"PARABLE AND MEANING"

                          by Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler and Rabbi Aryeh Carmell

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Note: This essay was written in 1941 at a time when millions of European Jews were uprooted from their communities -- facing starvation, torture and death.

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A parable is a tale of events which never happened. Its only use, its only claim to truth, is the extent to which it helps the reader to arrive at its underlying meaning. What of the person who hears only the parable and misses its point completely! Listening to the story and missing the message is a failing to which we all
are prone. It happens to us more often than we care to admit.

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                                                      TOYS OF THE ADULT

A child plays with his toys; a broken box is a ship and he is the captain. While the game is on, illusion equals reality. The ship is as real to the child as stocks and real estate are to the adult. Rabbi Yisrael Salanter (18th century Europe) once said that robbing a child of his toys is as bad, in human terms, as destroying the factory or sinking the yacht of an adult.

The adult may not take kindly to the comparison, but a little reflection will show that there is plenty of illusion involved in our worldly strivings, too. Even a person who is convinced that he is above the pursuit of honor is still happy if the people around him recognize his worth -- and he is unhappy if they consider him less important than he thinks himself.

But what does being important in other people's eyes really give a person? "True" honor is possessing intrinsic worth. If he has this, what does it matter if his colleagues know about it or not? And if he does not have it, what does he gain if other people think he has? This is pure imagination. All it means is that if other people think he is "someone," then he can more easily persuade himself of his own worth. The less confidence one has in one's own true value, the more one needs the consolation of other people's approval.

                                              IMAGINARY GAINS

Some people have to exercise their imaginations even more. Take, for example, the person who buys honor for money. Everyone knows (often the donor included) that the people concerned don't really want to honor him; they merely want his money. The praise they lavish on him is only a pretense. But he is prepared to enjoy this double game: He will accept an outward show of honor instead of their sincere belief in his special qualities.

And so it goes with all worldly ambitions. People want to be rich and think that if they'd succeed they would be happy. But one only has to glance at a newspaper to see that rich people, too, have their share of pains and troubles, anger and anguish, like anyone else. If they avoid the worries of the poor, they have other and greater worries in their stead. As the Sages say (Avot 2:7): "The more possessions, the more worry."

There is a not-so-obvious reason why human beings pursue worldly pleasures so avidly. It is because they have a subconscious urge to still the pangs of spiritual hunger. Everyone has this nameless inner yearning: the longing of the soul for its state of perfection. And indulgence in worldly pleasures is an illusory substitute for this.

People generally do not wish to fill their inner void with things of the spirit. When the day's work is over, they try to fill their time with worthless occupations -- anything "to kill time." This is essential, otherwise they might be compelled to confront themselves and realize that their lives are a parable without meaning.

So the adult, too, has his toys and games. But he is more obstinate about them than the child. The more you show him his mistake, the more he will insist on taking his imaginary satisfactions for the real thing.

                                                   DREAM AND REALITY

On the other hand, every effort invested in real living, every free choice of good over bad, results in a rise to a new level of being, with enhanced insight into the  worthlessness of purely material pursuits. When a person utterly devoted to Torah learning observes the money-chasers sacrificing themselves body and soul on the altar of materialism, they seem to him insane.

When the great day of revelation dawns, all mundane concerns, their ups and downs, their sufferings and successes -- apart from real spiritual achievements -- will seem like a dream. As the prophet says (Psalms 127:1): "When God returns the captivity of Zion we were like dreamers." It does not say "We shall be like dreamers" but "we were;" all our previous life will seem like a dream.

The hard and bitter Jewish exile, too, will then seem to us like a dream. We imagined we were sunk in the deepest misfortune, but instead it will then dawn on us that whatever we had undergone was truly for our good. It was all to prevent us from getting too attached to the vanities of this world and to bring our hearts closer to our Father in heaven.

Whoever has tasted suffering in his lifetime and has been compelled to take a hard look at himself, has probably come to the conclusion that he might as well give up his materialist dreams. When this happens he will undoubtedly become aware of a remarkable change. The vain dreams will immediately be replaced by true spiritual values.

There were people who thought that the material basis of their lives was firm and secure for all time. Then they saw it shattered in front of their eyes. If they were blessed with only a modicum of consistency, they abandoned vain hopes and immediately felt a new awareness of God surge into their hearts. They felt the inner strength and tranquility of spirit which belong to those who trust in God.

                                          IN SEARCH OF TRANQUILITY

In our times we have been taught terrible lessons: We have been shown how possessions and the security they supposedly give can disappear overnight. We have seen how peace is no peace and how the life of whole countries and of the whole world can hang on a hair.

The Kabbalistic guidebook, The Zohar, asks why the tremendous revelation of the Heavenly Chariot should have been given to the prophet Ezekiel during the Babylonian Exile. The answer given is that this exile was an overwhelming blow to the Jewish people because it came after such a long period of relative grandeur and tranquility. It was like "falling from a high roof into a deep pit," and the Jewish people were close to despair.

Consequently God brought all his angels down to Babylon and revealed himself to Ezekiel, giving him permission to reveal what would not have been revealed in other times, so that Israel would be reassured that the presence of God was still with them. When they saw this, they were overjoyed and thought nothing of their exile. They realized that God had not abandoned them and they felt drawn to Him in a great access of love and devotion.

The Zohar concludes by saying that wherever Israel goes into exile, the Holy Presence goes with them. This means that the greater the suffering, the closer one comes to the revelation of the Divine Presence.

                                                 DOUBLE ILLUSION

Not everyone attains this revelation. Obstinacy and fear combine to prevent one from giving up one's customary supports -- and one turns to them in despair like a drowning man clutching at a straw.

But this is a double illusion. Even when the person had that worldly security which he desired so ardently, it was only an illusion of security. Now he does not have even this, but he relies on imagination to create the fantasy that there might still be hope that the old days will return. If only he would open his eyes just a little, if he would only use his common sense to see how improbable it is that his hopes will ever be realized, he would give up the whole vain enterprise. Then God would immediately give him the
wondrous experience of spiritual being and he would begin to live in the reality... instead of in the parable.

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Excerpted from the book, "STRIVE FOR TRUTH!" by Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler and Rabbi Aryeh Carmell. Published by Feldheim Publishers,  http://www.feldheim.com