Omer Day Eleven
“There are four types among those who sit before the sages: a sponge, a funnel, a strainer and a sieve. A sponge, soaks up everything; a funnel, takes in at one end and lets out at the other; a strainer, which lets out the wine and retains the lees; a sieve, which lets out the coarse meal and retains the choice flour.” (Pirke Avot 5:15)
The roiling campus quads come to mind when meditating on this text.
The sponge: Believes everything he is already pre-disposed to hear, absorbing the violence, the anger, the destruction, the hatred inherent to any war and holds it near. When it is squeezed, the violence, anger, destruction and hatred spill out. His brain is a hive that has been invaded by bots manned in Russia and China and he unwittingly spits out what is on his X feed, his Instagram, and his subterranean hellscape Reddit. Like a sponge is made to absorb and discard, absorb and discard, he is predisposed to assume the worst of Jews, the worst of Zionism, the worst of America, the worst of intents among civilizations. Incapable of or outright refusing to discern, he is a useful idiot for malignant forces that are more than happy to sow unrest, chaos and mayhem in the United States to the advantage of Russia, China and Iran, each of whom have their own vested interest in seeing America and its all-too-powerful Jews fail.
The funnel: Quite literally passing through it and it is passing through him. Has neither the time, interest nor predilection to care at all about what is happening in the world. “In one ear and out the other” is an apt phrase that comes to mind. “Fiddling while Rome burns?” No. That implies a sinister apathy. “Running the race with blinders on?” No. That implies a purposeful focus on an end — winning the race. The funnel is he in possession of a base neutrality, maybe even a passivity born of a lazy concession to moral relevancy. A bystander at best; at worst, one who stands idly by the blood of his brother.
A strainer: Incapable of seeing the forest for the trees. Retains the dregs indeed. In his rush to compensate for his privilege, he globs on to the generational memes that are ubiquitous in the broad, shallow and rancid pool of his corporate-controlled mind machine known as social media. He finds the worst and amplifies it. The dried out waste, the pulverized skins of bitter fruit are his calling card. His apish fealty to the cause célèbre produces nothing but a compostable mess for others to dredge up, reexamine, refine and replant for a potentiality of growth that the strainer carelessly, ignorantly leaves for others to do.
A sieve: Capable of, even insistent upon holding on to conflicting ideas in his brain at the same time. Demands a ceasefire AND a hostage release. Insists upon holding Hamas accountable for October 7, using its own people as human shields and its delusional antisemitism while also condemning cases of indiscriminate Israeli bombings, Settler violence, and racist language from Israel’s hard right. Understands that Zionism is at its core the national movement of self-determination of the Jewish people — a right that each nation which identifies itself as a nation deserves — and so therefore to be a Zionist inherently must allow for Palestinian self-determination as well. In other words, Zionism and Palestinian nationalism are two sides of the same coin and therefore the sieve understands that the goal is acceptance of the other, compromise, and coexistence.
It takes great moral courage to be a sieve on campus today.
Omer Day Twelve
“Hillel used to say, ‘An ignoramus cannot fear sin, nor can an unlearned man be pious. A bashful man cannot learn, nor can impatient man teach. And not every one who engages over much in business grows wise. And in a place where there are no mensches, strive to be one.” (Pirke Avot 2:5)
It takes great moral courage to be a mensch on campus today.