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| The Mentschcraft Manual: 8. CORE VALUES |
Hillel’s Three Principles are like a compass; they help you stay on course by pointing to the ideal of mentschlichkeit. But a compass all by itself isn’t a journey; it just points toward one.
In addition to a compass, you need to take actual steps. These steps are the ways in which you live out the values of a mentsch. What are the values of a mentsch? There are three core values, and they come from the Bible where the Prophet Micah tells the people just what God requires of them: “Do justly, act kindly, and walk humbly with your God.” Living Micah’s core values is how we live up to the Three Principles of Hillel.
Do Justly
Justice is an act to be done—not simply a nice idea, but an obligation. Obligations are rarely met without conscious and concerted effort. Making that effort is what being a mentsch is all about. Judaism obligates us to actively engage the world.
Justice is the foundation of all ethical interaction. If there is no justice, there is no ground upon which to stand with each other and struggle for the greater good of all. Doing justly begins to define our communal responsibility. To be both for ourselves and for others demands the balance of justice.
When you do justly, you make sure that your actions not only serve your personal needs, but that they also do no harm to anyone else.
Doing no harm requires us to look at the potential consequences of our actions. It is easy to see that if you hit someone over the head with a heavy stick you will cause them harm. The consequence there is clear and self-evident. If you do not wish to cause harm, you will not hit someone over the head with the stick.
Unfortunately, consequences are not always so clear. Acting justly is more than acting in accordance with the law or even morality. It means acting consciously and conscientiously so as to minimize the potential pain or damage your actions may cause. It means thinking ahead.
Act Kindly
When you act kindly, you put other people first. You make room for other people in your life—for their needs, their ideas, their desires. Of course, if you make room only for others and never make room for yourself, you are violating Hillel’s First Principle. Try to balance the need for self and other and see if you can’t make room for both in your life.
There are people who assume that acting kindly means never asserting their own values, needs, or desires. When they fail to assert themselves, however, they simply resent the other person. This resentment can build up and lead to actions that are anything but kind.
What exactly is kindness? Is it always doing what the other person wants? Is it never confronting people, even when they are doing something morally wrong? Is it always placating and making peace?
Not at all. Kindness means doing the right thing while taking the feelings and needs of others into consideration.
For example: A friend of yours has a drinking problem. She claims she can stop whenever she wishes, but the truth is she cannot stop, and when she drinks she always drinks to excess and places herself in dangerous and compromising circumstances. You know you have to confront her with her problem and help her see the need to get help. It is not kind to turn a blind eye to her problem. Nor is it kind to write her off as a friend. The kind thing is to bring those who love her together with her and make plan the reality of what she is doing and the impact it is having on her life and the lives of those she loves.
Walk Humbly With Your God
Walking humbly with your God is often hard for people to understand. First of all why HUMBLY?
The Torah tells us that what people do matters. Actions have consequences. What you do matters not just to yourself but to everyone else. Your actions are like a rock thrown into a pool of water. While the rock hits only a small part of the pool, the ripples from its impact can affect the entire pool. You may pretend that your actions affect you alone, but you would be wrong. You are the world and you have a responsibility toward its wellbeing.
Being humble means that you accept that responsibility and act in a manner that takes the needs of the whole into account.
Why does Micah say YOUR God and not just God? Because people have differing ideas about God. Being humble means knowing that your idea about God is just that—an idea. God is greater than any idea we can imagine.
But what if you don’t believe in God at all? Can you still be a mentsch? Of course.
Being a mentsch is about cultivating justice, kindness, and humility in yourself and the world. If your idea of God helps you do this, fine. If you feel no need for God in your quest for justice, kindness, and humility, also fine. What counts is what you do, not what you believe.
Yet God is important. Judaism has spoken of and relied upon God for more than 3000 years. God is central to everything Jewish, even being a mentsch. While you can act justly, kindly, and humbly without having any idea about or interest in God, still a mentsch cannot ignore God.
So what is God? Jews have debated this question forever and have come up with the following conclusion: Nobody knows and nobody can know. All we know is that there is something greater than us. Call it nature, call it The Force, call it God, call it Tao—there is something that unites all life into a single system, something that manifests laws of nature as well as laws of the spirit.
What are the spiritual laws? You know them already; they are, as the Torah says, written on your heart that you can do them. They are being just, kind, and humble. They are respecting self and other. They are the values and principles of mentschlichkeit.
When you act like a mentsch, the world grows a little saner, a little more gentle, a little more loving. When you act against the laws of the spirit, when you seek to serve only yourself and not others, when you don’t care about justice and kindness but only about yourself and your needs and desires, the world becomes harsher, a little more violent, a little more frightening.
Ask, What Would a Mentsch Do? to remind yourself of your ability to affect the world for good or ill. Answer the situation with justice, kindness, and humility, and the world can smile just a bit more. |
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