Amoral Intellectualism: Balaam & Totalitarian Utopianism: The Tower of Babel PDF

148 B1B1.JCAL STORIES FOR PSYCHOTHERAPY AND COUNSEJ.JNG AMORAL INTELLECTUALISM: BALAAM Biblical Narrative The Bible demonstrates great admiration for knowledge and intellect. However, these traits can be destructive when not combined with good character. Numbers 22-24 tells the story of Balaam, a...

148 B1B1.JCAL STORIES FOR PSYCHOTHERAPY AND COUNSEJ.JNG AMORAL INTELLECTUALISM: BALAAM Biblical Narrative The Bible demonstrates great admiration for knowledge and intellect. However, these traits can be destructive when not combined with good character. Numbers 22-24 tells the story of Balaam, a Mesopotamian wise man and seer. whose intellect was exalted but whose character was petty and greedy and who could be vindictive when he felt his ego threatened. The Israelites, nearing the end of the forty years in the Sinai Desert, had just conquered the kingdoms of Kings Si hon and Og, east of the Jordan River, and they were encamped near the border of neighboring Moab. King Balak of Moab, sorely frightened by their presence and their recent victories, sent for help to Balaam-"Come curse this people for me." Mesopotamia was a land with institutes of higher learning and great scholars who probed the limits of knowledge available in that time. We still know some of their writings on anatomy, law, poetry, and dreams. Other important areas of study included astrology and divination (predicting the future by the reading of sacrificial entrails of or omens in nature such as the flights of birds). Scholars devoted lifetimes of study to these topics and wrote detailed treatises on them. Balaam, says the Scripture, was a widely acclaimed wise man who was able to speak with God and pronounce prophecies. King Balak now called upon Balaam to "come curse this people for it is stronger than I ... for I know that whom you bless is blessed and whom you curse is cursed" (Numbers 22:6 ). Tempted by Balak's promises of great wealth, Balaam was most anxious to accompany the king's messengers to Moab. However, he knew he had to consult God first. Much to Balaam's disappointment, God ordered him not to go to curse the Israelites for they are a blessed people (22: 12). Balak then sent new messengers promising even greater rewards. Again Balaam asked the messengers to remain overnight, although warned that even if Balak were to give him a house full of silver and gold, Balaam could not go unless God permitted it. Balaam's imagery reveals his drive for wealth and recognition. God decided to teach Balaam a lesson in humility. Despite his great knowledge of magic, Balaam would soon be shown to be no more than a pawn in God's hands. Good and Bad Development 149 God appeared to Balaam that night and told him to go to Balak but to say only what he would tell him to say. Balaam was so happy to receive the permission to go that he woke up early in the morning and even saddled his own donkey for the journey. The donkey now became the means by which God would teach Balaam his lesson. As they traveled, the donkey saw an angel with a drawn sword blocking the road ahead. Three times it turned off the road, banging Balaam's foot. Balaam could not see the angel and reacted by cursing and beating the animal. How foolish Balaam looked. The powerful sorcerer was on his way at a king's behest to destroy a great nation with his curses, but he could not control even a single little donkey. Balaam was furious, fulminating at his humiliation, when the angel finally revealed himself to Balaam (22:31 ). The angel pointed out to the prophet that the donkey had seen better than he, the great wise man, had. Balaam should go on to Balak, but he must say only what God would tell him to say. Balaam came to Moab but, to Balak's chagrin, God had Balaam deliver a great paean of praise and blessing for Israel instead of the planned curses. Balaam was sent away by Balak in utter disgrace. Balaam was a towering intellectual and scholar with a special knowledge of divination and prophecy. He lacked, however, good character and integrity. It is not enough to be an intellectual. It is far more important to have the good character to make that intellect a source of blessing to oneself and others rather than a source of misery. Balaam's efforts at cursing the Israelites had failed most ignobly. He sought to redeem himself in Balak's eyes by offering him a piece of cynically cruel advice. Let the women of Moab and .Midian seduce Israelite men and lead them thereby to worship their gods. God would be angry at the Israelites and destroy them (Numbers 31: 16). The two nations followed Balaam's advice, and God did indeed grow angry at the Israelites, sending upon them a plague that left 24,000 dead. The total would have climbed much higher if Phinehas had not intervened as related in Numbers 25 (see Chapter 5). Eventually, the Israelites caught up with Balaam, his magic completely failed him in the face of their spirituality, and they slew him with the sword (31 :8). 150 BJBUCAL STORIES FOR PSYCHOTHERAPY AND COUNSEUNG Clinical Implications This story has strong implications for therapy with overintellectual patients. Intellect itself can be used to block the development of selfawareness as easily as it can help one to know oneself. This insight squares with the traditional psychoanalytic view of intellectualization as a defense against awareness of one's emotional side. In the contemporary United States with its emphasis on attending college, people can easily be educated beyond their intelligences. True intelligence is not simply pure intellectualizing but is rooted in emotional understanding and compassion. It is warm and involved, not cold and detached. To the extent that intellect is involved with emotion, it becomes a wann intelligence that can illuminate one's self-knowledge and heighten awareness. A therapist must always direct intellect toward illuminating rather than obscuring. TOTALITARIAN UTOPIANISM: THE TOWER OF BABEL Biblical Narrative One might well be surprised upon walking into a good library and seeing the great number of books on utopias, or ideal societies. From ancient times to the present, people have dreamed these fictional ideals-Plato's Republic, Thomas More's Utopia, Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, and many more. U.S. history features many attempts to build real life utopias, such as New Harmony, Indiana, in the mid-nineteenth century. All of these utopias, fictional and real, have been deeply flawed. The Book of Genesis describes what must have been man's first attempt to build an ideal society in the story of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11 ). Human population multiplied after the great flood of Noah's time, and the people eventually traveled westward, finally deciding to build a new home in the valley of Shinar (Mesopotamia). There they built a new city. So far so good, for God wanted mankind to work toward a good life. However, the people's motives were misdirected. "Let us build a city and a tower with its head into the sky and let us make a monument for ourselves lest we be scattered over the face of all the earth" ( 11 :4 ). The utopia had formulated for itself a Good a,nd, Bad Development 151 mission that had no real meaning. The goal of this society was not to enable man to come to closer to God, to grow spiritually and emotionally. ;'Jo mention was made of helping the disadvantaged. of educating the young, of developing new ideas in science or art. The purpose of the tower society was security based on self-aggrandizement, "Let us make a monument ..." Ancient man indeed built huge pyramids and ziggurats whose purpose was to glorify the kings and societies that built them. They did succeed, at least in the sense that we can still see today the remains of those great structures and remember some of the names of the builders. The people of Shinar stated a second purpose: "lest we be scattered over the face of the earth." That is-the society must form certain controls to prevent people from leaving or changing. People must be rigidly controlled, which is characteristic of totalitarian societies all through history. Subdue progress; stifle disagreement. The tower society was arrogant too-"Let us build a city and a tower with its top in the heavens" ( 11 :4 ). The goal of the society was again not producing people who were whole in body and soul. Building a tower all the way to the heavens would keep the masses occupied and would demonstrate the greatness, even the godlike character of the leaders of the society. Harmony and unity are wonderful goals that are in some measure attainable. However, not every aggregation of people holds these aims. A characteristic of totalitarian societies, including many of the great utopias of literature, is that they foster laws and practices that rigidify and preserve the society, while the population becomes secondary. The citizens are often little more than slaves. The seeming harmony in the society is false and deceptive. It is merely conformity. Indeed, some societies, Plato's Republic for example, even eliminate newborn babies who are judged unfit, and refuse medical treatment to people who may not be able to keep up their jobs. This was not the biblical God's intent in creating the earth and the human race. Humans were designed to love, create, think, and growto fulfill God's purpose for tht!m. The tower society had no goals beyond its own desires. Such a society and its leaders must inevitably seek to perpetuate their own selfishness and their hunger for power. God looked upon what the people were doing in Shinar and saw that they were pursuing their own goals rather than his, "and now nothing will be withheld from them, whatever they purpose to do" (11 :6). The people began to find cooperation difficult. The unity that such a soci- 152 BJBUCAL STORIES FOR PSYCHOTHERAPY AND COUNSEJJNG ety needed collapsed before the demands and egos of individuals and factions. God may have miraculously befuddled their languages. but most commentators say an increase in quarreling occurred among these people who basically had no healthy purpose for their society. The people of Shinar eventually split into many smaller and uncooperative groups, and the tower remained unfinished. Clinical Implications So it is with many people. They focus on their achievements, building altars to themselves rather than to God. Such people become obsessive and narrow careerists rather than placing their careers in God's hands. Work becomes for such people an end in itself rather than a means of bettering the human condition. People who fall into this trap often appear wooden, humorless, and rigid. They seem obsessed with achievement for its own sake. They may be perfectionist and intolerant of flaws. Their ideals may remain so distant and cold as to exclude human warmth and liveliness. When working with a patient of this type. it is important to stress that the aim of achievement is human betterment and that success is not an end in itself. Whatever dreams the patient has must be human dreams. It is ill-conceived to sacrifice real human beings in the name of some abstract vision of humankind. ACQUIRING WISDOM: SOLOMON Biblical Narrative It is probably always better to be wise than foolish, and particular times can arise when one needs greater wisdom than ever beforewhen facing an important decision or striving toward existential knowledge, for example. The Greek philosophical literature describes Socrates' search for wisdom. The god Apollo. speaking through the oracle of Delphi, had pronounced Socrates to be the wisest of all men. Socrates did not know what that meant, so he accepted in the sense of a command from Apollo the obligation to learn what the god's statement did mean. Inquiring of many people-poets, tradesmen, politicians, and so on. Socrates learned that he knew something none of the Good and Bad Development 153 others knew: no man is truly wise, and true wisdom belongs to the gods alone. This is similar to the biblical dictum "The beginning of wisdom is reverence for God" (Psalms 111: 10). However, the Bible adds an important new level to the human drive for wisdom. Solomon was still young and lacking confidence and awed by the tasks facing him when he succeeded his father David as king of Israel ( I Kings 3:7-8). I am a young lad and I do not know how to go and come. And Your servant is in the midst of your people whom You have chosen, a great people whose multitude cannot be numbered or counted. When God told Solomon to ask for what he wanted most, the young king asked for "a heart to hear and to judge Your people, to understand good from evil" (3:9). Inexperienced as he was, Solomon was already wise enough to know that he could rule well only with wisdom and with faith in God. Two brilliant men, the Greek philosopher and the king of Israel, have points in common in these accounts. Both sought and attained great wisdom. Socrates is described as the father of Western philosophy, and Solomon was admired by all the wisest people of his time ( 1 Kings 8:3). And God gave Solomon wisdom and very great understanding and a heart as broad as the sand on the sea shore. And Solomon's wisdom was more than the wisdom of all the peoples of the East and the wisdom of Egypt. And he was wiser than Ethan the Ezrachite, and Heman and Calco! and Darda the sons of Machol, and his name was among all the surrounding nations. And he spoke 300 parables and 1,005 poems, and he spoke of trees from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop which grows out of the wall, and he spoke on beasts and birds and on creeping things and fish. And there came from all the peoples to hear the Wisdom of Solomon from all the kings of the earth who heard of his wisdom. (1 Kings 5:9-14) Tradition attributes to Solomon the authorship of Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, and the Song of Songs, three brilliant and intricate works. 154 BIBilCAL STORIES FOR PSYCHOTHERAPY AND COUNSEilNG However, the two approaches to wisdom :-.how significant differences. Socrates never dealt directly with Apollo. Apollo hinted at the mission of seeking wis<;lom, but he actually gave Socrates no help and did not teach him. The idea of a personal relationship with a loving and omniscient God was nearly unknown in the Hellenic world. Solomon, in contrast, felt close enough to God to ask directly for wisdom as a gift. Indeed, Solomon's entire sense of direction and his prophetic dream began with his love of God-"And Solomon loved God" (3:3). God promi:-.ed great wisdom to Solomon and assured him of material support as well-"wealth and honor which no man ever had like you among kings ..." (3: 13). Solomon can be very wise not only in recognizing his own limitations and God's greatness and wisdom but also in many areas of knowledge. Indeed, God had commanded all people to study and acquire knowledge and to pass this on to their children in the most thorough manner-"And you shall teach your sons diligently" (Deuteronomy 6:7). This is a great responsibility, but God offers loving help. God began the chain of transmission by personally giving the commandments to the Israelites at Sinai and many more laws and ideas as well durirtg the forty years in the wilderness. Even earlier, God taught Adam in the Garden of Eden all about nature and science (Genesis 2: 19-20). Certainly a wise person ought to be humble. However, wisdom involves much besides humility, and God gives of hi:-. own wisdom and creativity to humanity and helps and supports them in their searching and development. Clinical Implications An individual may. like Socrates, be intelligent enough to realize the limitations of human wisdom. Intellect can take one only so farand then one seems to have reached a brick wall. As did Socrates, the patient may despair, feeling that true wisdom belongs only to the gods and that the entire human enterprise of acquiring knowledge is futile and even tragic. Alternatively, one may react as Solomon did, who also realized that his intellect could take him only so far, but that God would help him understand. Such an individual will listen to the wisdom of his or her heart, understanding that wisdom i:-. not of the intellect alone but of his or her entire being. Intellect need not manifest itself in rebellion Good and Bad Development 155 toward one's emotional life, but should be in harmony with it. God wil I help us on our path in I ife, not the snake in the Garden of Eden. UNDONE BY AMBITION: JEROBOAM Biblical Narrative Biblical thought is not opposed to ambition per se. Indeed, it is healthy for people to want to improve themselves and their lot. Wisdom, wealth, and physical well-being are all part of God's bounty to humanity and all worth working for. However, ambition can expend itself pursuing wrong goals and can be mixed with unhealthy motivations such as arrogance, greed, or lust for power. 1 Kings 11 :26f tells of the career of Jeroboam. whose great drive and talent were thrown off track by his own arrogance. Jeroboam was marked by the great King Solomon as a young man of special ability, and Solomon named him to a high government post. All people need some bit of self-confidence, but Jeroboam had showed a good deal of arrogance. He seems to have thought of himself as being as great as King David. God recognized Jeroboam's talent and brilliance but worried about his pride. Many troubles came on Israel in Solomon's last years, and God sent Ahijah the prophet to inform Jeroboam that the kingdom would be split in two after Solomon's death. Two tribes would follow Solomon's son in the kingdom of Judah, but ten would name Jeroboam as their ruler in a new kingdom of Israel. Ahijah made clear to Jeroboam that God still loved David and would leave the two tribes and the city of Jerusalem with David's progeny "for the sake of my servant David" ( 11 :32). Ahijah went on to mention David's name five more times to confirm God's continuing love and support for the rule of David's descendants in Judah. God knew Jeroboam's pretensions well and wanted to make his role clear to him. He could rule over all which your heart desires, and you will be king over Israel. ... And it will be if you obey all which I command you and you will walk in My ways, and you will do the right in My eyes to guard My statutes and My commandments as did David 156 BIBUCAL STORIES FOR PSYCHOTHERAPY AND COUNSHlNG My servant, then I will be with you and I will build you a firm house. (11:37-38) God emphasized that Jeroboam had an important role to play. At the same time, he would not supplant David. However, this was exactly what Jeroboam wanted. He would be David as well as Jeroboam. In the course of time, Solomon died, and his son Rehoboam greatly disappointed the people of Israel, ten of whose tribes seceded and formed a new kingdom with Jeroboam as their king. Here, Jeroboam showed that despite his brilliance, his character did not equal David's. When a seeming threat to his rule arose, he failed to follow God's wishes and laws and to trust God's promises to him. Jeroboam began to fear that his new subjects' loyalties to David's family might be renewed when they went to worship at the temple in Jerusalem. And Jeroboam too-should he go to Jerusalem and seem to be second to Rehoboam? Should he stay in his new capital Shechem and not go to worship in Jerusalem? His response was to proclaim to his new subjects that God was to be found everywhere, not only in Jerusalem-a very clever argument. He set up new religious centers in Bethel and Dan, presided over by priests who were not of the family of Aaron, and featuring statues of golden calves, which served as symbols of his rule. The new centers still probably worshiped the biblical God and not idols. However, this was very different from the form of worship that the Bible enjoined. Jeroboam's new nonbiblical religion was initiated solely to support his own ambition for power. It is striking that he showed such moral weakness in his attitude toward the Jerusalem temple, inasmuch as he had once criticized Solomon, states the Talmud, for blocking some gates that made access to the temple easier for pilgrims. This fact highlighted the corruption of Jeroboam's ambitions and the failure of his attempt to be King David. He could have been a very great leader of an Israelite kingdom. Instead, he lived to see Ah1jah thoroughly disappointed with him. Two years after his own death, Nadab, Jeroboam's successor, and the entire family were murdered by his general, Baasha. Clinical Implications This story can help a patient balance the various forces in lifea desire to succeed as an individual within the context of appreciating Good and Bad Development 157 the larger collective enterprise. Patients must be supported in their striving to be all they can be, and psychological blocks that impede this progress must be removed. At the same time, patients must be helped to set appropriate goals rather than striving for something that is not good for them. This distinction is a delicate one, which must be transmitted to patients delicately. They must be encouraged neither to underreach nor to overreach, but to seek what suits their character and abilities. Ambition in the service of fulfilling one's potential must be encouraged, but this must be distinguished from mindless self-aggrandizement and perpetual discontent. USING OTHERS: AMNON Biblical Narrative King David's liaison with and marriage to Bathsheba and the death of their newborn child must have shaken the stability of the royal household of Israel. Soon after, Amnon, son of David, developed a fixation for the beautiful Tamar. She may have been a half sister to Amnon, and a full sister to Absalom, David's son by another wife. In any case, Amnon's behavior was criminal. Amnon became so preoccupied with his desire for Tamar that he fell ill. This was not love in any positive sense. He did not cherish or admire Tamar for her good character or even her beauty. Marriage, romance, or passion was not suggested. He single-mindedly plotted to rape her. Amnon 's friend and cousin, Jonadab, noticed that Amnon was wasting away and, learning why, he suggested that Amnon pretend to be seriously ill and invite Tamar to bake him some pancakes, a specialty of hers. It is possible that Jonadab did not realize Amnon's full intentions and sought merely to calm him, but more probably he was a jealous, unfeeling man who enjoyed making trouble. Amnon liked the plan for it would give him his chance to encounter Tamar. King David had visited the ailing Amnon and now supported his request to have Tamar come to make the pancakes. As Tamar was preparing the cakes, Amnon suddenly ordered everyone else to leave the room. He seized Tamar and said, "Come lie 158 BJBJJCAL STORIES FOR PSYCHOTHERAPY AND COUNSEJJNG with me, my sister" (2 Samuel 13: 11 ). Not even a hint of love orromance, not even the momentary excitement of a graceful seduction, Amnon became violent. To him, Tamar was merely an object, not a human being. She pleaded and remonstrated and probably fought back but to no avail. Amnon would not be moved. He seized her roughly and raped her. Then Amnon hated her with a great hatred, for the hatred he now held for her was greater than the love he had held before. And he said to her, "Get up and leave." And he called his servants to drive her out and lock the door behind her. (13: 15-17) Tamar was devastated, and the news of the rape shook the family. Absalom, Tamar's brother, burned for revenge. Two years later, Absalom had Amnon murdered. The thought pattern of a man such as Amnon is complex. First, Amnon saw people only as objects to be used. He did not respect Tamar as a human being. She meant nothing at all to him. Amnon seemed also to need to dominate others and to use violence. Tamar apparently tried to resist him, but he forced her violently, which fit his need to see other people as inferior, indeed nonhuman, and to crush them. Amnon may have also hated his father, King David, deeply resenting David's multiple wives and particularly his recent addition of Bathsheba. Amnon probably was very disturbed that Bathsheba's son, Solomon, was named to succeed David on the throne. Probably the eldest son, Arnnon had likely thought of himself as heir apparent. Now he sought his revenge against David by raping and humiliating his daughter, and in the process disrupting the entire extended family. He even duped David into asking Tamar to cook for her supposedly ailing brother. Thus Amnon was able to show his power and gain some attention by hurting Tamar, David, and the popular and handsome Absalom as well. There was no tangible gain for himself. One thinks of the great maxim, so original in the Hebrew Bible-"Love thy neighbor as thyself" (Leviticus 19: 18). Amnon's attitude toward people was crude and hostile, and not at all biblical, with no concern for people, God, morality, or holiness. Good and Bad Development 159 Clinical Implications Using people ultimately cheats the user as well as the used. To see another as simply a tool or as a means to an end deprives the user of the wonderful mystery of coming to know another human being. The clinician can instill in a patient the sense of adventure in human relations-one does not know the outcome of a relationship in advance. Likewise, one must give up the need to control another. Paradoxically, by attempting to control the other's responses one destroys the other-turns him or her into something wooden and deprived of life. Therefore, one destroys what one is trying to possess. Only through accepting the other as intrinsically valuable can one achieve fulfillment in human relations. Chapter 10 Recovery from Misfortune, Weariness, Loss, and Disability INTRODUCTION All human beings experience misfortune in their lives. The key is to acknowledge it without being overwhelmed and paralyzed. Likewise, individuals can become weary and mistake their way, often losing the glow of !ife. The poet Dante and the medieval figure Charles of Orleans both wrote about being lost in the middle of life. Individuals may also face loss, which grieves them greatly, yet can be overcome after the trauma has lifted. Finally, all human beings have areas of limitation and weakness. What is particularly difficult in therapy is when patients' weaknesses hamper their abilities to function in other ways as well. For example, a nearsighted man who needs thick glasses may find himself limited by extreme shyness as well. Consider the literary figure of Cyrano de Bergerac who, because of his protruding nose, felt incapable of being loved by the woman of his heart, Roxanne, despite his intellectual brilliance. Indeed he used his brilliance to help the empty-headed but handsome Christian to woo Roxanne, perhaps attempting to gain her love vicariously. People may compensate for a handicap by exaggerating other facets of their personalities. For example, a very short man attempted to make up for liis disability through military and political conquest. We have a name for this: the "Napoleon Complex." The biblical concept of repentance provides a means by which humans are able to treat personal and emotional problems rather than letting them fester and grow until they destroy. Repentance is so natural to the Bible that it is surprising to learn that Greek thought seems not to have developed a mature concept of repentance. Thus, the only way for a Greek to correct a personal flaw or sin, in many cases, was 161 162 BIBLICAL STORIES FOR PSYCHOTHERAPY AND COUNSEJJNG by means as extreme as suicide. Fate could not be altered. Gods such as Zeus were not forgiving and if they did forgive. it would carry little effect. The Midrash recognized how innovative the Jewish idea of repentance was. It held that Reuben, the son of the patriarch Jacob, was the first to do full-scale repentance (Genesis Rabbah 84: 19 and 82: 11) and he indeed is labeled as the "first-born for repentance." Adam and Cain may have repented of their sin but not as fully and only on God's suggestion, not of their own initiative. All people make mistakes and commit wrongs or sins, which can harm every aspect of their relationship with God, with one's fellow. or with oneself. God recognizes that man is imperfect. However, God in his love and compassion for man gives him the possibility to correct his ways by means of repentance. Repentance does not mean self-deprecation or abject surrender or absorption in the overwhelming power and majesty of deity. It means instead that man refits himself for the service of his Creator after having left it. Repentance requires a feeling of guilt over one's imperfections and a renewed recognition of God as the one who rewards and punishes. If circumstances or feelings hinder people from repenting, then God will help them along. However, much of the initiative is with people. The success of repentance is not merely in being forgiven and saved by God. Repentance is an end in itself. not a means toward some other end. It changes the equation of the relationship between God and people. The main point of repentance is that it results in improving the people who repent, not that it merely induces a magical potion or catharsis for their faults. Repentance is also not merely a matter of correcting a wrong. It is a generic concept that concentrates on human growth as its aim more than on merely correcting a man's behavioral ledger. The intense activity of the High Holy Day season concentrates on the two inseparable ideas of recognizing God's sovereignty and of repentance, in the sense of assessing and straightening out one's relationship with God. Beyond all this, repentance has a cosmic significance in bringing man close to God on the most exalted level. As the Talmud puts it, "Great is repentance for it reaches up to the Throne of Glory" (Yoma 86a). Judaism contains no notion of original sin. If the Jew seeks to come closer to God after having sinned. it is not mainly for purification, but because God loves when his creatures seek to approach him Recoveryfrom Misfortune, Weariness, loss, and Disabil,ity 163 through repentance and prayer. Often individuals can even change themselves so that wrongs that they committed become a positive part of their experience, helping to make them better people (lbn Paquda, 1963, Chapter 7). Both the Hebrew Bible and the rabbinic literature contain many examples of the importance and efficacy ofrepentance. King David is one of the most notable. Vnlike the Hellenic world, in biblical religion a person's life can be significantly altered by repentance and prayer. God watches over us, loves us, hears our prayers, and knows our needs. He will respond to our repentance by recognizing our spiritual development and also by changing our worldly lot. This chapter discusses six biblical stories. The first, Jeremiah, provides a model for dealing with disasters. The second story, the Curser, portrays the unhappy tale of a person who is unable to overcome early rejection and alienation. The third selection is taken from Ecclesiastes and deals with the problems of aging. Sarah's story deals with the effects of trauma even after it has lifted. The story of Moses and Aaron discusses the biblical approach of overcoming a disability. The final story, the Fugitive, is about giving a person who slew another out of carelessness the chance to be rehabilitated (that is, to recover from his crime). DEALING WITH DISASTER: JEREMIAH Biblical Narrative The Jewish people in their remarkable history have suffered repeated major cataclysms--destruction of their homeland, expulsions from England, France, Spain, and many other places, almost ceaseless religious persecution, social and economic restriction, and the Holocaust of the early 1940s. Each time, however, the Jews have revived and rebuilt, compiling an amazing record of accomplishment in numerous areas of human thought and activity. They have long outlived all the great empires from the ancient Egyptians to the Soviet Umon. How does a people manage to restore itself after a seemingly overwhelming national disaster? The Jews established a method m reacting to the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylo- 164 BJBUCALSTORIES FOR PSYCHOTHERAPY AND COUNSEUNG nians in 587 B.C.E The land was devastated, Jerusalem and its temple razed, and most of the population slaughtered or carried into captivity. How would the Jewish people manage? The Hebrew Bible provided an answer in Lamentations, a book consisting of five poems, whose authorship tradition attributes to the prophet Jeremiah. In relating his own experience of dealing with cataclysm, Jeremiah set the paradigm for future cataclysms as well. The five poems describe stages in the poet's effort to deal with God. Facing the terrible destruction, he first bemoans the fact that the friends and allies of the kingdom of Judah have proven false to her. They have not tried to help, have shown no empathy whatsoever, and have indeed rejoiced to think that perhaps the Jews and their faith were no better than anyone else. The Judeans were now suffering terrible brutality and starvation at the hands of pitiless conquerors. They would have to confront their own misbehaviors too, although this was not the most important point. It was more important to feel and know their suffering and to understand it without denial. Why did God seem so cruel and merciless? After a time, the prophet was ready to get hold of himself and to take on responsibilities: "I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his anger" (Lamentations 3: 1). These terrible sufferings have come from God. Only by accepting and acknowledging his affliction can the man begin to feel the responsibility, "We have transgressed and rebelled. Thou hast not pardoned" (3:42), and only in accepting responsibility can the poet begin to feel hope, "Remember mine afflictions and mine anguish, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance and is bowed withm me. This I recall to mind, therefore I have hope" (3: 19-21 ). It seemed that God had covered himself with a cloud so that no prayer could reach him, but the poet cries out anyway, challenging him and demanding his mercy until he does take notice, 'Thou hast covered us with anger and pursued us: Thou hast slain unsparingly. Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through" (3:43-44). The poet again reviews the sufferings of his people, now showing how it was their own sins that aroused God's anger against them. Having arrived at this point, he can see hope, "Your iniquity is expiated, 0 daughter of Zion, He will not exile you again. He remembers your iniquity, daughter of Edom, He will uncover your sins" (4:22). Recoveryfrom Misfortune, Weanness, Loss, and Disability 165 One must be realistic about suffering, neither denying it nor totally giving in to it as did the characters of the Greek tragic drama. People must accept that suffering comes from God. Only then can they understand that hope too comes from God (4:22). Without accepting responsibility, people cannot accept hope. God may seem to hide his face from people, but he does not abandon them. The prophet has explored the meaning of despair, but he must also understand and accept the meaning ofrejuvenation. Suffering can be corrective and can lead to improvement. It is not the same as rejection. The Talmud provides a profoundly important epilogue to Lamentations. Centuries later, after the Romans had destroyed the second temple, Rabbi Akiba and several other sages passed by the temple mount and saw a fox playing on the ruined site of the Holy of Holies. The sages wept. remembering the verse, "Over this our heart was faint; for these our eyes were dimmed; for Mt. Zion which lies desolate. Foxes walk in it" (5: 17). Rabbi Akiba, however, began to laugh. When the others asked how he could laugh at such a scene, he answered that if the prophecies of destruction were so completely fulfilled, then God's promises of redemption were also sure to be fulfilled. History will not end in Greek-style suicide, but will bring God's redemption to his people. Clinical Implications This story has profound implications for the treatment of an individual who is suffering. It has become too easy in modern society to ignore or rebuke a person showing any signs of sadness. People even blame the sufferer for causing the suffering rather than acknowledging the reality of it and the need for the person to have time to heal. However, suffering does not simply mean feeling sorry for oneself and giving into despair, but instead represents an attempt to place one's pain in a larger context. Although a person is suffering now, the suffering need not last forever. It is essential to maintain one's integrity and sense of a higher purpose through periods of misfortune. This is easier said than done and can be facilitated in therapy by recognizing the suffering while stressing the larger meaning and hope in life. 166 BJBLJCAL STORIES FOR PSYCHOTHERAPY AND COUNSEWVG FEELING REJECTED: TIIE CURSER Biblical Narrative Feelings of rejection and alienation trouble most people, to some degree, through their lives. At times, the feelings may arise from real situations. In other cases, the feelings are endemic to a self-concept that has never developed in a healthy or realistic way, and also to a lack of knowledge and awareness of a purpose or meaning for one's existence. Such feelings of rejection and lack of confidence can be crippling to a person's endeavors in every area. The case histories of serial killers and recent shootings of high school students by their classmates typically show the perpetrators to harbor an extreme sense of alienation and of lack of acceptance from others. They respond with very antisocial and destructive behaviors. The Bible in its characteristically brief style tells the story of such a man in a few verses. His name is never stated, and the later rabbinic literature refers to him only by his act-the mekallel (the curser or blasphemer). The very fact that his name is not given sets the focus on one of his main problems-a distorted sense of self. The blasphemer was born in Egypt to an Israelite woman, who was seduced or raped by an Egyptian overseer. The woman was of the Israelite tribe of Dan, but the Danites, years later, would not accept the young man as one of their own. Legally, they were correct. The young man, nevertheless, suffered from a sense of rejection, however mistaken, by the tribe, by the nation, and even from God. As time pac;;sed, his anger against God grew, and he picked quarrels with people "in the camp" to which he felt no sense of belonging. "And the son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the Children of Israel: and the son of the Israelite woman and an Israelite man strove in the camp" (Leviticus 24: 10-11 ). That the blasphemer felt rejected or alienated is understandable, given the circumstances of his binh and also his inability to gain full acceptance in his mother's tribe. It is understandable, but it was not beneficial. He could not grasp that he might have a duty to accept certain personal hardships or limitations for the public good as well as his own, nor did he seem interested in seeking possible solutions other than his quarreling and complaining, which were altogether misguided. He could still have lived a full and productive life in every Recoveryfrom Misfortune, Weanness, Loss, and Disability 16 7 aspect as a scholar, merchant, or craftsman, but he chose not to. Instead he quarreled and ridiculed as his frustration grew until finally "the son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Divine Name and cursed" (24: 11 ). His blasphemy of God's name was not merely an outburst of temper. It was a derogation and violation of the basic dignity and holiness with which God has invested the human being. In lashing out at God, the blasphemer showed his anger and spite at everything that God had created and, perhaps more important, his lack of interest in doing anything constructive. He was content to wallow in his own anger and misery. ~oses did not act hastily but instead consulted God. Perhaps Moses did not truly know what the proper punishment was, or perhaps he felt that his judgment would be unreliable since he was at fault for not preventing the crime in the first place (Babylonian Talmud, I975, Sanh. 78b). God's answer was clear, and the blasphemer was put to death. Clinical Implications This story provides a motif for a therapi5t dealing with a patient from a troubled background. The therapeutic stance must be to show understanding of the hurt and rejection the patient has undergone without affirming the destructive tendencies, which can lead to even worse consequences. The therapist must offer the patient venues to express the hurt, but also to draw a positive outcome from it rather than to wallow in the pain and to act destructively to others and ultimately to himself or herself. For example, a man who experienced abuse as a child might be encouraged to pursue a career in mental health, where he can attempt to build the self-esteem of children who have suffered abuse. In so doing, the patient can affirm his own selfesteem-that he is worth something unconditionally no matter how badly he has been treated. AGING: ECCLESIASTES Biblical Narrative "After I have withered, shall I become supple?" wondered the matriarch Sarah after hearing God's assurance that despite her ninety 168 BJBUCAL STORIES FOR PSYCHOTHERAPY AND COUNSEUNG years of age she would bear her first child (Genesis 18: 12). Certainly, aging can bring its pains and fears. Ecclesiastes 12: 1f is most eloquent: Remember your Creator in the days of your youth before the evil days come and the years arrive of which you will say, "I have no joy in them." Before the sun and the light darken and the moon and the stars (i.e., When death comes), and the clouds return after the rain (i.e., the suppleness of the body withers) ... (12:1-2) The key to a successful adjustment to each stage of life, including old age, is this-"Remember your Creator in the days of your youth" ( 12: 1), and be aware that the body will probably not be as strong or as swift as in younger years. However, even if you have not remembered your Creator in your youth, then turn to him in your mature years. Even until the moment of death, one can still improve. The human body typically weakens as it ages. However, the Bible emphasizes that an old person can do wonderful things. "In the morning, sow your seed, and in the evening rest not your hand because you do not know which one will go well, whether this one or that one, or if both will be good" ( 11 :6). Youth is wonderful only if it is well spent and only if it helps to prepare one for what comes afterward. Rejoice young man in your youth, and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth and go in the ways of your heart and after the sight before your eyes, but know that on all these, God will bring you into judgment. ( 11 :9) One should not lament the passing of youth as the romantic poets do. Instead, "remove vexation from your heart and draw evil off from your flesh, for youth and dark hair are vain" ( 11: I0). The joys usually associated with youth are more seeming than real. A life devoted to good deeds and the development of faith and wisdom will help a person face the challenges of every stage of life, including old age. Scripture commands respect for the aged. "Before gray hairs you shall rise up, and you shall honor the wise in counsel (zaken), and you shall fear your God" (Leviticus 19:32). Honor is indeed due to people for their years and their "gray heads." However, what is important is the wisdom that a lifetime of experience and study can bring to the Recoveryfrom Misfortune, Weariness, Loss, and Disahdity 169 aged. Even a younger person who has gathered great wisdom must be respected. The old person must show respect for his or her own age and wisdom by behaving in a manner that honors these accomplishments. Of course, one should respect all decent people, but to show respect to elders may be particularly important because they are sensitive to their own aging and so have more need of a show of respect. The elder should respect God and not be so arrogant or foolish so as to seek honor from others. Westerners fear the coming of old age with its weakening of powers and the growing fear of being a useless burden. Old age also seems to be closing in on the end 9f life. How far all this seems to him from the warm blood and the sweet promise of youth. This view, so popular in Western thought, is nourished in ancient Greek myth, especially in the stories of Oedipus and Tithonus. Old age is presented as a time of deterioration and decline. A person is in full vigor during youth, but in old age can only plod along on "three legs" as the sphinx said in her famous riddle to Oedipus. That is, in old age one must walk with a cane. Another myth tells of how Eos, goddess of the dawn, fell in love with Tithonus, a handsome mortal. She prayed that he be given immortality. The gods indeed gave him that gift but along with it played a cruel trick. Tithonus would live forever, but he would not keep his youth. He soon grew too old to be of interest to Eos, who left him in search of younger lovers. Clinical Implications The Bible recognizes the challenges of aging. However, it does not see old age as less useful or important than youth. Both are important stages in the human's progress. In every stage, one can grow in goodness and wisdom. "For if a person should live many years, let him rejoice in all of them, and remember the days of darkness for they will be many" (Ecclesiastes 11 :8). People should live as best they can in every period of their lives. They should rejoice in them all without neglecting their responsibilities and opportunities and without forgetting God or their own humanity. The implications for therapy with aging patients are great. An older woman, for example, may feel diminished tn her physical condition. Her eyesight and hearing may not be as keen, she walks with a 170 BJBJJCAL STORIES FOR PSYCHOTHERAPY AND COUNSEllNG cane, and her memory is slower. The patient may bitterly complain that she is no longer the person she was and that she is worth nothing. The therapist needs to instill in the patient an appreciation of her strengths and abilities that have remained undiminished or have even increased, particularly her ability to transmit to a new generation what she remembers from a lifetime of experience. Central to this sense of a life span continuity is a chance for the patient to resolve her !ife story. This can be facilitated through a technique of guided reminiscences, allowing the patient to examine her progress through her life. She is in essence the same person she was as a child, a unique creature of God. TllE EXPERIENCE OF ALMOST-WSS: SARAH Biblical Narrative Receiving very important and unexpected new:-,, whether good or bad, can rouse powerful emotions so quickly and uncontrollably that a person's equilibrium, physical as well as emotional, can be deeply upset and serious trauma can result. The Scripture juxtaposes the binding of Isaac with the death of Isaac's mother, the matriarch Sarah. Although the text is cryptic, several midrashic passages argue that the shock of the unexpected news of the almost-death of her son was the direct and immediate cause of Sarah's death. God had commanded Abraham to bring Isaac, his son, as a burnt offering. Abraham's tru:-,t in God was sufficient for him to carry out God's order, and he was at the point of actually slaughtering Isaac when God told him to hold back his hand. This was only a test to strengthen Abraham's devotion and faith. God had never actually wanted Isaac to be sacrificed, and child sacrifice was abhorrent to the Hebrew Bible-in contrast to its widespread use among other ancient peoples. What was Sarah's role in this poignant drama? The initial command to sacrifice Isaac had come to Abraham alone, and Sarah knew nothing about it. She could have had little inkling of the powerful emotions working through Abraham's mind. It was only after the almost-sacrifice had taken place that Sarah learned that her son had been placed on the sacrificial altar and then taken off alive at God's command. Recoveryfrom Misfortune, Weariness, loss, and Disahiltty 171 The Midrash offers conflicting pictures of the sequence of events. One suggests that the first report to reach Sarah led her to believe that her husband had actually sacrificed her son. A woman of profound faith, Sarah accepted God's will and was able to bear her sorrow. However, when she heard, shortly afterward, that God had indeed stopped the sacrifice and that her son was well, she was overwhelmed and "her soul departed." In a second midrashic view, Sarah died upon hearing a first inaccurate report that Isaac had, in fact, been slaughtered on the altar. In this version, it was the first shock that caused Sarah's death. Abraham faced God's command to sacrifice Isaac with turbulent emotions. His trust in God was very great, yet Abraham felt uncertain. Was it possible that he had misunderstood everything? Could God really want him to sacrifice Isaac? Abraham faced a second difficult decision as well. What should he tell Sarah? Sooner or later she would need to know. Apparently, Abraham decided not to tell her anything until later, but when Abraham returned from Mount Moriah, he found Sarah dead from the shock caused by the unexpected and perhaps misleading reports. A midrash interprets the verse, "And Abraham rose up from his dead." Sarah was his dead, i.e., Abraham felt responsible for helping to cause Sarah's death. Perhaps if the news had reached her in a manner less sudden, less piecemeal, perhaps if the reports had been clear leaving no space for false impression or false hopes, Sarah could have summoned the strength to deal with both harsh and gentle news. Then she could have lived to rejoice with Abraham and Isaac in the highly uplifting experience of the akedah. Clinical Implications Every clinician dealing with suicidal patients knows the most dangerous time is when the depression begins to lift. Often the acute trauma puts the psychological system in shock. The shock can serve as a prophylactic protection allowing the individuals to develop a psychological response to their predicaments. However, the shock may begin to dissipate before the new psychological coping mechanism is fully in place. This becomes a volatile and dangerous period, sometimes leading to acute suicidal behavior. Suicidal patients must be watched most clearly at the very point when they seem to be im- 172 BJBllCAL STORIES FOR PSYCHOTHERAPY AND COUNSEllNG proving. Even aside from suicide, patients may show relapses in their conditions at the very point that the original trauma passes. The patients' defenses are finally down and the therapist must guard patients closely. DEALING WITII DISABILITY: MOSES AND AARON Biblical Narrative Few skills were more prized among the ancient Greeks and Romans than oratory. Demosthenes rose to fame in Athens as an orator despite some shady activities in politics and a poor military record. A famous story tells that he overcame a speech infirmity by practicing speaking with stones in his mouth. Cicero's speeches earned him wide repute in the last days of the Roman Republic. Fronto recommended the study of rhetoric over philosophy in a letter to his student, the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Aristotle wrote a full-length treatise on the art of public speaking, and during Athens' Golden Age, Sophists were well-paid to teach their clients how to present arguments before a court of law or a political assembly. As Socrates put it, "they teach how to make the weaker argument defeat the stronger." Remarkably, in the Hebrew Bible, oratory has no place. In fact, Moses, the great Hebrew lawgiver, had a speech defect. So also, says the Midrash, did the prophet Amos (Leviticus Rabbah 2). How could a man with such a handicap converse directly with God, confront the mighty Pharaoh, and teach the Torah to an entire nation? Moses expressed his concerns about his handicap during his first meeting with God, at the burning bush (Exodus 3 ). This meeting had the purpose of sending Moses on his mission of leading the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage and of teaching them the law during their journeys in the wilderness. However, God knew that Moses needed to deal with his own handicap ifhe was to be an effective leader, and God tried to support and direct Moses toward helping himself. Let us look at the nature of Moses' defect, (which Ras hi and other commentators interpret as stuttering), and then at the dialogue at the burning bush. Was the handicap of physical or emotional causes? This is unclear, although it could well have been both. The Midrash (Exodus Rabbah 1:26) offers a parable: As an infant, Moses had been Recoveryfrom Misfortune, Weariness, foss, and Disability 173 rescued by the Egyptian princess when Pharaoh had decreed that all Hebrew newborn boys be cast into the Nile. The princess raised Moses at the royal court as her son. The Midrash tells that Moses, as a bright little baby, was a favorite at court. Pharaoh too liked to hold Moses in his lap, and Moses liked to take Pharaoh's crown and place it on his own head. This troubled the soothsayers, who predicted that Moses would grow up to usurp Pharaoh's crown. One counselor proposed a test. Place two trays before Moses-one with gold on it and the other with brightly burning coals. If Moses tried to grab the coals, it would mean that he merely was drawn to bright sparkling objects. If he reached for the gold, it would be a sure sign of danger. Moses was ready to grab the gold, but an angel redirected his hand toward the coals. Moses touched the burning coals, then in pain put his finger to his tongue, singeing it. Thus injured, Moses had difficulty pronouncing words correctly. Midrashic parables generally contain several levels of meaning. This story can mean that Moses grew up feeling like an outsider at Pharaoh's court. This contributed to the development of a speech impediment, which remained with him into adulthood and even as he stood before the burning bush. Moses was not anxious to accept the mission on which God was sending him, and he offered five separate protests: 1. God said, "Go and I shall send you to Pharaoh, and bring forth my people from Egypt." Moses objected that he was not worthy to stand before kings nor was he able to handle the problems of the Israelites and bring them out of Egypt. God responded that he would make sure everything went well, and he would culminate the exodus with the great revelation on Mount Sinai (Exodus 3: 10-12). 2. Moses tried again: The people will ask for some proof that God had indeed sent him. God explained to Moses how to make clear to the Hebrews that God had sent him and assured Moses that they would accept him (3: 13f). 3. Moses again worried that perhaps the Israelites would not at all believe his story. God then showed Moses certain signs (i.e., the snake and the dose of leprosy) to indicate that he should not be so skeptical about the Israelites believing him. At face value, these were easy tricks that the Egyptian wise men could aho perform. However, in Israelite thought, the snake and the dose 174 BJBUCAL STORIES FOR PSYCHOTHERAPY AND COUNSEUNG of leprosy are motifs associated with punishment for slander. and God was demonstrating to Moses and to the people that God would defend them, even from Moses himself ifneed be (4: 1f). 4. Moses then rahed his fears about his stuttering. He felt he was not a man of words. He was "heavy of mouth and heavy of tongue." God reassured him. "Who has given speech to man or who will make him mute or deaf or sighted or blind; is it not I the Lord?" (4: 11 ). God knew Moses well. God did not need a dynamic polished orator to lead his people and to teach his law. God wanted a man of Moses· high character and intelligence, whose outstanding characteristic was not showmanship but humility. No man is perfect, but Moses was a wonderful man. His speech problem was not significant. "And now go, and I shall be with your mouth. and I shall teach you what you shall speak" (4:12). 5. Moses· humility was genuine, but his reticence about his speech defect showed also a lack of faith and confidence that needed to be remedied. Even with assurances of God's help, Moses· speech defect troubled him and weakened him. He did not accept God's reassurances and instead tried to back away from the dialogue"Please Lord, please send whom You wish to send" (4: 13). Commentaries suggest that maybe Moses did not want to seem to be usurping the leadership of his older brother Aaron. This reticence may have been noble but, whatever its reason. it was inappropriate. God had set him on an important mission, and Moses had protested in one way after another. finally seeming simply to withdraw and try to close the discussion. When Moses seemed to back off unilaterally, God grew angry. In a sense. Moses had mistrusted both God and Aaron. He did not accept God's assurances of help. and he feared that Aaron might resent having to accept his younger brother as leader. Indeed, Moses had earlier assumed that the Israelites were such nonbelievers that they would not follow him. Still, God knew Moses well and did not give up on him. He assured Moses that Aaron would be glad to see him and would approach him first. Moses' speech problem would do no harm, for God "will be with your mouth and with his (Aaron's) mouth." Moses will be the leader and Aaron will speak for him (4: l4f). Recoveryfrom Misfortune, Weanness, foss, and Disability 175 One view in the Midrash suggests that when Moses received the law on Mount Sinai, he entered a new stage in life and his speech defect disappeared. In another way, however, the problem remained for Moses. Years later in the wilderness the people needed water. God told Moses to speak to a rock and streams of water would gush forth. Instead, Moses spoke in anger to the people over their manner of asking for the water, and he struck the rock with his staff rather than speaking to it as God had commanded. The old fear was apparently still not entirely overcome and Moses never did totally master the ability to excel in matters of speech, nor perhaps did he ever combine his sincere and wonderful humility with any great amount of selfconfidence. His achievement in matters of the spirit is unsurpassed, but he had little feeling for politics. The lesson of the dialogue at the bush is significant. The man who would lead the Hebrew people out of bondage and on to the great theophany at Mount Sinai was not a pushy hero but a kind, humble man. For God, wisdom and good character are important; eloquence and persuasiveness are not. This lesson 1s the opposite of that emerging from the story of Demosthenes mentioned previously. To lead the Hebrew people, one needs more than a mouth. He must use his eyes and ears too (4: 11 ), and he must feel a sincere empathy for his people. Indeed, God chooses Moses specifically to show that the exodus would depend not on oratory and politicking, but on the work of God. Clinical Implications Moses' self-doubts, repeated several times, are expressions of the humility that will make his mission successful. Even his speech problem is beneficial, for how significant it will be that a stuttering, unpretentious man can defeat the mighty Pharaoh and his powerful empire. Moses should not become leader of the Hebrews merely by the power of oratory. Some people have great powers of persuasion but no other merit. Others are not convincing, and great truths comlng from them are ignored. Moses was a man of great truths. People would know he was successful because of God's will rather than