The Way the Game is Played

Rabbi Melanie Aron

June 19, 2004

Last week there was much discussion about whether President Ronald Reagan’s actions significantly led to the fall of the Iron Curtain or whether he was the beneficiary of greater processes already in motion that would have come to fruition no matter what he did. It is one of those questions that will likely never be fully resolved and hints at an even broader question: whether history is made by individuals or by greater impersonal forces? It is the question we are asking when we attempt to assess whether things would be different today in the Middle East had Yitzhak Rabin not been assassinated, or the world in general if for example, Winston Churchill had not been the British Prime Minister during World War II.

Our Torah portion this week seems to lean towards the view that history is made by individuals. The rebellion described is highly personalized as a conflict between Korach, Moses and Aaron, and it is the defeat of Korach which spells the end for the insurgents. In many ways this view, that the individual actor writes the story, is consistent with general Jewish teachings that the actions of each individual matter. We are to imagine always that the world hangs equally balanced on the scales and understand that what we do has tremendous power. The Bible is full of significant individuals who seem to be the ones to make things happen. How could one imagine Jewish history without Abraham, Moses or David? What would a sense of responsibility mean without a belief in the significance of the actions of each individual?

On the other hand, those who have been coming to services regularly have probably noticed a pattern. For three weeks in a row we have been reading stories about the Israelites whining and complaining, about their rejection of Moses and of God’s anger towards them. Korach may have directed and fanned the fires of resentment, but clearly he was playing to an already existing sense of injustice and frustration. Was Korach’s demagoguery really the cause of the rebellion or was it the difficult conditions of the desert wanderings, the people’s lack of preparation for these hardships, or even something in human nature itself which turns discomfort into resentment and resentment into blame? Perhaps Korach and his personality were really incidental and rebellion would have come about without him. The fact that in next week’s Torah portion the Israelites, absent Korach, continues to complain and rebel supports this argument.

History plays a big role in Judaism. Remembering our history is a core mitzvah and reliving our history is a major function of the festivals. Judaism declared early on that history is “not merely a string of coincidences” but rather the prophets saw God’s hand working behind the scenes. This view may be seen by some to dispute the argument that individual figures make history. Nebuchadnezer thought of himself as the emperor in whose hands was the fate of millions, though to the prophets, he was merely the rod of God.

The Rabbis solve this problem of human freedom v. divine determinism by focusing on the point of view. After the fact, we can see the patterns of larger forces being played out, but in the moment, we make our decisions as independent actors.

Sara and Joshua, you spoke this morning, both on the level of the macro- the political, the national, and on the level of the micro- the personal, the individual. On both levels we recognize larger forces which shape the playing field. But on both levels too, the way the game is played, can make a tremendous difference.