When I was in high school, I has this deep-set belief that if people agreed with me, I must be doing something wrong.  To make things really clear, it wasn’t so much because I considered myself a saint.  I knew the difference between right and wrong and I can assure you that I knew that I was far from sainthood.  No, the reason I believed this was simple.  People, in my perception of humanity at that time, always sought the path of least resistance. I, on the other hand, was seeking something that required a great deal of both hard work and self-sacrifice on my part to try to find it.

Many years later I learned for a short time at the feet of a Rabbi named Noah Weinberger (z”l).  He had a way of summing up the powerful truths of Judaism in pithy “Americanisms”. One of the things I learned from him, a truth so self-evident it amuses me to admit it needs to be taught, that anything of value requires payment.  In Rabbi Noah’s parlance, you must pay in “pain” for your “pleasure”.  An Olympic athlete expects to pain in the “pain” of endless training to achieve the “pleasure” of winning a gold medal. In Jewish parlance, people should expect to pay with the “pain” of compromise and personal adjustments if they want to enjoy the “pleasure” of a committed relationship.  As a parent I can testify that anyone who isn’t willing to pay with the “pain” of raising children, shouldn’t expect to enjoy the “pleasure” of children.

Rabbi Noah would explain that societies which have lost this appreciation, that confuse the issue and associated “pleasure” with “comfort”, that are not willing to pay with “pain” for their “pleasure”, are decadent. Societies that are decadent are not willing to pay the “pain” required to enjoy the “pleasure” of marriage, so the first time marriage requires a little degree of “pain”, they divorce.  They aren’t willing to pay with “pain” for the “pleasure” of raising children, and so abortions are rampant and their birth rate drops below replacement levels.

One can openly questions whether most Western societies, by this rule-of-thumb, are decadent or not. My issue is to question the health of Israeli society.  In that respect I’d have to say there are two answers.

• There is a segment of Israeli society that is not willing to pay with “pain” for the “pleasure” of security and independence.  They believe that achieving these elusive values should be “comfortable” and are willing to make any compromise in order to avoid serving in the army, defending our freedom and quality of life.
• There is another segment of the Israeli society that understands that realizing the millennium old dream of the reestablishment of a Jewish society in the Land of Israel requires sacrifice, requires sometimes putting your life on the line to defend the things that are important.

There is a great deal of discussion around the question of how Israeli society will look in the future.  I believe that the answer to that question lies in the struggle between these two segments of society.  The one aspiring to ape everything Western, including its decadence.  The other seeking to create an authentic Jewish society true to Jewish values and aspirations.

What about you?  In which direction do you think Israeli society should evolve?

I unfortunately find myself on the side of those with whom the majority don’t seem to agree with.  In other words, exactly where I was back in high school, on the side of those with the majority don’t seem to agree.