cell913blog.com #67

 There is a Judaic concept, tzimtzum, God’s ‘self-contraction’ to vacate space for the world’s creation, as applied to clinical psychology, that serves as a model promoting a community-centric approach. In Yann Martel’s novel, Life of Pi, a cargo ship Tsimtsum sinks at a pivotal point of the plot. Tzimtzum results in the empty space in which spiritual and physical worlds and ultimately free will can exist.

 On substack.com,in a piece entitled, ‘What you do is Who you Are,’ The Theology of Culture, by Zohar Atkins (no relation), we find:

‘Culture is what you do when the boss is not there,’ is a great tagline for thinking about God’s culture in the Nietzschean age, in which it is claimed that ‘God is Dead,’ or if you prefer (Martin) Buber’s terminology, ‘eclipsed.’ In fact the medieval idea of tzimtzum takes Nietsche’s claim of divine absence and elevates it; God intentionally withdraws to stress test the culture. God wants to know how people will behave when they aren’t trying to curry favour.

And from Kol Hamevaser.com, (The Jewish Thought Magazine of the Yeshiva University Student Body in a piece entitled: Tzimtzum, Divine and Human Constriction: A Meeting-Place Between the Divine and Human, by Leah Klahr, January 26, 2017 we read:

According to the allegorical interpretation of tzimtzum, rather than describing a literal process of change within God, the concept of tzimtzum establishes a construct through which one can understand the relationships between the world and God. Concealment of an aspect of God’s omnipresence empowers creation with an illusory sense of independence, enabling it to exist in the face of infinity. As contemporary scholar Tamar Ross writes, ‘The act of divine tzimtzum was likened by some to the situation of a teacher who conceals the full scope of his knowledge so that some limited portion of it may be revealed to his student. Just as the wisdom of the teacher is unaffected by this concealment, so too all forms of existence gain a sense of their selfhood as a result of the hiding of God’s all- pervasive presence, yet God’s all-embracing monolithic unity remains the same.

In a positivistic, empirical, literal, culture in which ‘function’ and accomplishment are considered one’s identity, and presence, the primary, if not exclusive, qualification of a person’s ethic, value, commitment, performance and relevance, the very notion of ‘absence,’ ‘withdrawal,’ detachment,’ ‘withholding,’ ‘concealment,’ is predictably regarded as ‘specious,’ unethical,’ ‘immoral,’ ‘disengagement,’ ‘irresponsibility,’ ‘evil,’ ‘derelict,’ ‘worthless,’ is viewed with contempt.

In the contemporary, North American ethos, the binary, without exceptions, moderations, middle-terrain, nuance, and mutual inter-relations between the either-or, not merely dominate: they suffocate! That applies to the cognitive, the rhetorical, the public discourse, the ethical and moral domains, and the reductionistic,  simplistic, literalistic, empirical, cardboard assessments and decisions that pervade the public square.

At the moment, there are insidious and spurious attempts by various  Republican members of the House of Representatives to investigate the complicity of Vice-president Kamala Harris in the alleged cover-up of President Biden’s ageing, as another of the many specious charges to accuse her of deception, lying and thereby untrustworthiness.

Unable to confront their own drowning in the lies perpetrated by their own leader and his sycophants, in fact, so embedded in the methodology of projecting onto their opponents the very worst of their own character, they are unable (unwilling? refusing? denying? or falling into the myth of being hoisted on (with, by) their own petard) to acknowledge their own chicanery. ‘Hoist with his own petard’ from Hamlet, means that a bomb-maker is blown (hoist) off he ground by his own bomb (petard), indicating a reversal or poetic justice.

Framed by the concept of tzimtzum, conventionally interpreted as a ‘self-less’, ‘sacrificial,’ and ‘heroic’ act, in contemporary North American culture, Biden’s decision to withdraw from the presidential race to and for which his life, biography, intentions, commitments and political identity seemed to exist, offers a poetic interpretation. So too, does the ‘hoisted on their own petard’ framing of the aspirations of Democratic campaigners, leaders and a considerable portion of the American electorate.

In an overt, (and unconscious) attempt to elevate what has been a battle of ad hominum barbs on character, personality and morality, there is now another overt (and also somewhat unconscious) effort to elevate the presidential campaign to epic, heroic, mythic proportions. The guttural ‘sewer’ language and perspective of one side is being countered by the ‘highly righteous’ and highly moral, ethical, and heroic language, perspective and attitudes of the other. Sadly, the penchant for extremes, if not couched in personal attacks, continues.

Reducing the issues facing the United States to language that not merely resorts to, but actually demonizes the opposition, whether within his own party or beyond, is the signature of the Republican former president, that insults its multiple targets, and reduces the perpetrator to a caricature of both the presidency and the nation.

A clearly articulated description, with logic, supporting information, clear and comprehensible language fit for the public square, the classroom, the court room and the local bar and restaurant by the presumptive Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, and presumably her choice of running mate, sounds somewhat strange in the echo chamber of vacuous slander, defamation, retribution, revenge and contempt to which the American public has been subject since 2015 when ‘he’ slid down the escalator.

And the act of full acknowledgement of the verities, the limits, the inevitability and the incorrigibility of old age, through no ‘fault’, avoidance, denial, repression or self-deception of his own (even though the public outcry prompted a three-week reflection), only enhances the chasm of differences between Biden and Trump, and more importantly, between those competing leaders from the two political parties.

Timely, considered, sacrificial and indeed self-effacing withdrawal, far from being a defeat, a surrender, and certainly even farther from demonstrating ‘weakness,’ in this context has at least Greek-tragedy overtones, and even hints at tzimtzum. The continent, including every town, hamlet, city and county is replete with generations of men and women who, through no negligence, or irresponsibility or self-indulgence, face the daily indications of wrinkles, arthritis, memory loss, slower and more awkward steps, often blurred vision, fewer teeth, hearing loss, and a mind with both insight and creativity that yearns and longs for a place to deploy what talents and skills, memories and wisdom remain accessible.

Indeed, the very erosion of those traits that provided the energy, the direction, the appetite, the ambition and the determination to exercise those traits in some honourable service modality actually exaggerates, inflates and deepens the difficulty to face the mirror and declare, “It’s time!”….for me to consider hiring someone to cut the lawn, to shovel the snow, to rake and gather leaves, to have the groceries and medications delivered. And for those, like President Biden, to relinquish the office, the opportunity, the dream, the honour, the applause, the recognition and the hope of the office and the potential to accomplish the many envisioned laws and to uplift the millions of men, women and children still looking to him for hope, promise and opportunity for themselves.

Sunsets, on the geographic, and planetary ‘horizon,’ while inspiringly beautiful, restful, reflective, and comforting in a poetic and aesthetic way, nevertheless, bring a consciousness of the ‘end of the day’….however that image comes and remains on each of our retinas as well as in our memory and imagination.

Just as the tzimtzum offers, at least allegorically, a link between the finite and the infinite, so too does the sunset remind us that time, for this day is winding down, with the comforting promise of a new sunrise, on the calendar and in our lives.

‘In the very end, civilizations perish because they listen to their politicians and not to their poets.’ (Jonas Mekas). Critics will argue that the personal lives of many poets were bereft of honour, dignity, public acclaim, and public respect. It is, however, their words, their thoughts, their emotions and their wisdom that remains, untainted by whatever slights and slings and arrows their reputations endured.

In a single ‘act’ of withdrawal, President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. etched his name and face into the granite of American memory, American history, and American poetry. Shocking, somewhat surreal and indisputable, at both the literal and the metaphoric/poetic levels, Biden incarnated the bridge between the here-and-now and the ‘beyond,’ as it can be imagined in the image of ‘our better angels’.

And, paradoxically, while he can expect only words of praise from his peers and his nation, his single ‘non-act’ has the potential to cut through the iron veil that keeps the poetic and the empirical from being and perceived to be attached. Whether or not the president was apprised of the word tzimtzum in the course of his reflections seems irrelevant. What is significant is the heroic, somewhat epic, and certainly indelible imprint his own ‘withdrawal’ has and will continue to draw out new and previously unimagined exploits, projects, dreams and aspirations from his American friends and countrymen and woman.

And just as the world watches (and filmed) his stumbling gait, his gaps in memory, his slurs in speech, his legislative accomplishments and his political mis-steps, the final chapter of his biography and obituary will include the spiritual, political, poetic and dramatic non-act of American mythology.