21. Putting It All Together

Tentatively sketching an outline of an ideal community

What should our community look like in practice? How might the different pieces discussed above — the lesson of Creation, the message of Torah, the “inspired hearts” of the Mishkan’s builders— come together in real life? And how does this solve the problems listed above? I will try to outline an ideal picture; I recognize from the outset that there will be innumerable holes and practical problems with these suggestions.¹ If the ideal is correct, though, it remains our responsibility to deal with the challenges, rather than scrapping the ideal in favor of a less difficult model.² Therefore, it is valuable to attempt to sketch the outlines of this uniquely committed community.³

Adults

Let us begin with the adults, the bedrock of the community. Everyone has embraced the mindset represented by Creation: We exist not to take, but to give. There are, of course, concentric circles in which we all travel — self, nuclear family, extended family, community, nation, and world — which circumscribe the impact of each individual, but everyone at least recognizes the value of contributing to others rather than focusing solely on self-development or pleasure.

Kochos

Each person should know clearly what their unique koach is, the area in which they are uniquely talented and can make a significant contribution. Combined with the Halachic Man, Olam Hazeh mentality described above, that leads to people who have been raised with a unique skill set and the drive to utilize that skill set to tackle problems facing the community in the spirit of bringing it in line with Hashem’s blueprint for the ideal community. It is impossible to list the different roles that need to be filled, but here’s a start. Without attempting anything comprehensive, and merely exploring the question, what do the adults in this ideal community do?

• Community:

  • Trained parenting experts can help parents deal with the challenges of raising children, including referring them out to the appropriate professionals (psychologists and psychiatrists) when necessary (for example, the OU’s Gen Aleph).

  • Personal finance consultants and accountants can help with budgeting and investing (again, the OU’s Living Smarter Jewish).

  • Marriage therapists can give shalom bayis classes, mediate issues, and facilitate smoother divorces (when necessary) (see Shalom Task Force for a model).

  • All types of creatives can offer extracurriculars for children, or one-off opportunities for parents and children to strengthen their relationship by doing something constructive together.

  • Communal organizations need to be led, managed, and staffed.

• Professionally:

  • Anything which helps someone, solves a problem, or adds value to society is fair game.

  • The obvious ones: Doctors, therapists, social workers, psychologists, teachers.⁴

  • Plumbers, electricians, carpenters, locksmiths, handymen, personal trainers, and nutritionists are all incredibly helpful and necessary for a community to function.

  • Artists and musicians can play a role in cultivating the emotional and experiential aspects of life and avodas Hashem. At the same time, we should avoid falling into the celebrity worship of the broader world.   

  • Finance, law, biology, engineering, physics, chemistry, technology, mathematics and many more — these can go either way. If the job is chosen based on the value it adds or the problems it solves, it can be hugely important; in some cases, though, the job is less about solving problems and more about making money, which doesn’t align with the ideals of l’ovdah and osek b’yishuvo shel olam. In other words, an app developer making the next Subway Surfer is wasting his time; a developer working on an app to strengthen mental health or promote positive habits is osek b’yishuvo shel olam every single day. There is a lot of grey area here; much depends on the person’s attitude and perspective.

  • Business — Again, if you’re adding value, it’s crucial; what community can function without grocery stores, clothing stores, household goods, glassware, and everything else? However, businesses that focus more on luxuries or creating needs (in many cases, advertising and fashion) should be avoided.

  • Politicians — Both in Israel and in the Diaspora, we need people who are willing to be osek b’tzorchei tzibbur — b’emunah, in an ethical, principled way. In fact, it may be one of the positions with the strongest potential to shape society and the world. The reality that power corrupts must be kept in mind, but we can’t really afford to abandon the position due to that concern.

Of course, a position not mentioned here does not imply that it’s devoid of value. Rather, these are a number of examples meant to outline and concretize the approach. Any profession which solves a real problem or adds value to the world in a significant way, following the guidelines and values of the halachic system, is a kiyum of l’ovdah u’l’shomrah and a worthwhile usage of one’s God-given talents — or, put differently, a kiyum of the Rambam’s directive to spend one’s day involved in divrei chochmah and yishuvo shel olam (Hilchos Gezeilah 6:11).

Next week, we’ll look at contributions in the worlds of religious commitment at all levels, and specifically for children and teens, focusing on the “revu” aspect of the juggernaut mitzvah of peru u’revu (according to Rav SR Hirsch).

1. Among others, one of the most significant problems here is that it puts to the side the one of the most significant issues — the skyscraping cost of living in the American Orthodox community. Making enough to get by is not easy. A person must do whatever it takes to support himself and his family, and this is clearly seen as the ideal — “Yegiah kapecha ki tocheil, ashrecha v’tov lach.” A main factor in choosing a number of the jobs that don’t fit the nature of the list below, or do feature but are chosen by many more people than are actually passionate about those careers, is the high earning potential but low social utility that those jobs carry, putting aside yishuvo shel olam to facilitate parnassah.

Without ignoring the elephantine importance of that factor, what I’m laying out here is a description of what our ideal vision might be. If it’s correct, the challenge becomes working to bring the reality more in line, step by step, with the ideal. One aspect of that might be a person who identifies their passion to be teaching, but their 9-to-5 is in day trading, to volunteer to give weekly shiurim for his local shul. Similarly, someone blessed with financial acumen can volunteer some of his time to work with newlyweds or non-profits who could benefit from his expertise but can’t afford the expense. This allows for some amount of using one’s unique skills for the sake of the klal, even if it’s not yet on a full-time basis.

One of my rebbeim presented a similar idea as three levels:

1. Rabbanus/Klei Kodesh

2. Meaningful job that contributes to the Jewish community

3. Doing a stam job and contribute in other ways (give shiurim, serve on boards, etc.) (My addition, which I haven’t yet checked to see if he would agree with, is that even the stam job should be one oriented toward social utility, the more directly the better.)

While this ideal “ranking” is true on an abstract level, the ideal for each individual is to figure out what his kochos are and how he can best contribute to the broader whole. As Chagigah 5b notes, it is not positive for someone not suited for long-term learning/klei kodesh to force himself to learn instead of actualizing his potential.

2. I seem to remember a line from Rav Aharon Lichtenstein to this effect, but I have not been able to track it down; I would be grateful to anyone who can point me in the right direction.

3. One element which is so obviously fundamental that it doesn’t even bear mentioning is a complete commitment to Halachah. If we’re serious about our relationship with Hashem, it cannot be that there is a tacit recognition across the community that we “don’t follow” certain halachos. Breaches of shemiras negiah, whether between teens in high school or adults at a shul kiddush, has no place in the community we’re describing. “Eating dairy out” at non-kosher restaurants needs to stop, as does relying on questionable hashgachos and attending mixed exercise classes. Our default perspective needs to be that we follow the halachos on the books; if we don’t know, we learn; if we still don’t know, we ask.

4. I can’t help but mention a comedy sketch from a number of years ago that imagined what it would look like if society valued teachers the way they value athletes. They created a fictional “TeachersCenter” in place of SportsCenter, reporting on trades, salaries (“$80 million over the next six years, plus $40 million in incentives based on test scores”), and teaching highlights and breakdowns.