Generally, we look at the Torah as a commentary to life. But what is just as true, but not as widely recognized, that our life serves as commentary to the Torah. We can read the Torah many times over, understand the words but be at loss at its meaning. The Torah can be saying only one thing but it always means many things. And sometimes it is only through the passage of life or through age, that we become privy to another layer of the Torah’s depth. In this sense, it is not the Torah that provides commentary to our life, but it is our life that is a commentary to the Torah. It is our life that explains the Torah, expounds it, layers it, and breathes life into its words.
Today, I gained a new insight into Putin’s war in Ukraine. Because of the enormous gamble and the obvious catastrophic consequences of losing, there has been a lot of talk questioning his mental stability. Seemingly, a sensible person would surely not wage such a wager. A lot of ink has been spilled trying to explain Putin’s ostensibly unexplainable motives. But I haven’t seen yet a philosophical/existential take on Putin’s impetus.
The following is an excerpt of a Torah book I have read many times but I guess a book that I have failed to understand. I probably still don’t understand it. But after the war with Ukraine, I have gained a deeper appreciation for, at minimum, these lines, and another angle at what drives the man who caused this war:
“Man cannot live without acts of exaltation, without moments of trembling and revering, without being transported by grandeur. His life can have a set of routine and sensible interests, [but the routine will be insufficient to engage man and temper his burning desire for transcendence. Sooner or later, the hour will arrive where his normative life buckles under the internal tension of his soul’s longings. At that point, either the desire will burn up in a holy flame and translate into acts of worship, or it will rot in monstrous deeds, in evil thoughts.] TO SATISFY HIS NEED FOR EXALTATION, MAN WILL PLUNGE INTO RAGE, WAGE WARS; HE WILL SET THE CITY OF ROME AFIRE.”
* The brackets are my own paraphrasement to make the author’s language more accessible.
2022