Character Mastery
We are governed by two paralleloperating systems. In Lead By Greatness[1] I refer to them as the defensive operating system and the heroic operating system. The defensive operating system governs our survival instincts working reactively most of the time, especially when we are confronted with physical danger. The heroicoperating system is responsible for the things we do for causes that are bigger than even our own survival or the survival of our families. Whether we do something dramatic like risking our lives to save others, or we do something discreet like giving anonymous charity to help someone in need, these selfless acts are uniquely human and governed by our heroic operating system not our instinctual drive for survival. The defensive operating system is "wired" into our physical bodies; the heroic operating system resides in our souls. We are usually triggered into defensive reactions automatically without much mindful thought and choice. When we act heroically however, we usually do so after a mindful decision and deliberate choice.
Lead By Greatness postulates that although it is natural to react defensively when we are triggered, this is not inevitable. On the contrary, people can and should master the ability to act heroically even when their instinctual defenses are triggered provided they are not in any immediate physical danger. If somebody insults you it is natural for you to want to strike back at him or her in anger with a cynical comment or a counter-insult. Alternatively you might instinctually shut down, and pull away. But you do not have to react in any of these ways at all. You can choose to compose a response based on your beliefs and values and act in a way that will leave you feeling proud of yourself later on, and might even bring the other person to apologize to you. Choosing your response mindfully even under emotional stress is what in Lead By Greatness I call character mastery.
Kedusha (sanctity): Sublimating the Instinctual
Lead By Greatness is written for a universal audience and is true for all people. G-d requires all people to master their physical instincts and not react instinctually when an heroic response is more appropriate. But G-d calls the Jewish people to take character mastery to an even higher level. Even when it is appropriate to act instinctually such as when we eat or defend ourselves in war, Jews are expected to elevate these instincts from a defensive animal drive to a higher order of avodas Hashem (G-dly practice).
Compare our philosophy of instinctual behavior to the way a Japanese businessman once explained to me how their culture views people's instinctual activities. Consider how we transform a meal (eating is instinctual - a necessary activity for our physical survival,) into an avodah by washing, berochos, divrei Torah, laws that govern what and how we eat and benching after the meal and how we convert our tables into mizbeichos (altars). Think of how opposite this is from the philosophy my Japanese friend explained to me once when he noticed my (negative) reaction to what to me seemed like some unappealing table manners: "When we do human things like art and social interaction," he said, " we do it like angels with a lot of finesse and nobility. But when we do animal things like eating, we do it like animals do." Our Torah culture is different. We are never animalistic; we are always noble, always a kingdom of priests and a nation of sanctity - even when we are in instinctual modes of behavior. The things we do instinctually are also mitzvotwhen we dedicate them to Hashem and to His avodah.
There is hardly a drive more instinctual than the drive for survival. The Torah seems to respect this instinctual drive and commands to place our survival before our observance: ve'chai bahem (and you shall live by the mitzvot). With the exception of idolatry, murder and immorality, we must put our own survival before the performance of amitzvah. However on deeper analysis this is in fact not a concession of the Torah to the survival instinct. Avodas Hashem always takes precedence over our physical needs even when our lives are threatened. What this mitzvah teaches us is that taking care of our physical wellbeing is a values-based choice, a mitzvah of the Torah. When the mitzvah of vechai bahem conflicts with anothermitzvah, (as mitzvahs often do) the Torah teaches us how to resolve the Halachik conflict: the mitzvah of physical wellbeing takes precedence - not because it is instinctual but because this is the Halachik process, this is the retzon Hashem (G-d's divine will).
The Akeidah ("Sacrifice" of Yitzchak)
Survival as a halachik imperative - a mitzvah - rather than just an instinctual necessity, is the lesson of the extremely difficult passage of Torah we read on Rosh Hashanah: the akeidah (the binding of Yitzchak in preparation for a human sacrifice that ultimately never occurred). G-d instructs Avraham to put aside his own paternal instinct and the physical survival of his son for the sake of a mitzvah. At the last moment, survival triumphs - because G-d commanded it. Had He not done so, Yitzchak's survival would have been subjugated to the higher cause of G-d's service. In the same way each time we act for our own health and survival we do so as G-d's will, as a mitzvah, and not as an automatic act of instinct. It is in this way that even our mundane actions are differentiated from those of non-Jews: The Gentile is at times holy and at times secular. We are holy at all times, in all of our actions, in our thoughts and in our speech. We are always, always governed by Halachot that convert mundanity into sanctity. We are always G-d's priests serving Him with our every action in His Temple - in the world He created. This is the meaning ofkedusha (sanctity); this is the way Jews live their lives. Whether eating or fasting, praying or working, we are always in the service of Hashem.
Even though eating on Shabbas and Chaggim is natural, we do so as a spiritual practice, a mitzvas Hashem, not as an act of natural instinct. We fast on Yom Kippur for the very same reason that we eat on other holidays: both eating on other days and fasting on Yom Kippur are mitzvot, halachik imperatives
The Moment of Re-Entry: Emerging From Yom Kippur
The Yom Kippur fast is a unique opportunity for us to spend some time suspended in a space where our natural instincts do not prevail. There is hardly anything instinctual we do on Yom Kippur. It is not a day of sublimating instinct but a day of subjugating instinct. But the real opportunity is the moment of re-entry into the instinctual world immediately following the Fast. After an uplifting 25 hours, how will we re-enter a world where we again confront the gravitational pull of our animal instincts? Will we revert to habit and continue to oscillate between defensive instinct and heroic values? Or will we master our instincts and sublimate them as we perform the normal functions of life - not as instinctive imperatives but as halachik imperatives, as mitzvoth that differentiate us from all of humankind? Will we revert to nature or place ourselves in the supernatural - but for Jews, normal -category of ovdei Hashem - G-d's servants. The choice is ours to make.
[1] The title of my book on leadership in the final stages of its preparation for publication.
