Posted March 4 2008
The Art of War
“All warfare is based on deception. Hence when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. Hold out bait to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him. If he is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him,”
Yosef read from a bent notebook he kept in his shirt pocket. “It’s all here; simple, elegant, and so obviously true.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, leaning forward over the table for two at the pizza shop that was our regular venue for philosophical debate.
“I’m talking about a strategy to overcome, you know, the Enemy.”
“The enemy?”
“Yeah, the Enemy. You know, the Enemy, with a capitol E.”
“No Yosef, I don’t know ‘The Enemy’ with a capitol E.”
“Oh I get it, you’re practicing what I was just reading, making him think we don’t know about him; the deception. I’m with you.”
“No, I’m not practicing deception, I really don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said as I returned to sitting back in my chair.
“Oh, right; what an idiot. If I say that you’re practicing deception then he’ll figure the whole thing out. O.K., I got it, you don’t know what I’m saying,” Yosef said with a dramatic wink.
“Forget it. Where did you find that quote?” I asked, trying to steer the discussion in a more fruitful direction.
“Sun Tzu’s, ‘The Art of War’. It was written in China 2,500 years ago. It’s a manual for generals or just people who need a strategy to overcome an opponent. I saw a copy of it and immediately recognized that this was just what I needed to overcome… ‘You know who’.” When he said, “you know who,” he leaned forward and whispered. I too leaned forward until my face was about six inches from his face, and whispered back;
“Why are we whispering?”
“Oh, yeah, deception; I keep on forgetting. Don’t worry; I’ll get the hang of this. You know; you picked this up pretty quickly. Have you read the ‘Art of War’ before?” Yosef asked as he looked at his grease-covered menu.
I don’t know why he always looked at the menu. We had been meeting at the pizza shop every week for twenty-five years, ever since our freshman year in high school, when we first became chavrutot.
“No, I never read the ‘Art of War,’ but it does sound interesting. What else does he write?” I asked. The waiter came just then; I ordered vegetarian chili covered with cheese. Yosef spent a full minute going over the menu and ordered what he ordered every week for the twenty-five years we had been meeting.
“I think I’ll have a slice of pizza and an order of cheddar fries. And…a Diet Coke, no ice.” Then he put the menu down and flipped to the next page in his notebook.
“Here’s another good one: ‘Therefore the skillful leader subdues the enemy’s troops without any fighting; he captures their cities without laying siege to them, he overthrows their kingdom without lengthy operations in the field. With his forces intact he will dispute the mastery of the Empire, and thus, without losing a man, his triumph will be complete.’
“Are you talking about the Yetzer Hara? Is he ‘The Enemy’?” I asked finally getting it.
“There goes the whole deception thing. Why don’t you just scream it out loud so everybody will know.”
“I wasn’t practicing deception; I didn’t know what you were talking about. So you’re saying that you want to apply ‘The Art of War’ to battling the Yetzer Hara. I like that. That’s actually quite clever. Not bad, Yosef, not bad,” I said genuinely impressed. “What’s your plan, how are you going to implement it?”
Yosef picked up his menu so that it blocked his face entirely. “The first thing I’m going to do is stop sharing my plans with you.”
Add This Blog to Your Technorati Favorites
Jewish Blog, Jewish, Jewish Leadership, Jewish News, Jewish Values, Jewish Events
