The people of the paradox

Lio: group is compelled to help others in times of crisis, but the unique role of the Jews, as we're trying to explore, is a specific kind of inner unity that influences the rest of the world.

Seth: And you're saying that when they deviate from this, when they don't maintain that unity, it brings about negative consequences?

Lio: Exactly. It's almost like there's a cosmic expectation for Jews to play this integral role, and when they don't, it disrupts some kind of balance. That's what we're trying to investigate here on The Jew Function.

Seth: It's a big hypothesis to grapple with, for sure. It's not easy to prove or disprove because it's so deeply rooted in cultural, historical, and perhaps even spiritual contexts.

Lio: Which makes every episode feel like we're peeling back layers of a really old and complex onion. It's a challenge, but that's why we're here, trying to make some sense of it all.

Seth: Yeah, kind of like trying to figure out how a virus functions within a body ecosystem. There might be parallels there.

Lio: Perhaps. And maybe through our discussion, we can bring more people on board with exploring such ideas. What's clear is that we're not just here to tackle antisemitism; we're here to make sense of a broader picture that spans across centuries.

Seth: That's why every episode builds up on the last one, so if you're just tuning in halfway through the series, make sure to go back to the previous episodes for the full context.

Lio: Absolutely. And remember, this isn't just about understanding the past; it's about trying to chart a potential path forward. If there's any time to dig into these questions, it's now.

Seth: Every rights movement has a Jew there, you know, every right, every movement.

Lio: Yeah, every attempt to make the world better, right? So what's the difference between that and what the book is talking about? This unity, this Rabbi Akiva's "love your neighbor as yourself," this concept of one man, one heart. What is this whole thing that we're circling around through the centuries in this book?

Lio: To read something from the sources, because Spain around the 13th century is when the Book of Zohar was discovered. There's a lot of debate around it. We're not going to get into it. I'll side with the idea that it was written by Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, a student of Rabbi Akiva, who we mentioned in the last episode. He was one of the five surviving students who went on to write great Jewish books. We said that all those books talk about the same concept but use different words. They don't talk about law, morals, ethics, or fairy tales; they're about changes in the relationships inside of us and between us. This book, the Zohar, was rediscovered after being written and concealed. Baal HaSulam writes in the introduction to this book, known for his famous commentary, that everyone reading the Zohar today relies on Baal HaSulam's words because the Zohar was written in Aramaic. He's not adding anything but simply making it accessible to modern readers. In the introduction, item sixty-six, maybe we can read that.

Seth: Let's clarify and clean it for a minute. When the language of the Zohar speaks about the Creator, we've already said it's talking about this law of love because otherwise, we could get confused with the language. Let's remember that again.

Lio: Yeah, the Creator is the upper force of love. It's simply a force of nature, like the positive side of your battery.

Seth: Right.

Lio: So,

Seth: and Israel again refers to the ones who are

Lio: the ones who aspire to reach that force.

Seth: Yeah, a reader should remember that, whenever we read these things, they should get to the internality of what we're reading and not get stuck on the external language.

Lio: Here's a great way to say it. It's like math, right? When you do math, nobody thinks that when you say X plus Y equals Z, you're going to look outside and see a big X walking down the street. X stands for something, Y stands for something; it's a relationship, an interplay of forces. In the same way, all Jewish texts talk about the interplay of forces inside us and between us. Instead of using X and Y, they just use words.

Seth: They're using words from this world. It's called the language of branches and roots. That's simply the language they adopted, just like mathematicians and physicists have their languages, and every human endeavor has that. Kabbalists were the first to do it using a proxy. These books are proxies for reading reality. It's confusing because they're using words from this world.

Seth: You should re-listen to what we just said over the last minute and a half, like five times, and then continue several times, yes.

Lio: I would download the podcast, put it in your ears, and go to sleep with it. Just let it wash over you, I think it's worth experimenting with. Introduction to the Book of Zohar, item 66. Bear in mind that in everything, there is internality and externality in the world. In general, Israel, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, are regarded as the internality of the world, and the 70 nations are regarded as the externality of the world. Also, there's internality within Israel themselves, which are the

Seth: love

Seth: of the Creator. And there is externality, those who do not devote themselves to the work of the Creator. Among the nations of the world, there's internality as well, which are the righteous of the nations of the world, and there's externality, which are the crass and harmful among them. Among the servants of the Creator, among the children of Israel, there is internality, those rewarded with the comprehension of the soul of the internality of the Torah and its secrets, and externality, who merely observe the practical part of the Torah. Also, there is internality in every person from Israel, the Israel within, which is the point in the heart, and externality, which is the inner of the world within him, which is the body itself. But even the nations of the World in him are regarded as proselytes since by adhering to the internality, they become like proselytes from among the nations of the world who came and adhered to the whole of Israel. Whoa, so inside of me, there's a part called Israel and there's a part called the nations of the world regardless of my country, genes, or time zone. If that part inside of me is directed in a certain way, it's called Israel. And if that part is directed to anything else, it's called Nations of the World. Yeah?

Lio: I know, it's perplexing. Oh, it's clear. It's clear. Oh, okay. Sure, to everyone, quantum physicists talk about it a lot. Many scientific disciplines actually investigate the world and reality in this way. There's a Japanese geneticist who studies DNA, and he studies DNA and the relationship between genes by looking at remote galaxies. It’s the same exact relationships. This whole what's in me, what's outside of me is a very relative thing. I know this reality seems very real, but it's a totally relative thing. If you really dig into it, you'll see you have no clue what's happening outside. And these people who wrote these things you just read, Kabbalists, talk about how everything is really inside of you. We should probably do a podcast just on that, but for now, let's read the first paragraph of sixty-eight. That, I think, will bring the point home of what we're trying to say. If everything is happening inside of you, if you have an internal part, an external part, and that's how you see the world, that's how the relationship between everything is, then do not be surprised.

Seth: Do not be surprised that one person's actions bring elevation or decline to the whole world, for it's an unbreakable law that the general and the particular are equal as two peas in a pod. Hence, all that applies to the general applies also to the particular. Moreover, the parts make what is found in the whole, for the general can appear only after the appearance of the parts in it, and according to the quantity and quality of the parts. Evidently, the value of an act of an individual elevates or declines the entire collective.

Lio: This is, I think, what people are talking about when they talk about Jews. Look, your action towards the other person in front of you—forget about sending planes to an earthquake—how you relate to the person in front of you: if you really open yourself to them, really try to feel them, and have this open-hearted connection with them, that can change the world. And that's the hardest thing to do. I'd rather go and risk my life saving some people from an earthquake than say good morning to my neighbor next door every day. Because of this charge by nature, the whole system kind of relates to them in this way. We find ourselves constantly, ever since that exile, you know, that last exile really threw us for a loop. We've been walking around not certain of who we are or what we need to do but having this vague memory of who we are and what we need to do, occasionally living up to that standard but most times not. The feeling is that you're always on the verge of losing everything. Maybe we should read this existential quote. He talks about the existential fear of dying instantly and horribly. Can you name a Jew that doesn't have that?

Seth: Where's the quote you're talking about?

Lio: From the book Israel: The Ever-Dying People. He's a Polish-born Jewish-American philosopher, Simon Rawidowicz.

Seth: He who studies Jewish history will readily discover that there was hardly a generation in the diaspora that did not consider itself the final link in Israel's chain. Each generation always saw before it the abyss ready to swallow it up. There was scarcely a generation that, while toiling, falling, and rising again, being uprooted and striking new roots, was not filled with the deepest anxiety lest it be fated to stand at the grave of the nation. Each generation grieved not only for itself but also for the great past that was going to disappear forever, as well as for the future of unborn generations who would never see the light of day.

Lio: This sounds so much like my grandmother. Actually, my grandmother and my great-grandmother, they all lived with this dread. It reminds me of that film, A Serious Man. If you haven't watched it, you can't call yourself a Jew. Honestly. But in that film, it's full of those paradoxes and very Jewish moments. In the end, the last scene, everything is getting so dark. On one hand, there's a ray of light, a source of money and new beginnings. At the same time, everything is closing in and getting darker, and there's a tornado approaching. Do you remember that scene?

Seth: Yeah, yeah. And the wind starts blowing,

Voice: A big black cloud is coming out.

Voice: I shouldn't tell you this. I'm not telling you officially. The tenure candidates aren't notified till Thursday.

Voice: Yes, you'll be very pleased. Thank you, Arlen. I didn't say anything. Mazel tov.

Voice: An S, Lis Aid B'Erent Is. A. An Road Sa Lis Aid B'er Is.

Voice: This is a tornado warning from the weather service. Mr. Turchin has decided to move us into the basement of the synagogue. Shake! Shake it! We will form two lines.

Lio: As he changes the grade of that student from F to C-. He knows he's going to get the money to pay for the lawyer. The same instant he gets a phone call from the doctor.

Seth: Hello?

Voice: Larry?

Seth: Yes.

Voice: Hi, it's Dr. Shapiro.

Seth: Oh, hello, Dr. Shapiro.

Voice: Listen, mazel tov on Danny.

Seth: Yes, thank you.

Voice: Listen, could you come by to discuss these x-ray results? Hello?

Lio: Yes?

Voice: Larry, could you come in to discuss these x-ray results? You remember the x-rays we talked about?

Lio: We can't discuss them over the phone?

Voice: I think we'd be more comfortable in person. Can you come in?

Lio: When?

Voice: Now, now is good. I've cleared some time now.

Voice: Hey, R, Reg,

Seth: R, I got your

Seth: You take some to love. You let somebody to love. You better find someone to come.

Seth: You know, when should I come? Now would be a good time? You know, sometimes like I would get nervous when things were good because the next thing that's gonna happen is, oh god, what's gonna happen now? Where, what's gonna

Lio: Well, the good news is that I think nature is not letting Jews disappear.

Seth: As far as historical reality is concerned, we are confronted here with a phenomenon that has almost no parallel in mankind's story. A people that has been disappearing constantly for the last 2,000 years, exterminated in dozens of lands all over the globe, reduced to half or a third of its population by tyrants, ancient and modern, and yet still exists. There is no people more dying than Israel, yet none better equipped to resist disaster.

Lio: I feel like this is our redeeming aspect and yet also our downfall. I think, Seth, it's the sense that we can survive. You know, there's a saying in Israel, "We've survived Pharaoh, we're going to survive this too."

Seth: As well.

Lio: And in a way, it's that sliver of hope. But at the same time, it robs you of responsibility. That's why hope is such a terrible thing because, on the one hand, it's reserved for things that are hopeless, I think. Hope is for the hopeless. Because if you can do something, you should do something. You should not rely on hope. You can’t ride on the tail of

Seth: your previous tragedy, kind of thing.

Lio: There's something that we are missing and I think it's dangerous to say, "Well, we will survive that." I think, by the way, the recent outbreak, the virus kind of shattered some of that as well. I don't know how it is in New York, I'm not there right now, but I can tell you the religious people here in Nebrak, one of the most religious cities in Israel. They're very confident that they will really come out unscathed from this epidemic, just like they survived the scud missiles. Not a single missile landed in Bnei Brak during the Gulf War because they had Torah. Now I'm not downplaying the importance of that inner confidence. But to just ride that without taking responsibility for my choices as a human, and then this virus comes and ravages through the community, I think it gave everyone a bit of a pause on what are we doing. And now, we're seeing some amazing signs of unity between religious Orthodox Jews and Israeli soldiers that previously would really fight because one group did not want to join the army. This is like an ongoing thing. As you said, oh, we're the first people to be in a disaster scene. And yet we have such a hard time reconciling all our differences here or rising above them here.

Seth: Or something like that. We can't talk to our own neighbors, or we can't talk to our own brothers, but we can run to yeah. And this thing that we read from the Zohar, what I felt from that was that by correcting the relations between us, it changes the attitude outside of us. What we're seeing from this book is how we can affect the system.

Lio: Exactly. And I have another great insight because, thanks to the pandemic, people think we have to spend millions, billions, trillions on fixing the environment,

Seth: cleaning the water. You have to spend zero, actually. That's the number, you have to spend zero.

Lio: All you have to do is

Seth: stop doing

Lio: the stuff that you were doing. Yeah. Stay away from everything and everyone, and in a heartbeat, nature takes care of itself. Nature is never the issue. We are the issue.

Seth: And I think this...

Lio: ...is a telltale sign of where we need to put our focus. Forget about investing in all these external actions. It really comes down to how we relate to one another. That first step of just moving everyone away connects with these words you read from the introduction to the Book of Zohar. The fact that just in these actions between us, we can affect the entire system. Before we close, I want to bring us back to the book because in the next couple of episodes, we're going to dive into the times of the Spanish Inquisition. We're going to meet some fascinating characters, like Turquemada, and we'll hear from the king and queen of Portugal, Ferdinand and Elizabeth. The things they said to the Jews at the time - I think I was surprised to learn. We all grew up thinking the Inquisition was a terrible time, and it was, but not for Jews as they were. It was more for Jews who converted, who tried to assimilate. Remember what we read in the beginning? They tried to assimilate, thinking they were doing a good job, but everyone was saying, "You're not assimilated enough, and don't even bother trying, because you're never going to be able to assimilate." In a way, you can't escape it. Can you? That's the paradox we're going to look at.

Seth: I don't remember anymore. My mind went into ten different places thinking about this. This was like the first time in history when the Jews decided maybe converting wouldn't be so bad.

Lio: Yeah, we will talk about it. There are a few things we want to point out. Number one is that we've had moments of unity with the First Temple, and then a second moment of unity with the Second Temple. Those were moments of extreme unity. Since then, we were never able to fully restore that, despite what antisemites say. They say, "You Jews stick together." Well, we don't stick together that well. We could stick better. We're not being the glue that holds everything together; we're more like the oil everything slips on. That's the feeling. Since Mount Sinai and then the Temple, it's been a rough couple of thousand years. We talked about why there is antisemitism and why it started, but here, this statement from the book talks about why it exists and persists. I think this is what we're going to deal with as we go through the next thousand years and come to modern times, understanding why it keeps going despite all the great things Jews are doing. They have a role.

Seth: All of humanity needs to be united as one. There's this inclination inside humanity, like there's an inclination inside a person, however quiet it is. That person knows life is better when people care for him and he cares for others, but he gets up in the morning, thinks just about himself. He's got to pay the mortgage. He can't think about that little desire inside him. And there's also a little desire inside humanity with a role—to unite everyone. Like you said, how much does it cost to save the environment? We have to make businesses, conquer this, take over that, win political elections to save the environment, and stop the oil coming. Or...

Seth: We don't have to do that. That's not where the solution is. Just stop harming each other. That's the first thing. Then we can build something.

Lio: We'll see what comes out of the back end of this current epidemic. But I think we see that antisemitism is still alive and kicking and growing, meaning the virus itself did not kill that; it merely quieted everything down. I want to end on this note. It starts from the exile in Babylon. Because it really seals it for me; it was an important moment.

Seth: During the exile in Babylon, the majority of our people who were no longer able to maintain unity above differences assimilated into Babylonian culture, and all but two tribes disappeared. During the Seleucid rule over the kingdom of Judah at the time of the Second Temple, the majority of Jews became Hellenized and gradually disappeared. But since the ruin of the Second Temple and the dispersion of our people, the tendency to dissolve into the host culture has intensified to the point where it has become our most dominant trait. Were it not for antisemitism, our tribe would have been long gone, as have all the ancient nations.

Lio: Yik.

Seth: Oof.

Lio: God. How many times do we say "oof" in this series? It's hard to swallow. But again, if you look at nature, like the peel of a fruit or the shell that protects the tender inside... that part of the fruit, it's like a hardened shell, like a scar almost. Some harsh events had to happen to create this protection. In a way, that's what antisemitism seems to do. It makes us unite more, take a deeper look at ourselves and our actions. It's a hard thing to swallow. But we have to take the medicine if we want to cure the patient. Seth, I don't think we introduced the podcast, but this is The Jew Function podcast. We're trying—I think we're going to solve this. We're going to find out the root of antisemitism and the solution to it. Not because we say so, but because the evidence is going to be overwhelming.

Seth: The listener will discover this through the process. It's not about convincing. I mean, that last sentence there, if it wasn't for antisemitism, we'd have just a few remaining, and who knows what would happen to them.

Seth: What happens next week, Lio? Where are we going from here?

Lio: We're going deeper. We're going to meet this guy, Tur. He's a great guy.

Seth: What a show.

Lio: It's going to be great. So stay with us. This is Passover, by the way. If you're listening after this, it's the eve of Passover 2020, during the time of Corona. I'm in Israel, and we're entering a complete lockdown.

Seth: No one's allowed to attend a Seder at anybody else's house, nothing.

Lio: Nobody, which dramatically lowers the number of people killed on the roads. So there's an upside to all this. But we want to look into actions because we're practical people, Seth. We want to find out what it is that we can do if we agree with what's been discussed. On the off chance it makes sense to ourselves and others, what do we have to do to make it happen? How do we break the chain? How do we stop living on the edge of the abyss? That's what we'll try to find out.

Lio: Okay? Let's do it. Thank you, Seth. Good night, everyone. Visit us on The Jew Function on Twitter and Facebook, YouTube, SoundCloud, Google, Spotify, iTunes—it's everywhere. Just look it up, sign up, subscribe. T-shirts are coming soon, by the way. I'm not promising anything.