Defeat

In Seattle now, hanging with my friend Mark, who recently had his Bar Mitzvah, at the tender age of 52. For our inaugural distance book club, Mark suggested that we read Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik's mid-sixties classic The Lonely Man of Faith. Soloveitchik takes as his jumping off point a well known split within the Old Testament, which happens at the very beginning. Genesis I narrates the creation of a man (Adam the First) charged with achieving majesty and dignity, of commanding over nature. Genesis II, by way of contrast, has another creation myth, in which man (Adam the Second) is created from dust and is charged with caring for nature.

On this chilly Shabbos morning, I woke up to find Mark studying the book, and he read me passages about Adam the Second in which Soloveitchik characterizes his posture before Being as one of "defeat." I had read the book -- admittedly I kind of jammed through the second half of it on the plane out here -- but hadn't really picked up on the "defeat" aspect of Adam the Second's condition. This demands reflection. In some sense, it is not so different from the word "Islam," which literally means "submission," as opposed to "Jihad," or "struggle."

Just sayin.