Entering 2018, the year of Israel’s 70th birthday celebrations
By DAVID GEFFENFormer president Shimon Peres welcomes representatives of Israel’s non-Jewish communities at his Jerusalem residence in honor of the approaching New Year of 2010(photo credit: AMOS BEN-GERSHOM/GPO)
Those of us in our eighth and ninth decades are quite blessed to be able to see 2018 open, when many of us never expected to be here. We are the last of those who knew Eretz Yisrael before it was the State of Israel.We have had the merit of watching Israel grow and succeed in a multitude of ways. The Jewish mind in this land has made it possible for our scientists and computer experts, cyber knowledgeable to reach new peaks that the next generation can climb. Those discoveries are the work of those in their second to sixth decades.So here we are entering the special 70th year.May 14 will be a Yom Ha’atzmaut in which our pioneers in spirit are honored for their determination and the citizens of today continue to thrill the world with their outstanding innovations.This is science – the thrill of discovery.But what about the other characteristics which we should be concerned about, because they are what made us the people who we are and lifted us even higher? In his essay “On Being a Mensch,” Rabbi Morris Adler, a rabbi assassinated while he was on the pulpit in Detroit in 1966, offers an important challenge for us.“The apologetic line ‘after all I am only human’ is a denial we should never make. Indeed, the single small word ‘only,’ he writes, “is a denial of our humanity. Being ‘human’ represents a goal and an achievement; being a mensch means calling upon capacities which are sometimes permitted to lie fallow.”Adler adds emphatically, “man is never to be defined exclusively in terms of his present stature and attainments. There is more to him/her than what he is at any given moment. Within him are possibilities unrevealed by his current posture. If he wills,” which for the rabbi is so important, “he can move upward from level to level. He never arrives – and this applies to the greatest geniuses, the greatest leaders. The full realization of all of his powers will never occur.”Then Rabbi Adler shares with us a most significant insight built from the high praise given a person who is truly a mensch.“Man need not be a prisoner of his physical nature nor the victim of external pressures and circumstances. In all of us there is a dimension of ‘menschlichkeit’ that is not encompassed by a physiological and sociological study of the individual.What we should do with our greatest possession called life is to make our goal and adventure and its fulfillment, an accomplishment which fashions us into a mensch.”Striving to climb to this level of humanity is something we must always aspire to. In Israel we see instances of this when individuals take on the protection of battered wives; the special schooling of individuals who are not on same plane as all of their contemporaries; providing food for those who have none; assisting Holocaust survivors who are practically starving and confined to tiny dwellings; working to find housing for those who are disabled and homeless; offering housing for haredi soldiers who have been cut off from their homes; and providing a working space for geniuses who have not been recognized.A stirring example: a 16-year-old working in a cellar under a produce stand in the Mahaneh Yehuda market invented an application that tells how many seats are available at any given moment in a stadium or other venue for a sporting event.Israelis have repeatedly demonstrated that they can plumb their creativity and develop what is needed to help people in need be treated in a more humane manner. What we really want to see happen in 2018 is for each of us to continue to learn from the difficult experiences that we all continue to face.Ernest Hemingway offered us a powerful insight in one his novels. “The world breaks everyone, and afterward many are strong in the broken places.”Rabbi Sidney Greenberg comments, “There are two truths in Hemingway’s statement. The first is that sooner or later we are all broken. Defeat, disappointment, sorrow and tragedy are the common lot of all people.”What happens? “Hemingway,” Greenberg continues, “talks not only of our common vulnerability to being broken; he reminds us that we can become strong in the broken places. Where trouble and suffering are concerned, you and I have the power not only to confront and endure them; we can use them constructively and creatively.”This has indeed been the signpost of Israel these 70 years and of the Jewish people throughout its history. What we have endured, no other people, no other country ever has.What we have done is invent the cellphone, Mobileye and Waze for the world and hundreds of other devices to make life constantly better for everyone on the planet. Our scholars and writers have composed informative and inspiring texts.No matter what level we are at, we try to climb higher. Those triumphs are fine, but too mechanical. What we must strive for in our country is kindness and care for our fellow countrymen.Each of us should be a mensch.
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