The Sichuan Broadcasts

He was able to herd some of the lost soldiers of the 70's, because he knew a language they understood. He had always been curious about all things intellectual. He read a lot. He had his own way with foreign books though. Once, he told me (I had come to study in his yeshiva after I had met some of his disciples in Paris) that he had never read a foreign book through.

   I had come to visit one shabbat afternoon, and when his wife ushured me in the living room, he was dozing on the couch, a book of one of the Parisian big shots open flat on his breast. He got up to welcome me and, with a mischievous glance, told me:"As you see, reading... I am always reading. I don't need a lot to be happy: a comfortable chesterfield and a good book. You know, those Frenchmen from the 60's, they were real smart. They've found out things, about how the human mind works and how society works. They've made a big breakthrough in ontology too. The problem with us, frum Yidden, it's that just because we dress in black and don't mingle, we think we're free of common foolishness. You hear what they say, religious folks:'We're heilige Yidden, we have the Truth,what do we need all those foreign nonsense for?' Well, let me tell you, that's plain stupid, that's bullshit! As if we didn't speak in foreign languages! We've spoken Arabic and some German dialect for centuries, and now we've taken to French and English. What do they think? That a language isn't some kind of philosophy maybe? Languages are swollen with metaphysical assumptions about how things are, that's got to get deconstructed! And what? We're not regular human beings maybe? We're human, all too human, with all the illusions and self-deception that a human mind cooks up, and that's got to get analyzed!" There he broke out in his thundering laughter, an eruption of earnest amusement; he rose his hands up and slapped them forcefully on his thighs. After he caught his breath again,he continued, still chuckling: "Ayah! You like it when I go analytic and deconstructionist, I can see it in your eyes! Yeah,yeah... I know how to talk to Parisians... I made a good business out of it. But mind you, I have never read one of their books through. I don't want to get caught in their reasoning. I only fumble in their books. I read a paragraph here, a chapter there... They're all full of answers, definite answers about everything. But their answers, they're really questions to be asked to the Torah, you know, to find out the new meanings that were meant for us.Ok, let's find out whether the rabbanit will allow us to drink something."
  He jumped to his feet and caught to my arm with some violence. He drove me toward the dining table, holding me with a strong grip that was almost painful, as though he was convinced I was starving but didn't dare to say so, and he wouldn't have a guest leave hungry. It was about time for the third meal of Shabbath. His kids were coming out of their rooms, emerging from their own readings. They began to set the table, enquiring whether anybody had an idea about how many guests might show up for seuda shlishit. On this weekly occasion, it was usual for some of the disciples to come and share the third meal with him and his family. His children were funny and very witty, there was always plenty of jokes and some friendly teasing. That cheerful chatter was interrupted twice or thrice to sing sabbath hymns, some of them so ancient that they were still sung in Aramaic. And if a disciple had unearthed some seemingly senseless saying of the Elders, and if he was in the mood for it, he would launch a discussion that, more often than not, would turn into a passionate argument about what wisdom truly is.
  The disciples loved to argue. They raised the boldest objections with no regard for common religious beliefs. They had become very observant though, and kept the Law in its most minute details. But they hadn't disowned their past, they didn't pretend they became somebody else. They weren't like the tormented ones who are suddenly illuminated by some cultish truth, who claim that their past is nullified because they are reborn, and with whom you can't talk anymore. They had been in the leadership of the largest maoist organization of the 70's. Confronted with the disaster of defeat, they studied and discussed to understand what had gone wrong. They came to the conclusion that revolutionary politics was self-contradictory. Revolution would put an end to all wars, by means of the bloodiest of all wars, civil war. Revolution fought against lies and illusions, but lie and manipulation were tools freely used by revolutionaries. Revolution was supposed to end all slavery, but the militants had to enslave themselves to the Party in the most abject way. From politics, their questioning had shifted to ethics. That's how they met the rabbi who became their teacher, their Rav.