Moral in an Immoral Society
There’s an intrinsic law in the way Hashem created the world – a person will never see a blessing in anything he acquires by violating the Torah’s commandments…
Dear Rabbi,
I'm a Manhattan attorney, and I usually read Breslev Israel with my coffee and sandwich at lunch. I like your candor, but sometimes you and the other Breslever writers sound like Tiny Tim singing "Tiptoe through the Tulips". If I took Rabbi Arush’s roll-with-the-punch emuna advice, I'd be trampled in my profession. Your morality is fine for rabbinical seminary or for fancy discussions when nothing’s at stake, but it doesn't hold water in the Big Apple where it's a dog-eat-dog world. I attended a Yeshiva high school myself; the Gemara is a superb mind-development tool, but excuse me, I don't see how its lofty moral platitudes are applicable to our society today. In short, how in the world do you expect a person to be moral in an immoral society? Best wishes, Louis
Dear Louis,
Look at all the immoral tough-guy tyrants from time immemorial. None had happy endings. Their success is always short-lived. King David taught us that the meek (humble) shall inherit the earth (Psalms 37:11); Hollywood, Wall Street, and many of your professional cronies don't subscribe to King David's thoughts, but meanwhile, King David's principle has proved to be historically correct for thousands of years. Maybe the role of a Spartan warrior, a Viking, or a Roman centurion is a lot more appealing than the humble role of a wise Talmudic scholar (which you obviously don't appreciate, since it seems to me that you regard your Talmud studies as a figment of your high-school past – please correct me if I'm wrong, barrister), yet the wise scholars are still with us today, while the Spartans, the Romans, and the Vikings have vanished from the face of the earth. I can go on and on with more case studies, but I think you get the point.
Now, let's look at our album of "meek", handicapped anti-macho moral types, who really did inherit the earth:
* Franklin D. Roosevelt – paralyzed from the waist down, yet successfully led the United States through one of the most difficult times in its history.
* Helen Keller – blind, yet pioneered Braille and our entire system of special education for the blind.
* Thomas Edison – deaf; "I utilized my handicap to increase my powers of concentration, since I didn't have to listen to the small talk and nonsense of other people," he wrote in his memoirs, and rose to become the greatest of American inventors.
* Mahatma Gandhi – a frail weakling, but a giant of emotional strength. Gandhi was the father of "peaceful resistance," the mode of non-violent protest that led to the independence of India.
* Ray Charles – blind, but one of the giants of 20th Century American music.
Notice how history remembers all the above anti-macho types with love and admiration. Now, take a good look at the tyrants you know. Is there a single one who is happy? Has a single one been successful on the long run? Does history love and admire Haman, Hitler, Stalin, Idi Amin, or Saddam Hussein? I don't think so.
I’ve noticed an interesting phenomenon about truly strong people, such as an international combat-art grandmaster such as Jhoon Rhee or a world-famous spiritual-combat grandmaster such as my beloved rabbi and spiritual guide Rav Shalom Arush – both are extremely kind and humble.
From my military experience, I saw repeatedly that the machismos with the loudest bravado were the first to crack under real tension, when real shells were shrieking over our heads and exploding nearby.
Image right – the tough guy, the first one to crack under pressure There’s another intrinsic law in the way Hashem created the world – you’ll never see a blessing in anything you acquire by violating any of the Torah’s commandments. Don’t confuse short-term gains with long-term success.
The choice is yours, Louis. By choosing a moral path, you'll have The Almighty on your side. With His help, you'll always be a winner. Emuna makes you tough – not your biceps, a fast macho tongue, or any other kind of vicious or unscrupulous wheeling and dealing. Blessings always, LB
5/26/2010
find another day job, louis! I wouldn’t hire you as my attorney, louis. According to your logic, we live in an immoral world, therefore we should be immoral? So where does that leave your clients? Unless you are a lawyer for the mafia, I don’t see how you can be doing your job upholding the law, modern society’s attempt (no matter how feeble) at being moral.
NO wonder the world is so immoral. Although it wasn’t your intention, you actually just made a fantastic argument FOR a Torah lifestyle. Probably your best yet….
5/26/2010
I wouldn’t hire you as my attorney, louis. According to your logic, we live in an immoral world, therefore we should be immoral? So where does that leave your clients? Unless you are a lawyer for the mafia, I don’t see how you can be doing your job upholding the law, modern society’s attempt (no matter how feeble) at being moral.
NO wonder the world is so immoral. Although it wasn’t your intention, you actually just made a fantastic argument FOR a Torah lifestyle. Probably your best yet….