September 12, 2023

Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Motion states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, meaning that pushing an object causes that object to push back against you, the exact amount, but in the opposite direction. What is true in science is true in life: One extreme yields another extreme.

Dictionaries, like Merriam-Webster, associate extremes with radicalism and violence. Oxford defines an extremist as a person “whose opinions, especially about religion or politics, are extreme, and who may do things that are violent, illegal.”

The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche noted that extreme positions “are not succeeded by moderate ones, but by contrary extreme positions.” In other words, as in physics, the pendulum never stops in the middle.

The novelist Truman Capote expanded on the idea by emphasizing the incompatibility of extremes: “The problem of these far-right and far-left mentalities is that they can encompass only one side of an argument and are congenitally incapable of holding two opinions in their heads at the same time.” In his scathing indictment of extremism, Capote mocks the lack of subtlety and nuance of extremist views.

What does Jewish tradition teach about extremism?

Moses, the model of leadership and closeness to God, is portrayed as the most humble of men. When he is informed that two Israelites were prophesying in the camp, instead of being jealous, he declares that he wishes all Israelites were prophets. When Israelite behavior is egregious and God threatens to erase them from the Earth and start over with him, Moses effectively argues for mercy and compassion for his people, and they are spared.

The medieval Jewish philosopher Maimonides condemned extremes and encouraged moderate behavior: “Nothing has pained us and exacerbated the wounds of our nation as much as all the ways of extremism and division have” (“For the Perplexed of the Generation” 13:19). And Maimonides, the rationalist, invoked Jewish history to call attention to the need for unity and co-operation. Jewish males are instructed in the Torah to wear tzitzit on their garments and on the tallis in order to remind them to refrain from extremism in the application of all human characteristics (Akeidat Yitzchak 77:1-4).

Finally, the Torah mentions the nazir, a person who feels the need to be zealous in his observance beyond what is required; for example, he vows not to cut his hair and to abstain from wine. He is allowed a circumscribed time, and at the end, he must bring a sin offering. Why limit the time and why a sin offering?

In an effort to discourage extreme behavior, the Torah permits an outlet for such a person, but only for a set period, and the sin offering is a sign and a warning—a sign that, while there is room for non-conformity and even excess, it is not desired and not the norm, a warning that unchecked, excess can lead to grave results. If so in zeal for God, how much more so in the secular realm?

So, we see that general culture and Jewish tradition value the middle road, reason and moderate behavior. The consequences of the alternative are known by all.

Referring to Korach, the Israelite who challenges Moses’s leadership for his own personal gain, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks compares him to the alpha male chimpanzee: “Where there is hierarchy, there will be competition as to who will be the alpha male.” This primitive behavior, when applied to the human sphere, has had ruinous results: “Biblical Israel survived as a united Kingdom for only three generations and then split in two.” Once split, it became vulnerable and eventually all was lost: “The result is what Thomas Hobbes called a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death.” Rabbi Sacks reminds us that the extreme preoccupation with self and personal glory have had the direst consequences not just for the individual but also for the whole nation.

Observing society in America and Israel today, especially in the political arena, we witness behavior more suited to alpha male chimpanzees than to a civilized society of enlightened men and women. If Jews, for example, cannot understand, after millennia of persecution in other peoples’ lands, that the single most important imperative for survival is the absolute necessity to work together, what hope is there for humanity? What does Or Le Goyim, a light unto the nations mean, if not that?

If our societies won’t distinguish ourselves from chimpanzees, and insist on ignoring history and tradition, then let us at least take note of the law of physics. Extreme attitudes and behavior invariably will cause an equal and opposite reaction and once again, the world will bear the consequences.

Dr. Paul Socken is Distinguished Professor Emeritus and founder of the Jewish Studies program at the University of Waterloo.

Being a community that thrives on arguments and ideas is central to the Jewish experience. This critical value, however, is lost on many Jewish college students who are leading the charge on campuses nationwide to silence debate rather than promote a healthy exchange of ideas.

Rabbi Irwin Huberman deftly notes that for Jews, “arguing is the national pastime” and that, “If there is one characteristic which has kept the Jewish people alive for more than three thousand years, it is our love of debate, discussion, and disagreement.” A thoughtful exchange of ideas is so central to Jewish culture, Huberman argues, because Jewish tradition actually restricts young people from isolating themselves when studying, believing that “young people who study texts on their own are more prone to drift towards zealotry and fundamentalism.” Judaism holds that a person’s beliefs must be challenged and exposed to the truths of others and as such, “we welcome questions, debates and, yes, even arguments, believing that this is the best way for a child to develop into a well-rounded human being.”

New data from the Foundation of Individual Rights and Expression’s (FIRE) latest survey on expressionreveals that the ability to speak freely and maintain an environment of open inquiry remains deeply problematic on many campuses from small liberal arts colleges to large, state universities. Cancel culture remains rampant and, regrettably, Jewish students are becoming increasingly supportive of measures and actions that shut down expression and dialogue.

Specifically, the FIRE data, which surveyed over 55,000 students from 254 colleges and universities of all types, documented beyond simple headlines that cancel culture continues to thrive on campus. Almost two-thirds (63 percent) of students believe that there are acceptable reasons for shouting down a speaker to prevent them from speaking on campus. While non-violent, shout-downs can be profoundly destructive and chill speech. Even more disturbing is that almost half (45 percent) of the undergraduates surveyed believe that blocking other students from attending a speech is acceptable to some degree. Plus, over a quarter of students (27 percent) said that using violence and physical force to stop a campus speech is acceptable to some degree. The number of students who support using violence to stop a campus speech has increased by seven percentage points from 2022. That is a concerning jump.

Jewish students, however, are more likely than their peers to be open to trying to disrupt speech. Seventy one percent report that shouting down a speaker is acceptable in particular cases. Fifty percent of Jewish students are open to blocking a speaker that is offensive or objectionable and 31 percent are open to using violence to stop a speech. These levels are all higher than the national figures. While Jewish students have not changed significantly from prior years, their openness to violence has increased by 10 points in the last year alone.

Jewish students, however, are more likely than their peers to be open to trying to disrupt speech.

Making sense of these facts is a challenge but one could argue that because so many Jewish students today are liberal and have ideologically sorted—67 percent are on the left or left-leaning compared to 53 percent of the national sample—they have adopted the dominant view among those on the left compared to the right that cancel culture is an acceptable norm when ideas or speech makes some communities uncomfortable. Accepting this leftist approach is irrational, irresponsible and dangerous for Jewish students who cannot escape their own history of being outliers and targets for centuries, and shutting down dissent historically promotes extremism that has targeted Jews as we see again happening around the nation.

One could also argue that because students are facing record levels of antisemitism and have expressed feeling scared on our campuses today, Jewish students are again engaging in “Jewish defensive assimilation” where, like in pre-war Europe, many Jews felt intense disdain and pressure against them; rather than speak up and push back, many took an appeasement approach thinking that by looking like they are part of an illiberal and dangerous group or ideas, the antisemitism could be held in check. This is foolish since appeasement does not work in the long run and groups often turn inward and on their own members.

While there is no one explanation for Jewish students’ significant involvement in cancel culture, it is clear that Jewish students are actively undermining the central values of not only higher education but also Judaism itself with this behavior. With the High Holy Day season upon us and so many of the Jewish community gathering en masse, it would be valuable to remind ourselves that as a community we value debate and are aware of the extremism that comes from echo chambers and the silencing of dissent.  And then, we need to support our students in promoting more debate. This is a daunting task and a real challenge, but as Rabbi Jonathan Sacks remarked at AEI, Jews must promote free speech on campus “because we believe that the only safe space there is, is one in which we give a respectful hearing to views unlike our own. That is what a safe space actually is.” The future of the Jewish community depends on a real marketplace of ideas to keep extremism in check, and Jewish students and the Jewish community should be leading the charge toward open inquiry as opposed to activity working toward silencing others and their ideas.

Samuel J. Abrams is a professor of politics at Sarah Lawrence College and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

I awoke Tuesday morning to find the following email in my inbox: “Dear Rabbi, as we approach Rosh Hashana, I feel compelled to make a confession. As the die-hard skeptic I am, I was ready to honor the New Year with the usual resigned, even sarcastic attitude. Yeah, I’ll probably go to Synagogue, but mostly out of guilt (my parents, grandparents, the Holocaust), mixed with a little tradition and a lot of superstition (what’s there to lose, let me make my annual deal with God to be sealed in the book of life for a blessed year). I’ll do my routine praying, but for me (and so many others) it’s more like lip-service, by-rote, mechanical faith.

“But then, after watching the miraculous Jets win Monday night against the Buffalo Bills, I could not help but think: Are there indeed miracles in life? Was this God’s hand? I mean, Garrett Wilson’s absurd, logic-defying catch to basically tie the game in the last minutes (when all seemed lost); Xavier Gipson’s amazing punt return touchdown to win the game, in overtime no less; and all this on the heels (no pun intended) of Aaron Rodgers season (career?) ending devastating injury just four plays into his highly anticipated first game with the Jets! Is this a Divine sign? Is this some form of wakeup call (to all of us, but especially to the doubters) – just days before the High Holidays – that perhaps there is an invisible hand behind the scenes choreographing the narrative of our lives?

“Yes, I know that, as we speak, young children are dying of cancer, innocent people are suffering, and the world has plenty of problems, and we sure can use some miracles. But one thing does not negate the other. Sure, one winning game in football doesn’t mean much in the scheme of life challenges. But should we ignore an incredible event that makes our eyes rub in disbelief? If such an unlikely scenario can happen in front of millions, how many more unlikely miracles can take place in our lives? Can prayer help?”

My dear friend, I replied, allow me to share with you the timeless words of the great mystic and founder of the Chassidic movement, the Baal Shem Tov: The difference between a miracle and a natural event is only one thing: frequency. Were the sun to rise once in our lifetimes, we would all be rushing outside with our families and friends, with camera crews and media attention, gazing at the heaven and saying: “Awesome. Look at that flaming ball in the sky rising in the horizon” (just look at the attention a solar eclipse attracts). But since it happens every day without fail, we take it for granted and seek out other novelties (healthy or unhealthy) that will provide us with a new rush of excitement. That is human nature.

Every moment new, healthy children are born. Is that not a miracle? Think, a seed fertilizes an egg, and a new life is conceived. One cell. One single cell splits into two, then into four, then into eight, and over nine months a full and complete child with over 40 trillion cells emerges from its mother’s womb. That is you – with all your beauty and complexities, with all your nobility and neuroses. Is that not a miracle?

But since children are born all the time, we lose sight, and get distracted by the superficial, impermanent experiences of our lives.

How many things must work right for every breath we inhale? A healthy adult takes around 12 to 20 breaths per minute. Do you even notice? But then when you see someone on a respirator struggling to breathe, you suddenly realize the miracle of just one breath.

Life is a miracle. And miracles abound everywhere, if you only choose to look. From time to time, the invisible hand does reveal itself to remind us of the miracles that are already there, just waiting for us to embrace them, to channel them into our lives. When asked “where is God?” Reb Menachem Mendel of Kotzk said: “Wherever you let him in.” If I may, side by side, irreverently cite Michaelangelo: When he was asked how he sculpts those beautiful angels in the marble, he purportedly replied: “I see the angel trapped in the marble, so I carved and carved to set it free.”

The Jets miraculous win, in the days when we prepare to enter a New Year and celebrate the collective birthday of the human race on Rosh Hashana, reminds us of the miracles and angels trapped in our material, distracted lives, and the call of the Shofar awakens us to do our part in unleashing them. Our prayers and good deeds carve away the outer excess allowing our souls to emerge and shine. On Rosh Hashana, after Adam had sinned, God cried out to Adam: “Where are you?” and this is the question we are all asked on this day: “Where do you stand in your life? Have you betrayed yourself and your destiny? Are you present, serving as My partner to transform this world into a spiritual garden? Are you living up to your mission and calling?”

I recall a cynical guy asking me at one of my classes: “Hey, can a tzaddik – a pious God-fearing person – fly?” I replied simply: “I don’t know if he can fly. But I can tell you that for him (or her) walking on earth is as miraculous as flying…”

Every step we take, every breath we make, every fiber of existence is brimming with enormous energy and potential.

If anything, the Jets improbable win opens our eyes and ears to seeing the miracles in every moment; to see (in Blake’s words) a world in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour. To experience the extraordinary in the ordinary.

Simon Jacobson is the author of Toward a Meaningful Life (Morrow, 1995, 2021) and the dean of The Meaningful Life Center, www.meaningfullife.com