There is an odd passage in the Talmud:
Rav Pappa went to his teacher and asked, “Why were miracles performed in earlier times but not for us? It cannot be because of our learning. We study the entire Mishna whereas they devoted themselves only to study the passages on “damages.” Yet, when the great Rabbi Yehudah would remove even a single shoe from his foot, rains would fall. Why does God take no notice of us?”
The answer: “In earlier generations they were ready to sacrifice themselves for the sanctification of G-d’s name. We consider only ourselves.”
To see shifts in contemporary thought we need to look over our shoulders to former times as a barometer of how we have changed. Ask the elders of your family or community what life was like when they grew up. They will tell you about growing up without technology, the hardships of getting by with less, family squabbles over meals, a chance meeting at a dance, milk delivered in glass bottles, the simplicity of a less complex life…. With a faint smile they will reminisce. It is hard to imagine a life so significantly different from ours. Equally, those who came before us also had trouble imagining what life was like in their parent’s time and so on for the generations before them.
Society mores, attitudes and behaviors change. Those changes happen imperceptibly and only those who are exceptionally attentive are able to discern those shifts. In fact, those who witness those developments and report to us how we are changing are prophetic. Prophets in the Jewish tradition are not predictors of the future; they tell us what is happening now with a clear lens.
Not surprisingly, prophets were almost always dismissed by their peers. Labelled as crazy they wandered alone, often shunned, were unable to quiet their conscience and so lived a life of inner turmoil. Knowing the truth and finding themselves incapable of convincing others of that truth, they often fell to despair.
It is hard to see the world as it really is, and not through the filter of a society that accepts everything as “normal.”
Example: Covid. We accepted this virus as a part of our lives, almost as if it was always with us. In a few more years, perhaps it will be as if it were always present in one form or other. And now technology has replaced so much of our interactions.
Example: Politics. Were politics always so fractious? Did politicians really speak in pejorative terms? Did they always humiliate ridicule on another and those who disagreed with them? Not likely. But when it happens with relentless frequency, we start believing things were always this way and cannot change.
In the middle of the forest all we can see are the trees that surround us.
In the biblical book of Ecclesiastes the author states, “A generation comes, and a generation goes…while the earth remains…” The keen objective viewer understands that time passes while only a few inviolate truths remain. What is unacceptable today will be embraced in the future. The opposite is also true. And as history is written those who read it will find our actions incomprehensible.
As Jews we are taught to question everything. It is our way of ascertaining truth. If what is being cited can hold up under rigorous examination, it is truth. Our tradition teaches us to look at what we prioritize and ask whether this is congruent with what G-d wants.
The excerpt from the Talmud above is meant as a spur to think as the prophets of long ago. When we elevate the ephemeral to the eternal we are committing a sin. When we sanctify the name of G-d with our thoughts and actions and not sacrifice them to the zeitgeist we are being true seekers of truth.
Enjoy the summer months. Dance, sing, discover and find joy in the present all the while remembering what has come before – who you are and where you come from – as it is a lasting truth.
