This blog started out about absurdity.
But it has also been about my own journey through the events that have occurred in Israel and the world. And I apologize for focusing so much on politics. The thing is, living in Israel, there is just a lot of absurdity that gets dumped on us here from the deepest cesspools of humanity. For more on the absurd state of the world I will refer you to:
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/you-are-the-racist-actually-not-me/?fb_action_ids=1357879870950856&fb_action_types=og.comments
I'm writing now because I think I have discovered an evolutionary advantage for absurdity.
Honestly, why should the world be absurd? Wouldn't it make a lot more sense for the world to make sense?
I would like to argue that absurdity is a gift that is sent to us when we think we know how the world works.
I was tipped off to this by the singular event of Bilaam and his Donkey.
It's all in Parashat Balak, in Sefer BaMidbar (Numbers 22:22).
So Bilaam is on his way to curse Am Yisrael, at the behest of King Balak. Bilaam was a kind of a Prophet amongst the Other Nations. He would receive messages from God, and he also knew the time each day when God allowed himself to be angry at the Jewish People. So he pretty much knew it all, or so he thought.
So he is traveling with his donkey, in order to do exactly what God told him not to do, but then gave him permission to do, with the qualification that he could only say what God would allow him to say. If I were Bilaam, I would have given up right there. But the money was good, and a man has to make a living!
So Bilaam has it all together. Life is good. He's on his way to curse Am Yisrael, and make a good buck to boot.
And just as he's getting into the acceleration lane, his donkey stops. Dead halt. Nearly causes a 20 car collision. He tries to go to the right. No luck. To the left. Nothing doing. Cranks it into four wheel drive. The transmission falls out.
So he comes to the only reasonable conclusion, it must be the stupid donkey! So he does what any red-blooded American boy would do, he starts to beat the donkey! When in doubt, bang it real hard!
You see, Bilaam thought the world is supposed to work the way he thinks it's supposed to work. If the donkey won't move it's because the donkey is lazy. This is what he has always done, it's always worked before, and this is how it should work now. No dice. So here's the kicker (no pun intended). Now the donkey starts to TALK to him! "Haven't I been a good donkey all your life? Have I ever done anything like this before?"
This is the moment that he receives the gift of absurdity. This is when it finally hits Bilaam that his perception of the world was lacking. Finally, his preconceived notions shattered, he is able to see what was in front of his nose all the time. What even his donkey could see! That an Angel of God was standing in his way with sword upraised! If he doesn't stop, he's a dead man. Absurdity just saved his life.
Sometimes, it takes absurdity to wake us up out of our life of perpetual sleep-walking. It's comfortable. It's easy. It works. It gets us through the day. But, as the saying goes, "if you keep on doing what you're doing, you'll keep on getting what you're getting." That's when we are sent something absurd. Something that just doesn't make sense, and forces us to stop and think. "If this doesn't make sense in any way I can understand, then I need to rethink my assumptions."
There are innumerable ways in which this can occur. To me the classic structure of this revelation is as follows: Something occurs in your life that just makes no sense at all. Think of that as the donkey. But, what is happening has nothing to do with the donkey, or your relationship to the donkey. This has to do with your relationship to the Creator. This is what He had to do because you haven't been paying attention.
This is your moment of absurdity. This is the time to stop and think. "So, I can deal with this the way I have always dealt with things (e.g beat the donkey), or I can open my eyes to the possibility that what is happening has nothing to do with the actual situation. But it has everything to do with a lesson I need to learn. With a reality which I have ignored. In the greater picture, what has been essentially wrong with my whole perspective? God is rebuking me, but for what?"
In my opinion, the absurd could possibly be as effective an evolutionary tool as ice ages, predators, and the plague. If you can't break out of your preconceived notions, you could be putting your survival in peril. We had better be able to see and acknowledge that which is contrary to our established reality. This goes for our spiritual/emotional survival as well as our physical survival.
Absurdity. To break out of the chain link fence that we have built around ourselves, and through which we view and understand the world, sometimes we need a helping hand with a sharp pair of bolt cutters. Or maybe a baseball bat, a brick, or even a talking donkey?
Or is it just me?
