The Foundation Stone invited Francois Marie Arouet, an intellectual sparring partner of many years, to guest-write this week's newsletter. (You may know him as Voltaire): Zadig was a Babylonian philosopher, as wise as it is possible for men to be. He knew as much of metaphysics as has ever been known in any age, that is, little or nothing at all. In defending Semira, who he imagined he loved, he was wounded in the left eye.

A messenger was despatched to Memphis for the great Egyptian physician Hermes, who quickly diagnosed that the patient would lose his eye. "Had it been the right eye," said he, "I could easily have cured it; but wounds of the left eye are incurable." All Babylon lamented the fate of Zadig, and admired the profound knowledges of Hermes. In two days the abscess broke of its own accord, and Zadig was perfectly cured. Hermes wrote a book to prove that it ought not to have healed. Zadig did not read it.

A few years later, Zadig was passing out of Babylon when he saw a man cruelly beating a woman; he responded to her cries for help, fought the man, and at last, to save himself, struck a blow which killed his enemy. Thereupon he turned to the lady and asked, "What further, madam, would you have me do for you?" "Die, villain! You have killed my love. Oh, that I were able to tear out my heart!" Zadig was shortly afterward captured and enslaved. It doesn't pay to be a Zadig!

Does my Zadig much differ from Jacob? Laban and his cohorts treat him as a crook no matter what he does. He clearly strives to do what is right only to find that his efforts are condemned by others or have unwelcome results. It certainly didn't seem worthwhile for Jacob to be a Tzaddik!

It is here that my Zadig differs from your Tzaddik: I have Zadig "representing to himself the human species, as it really is, as a parcel of insects devouring one another on a tiny atom of clay. This true image seemed to annihilate his misfortunes, by making him sensible of the nothingness of his own being and that of Babylon." Your hero, Jacob, also sees nothingness, but only regarding time; "And they seemed to him a few days because of his love for her." Laban tricks him, but there he is immediately refocused on his love, Rachel. He believes that everything he does, matters. He works for his enemy Laban with total dedication, "By day scorching heat consumed me, and frost by night; my sleep drifted from my eyes." He immediately kissed Rachel upon seeing her, and then begins to cry, "Because he saw they wouldn't be buried together." He sends Rachel a message that his actions, even a kiss, are all focused on the long-term.

My Zadig finds joy in accepting the meaninglessness of life. Your Tzaddik continues to suffer for many years because of his insistence on life's meaning. My Zadig finds joy when he accepts this world as it is. Your Tzaddik willingly struggles in his battle for a different world. My Zadig rejects Shabbat and its vision of a perfected world. Your Tzaddik lives for Shabbat. Which Shabbat would you choose?

Voltaire

Having thrown our support to the Tzaddik, The Foundation Stone presents two new series on preparing for Chanukah: Miracles, and, Purifying the Oil.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Simcha L. Weinberg
President          
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