By the Grace of G-d
Erev Shovuos, 5733
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Mr. And Mrs. S.
. . .P.S.
I just received Mrs. . .'s letter, in which she writes how upset she was at her parents’ attitude toward your way of life, conducted in accordance with the Torah, Toras Chayim.
Her feelings are of course understandable. I trust, however, that the following remarks will help alleviate her anxiety.
Consider the psychology of persons in her parents’ age, who followed a certain philosophy of life all their years and then, suddenly find that they had lived in error and that the error is of a very serious and cardinal nature, having deprived themselves of something which should permeate every minute of a Jew’s life. It is clear that in such a case it is natural to set up defenses by all sorts of arguments and rationalizations, however weak they may be, so as not to have to admit their lifelong error.
In the present case, moreover, the difficulty is compounded by the fact that the impact of this sudden reorientation comes from their own children who happily made the change. For to follow the children’s example, implies a reversal of roles, where instead of parents teaching their children, the children have to show the way to the parents.
Add to the above also the following consideration. Where a group or a people finds itself in the minority numerically, though very prominent in quality, it is nevertheless faced with a disadvantage at every step in the daily life. For the pressures of the majority and the inconveniences and difficulties of being different, present a serious and immediate challenge to the minority, while the superiority in quality is not always appreciated and cannot be utilized in a tangible way.
I am speaking of the Jewish people which, throughout its history, ever since it became a people at Sinai, has been a minority among the peoples of the world. Yet at the same time, the Jewish people has been a “light unto the nations,” having given the world the concept of true monotheism, at a time when polytheism reigned supreme and dominated the thinking and way of life, customs and mores, of all the nations of the world. It was natural and inevitable, therefore, that with the Jews’ acceptance of the Torah, making them into a different, holy people, there came universal resentment and hatred towards them on the part of the nations of the world who were in the overwhelming majority.
At the same time, the Jews became a dominating factor in the world in matters of quality, even in areas not related to religion. It is a well known fact, for example, that the percentage of Jewish Nobel prize laureates is out of proportion to the Jewish population in the world, or even in the scientific world. Similarly in other areas. Even in Soviet Russia, with all the anti-Jewish restrictions for more than a half a century, Jews have excelled in various fields out of all proportions to the Jewish population there, as has been pointedly shown by the number of academics among the new immigrants from there.
Yet the tendency towards assimilation with the majority has been strongest among the upper classes of Jews, to the extent of deluding themselves that the way of the gentile society is superior, in order to invent some flimsy justification for imitating the goy in all his ways and bringing up the children accordingly.
One can, therefore, understand the sense of guilt of these unhappy Jews on discovering their error and trying to cover it up.
There is no need to further elaborate on the above to you. I hope it will suffice, at least to lessen your worry and to strengthen your hope that by indirect influence upon your parents in the right direction, they will eventually find the strength and conviction to modify their views and attitudes from non-acceptance to reconciliation and hopefully, to more than that.
