בעבודה

Society today is no longer in revolt against particular laws which it finds alien, unjust, and imposed, but against law as such, against the principle of law. And yet we must not regard this revolt as entirely negative. The energy that rejects many obsolete laws is an entirely positive impulse for renewal and law.

'Choose life !' is the great legacy of the Hebrew Bible, and the cult of life is affirmed in contemporary theology. However, life is not a thing, static and final. Life means living, and in living you have to choose a road, direction, goals. Pragmatists who believe that life itself can provide us with the criteria for truth overlook the fact that forces of suicide and destruction are also inherent in life.

The essence of living as a human being is being challenged, being tempted, being called. We pray for wisdom, for laws of knowing how to respond to our being challenged. Living is not enough by itself. Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy. And yet being alive is no answer to the problems of living. To be or not to be is not the question. The vital question is: how to be and how not to be ?

The tendency to forget this vital question is the tragic disease of contemporary man, a disease that may prove fatal, that may end in disaster. To pray is to recollect passionately the perpetual urgency of this vital question.

ONE OF THE results of the rapid depersonalization of our age is a crisis of speech, profanation of language.We have trifled with the name of God, we have taken the name and the word of the Holy in vain. Language has been reduced to labels, talk has become double-talk. We are in the process of losing faith in the reality of words.

Yet prayer can happen only when words reverberate with power and inner life, when uttere as an earnest, as a promise. On the other hand, there is a high degree of obsolescence in the traditional language of the theology of prayer. Renewal of prayer calls for renewal of language, of cleansing the words , of revival of meanings.

The strength of faith is in silence, and in words that hibernate and wait. Uttered faith must come out as a surplus of silence, as the fruit of lived faith, of enduring intimacy.

Theological education must deepen privacy, strive for daily renewal of innerness, cultivate ingredients of religious existence, reverence and responsibility.

We live in an age of self-dissipation, of depersonalization. Should we adjust our vision of existence to our paucity, make a virtue of obtuseness, glorify evasion.

My own sense of the reality of food depends upon my being hungry, upon my own craving for food. Had I grown upon intravenous food injections, apples and beans would be as relevant to me as pebbles and garbage.

Do we know how to thirst for God ? Do we know what it means to starve ?

אֱלֹהִים, אֵלִי אַתָּה,  אֲשַׁחֲרֶךָּ,

צָמְאָה לְךָ, נַפְשִׁי;

 כָּמַהּ לְךָ בְשָׂרִי,

בְּאֶרֶץ צִיָּה וְעָיֵף  בְּלִי מָיִם.

כֵּן, בַּקֹּדֶשׁ חֲזִיתִךָ

לִרְאוֹת עֻזְּךָ  וּכְבוֹדֶךָ.

כִּי טוֹב חַסְדְּךָ מֵחַיִּים*,

 שְׂפָתַי יְשַׁבְּחוּנְךָ.

כֵּן אֲבָרֶכְךָ בְחַיָּי;

בְּשִׁמְךָ אֶשָּׂא כַפָּי.

                                תהילים סג , ב- ה

כְּאַיָּ֗ל תַּֽעֲרֹ֥ג עַל־אֲפִֽיקֵי־מָ֑יִם 

כֵּ֤ן נַפְשִׁ֨י תַֽעֲרֹ֖ג אֵלֶ֣יךָ אֱלֹהִֽים׃

צָֽמְאָ֬ה נַפְשִׁ֨י ׀ לֵֽאלֹהִים֮

לְאֵ֪ל חָ֥י

מָתַ֥י אָב֑וֹא    וְ֝אֵֽרָאֶ֗ה פְּנֵ֣י אֱלֹהִֽים׃

הָֽיְתָה־לִּ֬י דִמְעָתִ֣י לֶ֭חֶם    יוֹמָ֣ם וָלָ֑יְלָה

בֶּֽאֱמֹ֥ר אֵלַ֥י כָּל־הַ֝יּ֗וֹם

אַיֵּ֥ה אֱלֹהֶֽיךָ׃

                                  תהילים מב ב- ד 

A.J.Heschel , On Prayer, in Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity,  FS&G, p

* השל תרגם חסד כאן כ love

חיים אנו בעידן של חיסול-עצמי, של ביטול האישיות. האם עלינו להתאים את חזון הקיום שלנו למחסור שלנו, להפוך קהות חושים לערך, להאדיר התחמקות