[Avodah] Klal Perspectives - Spring 2012

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Apr 25, 2012 at 10:40:26AM -0400, Prof. Levine wrote:
> From http://tinyurl.com/6txrwm6
>
> Spring '12: Questions
>
> THE AMERICAN ORTHODOX COMMUNITY is experiencing a crisis of spiritual
> connection, in the opinion of many leaders and observers of the
> community....

On Thu, Apr 26, 2012 at 04:37:37PM +0000, kennethgmiller at juno.com wrote:
: I'm not convinced that this is a new problem, nor that it is a growing
: one.

I think it is currently growing. Although I agree it's far from
new.

: If kids text on Shabbos, how much different is that from not davening,
: either not going to shul at all, or going to shul but spending most of
: one's time in the hallway or playground? ...

We're not talking about this, though. We're talking about the person who
is fully observant, but feels no internal religiosity or spirituality.
He is continuing out of a "that's what we do" mitzvos anashim meiludma,
social pressure, or instinct. But life of the spirit is hours per year,
moments on RH and YK, times of personal crisis, etc...

One could suggest that there is a correlation. Since uninspired people
are less likely to stick with it, perhaps a loss of connection in the
observant masses is the same phenomenon that increases the end of the
bell curve that abandons observance.

(I assumed a similar correlation between the number of abusers and white
collor criminals to the state of our community as a whole as well. If we
aren't producing measurably fewer menuvalim than religious groups that
don't follow the Emes, then we have to either assume that our norm isn't
much different, or explain why we would have a wider variation (std dev)
than anyone else.)

Anyway, below is the letter I mailed KP. It's far longer than the
recommended response length. Let's see what they do with it.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha



Dear Editor,

"Mi yaaleh behar Hashem -- Who will ascend Hashem's mountain?" (Tehillim 24:3)

It is an important question. Perhaps the most important one in life. I
therefore thank the editors of Klal Perspectives for a thought-provoking
issue that brings the topic to public discourse, and starts the
conversation with such erudition and experienced voices.

Different people start their ascent from different points at the foot of
that mountain, and therefore will need to travel in different directions
to find the peak. All are benei aliyah, people actively pursuing ascent,
and thus have a common spirit despite difference in derech (path). This
is the meaning of Shlomo haMelech's dictum, "Chanoch lenaar al pi darko --
teach the youth according to his ways." Each of us have our own abilities
and proclivities, and therefore each will find the different ways of
viewing the Torah's ideal more or less fitting. Do I see that ideal in
terms of who I am to become? What kind of relationship I am to forge
with G-d? With the world? And if I do see it as personal refinement --
do I take the German Jewish approach of personal dignity or the Mussarist
focus on various middos? What kind of relationship with the Almighty is
ideal? What aspects of how He appears to us am I capable of relating
to? And so on. All following the same goal -- but with different ways
of viewing that goal, we will end up on different paths and different
prioritizations.

The AishDas Society was founded with an eye to the meta-issue, the
culture of growth [1] necessary for the pursuit of a path, a derekh's ideal,
regardless of which that it. We got together around a dining room table
15 years ago to find pragmatic solutions to the question: How do we
become benei aliyah?

Our first conclusion was the need to invest more time studying aggadic
texts in addition. One needs to see how various mesoretic voices
describe the ideal, have a developed notion of what that ideal is, before
developing a program of working toward it. Not only what the ideal is, but
how to frame that notion in a way that fits my personality and talents.

But while finding a model of the Torah's ideal that I am more able
to pursue might be primarily an intellectual pursuit, following that
ideal is more experiential. We all know the problem of akrasia, even if
that word is Greek to you (.......). It is the question of why people
do things they know is wrong or against their best interests. Knowing
what's right is not enough. "Veyadata hayom vehasheivosa el levavecha --
You know today, and you will answer your heart." Our minds know things
that still need to make their ways into the core of our beings to change
who we are and how we act. That level of deep impression is made by
experiential programming far more so than the study of ideas.

AishDas has had success forming ve'adim (literally: committees) that
follow those composed by R' Shlomo Wolbe and found in Alei Shur vol
II, sec. 2-3. The vaad concept is a product of the Mussar Movement,
and those ve'adim in section 2 of Alei Shur are more middos (character
trait) oriented. However, reviewing the topics in section 3 shows that
the same format can be applied to goals such as adding passion to Shema
and Shemoneh Esrei. On the meta-level, it is a format that provides
experience interacting and living up to a text, and a group of peers
working together who you can turn to for support. Regardless of which
approach up the mountain the group is taking.

So what is a vaad, as I am using the term? It's a small sized group that
studies a text regularly (like a chaburah). But, they also explore how
to apply the text to their own lives. Every session ends with some
daily exercise they take upon themselves to grow incrementally in
that area. E.g.: Not to express anger at dinner time. To spend time
lingering on each word of one sentence of Shemoneh Esrei, feeling as
many connotations and implications as they can before moving on. Etc...

And so, a vaad meeting typically begins with a discussion of how things
were going with the exercise, or with any other part of one's avodas
Hashem (service of G-d) that they want the group's input in. Then the
text study. Then thoughts about how the ideal in the text applies to
the lives of the members. And finally a discussion of the exercise,
which may be tailored based on prior progress.

Ideally this would be a synagogue or local community based
institution. But if necessary, we have convened a va'ad using conference
calls supplemented by email discussion.

A sefer like Alei Shur or Sifsei Chaim -- Middos vaAvodas Hashem has the
advantage of already presenting sequences of texts and exercises. This
creates the ability to have a group even without the commitment of
someone ready and able to prepare appropriate material. It takes just
slightly more effort to do so with a text like the Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh
series by Rav Itamar Schwartz. Obviously, a synagogue rabbi could learn
to produce material for a vaad, perhaps after some experience with Rav
Wolbe's or Rav Chaim Friedlander's ve'adim, just as they do for lectures
and shiurim, perhaps based on Mesilas Yesharim or the Slominer Rebbe's
Nesivos Shalom. And AishDas is available to provide experienced assistance
to any group wishing to get started.

For similar reasons, I think our instinct to the focus on formal
education, how do we teach differently in order to avoid the problem
in the next generation is misplaced. We aren't talking about imparting
facts to the brain, but inculcating values to the heart. I am inclined,
therefore, to agree with Rabbi Glasser's article about the value of
informal educational settings. That is where truths are experienced,
rather than studied.

I have a friend who has taught Pre-1A boys for decades. The end of
the curriculum on reading is teaching sheva nach (silent) vs sheva na
(pronounced schwa). In the early days, it didn't come naturally; how
many of us learned the grammar of Tanach and the siddur in yeshiva? But
now it's transparent to him, and how he davens as well. But his students
do not fare as well. After his class, they enter first grade, where the
focus is on siddur and chumash, not keri'ah and vowel marks. And their
subsequent rebbes, from 1st grade through beis medrash, are not likely
to pay attention to grammatical niceties. So, it all falls out the window.

Similarly, perhaps the strongest education we can give our children is
for them to see parents who are grappling with these issues in their own
lives, and thus they learn informally that Torah values, spirituality,
connection to Hashem and the Jewish people, are important.

There is also a way to bring that kind of informal education into the
school building. For example: Right now there are numerous middos programs
for schools; various different curricula that all boil down to truisms
like, "Modesty is good", "Honoring your elders is good", "Anger is bad",
etc... It becomes trite at a pretty early grade, and then Middah education
falls off. There is also little indication that such cerebral imparting
of information does much to change actual behavior. People learn how to
behave from peers and role models. (Again suggesting that adult programs
may need to come before we focus attention on education.)

However, teachers and administrators do talk to their students in the
school setting in ways other than imparting information. Rather than
teaching the value of various middos, they can use these interactions
to foster awareness of middos. Decisions are made through a conflict
of middos, desires, aspirations, etc... We can teach students that
language when educators (and parents) have occasion to discuss those
decisions. For example: "When Sarah through that ball at you, what middah
did it trigger? If you could have stopped to realize it was an accident,
how would you have responded? Which middah should you have used?" Getting
the child to realize that in this incident, her Temper (middah of ka'as)
outweighed her Awareness (zehirus) will do far more toward improving
her future behavior than stopping after a poster and worksheet about
how losing one's temper is as bad as idolatry.

I deeply feel the path up the mountain has two steps: setting the mind on
a goal through learning, and making impressions in the heart through more
experiential modalities. The vaad notion as well as informal education
beyond the curriculum are just me scratching the surface. I dream of a
day when shuls consider offering experiential programming to foster benei
aliyah as de rigueur as daf yomi has become in these past few decades.

"Ben Zoma said:... Who is rich? One who is happy with his lot." If Ben
Zoma meant happy with where they are now, his would be a recipe for
complacency and stagnation. Rather, I believe he is telling us to be
happy with our entire lot from birth to grave, the path Hashem places
us upon from where we are up His mountain.

May Hashem grant you further success in this wonderful endeavor,
Rabbi Micha Berger
Passaic, NJ


[1] An idiom coined by Neil Harris in his "Manifesto for a Culture
of Growth"
<http://uberdox.blogspot.com/2012/04/manifesto-for-culture-of-growth.htm>
at the blog Modern Uberdox <http://uberdox.blogspot.com>.