Benevolent Man

Sometimes you find spirituality in the darnedest of places. Here is a quote from Adam Smith, who could legitimately be considered the father of Western Capitalism:

No benevolent man ever lost altogether the fruits of his benevolence. If he does not always gather them from the persons from whom he ought to have gathered them, he seldom fails to gather them, and with a tenfold increase, from other people. Kindness is the parent of kindness; and if to be beloved by our brethren be the great object of our ambition, the surest way of obtaining it is, by our conduct to show that we really love them. 

Adam Smith

The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part VI Section II Chapter I

I don't actually feel that this one needs much comment... nor do I need to point out that the golden rule is "hidden" in there somewhere, along with some notion of moral justice and/or (the erroneous Western understanding of) karma... Nope! no need...

Benevolence and intention...

In a recent business presentation, of all places, I came across the following quote from Adam Smith, an economist who is best known for his Invisible Hand metaphor which is often understood, and possibly with the author's intention, to say that each of us, following and acting on our own self-interest (read egotism) actually ends up doing good for society, even if it is unintentional.

As the philosophical father of modern capitalism, I was a bit surprised to come across the following from the same author in a treatise entitled The Theory of Moral Sentiments:

No benevolent man ever lost altogether the fruits of his benevolence. If he does not always gather them from the persons from whom he ought to have gathered them, he seldom fails to gather them, and with a tenfold increase, from other people. Kindness is the parent of kindness; and if to be beloved by our brethren be the great object of our ambition, the surest way of obtaining it is, by our conduct to show that we really love them.

The first part of this quote is not too original but expresses the sentiment that is a bit like 'bread upon the waters' in which you gather what you sow tenfold in terms of human kindness. A definite benefit for those who apply the golden rule (see a previous post on this subject).

The second element, "kindness is the parent of kindness" is also a wonderful sentiment and something to remember, just like the contagious nature of smiles and laughter, kindness is also viral... So taking these two elements together it would seem that not only do you get back tenfold benevolence but you also spread tenfold benevolence around the world. The image that comes to my mind is the proverbial pebble ripples in a pond. Nice to think that that is or could be the case.

The third element of this wonderfully rich paragraph is a bit more intriguing: "if to be beloved by our brethren be the great object of our ambition". My initial reaction was 1/it seems strange to me that we can have an ambition of being beloved by others and/or that that could be a positive thing; and 2/that today the word ambition has a negative connotation (albeit only in my mind) or at least a connotation that is not very spiritual. Upon reflection, ambition, just like pride, can be very positive sentiments that can encourage and inspire people to do great things. And just like the 'invisible hand' if it is out of an ambition to be beloved by others that drives you to loving others, as Adam Smith suggests, what could be wrong with that?! For what a wonderful way to end this lovely paragraph, it is not about telling people that you love them but by showing them - by our conduct to show that we really love them.

Love thy neighbor as thyself... do unto others as you would have them do unto you... Adam Smith seems to be giving us another version of the golden rule. What is interesting too is that Adam Smith begins his paragraph in the third person (he, other) but ends it on a collective and more personal note (our).

A wonderful paragraph rich in wonderful sentiments.

And now I suggest that we go out and throw our little pebbles into the big pond...

[Thoughts on Golden Rule] The Rabbi on the flight

For the first time in a long time I sat next to an Orthodox Jew on a flight to Israel. He was busy working on a text in Hebrew and I was reading first a spiritual book in English and then a text in French (of a friend who is in the process of publishing a book) that just happened to be about something religious.

He asked me "what I did" as he noticed that I was reading about religious things, or something to that effect. I explained, or tried to explain in brief, what I do and that the spiritual stuff is something I don't "do" but is something I am interested in...

We started a long and, to me, very interesting discussion on religious issues that apparently he was working on and thinking about. It was a long discussion and I will not even try to relate all of it here, but at one point I suggested that all religions, and especially all mysticism's of the various religions, as well as most spiritual studies, all boiled down to the Golden Rule, Love thy neighbor as thyself.

He smiled to himself and told me a story, which is often told, about a non-Jew who wanted to convert to Judaism. He went to see several Rabbis and asked them to tell him in one sentence what Judaism is about. Most of them scoffed and angrily sent him away. And then he met Hillel who told him (something like) the Torah teaches us 'Love thy neighbor as thyself', and all the rest is commentary, but what commentary.

We talked a bit more about this and other things and then he handed me a paper he was reading and working on which was all about Leviticus 19:18 in which the Golden Rule is mentioned. In Hebrew the golden rule can be transliterated as "and you loved the other as thyself" (phonetically veahavta re-echa camocha, with the ch pronounce like the Spanish jota).

The article was very interesting and long, so once again, I must try and condense for brevity's sake, so here are key ideas I recall: the other, any other, is another small piece of God's glory, the other is our brother since we are all God's children, to love another is to show our love for God, having a significant other brings us closer to knowing the love of God, consider your love for God as you do any other love - with thoughts and actions... Of course, there was much more but it wasn't always directly related to the subject and it digressed occasionally into discussions of whether we should or could compare human love to love for God, was it right, recommended or, on the contrary, necessary, etc.

A text of biblical commentary that was quite interesting. It was interesting to see commentary (Gmara) on the Torah, and to see that it was not that esoteric. I haven't read much of it in general, but I was under the impression it was more difficult to understand.

I asked him about the book of Job, since it is one of the books that fascinates me the most (Job was not Jewish, he challenges God, he challenges the devil, and it is the last book in the Old Testament in which we hear from God, so he also manages to shut him up for eternity...). The Rabbi smiled and said, he could explain it to me but he would have to explain so much of the Tanach (the five books of the Torah, the Prophets and the 'ctuvim' which I don't know how to translate (the Written histories)) that it would take a long time... So he didn't even try.

We discusses a lot and it was interesting to discuss things with the Rabbi. It turns out that my Great Uncle, who was Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem at one point, ordained the Rabbi sitting next to me. This Rabbi was extremely kind and gracious, soft spoken, intelligently, had smart, active and kind eyes and was definitely a positive example of the wisdom some people may attain from years of religious studies.

I asked him about politics and he admitted that he was not interested in things like politics but was worried, like I was, about the loss of values in Israeli society, but for different reasons and from a different perspective. He could not understand why Israelis want Israel to be the Jewish state while turning their backs on the wealth of wisdom in Judaism. Why secular Israelis have so much hate for the Orthodox.

We talked of love, and he told me that the love most people understand as love is not really love but lust. Something that I hope to share with you one day in this blog is a text by Eva Pierrakos on Love, called Love, Eros and Sexuality, which says just that. He reminded me that in the marriage vows in Judaism, the husband makes three promises to his bride - to ensure her living (money), her nourishment (food) and her sexual satisfaction ("ona"). Nowhere does it say that his libido must be satisfied, only hers. If a man does not take care of all three, he is not satisfying his wedding vows...

It was wonderful and strange to speak about love, sex, passion, lust, manhood, true love, etc. with a Rabbi, but we were speaking the same language and it was an intriguing exchange.

I asked him for his e-mail address and he apologetically explained that they don't do e-mail ("too many temptations") but instead he gave me his cell phone number.

It was a special conversation and a true meeting of the other...