Harvey, your thoughts about Camus are spot on. What I have seen, repeatedly, is that despite Camus' engaging depiction of absurdity and hence the need to live and feel meaningful in "the now," for many people there is an unquenchable need for an "ultimate explanation: and even, in religious discourse, a place where one is "rewarded." For all of the contemporary push towards mindfulness and staying in the present, the mind strays to thoughts of redemption and deliverance.
Joel, that is a very interesting notion. I'm not sure the "recipients" understood much at all, given their emergence from slavery and the fact that all of it was mediated by Moshe, and thus contingent on his communication skills and the process of "downloading" the information. The universality of Sinai is constructed later on by human beings of different cultures, including many non-Jewish ones, right through to this day.
I found the message of Camus and the very fine explication of Alain de Botton very moving. I've often noticed on a physical level that the best way to keep your balance, on a moving bus for instance, is to keep shifting and moving rather than trying to find a solid position.
I hadn't even realized what was disturbing me so much about all the talk about anti-Semitism but I think your post helped me get at it a little better. Thank you for making the effort to formulate your thoughts so well and share them with us.
In L'Etranger, Camus states that one must confront the absurdity of the human condition by embracing it. His protagonist Meursault instead of despairing over his mother's death, confronts the fact that in the face of mortality which comes to everyone we must learn to live without illusion and with lucidity. We die. His mother's impending funeral alerts him. But there is also the gift before us of what we are today. The absurd man who lives recognizing this must be seen as happy even as a funeral reminds him of the inevitability of death. In La Peste, Camus also promotes this credo. Instead of despairing of death all around him, Camus' hero, Dr. Rieux, does his present task which is saving lives as much as possible. What else is there?
There appears to be an innate conflict between the giving of the law at Sinai and all that surrounded it, the sound and light experience, the anticipation of moving from slavery to freedom (an unremembered state of being), the demands of which were a part of the package that included moving to a new land and the fact that the underlying principles were universal. Perhaps the ten words were always meant to be universal but how could the recipients understand that? And there were no words that included safety of body, only of soul.
Harvey, your thoughts about Camus are spot on. What I have seen, repeatedly, is that despite Camus' engaging depiction of absurdity and hence the need to live and feel meaningful in "the now," for many people there is an unquenchable need for an "ultimate explanation: and even, in religious discourse, a place where one is "rewarded." For all of the contemporary push towards mindfulness and staying in the present, the mind strays to thoughts of redemption and deliverance.
Joel, that is a very interesting notion. I'm not sure the "recipients" understood much at all, given their emergence from slavery and the fact that all of it was mediated by Moshe, and thus contingent on his communication skills and the process of "downloading" the information. The universality of Sinai is constructed later on by human beings of different cultures, including many non-Jewish ones, right through to this day.
I found the message of Camus and the very fine explication of Alain de Botton very moving. I've often noticed on a physical level that the best way to keep your balance, on a moving bus for instance, is to keep shifting and moving rather than trying to find a solid position.
I hadn't even realized what was disturbing me so much about all the talk about anti-Semitism but I think your post helped me get at it a little better. Thank you for making the effort to formulate your thoughts so well and share them with us.
Ruth, I love the image of shifting on a moving bus in order to hold one's ground. A metaphor of deep resonance. Thank you.
In L'Etranger, Camus states that one must confront the absurdity of the human condition by embracing it. His protagonist Meursault instead of despairing over his mother's death, confronts the fact that in the face of mortality which comes to everyone we must learn to live without illusion and with lucidity. We die. His mother's impending funeral alerts him. But there is also the gift before us of what we are today. The absurd man who lives recognizing this must be seen as happy even as a funeral reminds him of the inevitability of death. In La Peste, Camus also promotes this credo. Instead of despairing of death all around him, Camus' hero, Dr. Rieux, does his present task which is saving lives as much as possible. What else is there?
There appears to be an innate conflict between the giving of the law at Sinai and all that surrounded it, the sound and light experience, the anticipation of moving from slavery to freedom (an unremembered state of being), the demands of which were a part of the package that included moving to a new land and the fact that the underlying principles were universal. Perhaps the ten words were always meant to be universal but how could the recipients understand that? And there were no words that included safety of body, only of soul.