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Everybody’s a Dreamer – Everybody’s a Star
THE VIRGINIA TECH MASSACRE AND MASS KILLER NARCISSISM
The twisted extreme
of viewing others
as “extras” finds
tragic expression in the self- absorbed behavior of mass murderers. On April 16th,
our nation observed the anniversary of the horrific
Virginia Tech Massacre
– and has experienced other heartbreaking massacres since – which
ominously occurred on Yom HaShoah, the very
day that we recall the many
millions of beloved lives
that were destroyed by evil in the Holocaust. As journalist David Von Drehle writes, in a Time Magazine article
about the Virginia
college campus murderer Cho Seung-Hui (entitled “It’s all about him[4]”):
“Only a narcissist could decide that his
alienation should
be underlined in the blood
of strangers… Charles
Whitman playing G-d in
his Texas clock tower…Harris and Klebold in their theatrical trench coats – they’re all stars in the cinema of their self-absorbed minds. Freud explained narcissism as a failure to grow up. All infants
are narcissists, he pointed out,
but as we grow, we ought to learn that
other people have
lives independent of our own.
It’s not their
job to please us, applaud
for us or even notice us â?? let alone die because we’re
unhappy.”
COMMANDMENTS 1 & 6:
“I AM THE LORD…” & “THOU SHALT NOT MURDER”
When we view
the tablets of the “10 Commandments” [5] as two
columns of five,
we see that there is a shared
essence between commandments on the same
row (e.g. 1 & 6 – 2 & 7…).
For our purposes, the parallel between
1 & 6, “I am the Lord
your G-d” &
“You shall not murder”, is filled
with profound insight. When a person
internalizes the concept
expressed by “I am the Lord
your G-d – and understands that humans are “created in the image
of G- d”, possessing their own spark
of divinity and inner dignity
– then the idea of murder is not
even a remotely reasonable option
to entertain6 (we’ll
discuss below how recognizing
humanity’s divine sparks
can improve us in matters
much closer to home, since
most of us are hopefully not overly tempted
to murder).
This is a major reason
that when people
want to rationalize murder – whether
through the genocide of a nation
or the cold-blooded killing of an individual – the murderer must first
“dehumanize” his victim.
Since it is a person’s
divine dignity that makes him or her “human”,
murderers must mentally
strip away the recognition that their victims
are created in the
image
of G-d, with
their own significance and greatness. G-d is the ultimate Star,
the ultimate Protagonist – the ultimate
Being that can be described as “Real”. But once we narcissistically remove
the recognition of G-dliness in others, we have deluded
ourselves into believing that they are “not as real as I am “, and we have relegated them to the roles
of “extras”. It seems this is one reason that the mandate
in this week’s
Portion to “love
your neighbor like yourself” concludes
with the declaration of “I am the Lord” (see this week’s RRR
above).
LOVING YOUR NEIGHBOR BY
“KEEPIN’ IT REAL”
When we clearly
recognize the divine
spark in others,
we shield ourselves from far more than the harboring of murderous tendencies. The more we perceive the “realness” of others–
i.e. the more we assign
significance, goodness, and intrinsic value
to them – the less
we will be capable
of causing them
any level of harm: whether
it’s embarrassment, property damage, harm through negative
speech or hurtful
looks, cutting them
off in traffic, physical injury, loss
through dishonest business dealings, etc.
One way to perceive another’s realness is to visualize ourselves and others as being
primarily spiritual beings. Why? Because
to the extent
that I identify myself and others
as being physical, since matter is finite and resources are limited, I may feel
the need to compete for the limited resources. But
to the extent that I identify myself
and others as being
spiritual – existing
in a realm of infinity in which resources are not limited
– I will not feel the competitive need to view others as being “extras”. May we all merit to embrace
others and to empathize with
their plights as being real! If we train ourselves to see what other people’s movies are all about,
perhaps we can land genuine,
neighbor-loving roles as their supporting actors and actresses.
Have a Wonderful Shabbos! Love, Jon & The Chevra
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The Path to Holiness
This week’s Torah
reading makes a heavy demand
upon us. It commands us to be a holy and dedicated people and to continually aspire to heights
of piety and holiness. Some will
say that this is an almost
impossible task and is especially difficult since the Torah does not
define for us how it is to be achieved. But that is only a superficial understanding of what this Torah portion
is coming to teach us.
In this Torah
reading there appears
a large amount
– in fact a plethora
– of commandments. At first glance
one could mistakenly believe that this is nothing
more than a jumble of laws
thrown together almost
at random without
any discernible pattern
or overall construction. But upon careful
examination one will
come to realize
that it is this wide
variety of seemingly unconnected commandments and laws that
form the ladder
upon which one can
ascend
to the level of piety
demanded from us by the opening verse
of the reading.
Every phase of human life
is covered by this very
long list of do’s and don’ts. They
refer to personal behavior, the intimacy of marriage and the raising
of children, commercial
enterprises and all types of interactions
between human beings. In effect, we are commanded to be as holy
in the marketplace as we are in the synagogue and on a mundane
weekday as we are on Yom Kippur.
It is in fact the very reason
why there are so many
commandments and so many laws
and seemingly small details that make up Jewish life and values. Because human life is covered by the perspective of the demand
for holiness on a constant
basis, that is the goal
of Judaism.
We live in a society
that has mostly
given up on the concept
of holiness and dedication and functions only in the
present and for
today alone. We do not see a reverence for
human life any longer,
especially for infants
and the unborn,
nor any aspiration for spiritual growth
at the expense
of physical pleasure
and leisure. There was a time that people ascribed attendance at a house of worship as being an act that
could lead to holiness and
spiritual development. Now, across
the board of all faiths
in the Western
world today, attendance at houses of worship
has declined drastically and the worship
service itself has become one
of entertainment, political correctness, guitar playing
and social activities at best.
Only by strengthening the observance of the varied
commandments that make
up the bulk of this week’s
Torah reading can we at least glimpse
the amount of holiness that
we are ordained to attain. The sheer number of commandments that govern every aspect of Jewish life emphasizes to us the
proportion of the
task that lies
before us.
There are no shortcuts to holiness and
there are no instant remedies to the healing
of society. Persistence and patience, repetition and tenacity remain
today, as they have always been, the keys to Jewish life and to the fulfillment of the commandments that the Lord demands from us in order
to be a holy and dedicated people.
Shabbat shalom Rabbi Berel Wein
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