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Foreign.
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You are listening to an art media podcast.
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Hi. For heaven's sake. Listeners, while Danil and Yossi are on their summer break, we're sharing something special. A solo lecture from Danielle Hartman, recorded live in July 2026 in the Beit Midrash of our Jerusalem campus as part of our community leadership program. His subject, what it means to be a mensch and whether we can hold on to our humanity in an age that also calls us to be warriors. Make sure to check the show notes for a link to the source sheet so you can follow along with Daniil. Here's Daniil Hartman From Jerusalem Post October 7.
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We can't just talk about a mensch. It's from mensch to warrior, because warrior is as integral to our existence as mensches. Fear is the biggest obstacle to being a mensch. Real fear or manipulated fear makes no difference. The minute you're frightened, you're done. Can you be a mensch and a warrior? The future of Israel is going to be determined by that question. Okay, welcome. We're really happy you're here, and I hope this will be a week of safe learning. Safe learning at the Hartman Institute means that nobody tells you what to think. Safe learning doesn't mean that we don't aggravate you, because everybody who's going to teach you is not role playing. They're sharing with you their deepest feelings about issues they care very deeply about. Your job is to take what you want. It's none of our business. Everybody we teach, even if they're teens, we treat as adults. And as adults, it's on you. I don't have the answer for Jewish life. I don't have an answer for you. I change my mind all the time. Things that I could speak about today I couldn't speak about a month ago. It's not about sharing truths. It's about a journey to try to figure out what do we need to do here as people, as Jews, as Israelis. And so I hope this is safe that you don't look to which lecture you agree with, but to which lecture and at what moment you could think and grow as a human being. And it's our job to facilitate that. So welcome, and as I said, it's really, really nice to see you here. I was asked to speak about in this agenda of identities that one of our identities is as humans and humans, there is an identity that our tradition pushes, and that's the identity of mensch. But post October 7th, we can't just talk about a mensch. It's from Mensch to warrior, because warrior is as integral to our existence as mensches. Now, in German, the term mensch literally means human person. In Yiddish, it's an adjective. It's not just a noun, it's an adjective depicting a type of human being, very often a person with integrity, honor, decency. This morning I want to tell a story weaved through sources, a story of how our tradition looks at this mensch. And we have a very ambivalent story. We have a very ambivalent feeling about who human beings are. And at times were aspirational, and at times we're descriptive. And very often the gap between aspirational and descriptive is very important. And so let's begin that journey. Who are we? Who are we supposed to be? The journey of our tradition regarding the human beings starts in Genesis 1. And in Genesis 1 there is a paradox. The paradox of Genesis 1 is that the Bible begins when God began to create heaven and earth, in so doing, teaching us the first lesson of the Bible. And that is that God not only exists, but that God is completely separate from the world. God is not part of the created story. God is the creating God. And there is no story of the creation of God similar to other creation stories, such as Epic of Gilgamesh, paralleled in time. Our God doesn't begin. Our God is separate and other. And one of the key ideas of monotheism is not the oneness of God, it's the radical otherness of God. And as distinct from idols who could be controlled by human beings through ritual and priests. Monotheism is about a God who is separate and is motivated by God's own will and cannot be coerced. All of this is the first lesson of the Bible before the first letter in, before the I of, in the beginning or B bet of Bereshit. It's what comes beforehand. God is other, this radical other being. We as human beings were created on the same day as goats and donkeys. But then something very strange happens. Genesis 1:26. And God said, Let us make humankind in our image after our likeness, you're created on the same day as goats and donkeys. But this radically other God chooses to create you in God's image, which we don't know exactly what that means, but from the beginning sets the bar unbelievably high. When God looks at us, the story. And remember, this is not the story of how the world was created. This is the story that we are telling Jews, because this is our book, the book for Jews. This is the story that Our tradition told Jews, this is the story we want you to tell yourself about yourself. That God says, no one was there. It's not like I know God is turning and saying, the story I want to tell you about yourself is that you are created in the image of God. This gets translated into Jewish law. We don't know still exactly what it means, but to give you a sense of the aspirational nature of this is that in Leviticus 19, verse 2, Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the whole Israelite and say unto them, you shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy. Again, we don't know exactly what holiness means in the Bible. It means to be other. God is other. The word holy fits for God. And the Bible turns to you and says, just like God is holy, you have to be holy. Now, you would think, if God is holy, that's the one thing I don't have to be. You got that one? I can't be you. You're the radical other one. Who am I? The Bible says you have to try to emulate God. What do I want from you? Everything. What do I expect from you?
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Everything.
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I expect that God should be your significant other. If God is holy, you don't get an exemption from holiness. Quite to the contrary. If God is holy, you have to be holy. A tradition that obligates you to emulate God and to see God as your significant other is a tradition that turns to human beings not merely with expectations, but with a demand. You can. Yes, you can not. I'm tired. I can't. Yes, you can. Now, what can you do? Here our tradition and philosophy struggled with, what does this mean? Who are we? And one of the first answers that people gave specifically growing out of Greek philosophy, is the notion that what makes us different, even though we're created on the same day as the goats and the donkeys, it's not our physical prowess that makes us special. They run faster. They're stronger. What makes us unique is our intellectual capacity. And one core answer to what does it mean to be a human? What does it mean to be a mensch? Is that we alone. And look here in Maimonides, by Image In Source 3 is said the natural form that gives reality to a thing and makes it what it is. When we're created in the image of God, image means this is the core of what it means to be a human being. And what is that in the human case? This is the seat of our consciousness, the rational intellect, in virtue of which, it is said of man in the image of God. Did God create man? One answer. What makes us different is our intellectual capacity. And this creates a religious ideology ground. Maimonides speaks about this in great length. That the ultimate, the ultimate religious duty of the human being is to use their essence, their knowledge, their capacity to know, to try to acquire or to come as close as possible to knowing God. The religious duty is to know God. That's what makes you human, because you're using the most sublime and you're pursuing the most sublime. That's one very strong tradition. But in our tradition, there's another story, a story which I prefer. And by the way, in every selection that you're going to get from the Hartman Institute, this is a selection that is authentic, that is grounded in the tradition, but could never use the article the like. This is the tradition. It's not. We all pick and choose the sources that inspire us. These are mine. This is a story that I want to tell. Somebody else could sit here and they'll tell a different story. And the one thing you will not hear at the Hartman Institute is that they are not Jewish. No one owns Judaism in the Hartman Institute, and in fact, nobody does. Our tradition contradicts itself. Our tradition is open to multiple stories. This is a story that I believe is core to our tradition, but I can't say it is the essence of Judaism. It's my collection. It's a story that I. I watched, I looked, I studied. And this is the story that inspires me. Jeremiah says, as if talking to Maimonides and Aristotle, thus said the Lord or Socrates, let not the wise glory in their wisdom. That's not a big deal. It's really no different than let not the strong glory in their strength and let not the rich glory in their riches. But only in this should one glory in being earnestly devoted to me. For I, the Lord, act with kindness, justice and equity in the world, for in these I delight. You want to know me, great. But knowing me is not to know some conceptual, intellectual, postulate or form. To know me is to know what I care about. And so in our tradition, when it says you have to walk in the ways of the Lord, our tradition says, just as God is righteous, so you should be righteous. Just as God is compassionate, so you should be compassionate. Because what does God delight in, according to Jeremiah? Kindness, justice and equity. This gets turned in Miha, in his famous commandment, you have been told, O mortal, his summary of all 613 commandments, what's really important, you have been told, O mortal, what is Good and what the Lord requires of you only to do justice, to love goodness, and to walk modestly with your Lord, you are obligated to be image. And by being created in the image of God, you are obligated to be a person of the highest moral standard, the highest level of decency. And if Hobbes and Machiavelli say, eh, Human beings, mediocre at their core. Human beings defined by self interest, by weakness, by self, by concentration constantly on their own needs. Not dependable, not any. The only way you could really create a society worthy is if you have a prince who scares everybody into order. Or you create a system which enables people. Not enables people, forces people to transcend their drive to mediocrity. The Jewish tradition says, you shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy. And as Kant teaches us, when the moral law commands that we ought now to be better men, it follows inevitably that we must be able to be better. When Miha says, therefore what is good and what does the Lord require of you to do justice for love, goodness, and walk modestly with your Lord, that implies that you can. Ought to be obligated means not that I think less of you and therefore I need to obligate you, I think more of you. Yes, you can. And as the world gets scarier, more people say, I can't. I'm in trauma. Give me a break. And our tradition says, yes, you can. We are not a people who are frightened for moral obligations. We're not a people frightened from moral aspirations. I'm not a people for whom lower moral standards somehow feel safer. It feels alien to what it is. The core of how I see a human being. Yes, you can. Defines the Jewish story. And I'm going to get back to this. One of the things that's most.
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That's.
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That's. I don't know if it's alienating, but it breaks my heart. My heart today is broke. It is broken month after month by my fellow Israelis who feel, I can't. My people believe that to love Israel is to say, give us a break. I can't. We're going to talk about that later. But the essence of my love for this country is this is a country built on the notion, yes, we can. I could be in one of the worst neighborhoods in the world, and I can't. I can fight a just war justly. And that to be a Jew is to aspire to be worthy of a language which says, you were created in the image of God. I am haunted by that story. Because I actually believe that to love Israel means to love a country that wants to be worthy of being created. The image of God doesn't mean we're going to always do it, but that you have to be haunted by it. Now our tradition knew that while we were created in the image of God, we didn't really live up to those expectations. One of the fascinating things in our tradition is the gap between the aspirations and the descriptions. And it tells that story. It doesn't shy away from, doesn't get romantic immediately after God creates human beings in God's image. In Genesis 6, the Lord saw how great was human wickedness on earth and how every plan devised by the human being was nothing but evil all the time. You were created in the image of God. Now it could be that God just didn't have a correct self awareness, but that's a little too much heresy for 9:48 in the morning. Those of you who want, pocket it for another time. Because our tradition is actually quite honest in its depiction of God as well. But that is again too much heresy for this moment. But God says, like, what happened to you? What happened to you? I created you in the image of God. Or I set forth for you an aspiration by telling you that you were created in the image of God shouldn't have inspired you. And instead of inspiring you, isn't aren't you the sum of the stories you tell yourself about yourself? And here it is. I'm giving you a phenomenal story that should inspire you to greatness. And instead of greatness, everything, every plan devised by human mind was nothing but evil. And God says I'm done. And God is a God, which very often, who often says I'm done. And later on when God says I'm done, thank God, there's prophets to tell God. Nah, you're not done. God is limited by prophets who remind God to aspire for more. But early on at this moment, God was alone. And God being alone, there was no one to save God from God's self. So what does God do? This is disgusting. God says, I'm going to wipe them all out. I'll take the best and maybe I will finally get. If I take the best, I will refocus humankind on their journey. And so God wipes out the whole world. And what's the first thing that God says after the flood? Oops, Oops, this is not going to work. Like why oops, couldn't have happened. A chapter earlier would have been interesting, maybe something would have changed. But a biggest up, like really Oops. And in a verse that I don't want to interpret because nobody knows exactly what it means. And as a result you could say anything about it, which makes it uninteresting after God, which is a rule, by the way. If. Because then you could just. If you could say anything, it's like there's no limit. Then it's not even interesting saying anything. Why God? After the flood, when Adam brings a sacrifice, God says as follows. On verse 21, the Lord smelled the pleasing odor. And the Lord resolved, never again will I doom earth because of humankind. Since the devising of the human mind are evil from their youth. I can't fix this. I gave you a story, but it doesn't work. Notice by the way, the tradition does not say that you are evil from birth, you are evil from youth. And this is a difference between Judaism and Christianity. It's not a genetic flaw. Quite to the contrary. In your genetic composition you're creating the image of God. But something happens when that image of God is given to you and put into a flesh. Something gets screwed up from your youth. It's evil. I can't change that. The story's not going to change you. This is both a definition or a description of the human condition. And in our tradition it also carries on to our description of Jews. Making the Bible a really hard book for Jews to read because it doesn't give you any nachos like really like them. What does it say? Source 9, verse 6. Know then that it is not for any virtue of yours that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess. For you are a stiff necked people. A stiff necked people. Remember, never forget how you provoked the Lord your God to anger in the wilderness. From the day that you left the land of Egypt until you reached this place, you have continued defiant towards the Lord. All you did was rebel against me from the first moment. No matter what I did for you, no matter how many miracles, no matter what I fed you. The whole Bible could be more or less summarized in the following three sentences. And God said to Moses, saying, speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them do A, B, C or D. And the people of Israel said unto Moses, please tell God. No. That's more or less, with the exception of maybe 10 chapters of the Bible, no. And the Bible sees, doesn't try to beautify it. It doesn't make us nice. It says there is something, you are striving downwards all the time. So what do we do? There are prophets who just simply gave up. It's too much. Really is a sad story. Here it is. You got the God, creator of the universe on your side, willing to give you anything and what do you do? No, no. One reading of Paul is that Christianity is an answer to this story that the law will always lead to sin. This is not the way to create a better human being. So along comes someone like Ezekiel and says, do you know what we need to do? He says, we need a new human being. Ezekiel source 10:24 I will take you from among the nations and gather you from all the countries and I will bring you back to your own land and I will sprinkle pure water upon you and you shall be purified. I will purify from your defilement and from all your fetishes and I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit into you. I will remove the heart of stone from your body and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit into you. Thus I will cause you to follow my laws and faithfully to observe my rules. I'm going to change you. I created you in image of God, but I gave you a human heart and I gave you free will. I need a better human being. Human being 2.0 in which to love me, to follow me, to finally cease being a stiff necked people will be your destiny the only way. He looks at the story of the exile and says, this is such a sad story. And please remember the Bible ends in failure. God and the Jewish people never get together. We go into exile and Ezekiel says, the only way we could finally get back together is if I change human nature. And Jeremiah does the same thing in another way. He says in the middle on verse 33, I will put my teaching into their innermost being and inscribe it upon their hearts. Then I will be their God and they shall be my people. No longer will they need to teach one another and say to one another, heed the Lord for all of them, from the least of them to the greatest, shall heed me. This is one story that our tradition tells us about this journey to Mensch. It's a flawed and failed journey. It's a journey in which I tell you a story that you can. I tell you a story that you are this close to God. I tell you a story that you are not supposed to be controlled and dominated by the lower dimensions of your being, that you can aspire higher. I teach you that yes you can. But the story of the Bible is a story that you can't and Ezekiel and Jeremiah says, puts forth, put forth. I'll tell you a new story where to be a mensch is to be embedded into your core DNA that there'll be no gap between what's descriptive and what's prescriptive. But by and large, our tradition rejects Jeremiah and Ezekiel. The Jewish tradition rejects it and refuses also to accept the one reading of Paul which sees sin as inevitable. And instead, our tradition embraces another direction of how you're supposed to create a mensch. And that idea is the notion of commandment Mitzvah. I'm not going to tell you a story. I'm not going to say emulate God. I'm not going to create models for you to follow. I'm not simply going to portray an image of who you can be under the hope that maybe that will excite you and inspire you. I am going to command you. And in essence, the first important commandment of the Bible starts right after the flood. If human nature is evil from their youth, but not from their birth, I have to intervene. If all that human beings are going to choose all the time is evil, I have to set a different standard. And in Genesis 9, source 12, God presents what is in essence the first commandment to humankind after the Flood. Whoever sheds human blood on verse six, by human hands shall their blood be shed. For in the image of God was humankind made. In Genesis 1, to be created in the image of God is a story of aspiration. In Genesis 9, it's a foundation of obligation. Let me say that again, because it actually came out much clearer than I thought it would. Now I won't remember it, but it had a turn of phrase. If in Genesis 1, to be created in the image of God is a story of aspiration, an attempt to inspire. In Genesis 9, to create an image of God is an obligation. Because when you walk in the world, to be a mensch is to walk in the world and know that you are encountering a being who is endowed with inalienable, with an inalienable right to live. To be created in the image of God is not a description of how great human beings are. To be created in the image of God is a description of the value that human life has. It obligates you. When you walk in the world, you are meeting fellow image of God people, and that obligation has to guide you. The idea, and I want to clarify because very often this term of mitzvah activates various feelings. I'm not talking here about ritual. I'm not talking about the relationship between ritual and ethics. I'm talking about a core methodology of our tradition which says, if I want to change your behavior, I have to command you. And to command you means ought, implies can. Why do I command you? How does commandment work? In the Middle Ages, a man, we don't know his name, who collected all of the 613 commandments into a book called the Book of Education. There is a commandment in the Passover sacrifice which is different from most other sacrifices because it's not governed by the priests. It's in your house. It's up to you. You're supposed to do it. You're supposed to take care of it. And one of the interesting commandments which you know, in an order of importance of the 613, you would put somewhere in the vicinity of 596, 596, 602, one of those commandments. It's not one of those that's going to get you overly excited and say, oh, my God, I'm so proud to be Jewish. One of those commandments is that in the Passover sacrifice, you're not allowed to break the bones. And why would someone break the bones? And I don't know, I'm a quasi vegetarian, so I don't do this. But there are people who I remember there's something in a bone that might be tasty to somebody, and breaking it gives you access to it. So it's something you're sucking away and doing whatever it is you want to do. Why? He says it's not honorable for the sons of kings and the advisors of the land to drag the bones and break them like dogs. You are supposed to be a kingdom of priests in a holy nation. I want you to act with dignity. I want you to act with dignity. It is fitting for us to do acts that show within us the great stature with which we achieved at that time. You must know, he says, that a person is acted upon according to his actions. I want you to hear this turn of phrase because it is the essence of the idea of commandment and the methodology that our tradition adopts. In the journey to menstrual kindness. A man person is acted upon according to their actions. That means your actions influence you. And his heart and all his thoughts always follow after the actions that a person does. The idea is that what you do is not a reflection of your intent. What you intend is shaped by what you do. And in this very classic statement in the last nine, for the hearts are drawn after. You want sincerity, you want kindness, you want Humanness. You want people to be aware of other human beings. Don't tell them stories. Don't wait till they're sincere. Act in the way that you want to feel. Because your heart doesn't guide your actions. Your actions actually shape who you are. This is a core essential instinct of the Jewish tradition. Core instinct. If I want you to be somebody, do something. Get up in the morning now. It's so often we know the famous case of Heschel, where there was a student who came to Heschel and said to him, heschel, I can't pray this morning. Heschel said, why? Because the spirit's not moving me. And do all of you know what Heschel said to the student? Young man, I think it's time for you to move your spirit. Now. He says this about ritual. I'm not interested in ritual this morning at all. Because ritual actually has nothing to do with what it means to be a mensch. Ritual has an important part in defining what it means to be a Jew. What it means to be a mensch means, Mikha said, do justice and love goodness and walk modestly with God. I want to talk about the role of mitzvah in training us to be mention, to be decent. Don't break a bone. Start by obligating. Create the prohibition. And up till then, there was no prohibition. A prohibition against murder. I need to begin to obligate you. But one of the texts that tells this story most beautifully is this remarkable text in the Babylonian talmud in source 13. Let's read it together. I love this text. Rabbi Yehuda says that Shmuel says, and they asked, how far must one go to fulfill the mitzvah of honoring one's father and mother? One of the Ten Commandments is, honor your father and mother. How far should that go? What does honor mean? To what extent does. How much loss? How much discomfort, how much? You must be obligated to honor your parents. And Rabbi Ezra said to them, go and see what one Gentile did for his father in Ashkelon. And the name of the son was Dhamma Benitina. Stop right here. There's a whole world here. A whole world. We want to know. Here it is. We're a system of obligations, right? Jews are obligated. We want to find who's the. The super honorer of parents. Who's the best. Who should we go to? But there's no Jews that you could go to. There's no Jew who could be your model for the honoring of parents. Dhamma Ben Nathina, an idol worshiper. There's a one of the key. And here this is a hard concept, but it's really important to put on the table. Mitzvah. I don't need mitzvah to know that honoring your parents is obligatory. Mitzvah is not the source of knowing the good. You have to know the good independently of mitzvah. The goal of Mitzvah is not to teach you what is good. A basic human being is capable of being a mensch. Dhamma Benatin, an idol worshiper, not only does he know that honoring parents is a value, he is the paradigm for us, the rabbis themselves. He's the paradigm. Mitzvah doesn't teach you the good. Mitzvah is a methodology to do the good. And the rabbis are already telling you it's not the only way. There will be super people who are going to even be better than us. Without the category of mitzvah, there's no strong claim that mitzvah is necessary. Mitzvah is not necessary to do the good. Mitzvah is not necessary to know the good. Mitzvah, however, is the Jewish secret sauce to prodding and to creating a society in which doing the good can be actualized. What does this Dhamma Benitina do? Once the sages wished to purchase precious stones for him from the Ephod, the chest plate of the High Priest. Each tribe had its own precious stone symbolizing them, and they were willing to pay 600,000 gold dinars profit. And Rav Kahana taught that it was 800,000 gold dinars profit. And here I'm just sharing with you. Whenever you're telling a story, if you don't want people to debate whether it happened, have a debate on how much. Right? It's like he said, six. Not six, it was eight.
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Oh.
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And the one thing you're not thinking about is whether it ever happened. This, by the way, happens all the time. You're telling a story. Truth is, I love this story. It's a remarkable story. The rabbis are saying there's an idol worshiper who is who. That's the person. We're going to learn what it means to honor your mother and your father. And they asked him for 600 or 800. They were willing to pay 6 to 800,000 dinar profit. But the key holding was placed under the father's head and he wouldn't wake him up. I don't wake my father up. Now I remember. Do you remember growing up? I wouldn't sit in my Father's seat. I don't sit in my father's seat. My mother's seat. She didn't have a seat. To that same degree. My father had a seat. Wouldn't dawn on me to sit in my father's seat. If it was 600,000 gold dinar, he would tell me, daniel, schmuck, wake me up. But there was a thing like, it's his seat. Like there's something I don't wake my father up. Abba's sleepy. Mommy's sleeping. Shh. That's what honoring parents and Damenet Benatina, this idol worshiper, understood that, even took it to a crazy degree. The next year, the Holy One, blessed be he, gave Dhamma Benitina his reward as a red heifer was born into his herd. Without getting into too much details, the red heifer is one of the strange laws of our 613 commandments. We read it a couple of weeks ago. In which temple worship requires purity from defilement, and anybody who touches a dead body is not allowed access into the temple. And death is all around you. Especially in antiquity. People are dying all the time. Somebody dies, you can't enter the temple or the tabernacle. Your God is holy, requires of you that you separate yourself from any unholiness. The method of transitioning from being defiled to being pure was to go through seven days separate from the community. And on day three and on day seven, to take the dust from a red heifer, which is ground up and added with water, and to be sprinkled with it on the third and on the seventh day, and then you can re enter the temple. Why? Again, I'm not selling this law. It's just a law. Okay, but why is it important? Because if you don't have a red heifer, you don't have access to God. In a world where the temple before prayer and before learning is the essential carrier of the covenant between you and God, if you come in the proximity of a dead person, you're out. Basically, the covenant is over. And this red heifer has to be pure without any blemish. Very, very rare. And he's right. The Jewish tradition would pay him anything for this red heifer. Because without it, I don't need the temple destroyed. No one will be allowed into the temple. It's done. Who gives Dama Benitina a red heifer? God. Symbolizing God's relationship with humankind, not just with Jews. The Holy One, blessed be he, gave Dhamma Benitina his reward as a red Heifer. When the sages of Israel came to him, he said to them, I know concerning you that if you were to ask, that if I were to ask for all the money in the world, you would give it to me. But I only ask that money that I lost due to the honor of my father. So what is he? He's not only the master of honoring his father. What else is he? He's beautiful. Thank you very, very much. I feel good. He's a mensch. It's not like he's a one trick pony, you know? He's really good at honoring his father. Maybe his father scares the shit out of him. Who knows? It's not that he's a mensch. He could have, since you would have paid me anything. But that's. I'm a mensch. Tama Benitina is a unique individual. But then the rabbis say, look at this. And Rabbi Chanina said, and if this is about one, this is what God does to one who's not commanded yet when he performs a mitzvah, he's given a great reward. All the more so if one is rewarded. If one is commanded to fill the mitzvah and performs it. For Rabbi Chanina said, greater is one who is commanded to do a mitzvah and performs it than one who is not commanded to do a mitzvah and performs it. Now that sounds strange, right? Like, who's better? Someone who on their own chooses, or someone who's obligated? Someone who on their own volitionally just wakes up one morning and says, I'm inspired and does the good? Or someone who is obligated on a day in and day out basis and does the good. Our gut instinct is of course the one who does it on their own. Of course. Like when I have to remind my kids that it's my birthday to call me. Or like what? No, I want. I want it to be spontaneous. I might have to hint just to protect myself. But like, hints aside. But you want stuff, right? Don't we judge? Like, is it because I told you or you did? Of course it's because you were did it on your own. So why is great is one who's commanded and performs than one who's not commanded, who's performed? And you have to remember, this is a general rule of all texts. When you see something crazy or something backwards, you could say, ah, it's stupid. That's one methodology. And it makes you leaves you feeling very good about yourself and usually stagnating. Because the purpose of learning is to challenge yourself. And now you meet something that doesn't seem. And this. One of the rules in philosophy is that if somebody tells you 24 and 26, 24 and 23. Excuse me, is 48, you'd say, no, it's 40. 22 and 20 is 47. You'd say, no, it's 48. But if someone says 24 and 26 is 7,629,412, you wouldn't say, no, I think you're making a mistake. You'd wonder what they're doing, because they're certainly not doing math. So now you're asking, what are you doing? Of course, someone who's not commanded. The rabbis, though, are here declaring that, what do I prefer? Of course they're going to be superstars like Dhamma Benitina. But as a general rule, in a world where human beings are evil from their youth, in a world where I know how possible it is for mediocrity to define us, because human beings, I don't believe we're evil, but we have a constant draw to mediocrity. Constant draw. I prefer a world of commandments. The rabbis say, commandments is a system to create a community. Commandments is a system to create the type of people we want. If I want to mensch, I have to command menshlochkaytness. There will always be Dhamma Benitinas. And frankly, the rabbis say, I see them. They're better than us. They're the superstars. But Judaism builds its tradition not on superstars, meaning. To be created in the image of God is not a description of who we are, it's an expectation. And mitzvah is a journey and a pathway to achieve that. So how does our tradition obligate us? How does it create this mensch? There is, I believe, a core instinct of our tradition that to be a mensch is defined by your ability to see people and to not remain indifferent when you see their needs. What is the journey? What defines a mensch? It's not this inner journey to fulfilling your full moral potential. It doesn't start there. It starts by how you walk in the world and who do you see? And just as Genesis 9 says, walk in the world and see people who are created in the image of God. Recognize that to walk in the world is to encounter somebody who obligates you, to encounter somebody who limits you. Because beforehand all people cared about was their own self interest. You can transcend your self interest through obligation or. Which reminds you that you are Walking in the world with people who obligate you. This instinct gets translated into Jewish law over and over and over again in one of the most beautiful manifestations of this source. 15 if your fellow Israelites, ox or sheep go astray, meaning, I'm walking in the public sphere. When I'm in my private space, I have my fences. My stuff is safe. It's my stuff. You don't come in, it's my house. Don't come in. It's my house. And I could watch my stuff. The public sphere is a scary place. When I enter into it, I could lose things. Things happen. Now you're walking in the public sphere and you see a goat or sheep, you could say, wow, good day. You could even say, oh, I'm so pious. Look what God did for me. God loves me. He brought me a goat. When you see the text says, do not ignore it, do not ignore it. The Hebrew term is. The term is hitalem, which in many ways means to disappear. When you walk in the public sphere, don't disappear. Be a mensch. Don't disappear, Be a human being. You must take it back to your peer. This is the best of biblical ethics and the worst of biblical ethics.
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Things.
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Because biblical law never tells you how to do things. That's why you need the rabbis to spend thousands of hours spelling it out. But they say at some level, I just want to tell you, when you see somebody losing something, just give it back. Don't switch the channel, don't turn around, don't pretend, don't see somebody else's suffering as an opportunity for your gain. You don't live in the world of hobs, of a jungle, of war, of all against all. That is not the world we want to live in. When you walk in the public sphere, just give it back. If your fellow Israelite does not live near you or you don't know who the owner is, you shall bring it back home, and it shall remain with you until your peer claims it. Then you shall give it back. You shall do the same with their donkey, you shall do the same with their garment. And so too shall you do with anything that your fellow Israelite loses. And you find you must not remain indifferent. The essence of the mensch is somebody who doesn't disappear and doesn't remain indifferent. And our tradition trains you to walk in the public sphere with a different mindset. Now, the tradition then says, this is in Deuteronomy, Exodus says, it's not just limited to your fellow Israelite. When you encounter your enemy's ox or donkey, your enemies, you must take it back. Who's the enemy? One reading is the enemy might be the idolater. The other one might be person who harmed you. To be a mensch is not to ask, what did you do to me? But to recognize that the other has inalienable rights that obligate me, regardless of how I feel about them. How you treated me, that's not. It's not a tit for a tat. To be a mensch is to recognize that there are people who. Who obligate you. And you choose to see, and you choose to translate your seeing into action. And this log has so many fascinating features in the Jewish tradition in which we train people to look for things in the public sphere. Which things do you have to return? Which things might have been? The owner doesn't want them back, and therefore you could keep it. To be a mensch is to walk with others and to recognize that I have to see. But one of the big problems with seeing is that we're busy. We're busy people. We have a lot of other interests, and we have a lot of other needs. I don't have the time to bring your goat back right now. I have my stuff. I have my problems. You should have watched it six days a week. When we're working and pursuing, it's very hard for us to see. And that's why our tradition offers us the shabbat in Deuteronomy 17. Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded six days you shall labor and do all your work. And when you're doing your work, it's really hard to be a mensch. It is very, very difficult to be a mensch when you are guided and pursuing your needs, your family needs, your career. It's very hard. That's why I give you the seventh day. Because you know what happens on the seventh day? Nothing. Shabbat is an intricate system to create nothingness, to free you from everything that calls you, everything that claims you, everything that demands your loyalty and your attention. It creates a quiet in which another part of your being could emerge. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. But who's the Lord your God? Remember, Micha, what does the Lord want from you? You shall not do any work. You, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, your ox or your ass, or any of your cattle, or the stranger in your settlements. Why? So that your male and female slave may rest as you do. I don't need you to Rest. You think I need you to rest? Shabbos is not for you. Shabbos is the time that you are able to see people. Shabbos is the time so that the people who are always transparent. Who's the classic transparent? Your slave in a world of slaves. Kant, in one of his definitions of the category of the moral imperative, is never treat another human being as a means, but a human being has to always be treated as an end. The ultimate means is the slave work relationships. When I pursue my needs, people get translated into being means to fulfilling my end. Shabbat is a day where everybody stands as an end. And the tradition then takes the ultimate particular story and says, remember you were slaves in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God freed you from there with a mighty hand and outstretched arm. And you might have thought that that's a story of God's love of the Jewish people. Nah, that's a different chapter in the Bible. It's nothing to do with my love for Jews. It has to do with the fact that I abhor slaves. Therefore, the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. Now, you could be a scoundrel within the law and keep the Shabbos and then go six days a week and treat everybody like a means. But part of the idea of Tzdakah trains you to see people. The laws of lost property train you to see people. And we create a calendar which creates constant opportunities for stopping so that you can move and train yourself to be a mensch, not just on Shabbos, but seven days a week. But the biggest hindrance to being a mensch is not that we're busy. The biggest hindrance to being a mensch is that we're scared. Fear is the biggest obstacle to being a mensch. When I teach you that immigrants are eating your dogs, taking your money, raping your family, killing you, I'm frightened. And when you're frightened, don't ask me to be a mensch. When we feel here that we are surrounded by people who are just trying to do another. October 7th. Don't ask me to be a mensch. Maslow teaches us that human actualization could only be reached after in his pyramid, only after your basic needs are met. But you want me to be a bench even when I'm frightened. How could you ask that? Fear redefines the greatest enemy to mention kindness. Is fear real fear or manipulated fear makes no difference. The minute you're frightened, you're done. My granddaughter Mia is 15 years old. She used to be like Me on the center left, part of the horizon of the spectrum. It was part of her identity. After October 7th, she's done. They want to kill us. My name is Baba Bubba. They want to kill us. I speak about Palestinian statehood. What are you insane? All she wants are buffer zones. She wants buffer zones. Don't talk to me about anybody. I'm not interested in even hearing anything about anybody's rights. They are coming to kill me. I need a buffer zone for a buffer zone. You want me to bring them closer? What are you crazy? And I say, well, all human beings are created in the image of God. She says, who gives a. Don't tell me about human actualization. I don't have a luxury to talk about menshal kindness. If you want to understand Israeli society, that's where we are across the board. There is very little space to talk about our moral human actualization. Very little. Because fear, not busyness, transforms you. And when you're frightened, I can't even see. Our tradition says I have to train you to see. But if I'm frightened, my nature, human nature, teaches me to see my needs first. Can you be a mench and a warrior? The future of Israel is going to be determined by that question. So our military came up with a mitzvah, and with this I'll conclude they came up with a document of commandments for the soldier. And it's called the Israeli Military Code of Ethic. And the purpose of the Israeli Military Code of Ethic is to create obligations to train you, to train you. Not so much only through a story, it does that too. But to train you to behave. When do you point your gun? When do you move your finger and put it near the trigger? When do you pull the trigger? It's ingrained in you. We're not trying to ingrain in you some larger moral aspirations of all human beings being created image of God. We try to do that too. And we talk about it in the spirit of the idf. The first purpose of the spirit of the IDF is to defend the existence, territory, integrity, sovereignty of the state of Israel, to protect the inhabitants of Israel, to combat all forms of terrorism which threaten the daily life. Yes, we understand Maslow's priority, the purpose of the IDF is to enable us to breathe, to be free, to be safe. That's why you're there. And your primary job is to do that. And in that context, your primary job is to win. But the Israel Defense Forces are the state of the. Let's just in the middle, I'll read it. The State of the Israel Military Force the IDF is subordinate to the directions of democratic civilian authorities and the laws of the state. The goal of the IDF is to protect the existence of the State of Israel and her independence and to thwart all enemy efforts to disrupt the normal way of life in Israel. IDF soldiers are obligated to fight to dedicate all their strength and even sacrifice their lives in order to protect the State of Israel, her citizens and residents. But IDF soldiers will operate according to IDF values and orders while adhering to the laws of the state and also the norms of human dignity and honoring the values of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state and when you go to war, there are four sources that obligate you the tradition of the army, the tradition of the State of Israel, its democratic principles, the tradition of the Jewish people throughout the ages, but also universal moral values based on the value and dignity of human life. When you go to war, you're going to war with obligations Genesis 9 applies purity of arms second to last paragraph, the IDF servicemen and women will use their weapons and force only for the purpose of their mission, only to the necessary extent, and will maintain their humanity even during combat. The IDF soldier will not use their weapons and force to harm human beings who are not combatants or prisoners of war, and will do all in their power to avoid causing harm to their lives, bodies, dignity and property. This is the Mitzvah of the Israeli soldier. Go to war, fight a just war, but fight a just war justly. And that means when you go to war, you're also going to encounter innocence. You're going to have to make choices when you pull the trigger. When you don't pull the trigger the minute somebody raises their hands. Under Israeli military law, to kill someone requires two a they have to have the means to kill you. If they don't have the means, the minute they raise their hands, they don't have the means. They also have to have the intent. They have to have both intent and means. Gazan civilians might hate you. They might have the intent for Israel to be wiped off the map. They don't have the means. The minute you don't have the means, you are a non combatant and you have to do all that's in your power to avoid harming non combatants. I want you to know that today there are attempts in Israel to change the military code of ethics. How this document is taught today is depends on the commander of the unit. Some don't even teach the paragraph on purity of arms anymore and only teach the paragraph on the IDF mission. I understand. I really do. I understand my granddaughter. I understand her. I want buffers, but I also even want buffers on my conscience. Just leave me alone. Just leave me alone. But our tradition chooses not to. Our tradition doesn't leave you alone. Our tradition asks almost the impossible of you. It says, I want you to turn Maslow upside down. I don't want you to work on human actualization only after you fulfilled your basic needs. And the responsibility of Israel is not to make a choice between those two. Just like Shabbat says. I don't want you to make a choice between your self interest and your moral responsibilities. I want the spirit of Shabbat to permeate the way you walk in the world. The challenge of Israel. And this code of ethics says, yes, you can. You can go to war, but you can fight a just war justly. That was the standard after October 7th. We're finding it much harder. Much, much harder. Now some of us could understand. While I could understand. I don't accept. I don't accept. If one of our core identities is to be a mensch, I know that failure and mediocrity are going to always accompany me. But we have to create a discipline that will transcend your immediate impulse. A discipline which doesn't hesitate when it comes to my survival, but doesn't use my fear and my survival as an umbrella for setting aside my obligation to be who I have to be. This class on Menschlachkeitness and an identity of a Jew as a mensch for most of our history that defined the Jewish people. We're good people. But a powerless people are always a good people. Are we going to be Mensches today? Which code of ethics is going to win? And can Israel do the impossible? Turn over the triangle. It's hard. It's hard to motivate people. But our tradition says I don't have to motivate you. I want to obligate you. And if I obligate you, I assume that you can. Thank you people.
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For Heaven's Sake is a product of the Shalom Hartman Institute and ARC Media. It is produced by me, Daniel Goodman, with help from Miriam Jacobs, Adar Taylor Schechter and Aviva Kat Manore and studio support from Go Live Media. Our episode was edited by Seth Stein. Natal Friedman is our executive producer and our music was composed by Yuval Samo. Past episodes can be found@arcmedia.org where you can explore more of ARC Media's podcasts. You can watch the video versions of our episodes on our YouTube channel. Follow the YouTube link in the Show Notes. Also, to receive updates on new episodes, please follow the link to arcmedia.org and subscribe to Arc Media's weekly newsletter. For more ideas from the Shalom Hartman Institute, visit our website@shalomhartman.org.