While
our family was celebrating Sukkot and Shabbat, we haven’t seen much news. We
heard about the mass shootings in Las Vegas and our prayers go out to the
victims and their families. Sadly mass shootings have become so common that we
understand that there is evil in this world that I can’t stomach to write about
it again. There was another bit of news
that occurred during the Sukkot holiday. What made it newsworthy is that in the
history of politics, I cannot remember the last time a sitting senator offered
such a negative assessment of a President from his own political party. Yet, Robert
Corker is a Republican Senator for the Tennessee. He has recently announced
that he will NOT seek re-election to the Senate. Since Senator Corker has no
more races to run, and no more politics to worry about, he can afford to be
brutally honest about everything. This past week he gave an interview in which
he shared his feelings about President Trump. The comments were stunning in
their assessment of a man who has “may be setting the U.S. on a path to WWIII.”
Corker made this comment because, as chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations,
he has been closely monitoring the President’s handling of North Korea and the
Iran Nuclear Agreement. More than any other Senator, Corker understands the
importance of brutal honesty, truth to power, the vital importance of
Knowledge, and speaking to those people that possess knowledge. In Senator
Corker’s assessment of the Republican President, he believes that this
president has a very minimal understanding of or no understanding of the world and
the United States role in the world. Corker goes so far as to say that General
Kelly, General Mattis, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson are the only three
people preventing the President’s ignorance and incompetence from causing
tragedy. Indeed, ignorance is a dangerous thing. A person who is proud of
ignorance, who basks in the waters of ignorance and brags about his lack of
knowledge and understanding could be considered criminal. Ironically, for a
person who clearly is attracted to power and powerful people, it seems that the
President forgot the age old adage: “Knowledge is Power”.
In
B’reishit, we read the story of Creation, Adam and Chava’s banishment from
Paradise (Gan Eden), and the fratricide of Cain and Abel. We begin however with
God. God is the Creator, the ultimate power. If knowledge is power, then God is
the ultimate source of knowledge. We accept this as part of our Jewish
theology. God is all-knowing and all powerful. We read the words: V’Yivrah Elohim et Ha’Adam b’Tzalmo,
b’tzelem Elohim barah oto Zachar u’Nekeivah Barah Otam. “And God created man in His own image. In
the image of God, He created him; male and female He created them. (1:27).
The question therefore is: What is the image of God? Obviously part of that
image is the power to create, the power to create life. We surmise this because
in the next verse, God commands Adam and Chava to be fruitful and multiply, to
create life just like God had created. The other image of God is Power. God’s
purpose in creating humanity was in order that they “should have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the
air and over the cattle, and over all the earth…” (1:26). In today’s
vernacular “dominion” is Power. However the ability to create, and the ability
to exercise power sagaciously, and judiciously, necessitates the attainment of
knowledge. Perhaps that is our greatest gift. We have the ability to learn, to
reason, to discern between right and wrong. To do so expresses our faith in
God, re-affirms that, indeed, we are created in God’s image, and we possess an
aspect of Holiness.
In the Babylonian Talmudic tractate entitled Chagigah
(14b), there is an Aggadah, a legend that illustrates the notion that attaining
knowledge is a holy endeavor. Four of the leading sages of their generation
entered PaRDes (Paradise). They were Ben Assai, Ben Zoma, Elisha ben Abuyah, and Rabbi Akiva. When they entered
PaRDeS and came into contact with the pure power pure knowledge and complete
perfection that is God, one sage died immediately. One sage went insane. Elisha
ben Abuyah became a heretic, and became known as Acher (the other). Only
Rabbi Akiva emerged unscathed. The commentators of this Aggadah explain that
PaRDeS is an acronym for four methods of Torah inquiry: P’shat, (simple literal
understanding) Remez (deriving meaning from implicit hints and deep meaning), D’rash
(explanation through application), and Sod (hidden meaning). Imagine that? Our
tradition explains that Paradise, is achieved through Torah study. In a sense
our sages are absolutely correct.
We recognize that have
within us both the Yetzer Hara, the Bad Inclination and the Yetzer HaTov, the Good Inclination. The attainment of knowledge and Truth is a
Godly endeavor. The use of such knowledge judiciously and wisely for creative
purposes represents the notion that we are indeed created in God’s image is a
manifestation of the Yetzer HaTov. We know that a little bit of knowledge and
partial truths can be used for destructive purposes and traditionally that has
been a manifestation of the Yetzer HaRah, the Evil Inclination. However Senator
Corker’s assessment of the President, his White House, and the pride that he
takes in his ignorance and lack of intellectual curiosity reveals a different
type of Yetzer HaRah with no less dangerous and potentially deadly results. Hopefully,
those three men whom Corker pointed out as informed and knowledgeable: General
Kelly, General Mattis, and Secretary Tillerson will continue to have the ear of
the president and guide him accordingly.
Peace,
Rav Yitz
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