Each morning we thank Hashem with the words v’hivdeelanu min hato’im for having given us the Torah to set us apart from those who bereft of such a guide to meaningful living wander aimlessly through life. We often don’t appreciate enough just how wide is the chasm that separates those who have Torah to illuminate their path in life from those who still rely on the nearly-extinguished glow of the Enlightenment.
A recent Wall Street Journal interview with Dr. Leon Kass a leading conservative intellectual who chaired President George W. Bush’s Council on Bioethics begins this way:
“As pain is to the body so repugnance is to the soul” Dr. Kass says as we sit down for an interview in his book-lined office at the American Enterprise Institute.… “So too with anger and compassion. Repugnance is some kind of wake-up call that there is something untoward going on and attention must be paid. These passions are not simply irrational. They contain within them the germ of insight.” …. Degradation and its opposite human dignity are central elements of Dr. Kass’s philosophy and he fears that American society risks becoming disrespectful of dignity and indifferent to degradation.
Dr. Kass has touched here upon an important insight conveyed by Rav Dessler at some length in the second volume of Michtav Me’Eliyahu (p.219-221). The following is my free translation of one section:
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