Be Thou a Beacon Unto the World
That has a familiar ring. I know I've read it, or heard it somewhere, at some time. And if it was writ in some holy text as an ancient formulary for a golden rule to live amongst others with respect and with oneself in good conscience, the world has taken great care to remind Jews time and again, that they have a greater responsibility in compassionate comportment than any other group of people inhabiting this world.The standard to which Jews hold themselves as decent and caring people, is as nothing compared to that which the world's expectations have led them to. As Job suffered and found no surcease, so has the Tribe of Israel been maltreated since time immemorial, while the injunction to be a beacon unto the world has prevailed, despite the deadly provocations of history.
Well, here's a Jew trying to live with history, and there are countless more like me. We do all right. We still believe in humankind. We manage to get on with life. We enrich the societies in which we live, through our inherited goodwill toward all. We practise a lifestyle of forgiveness; how else live alongside the inheritors of massive slaughters of historical Jewry?
There's another thing about Jews; like elephants they do not forget. There is a collective, painful memory of separateness, of massive hostility, of expulsion, of mass murder. Through it all, we have an inbred need to foster understanding, to do unto others not what they have done to us, but as we would have them do. Wishful thinking? Why is it that despite producing intellectual giants, embroidering the world around us with artistry and music and scientific discoveries, and medical breakthroughs well beyond the normative for a percentile of a population, Jews appear to be held in such universally low esteem?
We are a proud, but not immodest group. We value civility, generosity of spirit, the beauty that surrounds us. We stand ready to accept differences among people whose mores do not reflect ours. We hold valuable those practices which cherish life and the love of family. We urge upon our children the attainment of higher education, the better to take their productive place in society. We urge upon one another the practise of charity and compassion. We are not monolithic. We honour our traditions, whether within the religious context, or through a secular model.
It is doubly, triply painful for Jews to feel compelled as a simple matter of survival to take up arms, to wage war, to destroy lives. To do otherwise led to ethnic, cultural, religious annihilation. And not all that long ago, historically, we came close to the razor's edge. Now comes the old conundrum of what came first: the chicken or the egg? To turn the other cheek doesn't work very well, when your assailant happily slaps the opposite cheek before turning the Kalishnakov directly to your head.
What does a society do against one deadly provocation after another? When protest avails nothing. When discourse is not possible to challenge the motive of avenging a perceived wrong? When offers of compromise and sharing are rejected? When your civilian population is targetted time and again, and you are left to pick up the bloody sinews and shards of bone, what do you do? When your adversary is completely implacable and will not be satisfied with results other than utter desolation - of your society and their own?
You become what you most abhore. A deliverer of death. And hope for the future.
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, June 22, 2006
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