Myth, Fiction and Truth

Myth is a dirty word.  It portends of specious argument; maybe flat out lies. Myth, at best, speaks of children’s bedtime stories; at worst, it is misleading and insults and degrades real historical events.

On the other hand, I believe that myth make us truly human.  It defines our psyche.  Myth makes sense of a senseless world.  Carl Jung taught that myth is often more true than what we perceive and have learned.

Years back I heard a sage remark, “God is more real than you” (addressing an audience).  The listeners were shocked.  Did he mean to intimate that he sees God more clearly than he sees his wife?  Did he mean to say that God speaks to him with greater clarity than people?  I do not think so.  What this scholar meant was that he understood “truth” as only coming from the Holy One. 

People are deceptive.  They misconstrue and misuse words and ideas.  They have skewed moral values.  Only God is the pure essence of truth.

I do not critically analyze King Arthur and the legends that surround him.  Did he really have a ”round table?”  What does it matter?  The important thing is that King Arthur held court with a round table indicating that he had a nascent understanding of democracy and sharing.

A lot of Americans seem to be obsessed with angels.  Books appear on shelves in libraries, on line and in stores detailing the names and various assignments of these otherworldly ethereal beings.  I have even seen parlor meetings to address the meanings and existential implications of angels.  Has America gone mad?

I have yet to meet someone who has empirical proof of their existence.  What about UFO sightings?  Are they linked?  I have yet to read in any scientific journal about them.  Yet good, learned folks are swarming to purchase tomes about their favorite angel.

What all seems to mean is that myth provides some semblance of order to an otherwise random universe.  Myth makes sense from deep personal pain as well as questions of existential nature.

So what do we make of miracles and myth?  They may be more real than any hard fact that we know.  For example, I do not believe in God, I know God.  That to me is more meaningful and true than bland facts.  That is my myth.  One of them, anyway.

Grow and Allow Others to Grow

A teacher was lecturing his pupils on the story of Joseph who was sold by his brothers to passing slave merchants. 

At once, a sympathetic student began to weep listening as the tragedy unfolded.

The next year while teaching that same passage, the same student began to laugh uproariously.

“Are you insane?”  The teacher rebuked.  “Last year you were crying and now you are splitting your side with laughter?”

“Why shouldn’t I laugh?  After what happened last year Joseph should have learned his lesson!”

The stories in Torah do not change from year to year, but we do.   It is not surprising to understand them in an entirely different light with the passing years.

One year Moses may be our hero and the next, a man handicapped by all kinds of idiosyncrasies and deep flaws.  The same can be said for Rebecca or Abraham or Isaiah. 

There is one underlying concept, which undergirds the opinion we hold about the actors in the Torah: what makes a hero?  That entirely subjective question is determined by who we are.  The heroes we venerate are a reflection of our values.  For example, do you think Abraham, was fearless, unwavering in his faith to G-d?  Was he the paradigm of a religious human?  Or was Abraham too pliant, too easily moved to do evil?  After all, he was willing to murder his own son.

The answer to that question, like so many others, start with a simple question: Who is your hero?  Gandhi?  Akiva? Roosevelt?  Mao?  The next-door neighbor?  A relative? 

Why choose them?  What is it that makes them a hero to you?

We choose our heroes based on some ideal of human life.  When we know who is our hero, we understand who we wish to become.

That ideal changes as we grow.

“When I was young I admired clever people.  Now that I am old, I admire kind people,” wrote Abraham Joshua Heschel.  As we grow our priorities and wishes change.  Some become more conservative, others move to become liberal, while others change their world-view in myriad directions. 

The question burns: whom do we idolize?

A Midrash:  When Moses ascended to heaven to receive Torah the angels complained, “What is flesh and blood doing here, among us?” they wailed.

HaKadosh Baruch Hu responded, “He is here to receive the Torah.”

 “Nine hundred seventy- four generations have passed since the inception of the world.  Since that time Your word has been safe with us.  And now you want to give it to such beings??”

HaKadosh Baruch Hu responded, “They can do teshuvah.”

Hearing the clamor raging in heaven, Moses grew afraid.  What if the angels grew spiteful and destroyed him?

HaKadosh Baruch Hu soothed Moses’ anxiety saying, “Hold My throne and you will be safe.”

Even angels hold opinions. Allowing others to do likewise and respecting differences is what this midrash comes to teach.  Times change and people change along with them.  G-d trusted Moses and the people to change.  One upon a time we were radically different than we are today.  Thank G-d someone was wise enough to know we would grow out of it.