1. Last time--major narrative was American Jewish Narrative
2. This time: Two world views
A. Greenberg's Covenant
B. Camus' Myth of Sisyphus
2. This time: Two world views
A. Greenberg's Covenant
B. Camus' Myth of Sisyphus
Framework: Fundamental Ways of Engaging with the World
| Quietism/Blind Faith | Trusting | Contending | Cynicism/Nihilism. |
| Greenberg | Camus |
Greenberg, "The Covenant"
From Camus, "The Myth of Sisyphus"
The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor...
You have already grasped that Sisyphus is the absurd hero. He is, as much through his passions as through his torture. His scorn of the gods, his hatred of death, and his passion for life won him that unspeakable penalty in which the whole being is exerted toward accomplishing nothing. This is the price that must be paid for the passions of this earth. Nothing is told us about Sisyphus in the underworld. Myths are made for the imagination to breathe life into them. As for this myth, one sees merely the whole effort of a body straining to raise the huge stone, to roll it, and push it up a slope a hundred times over; one sees the face screwed up, the cheek tight against the stone, the shoulder bracing the clay-covered mass, the foot wedging it, the fresh start with arms outstretched, the wholly human security of two earth-clotted hands. At the very end of his long effort measured by skyless space and time without depth, the purpose is achieved. Then Sisyphus watches the stone rush down in a few moments toward that lower world whence he will have to push it up again toward the summit. He goes back down to the plain.
It is during that return, that pause, that Sisyphus interests me. A face that toils so close to stones is already stone itself! I see that man going back down with a heavy yet measured step toward the torment of which he will never know the end. That hour like a breathing-space which returns as surely as his suffering, that is the hour of consciousness. At each of those moments when he leaves the heights and gradually sinks toward the lairs of the gods, he is superior to his fate. He is stronger than his rock.
If this myth is tragic, that is because its hero is conscious. Where would his torture be, indeed, if at every step the hope of succeeding upheld him? The workman of today works everyday in his life at the same tasks, and his fate is no less absurd. But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes conscious. Sisyphus, proletarian of the gods, powerless and rebellious, knows the whole extent of his wretched condition: it is what he thinks of during his descent. The lucidity that was to constitute his torture at the same time crowns his victory. There is no fate that can not be surmounted by scorn.
The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor...
You have already grasped that Sisyphus is the absurd hero. He is, as much through his passions as through his torture. His scorn of the gods, his hatred of death, and his passion for life won him that unspeakable penalty in which the whole being is exerted toward accomplishing nothing. This is the price that must be paid for the passions of this earth. Nothing is told us about Sisyphus in the underworld. Myths are made for the imagination to breathe life into them. As for this myth, one sees merely the whole effort of a body straining to raise the huge stone, to roll it, and push it up a slope a hundred times over; one sees the face screwed up, the cheek tight against the stone, the shoulder bracing the clay-covered mass, the foot wedging it, the fresh start with arms outstretched, the wholly human security of two earth-clotted hands. At the very end of his long effort measured by skyless space and time without depth, the purpose is achieved. Then Sisyphus watches the stone rush down in a few moments toward that lower world whence he will have to push it up again toward the summit. He goes back down to the plain.
It is during that return, that pause, that Sisyphus interests me. A face that toils so close to stones is already stone itself! I see that man going back down with a heavy yet measured step toward the torment of which he will never know the end. That hour like a breathing-space which returns as surely as his suffering, that is the hour of consciousness. At each of those moments when he leaves the heights and gradually sinks toward the lairs of the gods, he is superior to his fate. He is stronger than his rock.
If this myth is tragic, that is because its hero is conscious. Where would his torture be, indeed, if at every step the hope of succeeding upheld him? The workman of today works everyday in his life at the same tasks, and his fate is no less absurd. But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes conscious. Sisyphus, proletarian of the gods, powerless and rebellious, knows the whole extent of his wretched condition: it is what he thinks of during his descent. The lucidity that was to constitute his torture at the same time crowns his victory. There is no fate that can not be surmounted by scorn.
Paragraph 1
The heart of Judaism is a vision of perfection. The dream is of a world in which every human being is in the image of God, i. e. of infinite value, equal and unique, in a world which is structured to respect and nurture that dignity. (Genesis 1, 26-27; Sanhedrin 4:5; Isaiah 2, 1-4) Judaism teaches that this perfection will be realized. The world will someday be a world of justice and equality, in which every human being will have everything needed for sustenance and for spiritual development.
Paragraph 2
Judaism knows this dream of perfection from its experience of Exodus. The freeing of the Hebrew slaves is the model that teaches us that every human being is entitled to peace and dignity, and that there is a God who cares and promises that it will happen. The Exodus that happened to the Jewish people will some day occur to all of humanity.
Paragraph 3
The dream cannot be realized in one stroke. The world is not yet redeemed. If we would live as if the ultimate perfection is here now, we would be wiped out by the forces of evil and power that still exist in the world. If, on the other hand, we try to change the world at once and totally, we will run into the force of human and institutional inertia and generate counter-forces that will defeat our objectives, or we will become destructive and totalitarian and inhuman. The solution is: the covenant.
Paragraph 4
The dream is perfection. The process of achieving the dream is the process of the covenant. The covenant is the binding commitment made by the Jewish people and by God to carry on until the perfection is achieved. Israel promises to be faithful to the Covenant: to walk the way of the Lord, which is to combine exclusive service of God with doing justice and righteousness, to teach the world the vision of perfection, to model it in its own community, and to work alongside others to bring it to its full realization throughout the world. The people promise to pass the covenant on from generation to generation without yielding. The Divine is pledged never to abandon Israel, to protect and safeguard the people and to help in the realization of the dream. The covenant includes the promise of eternal life to the Jewish people as long as it is the covenant people...
Since perfection cannot be achieved in one generation, the covenant is also a treaty between all the generations. Each generation will have to do its share of redemption and pass it on to the next generation until the redemption is complete...
The halacha (Jewish law; literally: the Jewish way) is the mechanism whereby the covenant is realized one step at a time.
The heart of Judaism is a vision of perfection. The dream is of a world in which every human being is in the image of God, i. e. of infinite value, equal and unique, in a world which is structured to respect and nurture that dignity. (Genesis 1, 26-27; Sanhedrin 4:5; Isaiah 2, 1-4) Judaism teaches that this perfection will be realized. The world will someday be a world of justice and equality, in which every human being will have everything needed for sustenance and for spiritual development.
Paragraph 2
Judaism knows this dream of perfection from its experience of Exodus. The freeing of the Hebrew slaves is the model that teaches us that every human being is entitled to peace and dignity, and that there is a God who cares and promises that it will happen. The Exodus that happened to the Jewish people will some day occur to all of humanity.
Paragraph 3
The dream cannot be realized in one stroke. The world is not yet redeemed. If we would live as if the ultimate perfection is here now, we would be wiped out by the forces of evil and power that still exist in the world. If, on the other hand, we try to change the world at once and totally, we will run into the force of human and institutional inertia and generate counter-forces that will defeat our objectives, or we will become destructive and totalitarian and inhuman. The solution is: the covenant.
Paragraph 4
The dream is perfection. The process of achieving the dream is the process of the covenant. The covenant is the binding commitment made by the Jewish people and by God to carry on until the perfection is achieved. Israel promises to be faithful to the Covenant: to walk the way of the Lord, which is to combine exclusive service of God with doing justice and righteousness, to teach the world the vision of perfection, to model it in its own community, and to work alongside others to bring it to its full realization throughout the world. The people promise to pass the covenant on from generation to generation without yielding. The Divine is pledged never to abandon Israel, to protect and safeguard the people and to help in the realization of the dream. The covenant includes the promise of eternal life to the Jewish people as long as it is the covenant people...
Since perfection cannot be achieved in one generation, the covenant is also a treaty between all the generations. Each generation will have to do its share of redemption and pass it on to the next generation until the redemption is complete...
The halacha (Jewish law; literally: the Jewish way) is the mechanism whereby the covenant is realized one step at a time.