TheSong of the Dove

 

Repairing the World: The Concept of Return

From the time when the first human being walked the earth, the thinkers, theologians, and philosophers among all of us have dreamt of how our very imperfect world can be repaired. In the panels of this web site, as we trace the Lord's process of historical development as recorded in the narrative of the Bible, we can see that the Lord has directed all of human history towards the goal of repairing those large flaws that we see in the world. Here is a good place to examine a concept that is central to traditional Jewish thought, and shared by many of the world's religions and philosophies - the concept of Return.

Judaic thought teaches that throughout history, the Lord is slowly, incessantly, and in a hidden way, nudging the world towards a state of completion. Human beings, as individuals and as a collective class of creation, have a role to play in this process. Human beings are enjoined by the Lord to strive, every day and in all possible ways, to return to the Lord's original plans for the human race on His planet: to mind the Lord's Garden, the earth in its pristine form, and to strive to serve the Creator as He originally intended for Humankind.

A basic assumption behind this thinking is that the human soul is created by the Lord, and to the Lord alone it will return after a person dies. While we are in this life, it is our duty to Return, to bring our daily existence in line with the principles that the Lord has revealed are for guiding our lives.

It is not only individuals who are called to take part in the process of Return. Collective entities such as groups of people, nations, and the whole human race are also involved in the same process. It follows that just as each individual, by first contemplating his or her strengths and weaknesses, actions and his plans, can channel effort towards returning to the ways of the Creator - so too can nations of people make the same effort.

As It Was Ingested, So It Can Be Released

Assuming all of the above is true and logical, then here is the time to apply a classical concept that appears in many forms throughout traditional Jewish religious law. The idea, taken from the process of purification of utensils and vessels that have come into contact with a forbidden food or substance, is simple and eminently logical:

"As it was ingested, so it can be released."

The idea can be illustrated as follows: if a dead insect of the kind that is forbidden by the Bible for Jews to eat were to somehow fall into a cold metal pan that is used to serve food, then all one need do to purify the pan is to scrub it in cold water, taking care to remove any potential residue of the insect that might remain in the pan. If, however, such an insect were to fall into a metal kettle of boiling water, then the kettle would not be considered purified until it were washed out, clean water was poured into the kettle, and the water was brought to a full boil for a few moments.

Furthermore, if a piece of meat from an animal that is forbidden as food were accidentally placed in a metal frying pan that is being heated over a flame, the only way to purify the frying pan so that it may be used again for cooking would be to clean it thoroughly, and then to heat it over a hot flame to approximately the same temperature that the pan reached when the forbidden meat fell into the pan.

People are Vessels Too

This simple principal is merely applied on a grand scale. The basic idea is: the purification of the utensil requires taking the utensil back through the process by which it became contaminated. This concept can shed light on the process of Return, for individuals and collective groups of human beings. Surely it is logical that a person's "spiritual repair", his Return to the ways of his Maker, must be conducted through the correction of those very actions and traits that he has used to harm others and his relationship with the Lord.

The central idea of this web site is that the best way to arrive at a resolution of the conflict that wracks the Middle East is to understand those specific areas where the protagonist archetypes of the region, Abraham and his descendants, can best leverage this idea of Return. According to this idea, each of the nations and religions that stem from Abraham have a role to play, and each must make an effort in a specific area that will bring about repair of the misdeeds of history and a Return to the Creator of All.

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