When I hear someone who expresses an opinion that is to one extreme or the other, I tend to roll my eyes and dismiss it. No matter how important an issue, if you see no room for the other point of view you’re probably being led by an emotional or psychological bias. This is just as true with issues like abortion as it is with anything. The unexamined opinion is usually wrong and the examined opinion is usually centrist.
There are plenty of people who I interact with who are blind hypocrites who have been spun about by a very reliable source. Once informed that there is a donkey somewhere that needs a tale [sic], they are pushed in one direction and follow Newton’s first law. Today’s piece is not about them.
In the movie, “City Slickers,” the old, wise and true cowboy, Curly, says “There’s just one thing in life that’s important.” Billy Crystal’s character, Mitch, asks “What is it?” Curly responds, “That’s for you to figure out.”
One of my friends claimed that he just doesn’t understand how any observant Jew could go near backing a candidate who advocates gay rights/marriage and abortion.
I gave some of the common answers, not because I thought he hadn’t heard them before, but to hear his response. In the system of government we have in the USA, you can’t back a minor candidate because you agree with all his views. You have to weigh the views of the top candidates and pick the cliche-ish lesser of two evils.
“But what kind of statement are they making showing support for someone with these anti-Torah policies?”
To that I replied that there are so many things that Jewish leaders have to account for: the welfare of the state of Israel, the welfare of the Jewish communities in other countries and all the various needs locally as well. These issues of abortion and gay rights will continue being the subject of debates and disputes throughout the term of whomever gets elected. One might just as well ignore those types of overheated issues and take a closer look at individual points.
“You know,” he said. “It’s because of those kinds of leaders who ignore what’s really important for the sake money fame and politics that I am no longer Shomer Shabbos or Kashrus.”
This was no time to be shocked at the statement he made, so I responded to it by asking him why he felt that those issues: gay rights and abortion were Mitzvot about which he could be so adamant, but Shabbat and Kashrut were not.
And he gave a pretty common answer. He claimed he believes we’re put here by God, but that religion is man made. Original Judaism had so many sects that even someone who believes in the Torah is taking a huge leap by getting behind any sect’s ideas on Shabbat and other similar things.
I asked him what made gay marriage an issue that he felt was immune to this critique of religion.
“It’s not the violation of religion that gets me so angry,” he said. “It’s the violation of life. Life is the most precious thing we have and everyone should be trying to promote life in every way possible. That’s why we’re here, rule number one, be fruitful* and multiply. Anything that gets in the way of each person continuing on as much as possible is a disgraceful use of the gift of life.”
And then he said the words that put it all together for me.
“How can these people consider anything more important?”
I then told him about how he has that One Thing. He knows the secret of life. The people who have to give support to a politician, they have so many things to worry about that no one thing can ever be too important.
____________
*Fruitful here refers to the process of reproduction, not the process of homosexual union.
Post Script
My belief is that the One Thing expressed above: The Supreme Importance of Life, is the One Thing of Judaism. Some may disagree with me when it comes to issues like animal sacrifices or capital punishment. Others may disagree with me when it comes to Shabbat or prayer. But I honestly believe that taken in completion, the laws we follow were intended to give us the best life emotionally, mentally and physically. It is only because we get bogged down in over-weighing details that we lose track of the original goal. I think that if you keep your eye on the One Thing throughout all your observances of Judaism, and constantly answer the question, “how is this improving my quality of life,” you will understand how to observe the Torah optimally.
