The dictionary definition of the term “civilization” is, in my opinion, rather funny. According to Oxford Words, it means: “The stage of human social and cultural development and organization that is considered most advanced.” Why is this funny? Because it is based on an incredibly subjective reality. Who, after all, gets to determine what “advanced” means? And yet, for centuries Western “Civilization” has done just that.
Perhaps the decline started during the
era of the enlightenment, but many would say that it accelerated in the 1960s,
when the concept of free expression transformed into a cult of personal liberation.
Over the last half a century, however, there has been an increased whittling
away at tradition and community that has led to a society in which the
adulation of “freedom” has become the be all and end all. This is certainly not
everyone – quite probably not even the majority – but it is a voluble minority
filled with news makers and cultural idols.
We have just completed the holiday of
Pesach, the holiday of freedom. Our concept of freedom, however, is not about celebrating
our individual identities. It’s not about what “I” want or who “I” am above all
other things. This is, in fact, a major aspect of this week’s parsha, Parshas
Acharei Mot.”
Breaking into personal honesty here,
this has always been a parsha that made me uncomfortable. In fact, it was one
of my son’s bar mitzvah parshas, and I remember worrying that one of the other
children had read it too closely (and, indeed, she did tell me that she read it
in English, but asked no further questions). An entire perek of the parsha,
perek yud ches, is a description of whose nakedness one shall not uncover. On
the whole, it is a summation of the Torah’s prohibition against incest, but it
goes farther than that. How we behave in our most intimate moments is a basic
foundation of a society.
The fact that I felt uncomfortable with
this perek was a reflection of many things, and among them was the understanding
that the general society in which I was raised was filled with an ever-growing
counter-culture that abhors the idea of personal limitations. The 21st
century mores of personal rightness make sense in an advanced technological “civilization”
wherein we have a sense of being able to control all things. We “make” meat
without a cow. We grow plants without dirt. We build machines that can think. Why
would we accept ancient dictates of right and wrong when we obviously know
better?
Our so-called advanced civilization appears,
right now, to be calling for support of terrorist organizations. There is a masochistic
urge to support ideologies that diametrically oppose Western Civilization. Our
society rejects itself and, particularly among young adults, there seems to be
a great self-hatred even as there is a vaunting of the ideal of absolute
personal expression.
Something’s wrong.
This year I read Perek yud ches with a
different perspective. Societal norms for intimacy – whether adhered to by all
members or not but that are recognized and accepted as norms – are foundation
stones. The term civilization is built from the term civil, as in civil law.
The civil laws in the Torah are known as the mishpatim, and they are often
defined as the laws that are necessary for a just society (no stealing, no murder,
etc.). The laws in Acharei Mot are mishpatim, even if they deal with the most individual
and personal choices of life.
It is straight forward and honest. To
build a civilization, a place of advanced social and cultural development, one
must look to tradition. Hashem gave klal Yisrael a blueprint that sets out
rights and wrongs because when human beings start to believe that they know
best, ego and hedonism play powerful roles in swaying our perception. Granted
the ability to make and create, given our inherent power, we tend to forget that
He who created the world, and Who creates the world on an ongoing basis, is the
One is the one in charge. It’s not us. It’s not about Me.
Good Shabbas
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