The Search for High-Hanging Fruit

We encounter them everywhere, these low-hanging fruit. So defenseless and pathetic are they, that to gobble them up and consume them is to take unfair advantage of the weak and the vulnerable.

How else to describe the plethora of notices inviting us to spend Succos in various opulent locales around the world? The choices for Yom Tov are many: There is Portugal, featuring gourmet meals at a “five-star brand-new resort, with state-of-the-art, fully equipped fitness center.” If you prefer the US, Succos in Florida is complete with an eiruv and spa pools; or if you like Mexico, you can have top-flight accommodations in Cancun. If you choose Jerusalem, you can overlook the walls of the Old City while dining on “lavish gourmet meals with Prime USDA beef plus top-shelf bar and wine list.” And, obviously, each of these lush venues offers a 24-hour tea room.

These are all low-hanging fruit, but one resists the temptation to satirize them. Because on a deeper level, they are a commentary on the condition of Orthodox Jewry as we enter the year 5786.

This condition is best exemplified by the juxtaposition of eiruv, 24-hour tea rooms, and Prime USDA beef. Here in microcosm is the malaise that afflicts a significant portion of Orthodox Judaism: It is the schizophrenia that wants to be fully observant and to maintain a connection with Olam Haba spirituality (“eiruv on the premises”) but simultaneously wants to drink from the cup of Olam Hazeh physicality — a well-known condition known as wanting to eat the bagel without losing the hole in the middle.

Orthodox Judaism claims to have won the religious battle in the US and elsewhere. The Reform and Conservative movements have self-immolated, victims of the temptations of imitating goyim and the pitfalls of k’chol hagoyim. Because of their eagerness to popularize and edit Torah, they have tragically lost millions of Jews to intermarriage and assimilation.