1.
When I was a university student, I would often register for strange and different courses that had no direct correlation to the field I was studying. University felt to me like walking through a field of flowers, with each flower enticing me with its unique intoxicating fragrance. I had the privilege of enjoying the very source of world wisdom. You never know when a seed that was planted in you will bear fruit. "Though he goes on his way weeping that bears the measure of seed, he shall come home with joy, bearing his sheaves" (Psalms 126:6).
Thus, as I meandered through the flower field of knowledge, I became acquainted with a rare intellectual – the late Professor Ruth Reichelberg. She taught me the book of Jonah and its iterations in Jewish, Western and Muslim culture. One idea that she raised has stuck with me since, and has never left me. How, she asked, can people of one culture come into contact with a different, glorious culture without getting to know its fundamental literature? Particularly if they want to harness this culture to benefit them? I have written often about the Arab and Muslim nations and their fundamental text, the Quran.
2.
The Western world rests entirely on two ancient legs – one remains ancient and the other still actively affects us today. One leg is made of Homer's great works, the Odyssey and the Iliad, which describe the Trojan War and Odysseus' treacherous travels from the battlefield back to his home in Ithaca. For years, these works drove Western culture and left its imprint on it in a myriad of ways.
The second leg is a bit more familiar (I hope): The Bible. Not just the Hebrew Bible, but also the New Testament that was added by Christianity. I'm not referring to theology or religion but rather the understanding that today's Western civilization was shaped by its interface with the Christian faith and its countless iterations. To borrow a term from the famous psychoanalyst Carl Jung, these fundamental works shaped the collective unconscious of many nations.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to get to know a person solely on the basis of his or her external behavior or remarks. Our personality is influenced so much more by everything we've crammed into ourselves throughout our entire lives, even in our mothers' wombs, before we were born. In the beit midrash (study hall) of Rabbi Elazar Hakappar, who resided in the central Golan in the second century, the rabbi's disciples often repeated his adage (anchored in text in Pirkei Avot): "Those who are born will die, and the dead will live. The living will be judged, to know, to teach and to comprehend that He is G‑d, He is the former, He is the creator, He is the comprehender, He is the judge, He is the witness, He is the plaintiff, and He will judge."
Some 1700 years later, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook put his own spin on Rabbi Elazar's words, infusing them with new insight: "Life is nothing but knowledge. If the knowledge is deep and meaningful, life is deep and meaningful. But the knowledge is shallow, life is also shallow…"
Life is more complex than the sum of all the knowledge we've amassed –both consciously and unconsciously; the things we remember and those we don't. Our knowledge starts with tastes we acquire, the injuries that shape us, the smells that are branded into our brains (like Proust's famous Madeleine, which sent him on a journey through his lost memory), and continue with everything we hear, see, read and absorb. Our knowledge is shaped by uplifting spiritual experiences and by frightening experiences during the course of our lives, and so much more. The "knowing" is not necessarily a philosophical understanding of things, but rather collected "data." For our purposes, the first time we taste a banana, we come to "know" its flavor. If a man is defined by the sum of his knowledge, then his personality depends largely on the quality of this knowledge - whether it is deep or shallow.
3.
This applies to individuals, but to a much greater degree it applies to nations – the language, the elite culture and the popular culture, the defining stories, the songs, poems, historical memories, etc. These things shape a nation's collective consciousness and "personality" no less than the politics in the city square or the wars – the victories and the defeats – or the financial interests that drive a nation's economy. It is impossible to seriously engage with a nation without knowing their full biography.
How, for example, can anyone say anything worthwhile about the Jewish people, or about the State of Israel (its present and its future) without taking into account the thousands of years of treasured knowledge we've inherited? People forecast all sorts of eventualities for us on the basis of current political analyses or external historical calculations but remain entirely ignorant of our magnificent nation's biography. I'm not just talking about knowing our defining text – the Bible – but also knowing the textual themes that have been branded into our psyches for thousands of years – Midrash and Mishna, Talmud and Aggadah, Halachah and Kabbalah, philosophy and hassidism, and more.
The people who like to scream the familiar warning that "democracy is in danger" probably never saw a page of Talmud in their lives. The fights and disagreements in the Talmud are, at times, far more bitter than our current discourse. The Bible demonstrates how, since the dawn of our nation, we haven't stopped arguing with God and with one another.
These are not detached ideas. They are not a marginal embellishment that some people may know, and others don't. This rich and deep culture served as our homeland while we were in exile. We resided in these texts. We drew life and comfort from them. We adhered to them and we fought to preserve them. Every time we were expelled, the first thing we took with us to the next station were our books and the texts that we have continued to add to the burgeoning stack, generation after generation.
4.
A man who takes himself seriously wouldn't try to say something of worth about another man based solely on an external acquaintance. So why does anyone think it is legitimate when discussing our people or our nation? Our sages said that some false prophets didn't entirely fabricate visions. They did see something before them but didn't investigate thoroughly, grasping only the outer shell of what they had seen. Think about that the next time you hear another prominent self-appointed prophet issue another doomsday prophecy about how terrible our future will be. Their predictions are an illusion because they apply to some imaginary people that exists only in their frustrated minds.
This isn't exclusive to our nation. The same applies to every nation of the world. You can't maintain international relations without addressing the mythological, religious, literary and cultural infrastructure on which the opposite nation stands. Relegating relations to politics, economy and security does a huge disservice to international ties. There is no question that politics, economy and security are major engines that drive the different countries, but this drive rests on a deep, yearslong foundation comprising the "spirit" of the nation. If the world was motivated solely by business and security, we would now be a part of a global nation. But in reality, nations prefer not to assimilate into a larger group. They don't want to lose their unique character. They tend to fence themselves into their own culture, particularly those with a long history.
In Europe, the outcome of these nationalist sentiments, as exemplified in two world wars, prompted such fear that the national sentiment was actively suppressed. The European Union is one of the results of this fear. But things aren't so simple. European nations are now seeking to free themselves of this wider framework, not just because of economic issues, but also because such a union fails to cater to the citizens' deep-seated need for a distinct national identity. The same is true in the Arab world, which is now breaking apart from the artificial borders drawn by Europe after World War I and reverting back to its ancient tribal divisions. But that's been talked to death. "To learn, to teach and to comprehend" indeed.
