R'Tzvi Freeman is one of my favourite writers on the Chabad.org website. A couple of years ago I exchanged some emails with him regarding some theological statements in the Tanya, the magnum oppus of Chabad chassidus. This is part one, stay tuned.
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Dear R' Freeman
I have been a long time subscriber to your Daily Dose email. Your
poetic words fill me with a deep appreciation for life and service of
Hashem. I have a question that has been bothering me for a while which
I would like your insight on.
It is regarding a statement made in the first chapter of Tanya.
"The souls of the nations of the world, however, emanate from the
other, unclean kelipot which contain no good whatever, as is written
in Etz Chayim, Portal 40, ch. 3, that all the good that the nations
do, is done out of selfish motives. Since their nefesh emanates from
kelipot which contain no good, it follows that any good done by them
is for selfish motives. So the Gemara comments on the verse, "The
kindness of the nations is sin" — that all the charity and kindness
done by the nations of the world is only for their
self-glorification…"
The above statement bothers me on a multitude of levels. How can we
condemn the entire of mankind, millions of decent, honourable, ethical
people with such a designation? How can we condemn millions of people
just because they do belong to our own religion in such a fashion? It
is true we have been oppressed and tortured in the past, but does that
mean that everyone is guilty? How do you reconcile this statement with
the entire corpus of Jewish thought which you so eloquently put out on
a daily basis? Where is the love for mankind, a brotherhood of
humanity in the above statement?
I look forward to your response on this matter, as this is something
that bothers me tremendously.
Regards,
Rael Levinsohn
Sydney, Australia
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Dear Rael,
You are not the only one with this question. Personally, I couldn't live with the idea that only Jews have any good within them. I will copy here that which I have written to others previously. Please let me know if you have any comments or questions after reading this:
First of all, you have to realize that there is no new dogma in the Tanya. The Tanya comes to enlighten us about ideas that are found in classic Judaism, as you see the citation from the Gemarra. The whole issue about the souls of non-Jews comes up in the Kuzari, the Maharal, the Arizal and many other important works.
The Tanya explains to us the Arizal's point of view. According to the Arizal, everything that exists has a spark of G_dliness within it–only that this spark may be very hidden. Sometimes it is so hidden that this thing becomes totally self-centered, unable to do anything that it does not benefit from.
In most parlance, this is not called evil. This is called how human beings operate. Psychology, sociology–all the human sciences are based on the premise that whatever we do, we do to avoid pain and/or receive pleasure. Truly, 99% of the mitzvahs that the common Jew does falls in the same category.
But in the parlance of the Arizal and the Tanya, this is called evil or klipah and sitra achra–the opposite side of holiness. The Tanya doesn't put anyone down–it simply raises the bar.
Nevertheless, within every human being there is a spark of true good. After all, as the Torah repeats four times in Genesis, and again in the Mishnah, all human beings are made in "the image of G_d." If anyone knows of the equality and dignity of all human beings, they got it from one source and one source alone and that is the Torah.
The job of the Jew is to release that spark. And in those non-Jews who are Bnai Noach, there is already a certain redemption of that holiness. This should answer what you write about the "average American today". As the Rebbe spoke, we have already succeeded in the birur of Esau. Western civilization since the Reformation is really nothing more than goyim acting like Jews.
(Although, I must add this: When we gather all the nations of the world together what do they resolve? That Israel must be condemned. And not just Africa and Asia, but Europe believes so, as well. And in Washington, the State Department never let go of its animosity, continuing today into James Baker's nefarious ploy to sidestep and sabotage Israel. From the Rebbe's perspective, the birur is complete. From our perspective, it seems there is still much to be done.)
So what is the relation of Jews and non-Jews? Look at it this way: For an ordinary Jew to discover and awaken the spark within, he needs a tzadik, as explained in chapter 2 of Tanya. Quite simply, what the tzadik is to the Jew, the Jew is to the non-Jew.
The non-Jew recognizes this, albeit in a distorted manner. Paul Johnson describes anti-semitism as "patricide". Thomas Cahill, an Irishman, writes that the non-Jew hates the Jew because he reminds him of G_d. In fact, they worship a Jew–a tortured, agonized Jew. They got it right and wrong all at once.
A common accusation is that Judaism is racism. This simply doesn't work. Jews are not a race. They come in all colors–white, black, brown and yellow. There are no racial distinctions on who can become a Jew. Furthermore, ask yourself: Is there any other faith that says you don't have to become one of us in order to have a share in the world to come? Believe what you want, eat what you want, smoke what you want–as long as you keep the basic rules of Noach, you're in.
Again, let me know if this helps.
–Rabbi Tzvi Freeman for Chabad.org
People usually chsooe thier own wife or husband, but families are generally heavilly involved, certainly sometimes people are hooked up by parents or a rabbi but the marraiges dont happen unless the man and women ultimately want to marry. Matchmakers are fairly rare these days.And yes the divorce rate is 1% or lower and more, and perhaps more importantly the polled satifaction of each partner is vastly higher than other circles.I would explain why but it wouldn’t be tsnius (modest). However I will say it has more to do with what happens after getting married than before, do a little research on the laws of Family Purity as well as the customs regarding husband and wife on shabbos( mitzva night is one coloquial term regarding this) your assertions about promisqueity and the motives behind dating are valid as well as living before marraige. However plenty of people are baalei teshuva (repentant jews) that go on to experience the same marital harmony when they only became orthodox after getting married or just before meeting.Edit: Hmm, the funny thing about jazz hands cynical and perhaps thinly veiled anti-semitic comment is that there would be absolutely no reason partners in an unhappy or even terminated marraige would be shunned by the community. The irony and perhaps beauty of the happiness and success of frum marraiges is that divorce is not a sin the way it is with Xtians, the talmud says that a man may divorce his wife for something as simple as spoiling his dinner in theory