Tikva Application

We will never succeed. Well, that is unless we reconsider our goal. We will never find the fundamental hashkofo. Any single hashkofo will by definition limit the community to one line of thought, and no one thought is flawless. The hashkofo that would truly allow any civilization to reach its collective potential is one that would permit all hashkofos to proper. I have seen this hashkofo put to the test twice, and it passed both times with flying colors. This hashkofo has come to be known as the acronym Blit’z, or its English counterpart, ‘The Safe Place.’
No hashkofo will be perfect. One of the most famous flaws in most is trying to find the right balance between emotions and the complete and precise subservience to divine law, the controversy between Brisker and most other European Talmudic thinkers. However, this Blit’z or ‘safe place’ is the title of a social contract that, when all subscribe to it, can create the super community in which all hashkofos can coexist, which is the most favorable outcome. Rav Adin Steinsaltz, in his book Simple Words, explains that it is every individual’s choice, prerogative, and duty on this world to judge every hashkofo, to learn from its strengths and weaknesses, interpret these findings and adapt them into one’s life.
Although this approach sounds simple enough, there is one simple yet complicated barrier. It is simple in the way it works but it is complicated to solve. Karl Jaspers (1882-1969), a German psychiatrist turned philosopher, adamantly believed that all humans are “endowed with possibilities, through the freedom he possesses, to make of himself what he will.” Everyone can be what he wants to be. When objects begin to tax this ‘freedom’ we are endowed with, we no longer have this possibility. To America’s founding father’s dismay, everyone’s freedom, in this current society is taxed by an ‘onlooker factor.’ This onlooker factor consists of the comments and emotional abuse one receives from onlookers. Due to the natural fear of being the subject of verbal attacks, it has become nearly impossible for one to try unusual and unfamiliar styles of living, worship, or even a way of dress. For instance, many would not venture to wear a black hat for the Sabbath if it is not custom of his surroundings out of the fear of his peer’s reactions.
This is where the social contract of Blit’z comes in. Blit’z stands for Beli Tzinyot "without mockery." That everyone and anyone can live without the fear of being made fun of by their peers for trying unfamiliar ways because such anti-diversity comments have been made unacceptable. Without the worry of onlookers and their judging eyes, or invasive disheartening comments, one is able to experience Judaism, or any other religion for that manner any way they like. Anyone can just be themselves without fearing his peer's reaction.
I have seen the implementation of Blit’z into a community twice, both times resulting in a community with endless possibilities of growth; once in a summer camp, Ya’alozu, and once in a school in Israel that I had visited in a foreign exchange program ran in my school this year called Makor Chiam. I have seen it work, and I have witnessed the detriments its absence causes. This hashkofo is the only one that is all encompassing while at the same time allows for the greatest collective potential of any one community.


The Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, said “You people with hearts have something to guide you, and need never do wrong; but I have no heart, and so I must be very careful.” The human race used to have a heart. But this heart has been drowned out by what my rebbi, Rabbi Bechhofer, fondly calls the ‘moron factor.’ Recent social stresses on inappropriate subjects and practices have lowered the overall intelligence of humanity. These subjects have now become the subject on kid’s minds before they can find their relationship with their religious beliefs. If I would write a modern Moreh Nevuchim it would directed towards teenagers, the infamous sufferers of curiosity, and on what became the most difficult subject the Modern Jewish Rabbinate had to deal with since the separation of Chabad from the Ultra Orthodox fold.
While the topic seem simple enough, due to the past Rabbinic response of letting this issue fall to the waste side unnoticed, this problem became exacerbated. The topic is too touchy for most inexperienced Rabbis. Teen’s minds have been allowed to wander, and have questions that their religious leaders are afraid to answer. Although some Rabbis have taken this subject head on, such as Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, there needs to be a book, or some farther reaching Jewish source that all Jewish teens in America can reach.
Fredrick Nietzsche said, “All I need is a sheet of paper and something to write with, and then I can turn the whole world upside down.” Such a book could be revolutionary. Although I have come to terms with the hypocrisy of the new social attitude towards sex and my religion, many have not. This problem is the definition of endemic, and to all material, spiritual and philosophical parts of our social climate.
However, “What is word knowledge but a shadow of wordless knowledge?” (Khalil Gibran) No book can solve our problem because, as many intellectuals may solemnly admit, you cannot spread ideologies in any venue in the modern age of technology due to my Rabbi’s ‘moron factor,’ something the current Pope himself had agreed to. But the tradition of the tongue is still alive in Jewish day schools. The only real way to solve this problem is on a classroom level, relying on the competence of the Rabbis. As the Roman Catholic Church had realized in the counter reformation, our clergy must keep up with the times, something in which it has failed numerous times, for instance, Germany in the 18th century where the reformed movement prospered towards the end of the century.