Tzav: To Thine Own (REAL) Self Be True

"To thine own self be true." I imagine you're already familiar with this famous expression, coined by William Shakespeare, in his play, "Hamlet." And, like any good Biblical quote or other concept worth pondering, it can be interpreted in many, many
ways. Take a moment and decide for yourself what YOU believe it to mean. Maybe even write it down, so you can compare it to my definition, and perhaps to anyone else's, if they choose to share in the comment section below. I will say this: I think it's sometimes used to justify behaviors that prioritize one's own needs over others. "Hey, Shakespeare told me - I gotta take care of 'Numero Uno' before worrying about others!" I doubt this will surprise you, but I don't agree with that reading of it. And I think our Haftarah this week - meant specifically to prepare us for Passover, which is beginning in just a few days - has something to say about all this as well.

It is tempting to embrace individualism. You can quote the ancient Jewish sage, Hillel (out of context, mind you...), and say: "If I am not for myself, who will be for me?"

That is to say: "It is a harsh world out there; everyone ELSE is focusing on themselves and their own needs, so I'd be a sap NOT TO take care of myself first and foremost!" But then, every once in a while, we get a rude awakening, and realize our lives are indeed interconnected with all others around us. We need THEM to be healthy to keep ourselves and our families healthy. We need the grocery store workers, trash collectors, and mail carriers to keep doing their jobs, or our lives would grind (even more!) to a halt. One interpretation of Polonius' quote from Hamlet that I really like suggested that you have to be secure financially FIRST, but then you also need to turn and help others. Yes, you need to be safe and stable, but the very fact of your having enough, that actually directly OBLIGATES you to assist others in receiving those same (or similar) benefits. Hmmm... I'm not sure everyone agrees with that idea.

Enter the Haftarah for this Shabbat. The prophet Malachi challenges the people to examine their own actions and priorities. Yes, you have told yourself that what you're doing is right and good. And you've convinced yourselves that your behavior is fine; after all, you are being "true" to yourself and your own needs. But, says Malachi, it is

a lie: You can tell yourself whatever story you want, but God isn't fooled... and frankly, it's time you stop fooling yourselves. I'm paraphrasing, yes, but here is Malachi's fabulously sharp indictment of the people: "Turn back to Me, and I will turn back to you—said the LORD of Hosts. But you ask, 'How shall we turn back?' Ought man to defraud God? Yet you are defrauding Me! And you ask, 'How have we been defrauding You?' In tithe and contribution." (3:7-8) I love Malachi's use of the Socratic method here! You, treacherous people, you say to yourselves, "But we don't know how to turn back! We don't know how to repent!" When you absolutely, absolutely do. God isn't buying it; you're not being honest!

And this is kind of where I wanted to end up. We all need to examine how honest we are being with ourselves. We may believe in the maxim of "To thine own self be true," and we are *just* doing what is best for ourselves and our families.

But it simply isn't correct! We also ask these kinds of *innocent* questions of God, "why are we being plagued with this terrible virus?" Yet we continue to prioritize certain countries and certain groups of people for care, and we demand that grocery workers stay on the job, because we *need* them, even while paying them minimum wage and allowing CEOs to earn millions and millions. Is our predicament not a wake up call? A moment for us all to reconsider what "matters" and what is "necessary"? We are, in fact, not being *true* to ourselves when we only care about our own needs. That is a narcissistic and isolationist way of understanding Shakespeare's words. In reality, being TRUE to ourselves means making the world a better place. Expressing gratitude for the benefits we've received in life, for having enough to fall back on in a global crisis, for being able to distance from one another while millions of people in overcrowded cities could never do the same. Malachi is urging us to wake up. We're telling ourselves a story about why things are the way they are, why we're powerless to change anything, and why society demands that we look out for ourselves before ANYONE else. And it's just not true. It's false, and it's doing us a lot of damage. And it's time to turn back.


CC images in this blog post, courtesy of:
1. needpix.com
2. needpix.com
3. Wally Gobetz on Flickr
4. ElizaC3 on Flickr