Try, Try

by Burton Feinberg

One of my favorite Talmudic teachings is:

“The day is short and the work is great. The laborers are lazy though the reward is great. … It is not incumbent on you to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.”

I like to interpret the teaching in a societal/global way and see it as a foundation for a political philosophy.

What is the point of politics in a democratic society anyway? Is it just a contest between two teams, and am I supposed to root for my team and be happy when they capture political office and be sad when they lose? And do I choose my team like a sports fan, based on geography and what the people around me think? Or is it something more? Should our politics reflect a moral vision of what American society and the world can be?

Of course, different people have different visions of what constitutes a “good” society and world, but I think we should always aim for a humane and benevolent community with as little human suffering - and as much individual freedom and social justice - as possible.

What I like about the Talmudic teaching is its existentialist and real-world, down-to-earth way of saying, “No one (not even God) is demanding perfection, we never reach utopia, but we never give up trying to make things better for all our fellow human beings..” Or, as the Founding Fathers would say, striving for “a more perfect union.”

The Founders knew they had created something great, but they never envisioned that the work was completed in 1787. Nor was it completed when slavery was abolished or when women achieved the right to vote, or when gay marriage was legalized.

That is, or should be, the whole point of politics; indeed, of our lives as human beings. We never reach perfection, but we must never stop the striving to end poverty, less strife, and to achieve more freedom and more social justice, more lasting peace, more kindness. These are our ethical obligations.

And this is the foundation of my existentialist/humanist philosophy and my progressive politics. We always progress, we never finish.

This Ethical Times post is presented by the Westchester Community for Ethical Culture.