls the decisions we make when we search for answers, resolutions or explanations regarding both nature’s and life’s problems and mysteries.
Please consider the following….
Can you imagine yourself searching for a false answer? Of course not, the idea is absurd. Why would anyone strive towards learning a false answer, unless it is for the purpose of finding some truth?
We search for truthful answers or a truth because we can rely on the knowledge it yields. Thus, truth has value. Truth is based on certainly, thus to know a truth, is also to know we can always apply a truth to find the right answer, or to guide our decision making. In other words, to know a truth gives one the ability to know what the future holds. It is for this reason that uncovering the one universal truth (a force) that directs the story of the universe is so important, because such knowledge empowers the human mind to unravel the rest of nature’s greatest mysteries, including finding the answer to the question, “Is man in control of his own destiny?”
As I said, the goal of finding a false answer is absurd, because a false answer is unproductive, it lacks long-term certainty, and therefore, a false answer is of no value. In fact, a falsity can have a negative value, if it can only get us into some kind of trouble. As such, our purpose is to learn truthfully, and that is whether a person is aware of that agenda or not. Thus, our human minds are pre-programmed to find truth, for this is the way we sustain our value as human beings, above all other forms of life. The point is that neither agenda is a matter of human free will. For this reason, I conclude, that every decision the human mind renders for the purpose of learning, is either to find a truth or to use a truth. After all, is not the purpose of learning what is false for the purpose of learning or confirming what is true? Thus, human free will is based on decisions that are intended to lead us to truth, or to empower us to use a truth. As such, when it comes to learning, the free will of the human mind is powerless to self-determine the purpose of learning. Learning is always for the purpose of identifying and defining truth.
As I said, the human being is also pre-programmed to search, and here is some evidence.
The human mind can only examine one subject at a time; it cannot examine two or more subjects at a time. As such, after examining one subject for the purpose of learning, if the matter relates to two or more subjects, the thinker must move on to the second subject, or third, and on and on, but the point is, we are all pre-programmed to follow a process that constitutes a search. Thus, built into the fabric of human nature is a universal agenda, to search for truth. Why “universal?” That’s because man’s only subject of exploration is nature, and nature extends from the heart and soul of every individual to the end of the universe, and beyond. As such, no matter the label or the category, the species or the form, it is always the same subject man explores, what we call “nature.”
Here is another example that proves that man must search.
If you draw two circles on a piece of paper, notice that you can only draw one circle at a time. Now try measuring the circumference of both circles at the same time. In ‘natural’ terms, both are impossible. Now try measuring the distance between both circles with a ruler, and watch what you do as if in slow motion.
In order to measure the line you’ll have to place a ruler on both circles, but that can only happen one circle at a time. You’ll have to line up the end of the ruler on one circle, and when the ruler is set, you’ll turn your attention to the other circle. The point is this: the fact that a human being can only examine detail, one subject at a time, means that learning follows a specific process, and that process always constitutes searching for a correct or truthful answer.
So tell me, have I convinced you that human free will isn’t quite cracked up to be the power most of us think it is?
Human beings are a part of nature, and therefore, a part of every other form of life, and it has been that way since the dawn of life, which is why all forms of life are all pre-programmed to struggle to survive. Is not the entire story of evolution about adaptation for the purpose of overcoming the struggle to survive? Yet, there is one aspect about the story of life that has never adapted completely for that specific purpose, that is, almost every form of life with eyes, can never see in a complete circle, with a full 360 degree field of view. Most forms of life, including human beings, can only extend one half of that distance, 180 degrees. Now isn’t that amazing!
The one physical aspect of life that has the power to protect life most effectively, the ability to observe the surrounding environment to it’s fullest, for some “strange” reason has never fully made the great leap to adapt to nature fully, not even in the highest form of life, the human being, which means a part of every environment is always hidden to both man and beast, and that has profound significance on the story of life. The question is, could that be coincidental?
I submit, it is the inability to see what’s going on in all four directions at the same time that assures that life remain a struggle for both man and beast. The point is, nature directs that life continue as a struggle, and human free will is powerless to change that. For as long as there is something hidden from human sight, man will feel stress, wonder, question, and seek answers to questions. Thus, it is man’s inability to constantly observe his environment from all four directions at the same time, that is a significant driving force of both man’s emotions and thoughts. By virtue of the human being only possessing two eyes that cannot see more than fifty percent of any environment, leads us to understand that life sets agenda, and this is absent of the use of free will.
Do not human beings physically and mentally react to every aspect of nature, whether a part of nature is in motion or dead still? As such, cannot nature very subtly control human free will?
Have you ever considered the fact that you can’t draw a straight line, or a crooked line, or a square, or any other configuration, without first starting to draw from a “beginning” point and continuing until reaching an “end” point? Does this not suggest that everything moves along a path, whether that be the path of life or the path of a planet around a sun, or the movement of the universe as it continues expanding outward? Would this not mean that all things are built on some structural foundation, where we are always moving in one direction, whether seemingly forward or backward? Does not everything move forward into the future?
All existence that is based on a structural foundation, therefore, moves along a perfectly straight line, it doesn’t matter what form of development occurs, nor does it matter how fast or slow development occurs, or if development twists or turns, nor does it matter what development relates to. And finally, it doesn’t even matter if an object is stuck in one place. As long as a structural form of existence is in motion, whether internally or if it moves along some path, it is always pursuing the future.
For example, at the moment of the body’s conception development begins (both physically and mentally) and both will continue to progress through the birth process, throughout the course of one’s life. That this may happen at different moments, however, does not change the fact that both “evolved” while pursuing or following the same path relentlessly, that is, always moving into the future.
Consider a hurricane. Does it develops in two simultaneous directions? Or is that only what seems to be going on? In fact, both directions are one and the same.
As a hurricane’s winds turn in a circular shape, the winds are always moving forward into the future, but that is also true as the hurricane moves in a “forward” direction. So while a hurricane’s winds move in a counterclockwise direction, the direction those winds pursue is also always forward into the future. Thus, we establish the arrow of time.
The point is, part of the structure of existence, whether in a tangible or intangible form, is to always pursue the future, and always leave behind a record of the past, thus empowering the human being to learn from the past, both the story of the universe and the story of life. Furthermore, a person can’t learn much from the present, because the present is equivalent to fixed moment in time. As such, all that one can learn from a fixed moment (like a photo snap shot) is ” what was” a fleeting moment ago (assuming there is some duration to the moment). Without the ability to compare at least two moments in time, there is no foundation for learning, because there is no basis for comparison, and only through comparison can we see and measure change, thus learn and draw conclusions. Finally, you can never learn from the future, because the future never arrives. In conclusion, if you can’t learn from either the present or the future, we are only left with one place to learn from, and that is the past.
Without the past, man has no way of learning, but without a future there would be no subject to learn about. As such, the learning process is only possible because of the universe, all of nature, and the story of man, always moving in one direction, that is towards the future.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS CONCLUSION, IF CORRECT, CANNOT BE OVERSTATED, BECAUSE IT MEANS THAT THE LEARNING PROCESS IS CONTROLLED BY NATURE, AND NOT BY THE FREE WILL OF MAN.
I believe the thought process that leads to the condition known as “moral equivalency” is the result of an individual’s inability to see the world in real terms.
Two of the special qualities that separate the human being from other higher forms of life are the human being’s ability to see and understand the world in terms of the difference in the significance of things, and that is under all kinds of circumstances. This is profound, because if things can have different levels of significance by virtue of nature, independent of the human being, this means that nature, somehow and in some way, is built on a system of values that only the human being has the ability to expose and understand. Is not value determined by the significance of something? Is not significance based on importance? Is not importance the foundation of value? Thus, is it not the purpose of “man” to expose nature’s values.
I submit it is because the human being possesses the ability to see and understand a world that is based on varying levels of significance that not only exposes nature’s values–these abilities together also establish human value above every other form of life, because no other form of physical existence can rise to the level of performance that the human being can achieve by virtue of these qualities.
Thus, it is these unique and special qualities that empower the human being to bring both meaning and purpose into the world, because these qualities together not only establish the means by which nature’s values are exposed and understood, these qualities also establish the standard by which the value of all things are determined.
It is only through human existence that establishes both the meaning and the purpose of our earth and the universe, as well as the pathway to fulfilling both objectives. Both are achieved through exposing and understanding nature’s values, and living by those values from one generation to the next, because eventually and inevitably this leads humanity to fulfilling a great, universal purpose–to establish everlasting world peace.
Therefore, the purpose of the human being is to act as both the means by which nature’s values are exposed and understood, and to act as the standard by which those values are determined. Thus, it is the purpose of the human being, above everything else, to recognize, accept and openly acknowledge the non-negotiable worth of a human life, because it is only through an overt conscious awareness of such high value, that the human being can understand the state of reality, “nature’s truth,” which is that “all human life is of equal worth.” To act upon this truth, is to follow the pathway that leads to fulfillment of the human purpose, to establish a world of peace.
THE WORTH OF A HUMAN LIFE IS NATURE’S HIGHEST VALUE, THE STANDARD BY WHICH ALL OTHER THINGS IN NATURE ARE VALUED.
Moral equivalency occurs when that standard of value–the worth of a human life–is diminished, subordinated, or lowered for whatever reason, and if that problem persists for a long enough period of time. The reason is, the worth of a human life is fixed by nature, it is therefore a universal truth, not subject to human interpretation, thus, the worth of life is never a subjective matter, but when this occurs, the worth of life, the standard of all value, both morally and physically, is lost, rendering a world absent of value, which is also to render all things of “equal standing,” a world where life can have no more value than a mere experience.
Inspired by the Jewish holiday of Shavuot (the days the Jewish people received the Ten Commandments–the Moral Code of the Hebrew Torah, and the Founding Fathers of America) in the immediate aftermath of the Islamic slaughter of 50 innocent human lives, I write the following:
Today America is confronting two wars, and both relate directly to the subject of “morality.”
Within America the moral war is between conservative moral values and liberal moral values. I submit there is an important difference between the two. But America is also involved in a war with the religion of Islam (and I don’t mean only an extremist interpretation). This war too is defined through the moral principles of America’s founding fathers, which are stated in Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution, in contrast to the moral principles of Islam, which are contained in the Koran, and other Islamic writings. Here too, there is a significant difference.
Before I continue I want to say this, …I’m no expert on moral principles, at least not in terms of being well read in any of these ideological, religious or philosophical ideas. However, I did read enough to feel confident about the legitimacy of what I am going to say, and the reason is, I looked at another source, a source which is the foundation of all human thought, a source which first established the universal moral principles. That source is nature.
I submit, the acts involved in human thought, that is, the act of wondering, the act of thinking, and the act of searching to find answers, always relate to the same two subjects which never change, even when some ideology intervenes in the process. Human thought is always based on the relationship between the human being and nature (man’s environment), and influencing human thought are past experiences, and the lessons of the past (which include the ideologies we believe in to guide our thinking). I learned that if we eliminate all human memory of our past lessons of life, and watch both the human mind and body together respond to nature, we can discover the “UNIVERSAL VALUES OF THINGS ESTABLISHED BY THE LAWS OF NATURE,” and that was long before the arrival of “Adam and Eve.”
The point is, the foundation of moral thought was established independent of the human being, those guiding principles were established within the very fabric of nature. That foundation, the sound principles of moral thought are therefore universal in nature, and cannot be changed by the free will of the human being. I submit, nature’s moral principles are fixed, everlasting, forever, and therefore, they apply to every human being regardless of religion, race, culture, gender, political affiliation or a person’s economic status, and because the human being cannot deviate from those moral principles and expect to achieve peace in the world, there can only be one set of moral principles for all people. Those moral principles must conform to the laws of nature, the only true common ground for all of mankind. (On a side note: If what I said is true, this is very profound, because this discovery not only leaves no room for human free choice, it is proof that nature is in control of the pathway that leads to world peace).
Here are two examples of nature determining human equality before the human being ever existed.
If you look up at any clear night sky, you will see, more or less, the exact same set of circumstances that have existed since the dawn of the universe, or to make it more convenient, just open to the first page of Google Earth.
Both a clear night sky and Google Earth, by no mere coincidence, show the same picture, both are comprised of darkness and heavenly bodies (our earth, stars, planets). I say “by no mere coincidence” because this set of circumstances is the “unchanging, fixed state of reality.” This is the only set of circumstances that is a reflection of an everlasting, perpetual state of things that can never be altered through the passage of time, which is why this set of circumstances is the only “human perspective” that is capable of revealing the one state of “facts” that can reveal both nature’s and life’s universal truths.
Here’s what I mean:
In the most practical terms…as your life changes, as you walk around each day, going from A to B, ….as our earth turns one complete circle every 24 hours, traveling at thousands of miles per hour, and as our universe expands at an enormous, unimaginable speed,… with all that is going on, in terms of reality, NOTHING MOVES ONE INCH. You see, relative to the seemingly infinite darkness that prevails, we are all fixed, nothing ever moves. Wherever a person travels, wherever our earth travels, wherever the universe goes on its long journey, nothing ever moved a single inch relative to the darkness. This is a universal truth of nature and a truth of life for every form of life, and the consequence of that fact are both stunning and profound.
In effect, with a mind that is stretched to the maximum of human potential, a mind that can see both what’s “inside the universal box and outside that box,” is that we can see that no human being is in control of his or her own destiny. We are all “equal,” all in a direct relationship with the darkness. For it is this state that controls the human journey through life, and dictates the permanency of this relationship. It is also by no mere coincidence that this state of absolute pureness is a reflection of Abraham’s living G-d.
The point is, the true state of reality can only be revealed through a single perspective that guides the human mind, a perspective that again, is stretched to the limit of human potential, “a perspective that reveals all that is, was, and will forever be.” But very important, is the fact that is specific set of circumstances is a matter of recorded history by virtue of the state of reality that is visible to every human eye simply by peering up at the heavens on any clear night. This perspective therefore, tells the entire story of existence, for all people, and the entire story of existence for the universe. This perspective alone, reveals the common ground that all people share.
This perspective reveals the universe’s and life’s dependency on infinite darkness, and vice versa, and therefore, reveals a relationship that is sealed, everlasting through all of time. No other perspective that the free will of man can chose can tell the same story, the story of truth, which is why this perspective alone has the power to lead humanity to the fulfillment of the elusive human dream, to live in a world of peace.
It is the human mind’s reflection of both states together that can reveal the unchanging state of reality. So in truth, we live amidst two realms, a physical realm that is constant motion, constantly changing from one moment in time to the next, and a second realm that controls the motion of the physical realm, a realm which, in effect, acts as a paradoxical force, that keeps the universe fixed, unmovable and locked into a perpetual relationship with everlasting darkness. This is a realm that is both pure and empty, colorless, transparent and unwavering.
Somehow and someway, our universe came from the darkness, as such, it is the darkness that perpetuated the first ray of light, which is indeed very significant, because “the source of light is the darkness.” This idea is completely contrary to the way we were taught to think in western civilization. Yet, Google Earth shows the darkness?? And every clear night sky shows the darkness?? Duh!
First there was darkness, second the universe, third, life on Earth, and only after this order unfolded over time were the conditions “perfectly” established to beget the human species, the beginning of the generations of mankind. As such, through an everlasting mutual dependency on that order, the value of things was established through the laws of nature before the human being ever walked on the surface of the Earth.
It is because the human being is the only form of life that can think, reason, and care about what happens in nature and in the story of life, that places the human being on the very tippy top of nature’s values. It is the human being that is nature’s interpreter, and therefore, the purpose of the human being is to bring meaning into the world and meaning to the universe and meaning to the darkness “through interpreting the state of reality in truthful terms.” It is because every human life flows out of “nature’s order,” that established equal human worth before the dawn of our species. As such, it is nature that established the value of a human life, and not the free will of the human mind. In fact, the human mind, as awe inspiring as it is, does not possess the power to alter nature’s order, and therefore, it is not within human capability to change the worth of a human life (herein lies the division that separates the liberal from the conservative, herein lies the source of division between the world of Islam and the world of the Hebrew Torah, and the guiding principles of America’s founding fathers).
If a baby is born blind, and another baby is born with eyes that can see, both are equal in human worth, because both lives emanate from the same place as determined by nature. Track any human life’s genetic history back in time far enough and it will merge with every other human life. If you keep going further back in time, every human life will merge with the animal kingdom, then with fish, foul and plant life, and ultimately all things merge at that moment in time known as the Big Bang Event, the dawn of light, and the beginning of the universal journey, all of which emanated from the darkness. And so you see, equal human value was determined by nature, “through the order of things that is built on mutual dependency,” before Adam and Eve first appeared.
Thus, BY VIRTUE OF EVERY HUMAN LIFE EMANATING FROM A SINGLE SOURCE, ALL HUMAN LIFE IS OF EQUAL WORTH. THIS IS THE FIRST DECLARATION OF THE HEBREW TORAH, NOTICE THE ORDER OF THINGS: …”IN THE BEGINNING GOD (Infinite darkness) CREATED THE HEAVENS (the universe) AND THE EARTH (life).” Out of the story of life, comes the human journey, as well as human equality, whether the experiences of the journey are either defined through freedom or slavery.
IT IS NATURE’S ORDER THAT DETERMINED THE VALUE OF HUMAN LIFE, AND IT IS NATURE’S ORDER THAT DETERMINED THE VALUE OF HUMAN EQUALITY, AND THE VALUE OF FREEDOM.
Look at Thomas Jefferson’s words, “…life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Notice the order of the words, …”life” is first, “liberty” is second, and “happiness” is third. This order isn’t by mere coincidence. The order was determined by nature, however, the point is, the order wasn’t determined by Jefferson. Is not happiness dependent on a person’s freedom (liberty)? Are not both freedom and happiness dependent on life? It is through the mutual dependency of all things that flow out nature that establish nature’s order and determine the values of life (at the highest value), the value of liberty or freedom (second in worth), and the value of happiness (third). Nature dictated those values, not man.
Every human experience (whether defined through freedom or slavery) emanates from a state of being, LIFE. In other words, life must prevail for an experience to occur, thus life is of the highest value, and because to live a happy life one must be free, thus, freedom or liberty is next in value. Happiness is a consequence of an individual’s freedom to choose, and both are dependent on life. As such, it man’s dependency on nature’s order that establishes moral standards, and gives rise to the level of mutual human respect that provides not only opportunity, but also the power to fulfill the dream of living a happy and peaceful life.
In conclusion, therefore, nature is in control of the pathway that leads to peace on earth, and that pathway was established through a specific order which was well established before the arrival of humanity. I submit, to acknowledge this universal ‘proven truth” is the first giant step all of humanity, together, must take in order to resolve human conflict, thus paving the way to the fulfillment of the human dream.
It is through this perspective, “In the beginning, (G-d) Infinite darkness created the (the Heavens) universe, and (the Earth) life,” that is the only guiding light that can reveal “the order of things, and the order of the story of evolution,” which determined the one law of nature that defined the future, that is, Life begets freedom, and freedom begets happiness, thus, it is only through the story of life, that created the possibility of living both a free and happy life.
Thus, nature established the value of things that determined the pathway to peace in the world. It is for this reason the value or worth of life must always remain in an non-negotiable status as it relates to the human condition, for to subordinate or to lower the worth of a human life for any reason, is to break the laws of nature that determine human morality–the guiding light that leads to world peace. To subordinate the worth of life, for any condition of life, is to lose nature’s guiding light, the pathway to achieving mankind’s most sought after and most elusive of all dreams.
Years ago, there came a point in time when I began looking for something to do to challenge my mind, and for a particular reason, I choose the hardest challenge of all. I decided to take on the most difficult questions about life and nature, the very questions that haunted the minds of history’s most well-known thinkers, but questions that were never fully resolved. Yup, that was my challenge, but what made my quest really crazy was that I knew I knew nothing, or almost nothing. At the same time, there was some particular reason that gave me the push to start (perhaps, it was not unlike the impetus that led to my success in the real estate business).
I knew I was creative, even if not smart, or factually strong. I knew I had patience, after all, the average real estate development deal I worked on over the years required my attention on most days, for I’d say an average of three or more years. And so, grounded on “patience and persistence,” due to a heart as strong as a lion, and a mind with an ego the size of Donald Trump’s, and a creative way of thinking, I mustered up all of those forces within me that defined my successful real estate career, and off I went looking for answers for the most important questions relating to life and nature.
My very first question to answer was this: “Why must people wonder about the world, and wonder about nature and life?” Talk about a difficult question! Looking for the answer led me into other questions, specifically, “Why does wondering lead into asking questions?” Why does wondering leading into an inquiry, or searching for answers?”
It took me one year to respond to these questions, and I worked diligently every morning for an average of three hours each session. I even pulled a number of all night sessions. However, I didn’t read any books, because I suspected that no one ever fully answered these questions, but if someone had, it didn’t matter, because I didn’t know the their answer. Rather, “I would be as if an original discoverer,” and that’s what excited me so much. Trying to find answers for these tough questions was a great way to test my mental strength and challenge my creativity. The success or failure of any question was not relevant, it was the challenge that excited me the most.
Just before I set out on this venture I made a firm commitment to myself never to quit until either I found an answer in the most truthful terms, or I was absolutely sure that no truth was to be found and proven.
Amazingly, I knew nothing, or almost nothing in factual terms, but my confidence was strong, and at the time, I allowed myself to be guided by my intuition. Without a doubt, the recorded history of my family and my people also played a pivotal role. You see, I am a Jew, and I am a very proud Jew, because my people have an amazing track record of achievement in every area of human endeavor, especially when it comes to using one’s mind. This is a record that spans a period of thousands of years or at least for the last seven hundred to a thousand years, where success has been well distributed across the generations. From this, I concluded that the success of the Jewish people wasn’t coincidental. There was something unique and special about the way the Jewish mind perceives the world. However, because that mind was nurtured through the constant study of Torah and Talmud, there was some very well hidden message that passed from one generation to another, and for sure, I too had to be a recipient of that message, whatever it was. And so, I was very sure, that within the depths of my Jewish soul there was some guiding light that would push me along, or that I would follow as I pursued the answer(s) to each question. I knew that at some point of my journey, while on the way to answering one of nature or life’s greatest questions, that I would learn the nature of that special soul, whatever its composition is.
With every great question I set out to answer, from the very beginning, I explored the relationship between the “human being and nature,” and for the most part, I was the human being I explored. It was my mind that I could watch, and understand my feelings, something that was impossible to do with anyone else, whether an author, a thinker or a doer. I literally became “an observer of myself,” and with the ability to look at myself under a microscope, I could control the perspectives I relied on to think through my questions. I could control my level of objectivity and integrity, and therefore, I could be sure to always maintain a truthful mind. All of these critical aspects of human thought are impossible to watch or analyze with anyone else’s mind. Thus, the usual pathway to learning any subject–through other people, whether by way of teaching or reading–is flawed when finding truth is the main objective. Only the original discoverer’s mind is unaffected by the lessons of others, and only the original discoverer’s mind can begin an inquiry unclogged by the lessons of the past, because the original discoverer is looking for something brand new. In affect, an original discoverer’s mind is likely to begin as an empty state as far as his subject is concerned, but even if the mind does possess knowledge on the subject, even if clogged by the experiences of the past, a person who is aware of his or her own mind, can empty it. Thus, such a mind can begin the learning process as if with the mind of a newborn child: empty, untainted and a mind that is in a perfect state of truth.
As a side note, I learned that the key to finding nature’s truth and life’s truth, is to search and explore with a mind that is in a sustained state of truth. Said another way, “to find truth, the mind must be prepared to receive that truth, and that requires a mind that is in a state of truth.” The consequences of this discovery are astounding, and specifically in one special way. You see, if truth can only be discovered through a perspective that is a reflection of truth, this is to virtually render human freewill or the ability to choose, powerless, for any other perspective will be out of sync with a perspective grounded on truth. The consequence of what I just said is the difference between living “the good life” or failing to achieve that dream. The consequence of what I just said is the difference between a world of peace or a world of conflict.
The human mind is the interpreter of nature and the story of life, thus the lens the mind sees through must be in a state of truth in order to see the truth. That lens is the perspective the mind relies on to interpret the world. That means, truth always boils down to a very personal matter. And as the old saying goes, “a person must look within.” Without the ability to look inside of your own mind, without a doubt the individual will see the world through a false perspective. Why? Because as the interpreter of the state of reality, the mind must reflect that image perfectly. But you could never know that, if you don’t compare what your eyes see and your body feels, to what your mind is considering. Constantly checking in with your own mind enables a person to correct perspectives, misjudgments, mistakes, as well as, checking on your mind’s objectivity, integrity and truthfulness. However, if you only consider the subject you are looking at, you’ll never know if your mind is seeing every component.
So I was the main subject of each inquiry, but so too was nature, because nature is what the eyes look at, and what the human body feels. I learned that the human being could never be separated from nature, and moreover, I realized that nature was the only subject that could be explored. Beyond this, while the free will of the human mind can make choices, every choice was a part of nature, including the effort of finding the living God. Thus, while it appears that human free will has the power of choice, on the grandest scale, or on the most microscopic level of nature, it should be evident, there is no choice. Man must look to nature for all of the answers, to every question, EVERY QUESTION.
(As a side note, our leaders, I mean America’s leaders, never once look to nature for the answers to our country’s questions, yet the Constitution of the United States is grounded on the central law of nature that governs the story of life. Capitalism, and a three-class economic and social system, are both based on the laws of nature…..Herein lies America’s biggest problem, THE FAILURE TO LOOK TO NATURE FOR ANSWERS).
I learned, through observing and feeling my mind and body, that the human being is nature’s interpreter. I learned that this is the purpose of the human being, to interpret nature and the ongoing story of life, and to do so with a specific objective, and that is, EVERY INTERPRETATION HAS THE BUILT IN, AND MOST OFTEN HIDDEN AGENDA, TO INTERPRET IN THE MOST TRUTHFUL OF TERMS. WHY? BECAUSE A FALSE ANSWER DOES NO GOOD, OR CAN GET A PERSON IN TROUBLE, WHILE TRUTHFUL ANSWERS ARE EFFECTIVE, AND FIX PROBLEMS, AND GET PEOPLE OUT OF TROUBLE. THUS, TRUTH IS A PART OF EVERY INQUIRY, WHETHER STATED OR NOT, WHETHER HIDDEN OR OUT IN THE OPEN AS AN OBJECTIVE OF THE INQUIRY.
However, the only way to know if some thought or feeling is true, requires an exploration of both one’s own mind and body relative to a subject of nature. I knew that this approach to answering my questions was almost full proof. The mistakes I would make would be minimized, because again, I was in full control of the perspective I would rely on, and I was in full control of checking on the validity, legitimacy, objectivity and integrity of each perspective. So while the subject of exploration is not a matter of human choice, the ability to explore that subject is. (I’ll save this explanation for another time.)
Yes, I learned that the purpose of man was to interpret nature through an awareness of oneself, which is in effect, the same as conducting a simultaneous inquiry of the relationship of two subjects as they relate to each other, man and nature. I learned that this is the only way an original discoverer can identify and understand the special connections between the story of nature and the story of life. For that was the only way the original discoverer could be sure he was following the right path, “the path of truth.” I’ll say it again, but differently. It is only through exploring the relationship between man (oneself) and nature, that it becomes possible to identify, define and become aware of nature and life’s shared truth. Thus, to find the truth of life as part of nature, the original discoverer has no choice, his free will is useless, unless he happens to choose the most unlikely approach. This is why mankind has to be directed towards the path of truth. Nature’s truth is hiding way below nature’s superficial diversity.
So sure that nature was in control of the beginning of the process that leads to the answers to every question, I had to find out what causes the human mind to wonder, to ask questions and to search for answers. Thought tempted at times to throw in the towel, I never quit on this venture. I knew how important the answer to this question was. You see, if people must wonder about things and life, and ask questions, and then begin to search for answers, then the conclusion must be, the human being is pre-programmed to perform these acts. Thus, human destiny is a foregone conclusion before every child is born. That’s huge. The significance of this cannot be overstated, because this means that human “free will” is not in play, when it comes to fulfilling the purpose of the human being, and that is, again, to wonder about the world, and to ask questions, and to begin searching for answers, always for the purpose of interpreting something about the story of life or nature.
To be continued.
The other day, I gave some serious thought to the Holocaust, right after reading an article titled, “On Remembering The Holocaust.”
To me, the people who felt compelled to “Never Forget” the Holocaust, and who contributed to the building of the Yad Vashem memorial in Israel, and the United States Holocaust Memorial in Washington DC, were doomed to fail in their mission in the long term. I mean, the Holocaust was destined to become just another terrible event in world history. As such, the way I see it, the lessons to be learned about the uniqueness of this era of unspeakable crimes against a people, and against all of humanity, I am afraid, were doomed to be forgotten.
As unbelievable as it is, humanity will have to learn these lessons all over again, but it’s the main reason this will happen that compels me to share my thoughts. You see, the reason the lessons of the Holocaust will be lost with the passage of time, the reason this is inevitable, is because too high a percentage of Jewish society were destined to have lost their interest in the Holocaust. I learned, if the Jewish people forget, the world’s conscience will be lost forever. Without the Jewish conscience guiding the world’s memory of the Holocaust, who else will? Absent of Jewish memory, the stage is set for the rise to power of another Hitler, who may well again target the Jews, or perhaps this time, target the American people.
So the question is, “why was it inevitable that the conscience of world Jewry be lost?” Well, I discovered the reasons at the very end of a tour of Yad Vashem last summer, and after thinking about it, I realized that the United States Holocaust Memorial, which I visited only a year earlier, shared the exact same problem. You see, with both memorials to the Holocaust, the planners, paradoxically, “forgot” to include the living conscience of the Jewish people. I mean the source of Jewish memory. By that I mean, TORAH IS MISSING FROM BOTH YAD VASHEM AND THE UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL. But even if Torah is present, in neither case is Torah displayed with the prominence it warrants. The very source of hope that kept the vast majority of Europe’s Jews, who were religious, alive day after day, always believing in Torah’s promise, that “with life there is always hope in the future,” was forgotten. Amazingly, THE BOND THAT LINKED THE GENERATIONS OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE THROUGH SHARING AND LIVING THE SAME WAY OF LIFE, A TORAH RICH LIFE THAT SERVED THE PURPOSE OF KEEPING THE MEMORIES OF THE PAST ALIVE, AS PART OF THE CONSCIOUS LEVEL OF EVERY JEW’S MIND AND HEART, IS MISSING FROM YAD VASHEM AND THE UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL.
HOW COULD THAT HAVE HAPPENED?
The source of Jewish unity–thus the binding link of the generations, the living memory of every Jew’s shared past with his fellow Jews no matter where scattered across the world–is missing from the very memorials charged with the objective of never forgetting the Holocaust. I submit, without Torah, without the daily repetition and practice of Shema Yisroel, THE PURPOSE OF WHICH IS “NEVER TO FORGET, without the Shabbos, THE PURPOSE OF WHICH IS NEVER TO FORGET…mission impossible.
Thus, the world’s moral conscience is missing, and absent of Torah’s recalling the past, the Jew has lost his guiding light into the future, as such, absent of Torah as a daily way of life, there was no way the planners of these great memorials were properly equipped to preserve and protect the lessons of the past. TORAH WAS FORGOTTEN FROM THE VERY PLACES DESIGNED TO “NEVER FORGET.” SHAME ON ALL OF YOU.
Sure, people will continue to visit these memorials, and their hearts will break, but as the years go by the numbers will drop, as a high percentage of the world’s Jews and the world at large lose interest in the Holocaust. As the old saying goes,”time heals all wounds,” and that includes even the most horrible of memories. IT IS BECAUSE NATURE IS BUILT ON THE HEALING OF WOUNDS WITH THE PASSAGE OF TIME, THAT ANOTHER SYSTEM HAD TO BE DEVISED FOR THE PURPOSE OF REMEMBERING THE PAST, OF KEEPING THOSE WOUNDS ALIVE, FRESH IN THE MEMORY OF EVERY’S JEW’S MIND. SUCH A SYSTEM COULD NEVER PERMIT THOSE MEMORIES TO SLIP AWAY INTO THE DEPTHS OF THE HUMAN MIND, THUS REDUCED TO EVENTS OF INSIGNIFICANCE, IF NOT LOST FOREVER. NO MEMORIAL COULD EVER ACHIEVE SUCH A LASTING IMPRINT ON THE HUMAN MIND. THE PERFECT SYSTEM TO ENSURE REMEMBERING THE MEMORIES OF THE PAST WAS GOD’S GIFT TO THE JEWISH PEOPLE, THIS IS THIS PEOPLE’S MESSAGE TO THE WORLD. THE GUIDING LIGHT INTO THE FUTURE, ARE THE MEMORIES AND LESSONS OF THE PAST. THAT PERFECT SYSTEM WAS DESIGNED IN TORAH, YET TORAH WAS FORGOTTEN BY THE PLANNERS OF YAD VASHEM. How could that have happened?
There is a reason the planners of Yad Vashem and other Holocaust memorials forgot the importance of Torah in Jewish life for almost 3,500 years. That was because a few German rabbis around the year 1880, decided they would rather live as Germans than as Torah observant Jews. I am referring to the birth of Reform Judaism. Reform Judaism served the purpose of assimilating into German society, solely to reduce the burdens of life of living as an observant Jew, and that message was brought to America. How could these rabbis not have known that the meaning and purpose of assimilation would end up causing the Jew “to forget his past, to become a part of a new and different way of life?” Of course they knew. How could any rabbi not consider the impact of breaking from a past that demanded daily practice, and the daily teaching of one’s children to keep the light from the past burning? HOW COULD ANY JEWISH LEADER TAKE SUCH A RISK?
UNITY DEMANDED OBSERVANCE OF TORAH, BECAUSE ONLY THROUGH A CAREFULLY DESIGNED “WAY OF LIFE” COULD THE MESSAGE REMAIN CLEAR IN THE MIND OF EVERY JEW, THUS, “NEVER TO BE FORGOTTEN.” TORAH HELD THE GENERATIONS TOGETHER THROUGH OBSERVANT LIFE, AND THROUGH THE BEAUTY OF SHABBOS, AND TORAH LIFE KEEPS THE MEMORIES OF THE HOLOCAUST AND THE SIX MILLION THAT PERISHED SQUARELY AT THE CENTER OF THOUGHT, WHY? BECAUSE TORAH IS THE “BOOK OF LIFE,” THE STORY OF THE BEGINNING OF LIFE, THE GENERATIONS OF LIFE, AND THE PRESERVATION OF LIFE, AND THE MESSAGES AND LESSONS OF LIFE. TORAH IS RECORDED HISTORY OF A PEOPLE’S STRUGGLES AND HARDSHIP, AS WELL.
If the prayer, Shema Yisroel wasn’t clear to the first reform rabbis, the Ten Commandments should have been. Isn’t it common sense, that people will always seek an easier road if the door is open? Meaning, purpose, the unity of the Jewish people, all had to fall prey to that easier path of life once Jewish leaders opened that door. Was not the story of the departure from Egypt, a story about human nature? Didn’t freedom beget the construction of a golden calf (a symbol of a materialistic life, and immoral behavior)? Didn’t these rabbis, Israel Jacobson, Leopold Zunz, Abraham Geiger, and Isaac Mayer Wise, learn from Torah that as the world and lifestyle changes over time, the foundation of life’s story never changes? Didn’t they learn from Torah, or simply just from mere observation, that sharing the same way of life forms a bond that connects one person to another, while keeping the family together, and unifying a people? Didn’t they learn from Torah? Didn’t they understand nature, that “birds of a feather flock together?” Didn’t they learn that the unity and strength of a people, and the meaning of life, all come from the preservation of a shared past, and the preservation of a shared goal for the future?
The point is, Reform Judaism established a pathway that would inevitably lead to forgetting the source of unity from generation to generation. That is Torah. Nowhere in Yad Vashem, the State of Israel’s memorial to the six million Jews who died during that horrible era, is the presence of Torah to be found in a prominent position. No tour of Yad Vashem that I had ever been on, and that was on four occasions, ever included any meaningful teaching of Torah, or a description of how Torah kept the light of hope burning throughout those dark days in Jewish history for millions of Jews. Amazingly, during the Holocaust, most of European Jewry was observant, yet the planners of Yad Vashem, “they forgot Torah.”
The hypocrisy calls out from the ashes of the ovens of Hitler’s Auschwitz, Belzec, Begen Belsen, Buchenwald, Chelmno, and Dachau. If there was ever an event to learn from, it was from the years of the unimaginable hell of Hitler’s Holocaust. Amazingly, the most important lesson of all, was missed. TORAH, THE PERFECT SYSTEM TO KEEP THE MEMORIES OF LIFE, THE MEMORIES OF THE HOLOCAUST, A PART OF EVERY JEW’S LIFE IS MISSING FROM YAD VASHEM.
The Holocaust is a story of death, but the unity of the Jewish people demands sharing the same story of life, for without following that “COMMANDMENT,” the Jew would surely forget. Death is final, death must remain in the past, but the story of life continues, and to wait until the very end of Yad Vashem to learn that lesson, without the bond that connects one Jew to another, the bond that connects every Jew to his or her past, I mean Torah, the significance of Yad Vashem’s message must be short lived. Without Torah, without the daily reminder, without the Shabbat, the memories and lessons of the past, must be lost, because if the Jew forgets, for sure the world will too.
Nothing in life is important enough to remember, if all one remembers is once or twice a year. A Torah observant Jew remembers everyday, which is why every Jewish life that has past on is remembered through the Kaddish prayer. This is why every Jewish life is sacred, to be cherished. TORAH IS A CELEBRATION OF LIFE, THE HOLOCAUST IS A STORY OF DEATH, WHICH SHOULD WE CHOOSE TO GUIDE THE FUTURE OF OUR PEOPLE. THE STORY OF LIFE, OR THE STORY OF DEATH?
Freedom as it stands alone, is a very shallow experience. Freedom can only relate to a moment in time, and the moment is always in the present. Freedom has nothing to do with one’s past, nor does freedom have anything to do with one’s future. Freedom is merely the ability to do as one pleases from one moment to the next. Very shallow indeed, but also very addictive.
But with life it’s different. Life is a story, it is a story of the past, and the story always relates to a person’s family, a person’s genetic and cultural and perhaps religious heritage. All of the richness of a person’s life comes from the past, but that past will surely be forgotten if its messages aren’t passed on to the next generation. Thus we find the meaning of the Shema Yisroel, the central message of Torah. THIS IS WHAT WE MUST DO TO NEVER FORGET THE PAST.
God didn’t give the human being the power to choose the pathway toward the future, both in physical terms nor when it comes to learning the meaning and purpose of life. It must come from the past, and the message is carried into the future through the generations of the family, from father to son, and from mother to daughter. This is not a matter of the free will of the human mind, it is a matter of a “law of nature,” it is G-d’s law.
LEARN THE PAST, BECAUSE NOW IT SHOULD BE EVIDENT TO ALL, “FREEDOM DESTROYED OUR CONNECTION TO THE PAST, TORAH IS MISSING FROM YAD VASHEM, TORAH IS MISSING FROM JEWISH LIFE.
Thus, the main message of the Holocaust is what the Jewish people must do, not only to “Never Forget” the moral lessons to be learned from the Holocaust, but also what the Jewish people must do to become United “as if one heart and one mind,” thereby paving the way for a bright new future for the entire world.
“Truth” is a universal concept. It denotes something that is constant, steady, fixed through all of time. To find the truth–in the sense of being an original discoverer–you either fall on the new concept by chance and make a connection (just think of Newton’s discovery of gravity), or you must hunt it down. However, either way it requires a “perspective” that is wide open enough to uncover it and its many implications. If the perspective isn’t wide open enough, while the concept may be logically correct in some provisional sense, it may still prove to be false in the long term.
Thus, “logic and truth” are different. Logic is an invention of the human mind, while truth isn’t. Truth is a state that prevails in nature, or a concept that conforms to a law of nature. Thus, it will always hold true.
Logic on the other hand depends totally on connecting one thing to another because the connection makes sense to the human mind given a number of assumptions. In this manner, if a logical conclusion hasn’t been tested under all conditions or under a sufficient set of circumstances over a long enough period of time, the thinker could be relying on a logically correct conclusion that is ultimately false and will eventually be shown as such. In this instance the fault is in the thinker’s perspective as it wasn’t open wide enough to detect every interconnection and every scenario.
Here’s an example: the concept of time.
If you give no value to infinite emptiness, privation, or darkness, as is the case with the world of science, you could never know that in “truth” there is no time. Moreover, you could never know that all of time is no more than a single moment. For instance:
The earth turns a complete revolution = one day.
The earth rotates completely around the sun = one year.
However, the earth never leaves the solar system, nor does it ever leave the universe, all of which are constantly moving in one way or another. Yet, on a still grander scale, we could say that there isn’t a single star or planet that ever leaves infinite emptiness, the darkness of space itself.
Look up at any clear night sky. It’s the same picture you’ve seen throughout your lifetime. Stars, planets, against a backdrop of darkness, which beyond the universe is probably completely empty. Have the stars or planets or our earth, or you, ever left the darkness? The answer, “No.”
If you just look at the stars and the planets, your life is in constant motion. You move from A to B, a hundred times each day, always thinking you’re moving into the future, and always leaving a past, but the truth is, you never went anywhere at all. Your life is just like the stars and the planets, you’ve been stuck, fixed in the exact same overwhelmingly enormous empty place throughout all of your life. Thus, the concept of time on a universal scale relative to infinite emptiness is false. The earth is stuck in one place, and so too is every star and galaxy stuck in one place–the great cosmic backdrop of darkness.
So finding the truth depends on one’s perspective. Finding truth and proving truth demands a mind that is wide open and untainted by any prejudice or other subjective flaw. Hence we come to the definition of an “objective” mind, a mind that thinks with “integrity.”
Expressed in ancient classical terms, the only perspective that is wide open enough to prove the truth of life’s journey was first stated in Torah, in fact, in the very first ten words of Torah.
“IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH…”
Look closely and here’s what you’ll find: the entire state of reality.
IN THE BEGINNING GOD (INFINITE EMPTINESS) CREATED THE HEAVENS (THE UNIVERSE) AND THE EARTH (LIFE/HUMANITY).
As I said, you could never know the truth of life’s journey unless you factored into the universal equation infinite emptiness, for any perspective that encompasses less could only produce a logical conclusion, but never a truthful conclusion. There is only one truthful conclusion, and it isn’t subjective. It is factual and provable to every human being.
Have you noticed that the President has had nothing to say with respect to monitoring Iran’s nuclear activities?
I unequivocally believe that Barack Obama’s intentions have been to destroy Israel (along with America). He perceives the strength of Jewish influence in America and wants to eliminate it in favor of the Muslim world. Furthermore, Obama thinks Israel is the main reason for conflict in the Middle East with his own Muslim brethren.
Barack Obama knows something that few secular or reform Jews know about the Jewish people, and that is, in a diverse or secular society, the Jew must lose his or her identity by eliminating the very purpose of Torah which leads to many of the world’s Jews immigrating to live in Israel. Obama knows that to the secular or reform Jew it is the Land of Israel and Jerusalem that is the binding link of the generations, not Torah. Barack Obama’s hidden (or not so hidden) agenda is to eliminate the State of Israel by destroying Jewish identity in America which will, in turn, assist in terminating the source of conflict in the Middle East.
I also think our President has the specific long-term purpose of destroying America’s world influence, and to accomplish this objective he had to alter the social and economic systems that together are responsible for America becoming the leader of the free world. One of Barack Obama’s tools for social change in America, what he calls “social justice,” is the Reverend Al Sharpton. The evidence that should prove that I am right about this is this fact. According to various press reports, Sharpton visited the White House over 60 times during Obama’s presidency. Sharpton is a professional activist, who is best known for his great number of attempts to divide America between black-and-white. In effect, his purpose is to create escalated tensions that drive people apart.
When coupled with the moral breakdown of America, thanks to liberalism continually stretching the limits of permitted human behavior over the course of this generation, self interest began to dominate the way people think in this country, which includes too many of America’s leaders placing their own personal interest in front of American society. Barack Obama could well accomplish both of these missions during the two terms of his presidency.
