Truth Over Tyranny: Biblical wisdom for defeating the Technocrats.
These are my insights for defeating the Transhumanist Technocracy movement, based on the teachings of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, of blessed memory, on the weekly Bible portion.
It is very common for people who stand up for freedom to feel unworthy of the cause. They feel the task is greater than they are, and ask questions like these:
“Who am I to challenge the medical establishment on giving people a dangerous clot shot?
“Who am I to call out the local school board for spreading pornography?”
“Who am I to accuse state and national officials of rigging elections?”
It’s no wonder so many freedom lovers feel like running instead of fighting. And so they plead with God, “Lord! What you ask of me, I cannot provide. The mission is too great. Please find someone greater than I to serve!”
They should take heart that this feeling of inadequacy has been shared by heroes throughout history, all the way back to Biblical times. Even the Patriarch Jacob had to struggle with feeling up to the task of heeding God’s call. In his commentary on Parashat Vayishlach called “Feeling the Fear,” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks tells us how Jacob and others persevered to answer God’s call to greatness – a call we each hear today.
Rabbi Sacks highlights the extreme fear Jacob felt prior to meeting his brother Esau — which led to an encounter with God:
“It is one of the most enigmatic episodes in the Torah, but also one of the most important, because it was the moment that gave the Jewish people its name: Israel, one who ‘wrestles with God and with men and prevails’ (Gen. 32:29).
“Jacob, hearing that his brother Esau is coming to meet him with a force of four hundred men, was terrified. He was, says the Torah, ‘very afraid and distressed’ (Gen. 32:8). He then made three forms of preparation: appeasement, prayer, and war. He sent Esau a huge gift of cattle and flocks, hoping thereby to appease him. He prayed to God, ‘Rescue me, I pray, from the hand of my brother’ (Gen. 32:12). And he made preparation for war, dividing his household into two camps so that one at least would survive.
“Yet he remained anxious. Alone at night he wrestled with a stranger until the break of dawn. Who the stranger was is not clear. The text calls him a man. Hosea (12:4) called him an angel. The Sages said it was the guardian angel of Esau. Jacob himself seems sure that he has encountered God Himself. He calls the place where the struggle took place Peniel, saying, ‘I have seen God face to face and my life was spared'” (Gen. 32:31).
The commentator Rashbam links this episode to other times in Tenach when people were confronted by God:
“There are many interpretations. One, however, is particularly fascinating both in terms of style and substance. It comes from Rashi’s grandson, Rabbi Shmuel ben Meir (Rashbam, France, c.1085-1158). Rashbam had a strikingly original approach to biblical commentary. He felt that the Sages, intent as they were on reading the text for its halachic ramifications, often failed to penetrate to what he called omek peshuto shel mikra, the plain sense of the text in its full depth.
“Rashbam… relates it to other episodes in Tanach, two in particular: the story of Jonah, and the obscure episode in the life of Moses when, on his way back to Egypt, the text says that ‘When they were in the place where they spent the night along the way, God confronted Moses and wanted to kill him’ (Ex. 4:24). Tzipporah then saved Moses’ life by giving their son a brit milah. (Ex. 4:25-26).
All three men — Jacob, Moses, and Jonah —encountered God amidst great fear. But why were they afraid?
“It is the story of Jonah that provides the key to understanding the others. Jonah sought to escape from his mission to go to Nineveh to warn the people that the city was about to be destroyed if they did not repent. Jonah fled in a boat to Tarshish, but God brought a storm that threatened to sink the ship. The prophet was then thrown into the sea and swallowed by a giant fish that later vomited him out alive. Jonah thus realised that flight was impossible.
“The same, says Rashbam, applies to Moses who, at the Burning Bush, repeatedly expressed his reluctance to undertake the task God had set him. Evidently, Moses was still prevaricating even after beginning the journey, which is why God was angry with him.
“So it was with Jacob. According to Rashbam, despite God’s assurances, he was still afraid of encountering Esau. His courage failed him and he was trying to run away. God sent an angel to stop him from doing so.
“It is a unique interpretation, sobering in its implications. Here were three great men, Jacob, Moses, and Jonah, yet all three, according to Rashbam, were afraid. Of what? None was a coward.”
They were afraid of their mission, as were many other great Biblical figures:
“They were afraid, essentially, of their mission. Moses kept telling God at the burning bush: Who am I? They won’t believe in me. I am not a man of words. Jonah was reluctant to deliver a message from God to Israel’s enemies. And Jacob had just said to God, ‘I am unworthy of all the kindness and faith that You have shown me’ (Gen. 32:11).
“Nor were these the only people in Tanach who had this kind of fear. So did the Prophet Isaiah when he said to God, ‘I am a man of unclean lips.’ So did Jeremiah when he said, ‘I cannot speak: I am a child.’
“This is not physical fear. It is the fear that comes from a feeling of personal inadequacy. ‘Who am I to lead the Jewish people?’ asked Moses. ‘Who am I to deliver the word of God?’ asked the prophets. ‘Who am I to stand before my brother Esau, knowing that I will continue the covenant and he will not?’ asked Jacob. Sometimes the greatest have the least self-confidence, because they know how immense is the responsibility and how small they feel in relation to it.”
Modern commentators have also heralded the courage needed to take on great tasks:
“Courage does not mean having no fear. It means having fear but overcoming it. If that is true of physical courage it is no less true of moral and spiritual courage.
“Marianne Williamson’s remarks on the subject have become justly famous. She wrote:
“’Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.’
“Shakespeare said it best:
“’Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ’em.’” Twelfth Night
The bottom line is that God has faith we will carry out the mission He has assigned to us. So we should have faith in ourselves:
“Ours is not an easy task, but what worthwhile mission ever was? We are as great as the challenges we have the courage to undertake. And if, at times, we feel like running away, we should not feel bad about it. So did the greatest.
“To feel fear is fine. To give way to it is not. For God has faith in us all even though, at times, even the best of us lack faith in ourselves.”
I will add this:
People have trouble using the word great to describe themselves or their work. They prefer to be “humble.” On the one hand, I do think you have to be humble to hear God’s call — people with swelled heads have small ears.
But at the same, it is important to recognize that this is a call to greatness — to do great things. God is great. He does great things. When you join Him in these efforts — especially when you join Him in protecting the freedoms that He has given to us — you are also doing great things.