Monday, September 29, 2014

A healthy dose of naivete

What's on my mind after Rosh Hashanah and Shabbos Shuvah?

Three music videos that I like not because their music is outstandingly good, but because צמאה נפשי for a world in which the vision of unity presented in these videos was the norm:



Of course, I know that there are real reasons for the schisms among our nation, and there are substantive issues of both philosophy and practice that divide us. All the same, I believe that naivete has an important place in our lives, in moving us from an ugly world to a more attractive one. Naivete regarding other people, naivete regarding Gd, naivete regarding ourselves.

Let me be a cynic all year long, but not now, not in these weeks.

More on this theme of naivete in the days leading up to Yom Kippur, I expect.

5 comments:

  1. If I may play "Pandora Radio" for a moment... With those likes, you'll probably enjoy http://youtu.be/RYJuz8fjXbY> Ari Goldwag's "Am Echad", both song and official music video.

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  2. R' Micha - Thanks, and I do like it. I feel bad writing the following, but I feel like I need to say it: Why did the chiloni need to be wearing a yarmulka in the mural at the end?

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  3. Because if we cleaned up our bein adam lachaveiro, we wouldn't need to invest the same effort in kiruv?

    (Or as a friend puts it: Rolls Royce never offers "0 Down or 0% Financing".)
    (With "Rashi": You only have to do that when the value of the product isn't obvious.)

    Actually, I hadn't noticed it before. I wonder if the video was edited since l first saw it, or if I was unobservant.

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  4. R' Micha-
    I think I didn't make my question clear: Did he need to be wearing a yarmulka in order for the "am echad" to be ok?

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    1. I understood. I was giving the naive answer. Rather than assume a critical intepretation (no matter how plausible) either ignore the act of interpreting or realize there is a pink-glasses way of looking at it.

      As for the role of naivite.... There is no other way to live with the dialectic between Divine Transcendence and Divine Immanence. The sophisticated philosophical (Rambam-esque) approach to G-d gets in the way of emotional prayer.

      For everything there is a time and season, even naivete.

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