It is reported that 150,000 people attended the funeral of Nelson Mandela. Surely an outpouring of love and admiration that not more than a handful of people on the planet will secure.
We cannot help but think back to the recent funeral of the late Sephardi Jewish leader, Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, in Jerusalem. It was attended by some 800,000 people.
The point of the comparison is neither to disparage Mandela nor to embellish Rabbi Yosef. The point is to focus on a paradox: Politics is power, spirituality is not, yet reaches deeper.
Politics is the world of direct, measurable influence — the world of making economic benefits happen, the world of favors and approval ratings and patronage.
Spirituality, on the other hand, is the world of indirect, amorphous influence — the world of teaching and praying and inspiring; the world of effectuating change one act or, at best, one person at a time. For spiritual leaders there are no polls measuring approval ratings and very little direct patronage to dispense. Yet, the connection to the spiritual leader is potentially more widespread, more lasting and more accessible to the deepest levels of being.
It is true in the case of Rabbi OvadiahYosef that his power derived in part from the political party he founded, Shas, as well as from his spiritual pull. Even so, he was an extraordinary master and teacher of Torah the likes of whom is seen but once every few hundred years — this is the only way to explain the spontaneous appearance of some 10% of the population of the entire State of Israel, on a few hours notice, for his funeral. His thousands and thousands of individual acts of outreach, and his uniquely informed responsa, left an extraordinary imprint.
Uniquely in Judaism, G-d is conceived (among much else) as a teacher. To teach Torah is to imitate G-d. And there is no more powerful spiritual force — no more focus of love and admiration — than G-d Himself.
Copyright © 2013 by the Intermountain Jewish News
