Rabbi's Message
RABBI’S MESSAGE:
WHAT ARE YOUR STANDARDS?
It has been said that we live in a "Post-Biblical Age." That is, the values which our contemporary society feels are important are not consistent with the values expressed in the Bible. But hold on, you say! Hasn't this always been the case? In every period of Jewish life, the prophets, the sages and the Rabbis have railed against the values of their period, castigating the people for their back-sliding and sinning. This was the case during the Second Jewish Commonwealth, the Prophetic Period, the Chassidic shtetl and the Emancipation periods. So, if people never lived by Biblical values then why the constant sermonizing and scolding?
Viewed from that perspective, it has always been a "Post-Biblical" age; nevertheless, the great difference is that in the past there were always "standards” that most people lived by. When a person fell short of these standards, he/she knew that we were in the wrong! In fact, our Prayer Book contains the words "For our sins, we were exiled from our land... And on Yom Kippur, we recite a litany of sins, many of which we have probably never even heard of. In previous generations, people knew that there were standards, and that if they were not living up to those standards, they had to redirect their thinking and their actions towards them. But not so in today’s world. Today, not only are the "sins" the problem, but even sadder still, the "standards" themselves are questionable.
To more fully understand this insight, let’s carefully examine the word “standard.” A “standard” is defined as a flag or a banner which is often a part of an honor guard. The average soldier never came near the standard but always knew that it was there. He could look at the flag; it showed him his line of march and gave him direction. Or again, in Washington, D.C., there is an institution called the Bureau of Standards. It contains the exact yardstick, the exact ounce, the exact weight and measure of everything. If not for the existence of these perfect weights and measures there would be chaos. In the same way, there should be moral flags, standards which we never reach but toward which we aspire. Unfortunately, they are missing in our Post-Biblical Age.
In olden times, Sinai's Ten Commandments were our standards. In the Prophetic Age Micah articulated Jewish values. "It hath been told thee oh man what is good and what the Lord doth require, to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." In the Talmudic Period "Ethics of our Fathers" posed questions, "who is rich, who is strong, who is wise?" Who is rich? He who is content. Who is strong? He who is able to subdue his own emotions. Who is Wise? He who learns from all men. What are our standards today? Placing the mission above the man, sex above love, money above menschlichkeit, religious convenience above religious commitment. Today's standards seem to be “whatever works.”
