A Model of Maturity
A Message for Yom HaAssma'ut 2018
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Several
years ago, film critic A.O. Scott penned an article for The New York Times
Magazine entitled “The Death of Adulthood in American Culture.” Surveying a
decades-old shift in American film and general culture, Scott wrote about the
emergence of “an essentially juvenile vision of the world.” He noted the
current popularity of comic-book movies, family-friendly animated adventures,
tales of adolescent heroism and comedies of arrested development. He pointed to
the embrace of Young Adult fiction by many “not so young adults,” and described
the widespread conception of adulthood as a “forever young” state-of-being.
Scott struggled with his own feelings regarding this phenomenon. He weighed the
advantages of a world that is “our playground, without a dad or mom in sight,” with
a potentially serious “loss of something.”[1]
Leon
Kass noticed a similar trend in his search for the underlying factors for the
societal shift away from traditional courtship and marriage. He wrote about
today’s shared clothing styles, spoken lingo and interest in music between
parents and children, commenting: “Youth, not adulthood, is the cultural ideal,
at least as celebrated in the popular culture.” Kass explained that today’s
young man doesn’t feel the urge to take his father’s place, as he has seen his
father continuously running from it “with all deliberate speed.”[2]
Writer
Joseph Epstein described this exact phenomenon over a decade ago, adding to it
his own critique and misgivings. Epstein began “The Perpetual Adolescent” by
contrasting the “grown up” attire one beheld at the baseball games of the
1940’s and 50’s – tailored suits and fedoras, to the youthful jeans, caps and
T-shirts that fill the seats of today’s games. Broadly observing many of
society’s general trends, he noticed a sharp shift from a society that
conceived of adolescence as necessarily transient to one that yearns for its eternal
existence. Epstein viewed this perspective very negatively. He suggested that
it lowered the tone of national life, took away from its richness, and lowered
intellectual expectations. He argued that an observable “dumbing down” of
society is to be attributed to this mindset, as contemporary journalism has
lost its depth by necessarily adapting to the short attention span with the
soundbite, photo-op, quickie take and a general suppression of complexity.[3]
I
believe that the State of Israel, in both its historical and modern existences,
can provide a necessary counter-balance of maturity.
Thus said God: I remember
the affection of your youth,
The love of your
espousals,
How you went after Me in
the wilderness,
In a land that was not
sown.
(Yirmiyahu 2:2)
Yirmiyahu’s
portrayal of a “youthful” Am Yisrael during their sojourn in the desert
is likewise familiar to us from Yehezkel’s portrayal of them to a physically
maturing young lady (Yehezkel 16:6-7), recited in the haggadah every
year. Israeli philosopher Eliezer Schweid similarly noted the Torah’s
description of Am Yisrael as “families” directly prior to leaving Egypt
and throughout their travels in the dessert. He suggested that according to the
biblical narrative, the period of maturity began when Am Yisrael entered
a cultivated land and settled it. Schweid then drew attention to the paradox of
that accomplishment:
On the one hand, entering
the Land of Israel symbolizes the purpose of wandering in the desert, as the
people at last reaches its home. On the other hand, entry into the Land of
Israel is only the beginning of a long path, strewn with setbacks on the way to
political independence.[4]
As
they settled the Land of Israel, Am Yisrael no longer enjoyed the
supernatural sustenance of the manna, nor the security of God’s pillar of cloud
and fire. They were now tasked with establishing independent sovereignty, and
providing their own sustenance and protection. The adolescent existence of the
desert had transitioned into maturity, and with that came the hardships of
self-responsibility.
The
historical symbolism of settling Eress Yisrael has repeated itself in
the last sixty-nine years, following the establishment of Medinat Yisrael.
The dream of settling the Land of Israel has led way to a national maturity.
Building an economy from scratch, enlisting young men in the army and the daily
threat and circumstances of terror has built a counter-cultural reality in
modern-day Israel.
Joseph
Epstein lamented the loss of the positive aspects of a mature society. He
yearned for “a more articulated sense of the ebb and flow, the ups and downs of
life,” and dreamt of the values of “a clear and fit conception of reality.” Am
Yisrael’s historical settlement of Eress Yisrael and its current
establishment of Medinat Yisrael may yet provide the necessary
counter-perspective for a society in sore need of maturity.
[1] A.O. Scott, “The Death of
Adulthood in American Culture,” The New York Times Magazine, Sept. 11,
2014. Available at:
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/magazine/the-death-of-adulthood-in-american-culture.html?_r=0.
[3] Joseph Epstein, “The
Perpetual Adolescent,” The Weekly Standard, Mar. 15, 2004. Available at:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/the-perpetual-adolescent/article/5051.
[4] Eliezer Schweid, The
Jewish Experience of Time: Philosophical Dimensions of the Jewish Holy Days
(Northvale, NJ: 2000), pg. 285.
