Ki Thetze: Reality Sandwiches

 

 The parsha opens, talking, as it often does in its datedness, to men: 

כִּֽי־תֵצֵ֥א לַמִּלְחָמָ֖ה עַל־אֹיְבֶ֑יךָ וּנְתָנ֞וֹ     בְּיָדֶ֖ךָ וְשָׁבִ֥יתָ שִׁבְיֽוֹ׃ When you take the field against your enemies, and the LORD your God delivers them into your power and you take some of them captive,

וְרָאִ֙יתָ֙ בַּשִּׁבְיָ֔ה אֵ֖שֶׁת יְפַת־תֹּ֑אַר וְחָשַׁקְתָּ֣ בָ֔הּ וְלָקַחְתָּ֥ לְךָ֖ לְאִשָּֽׁה׃ and you see among the captives a beautiful woman and you desire her and would take her to wife,

You have gone into war, risked your life for the vision of victory and you have captured a fantasy; a dream of lust (and perhaps love). A month-long disfigurement ritual is prescribed before the the kidnapper  is permitted to fulfill the remnant of that passion. See a bit of the reality before you finally act on the dream, you are given a chance to give up the fantasy before embarking on the next set of consequences, including the abhorred child who cannot be disinherited. (next section) 

Much of the parsha can be read as a caution against trying to live dreams. In A Thousand Brains,  a book that is introduced by Richard Dawkins ( the author of the meme and the great prophet of the new Atheism), human perception of reality is postulated as the best fit to any of hundreds of preconceived models. I see these presupposed models, released from the checking function, as dreams. The Torah is trying to extend the checking function, reminding us of the pitfalls, but allowing for giving in to the dream. Life is but a dream (Songwriters: Hy Weiss / Raoul J. Cita)

When America was great (the 1950's [actually, it is the last time baby boomers were immature enough to believe it]) the challenge to the perception of America (and the Capitalism for which it stands) as a force of pure good was challenged from within.  It is understood that such challenges could only occur in a Free nation. Allen Ginsberg led the charge that was subsequently taken up by Bob Dylan (and Kanye West?). He sharpened the rapier of poetry and slashed society's image of itself.  He brought the personal dream to the fore and showed how empty were the public claims of equality and caring for the downtrodden. 

    we eat reality sandwiches.

 But allegories are so much lettuce. 

    Don't hide the madness.

The tooth goes through the bread.  The bread is the (relatively bland) necessity of food.  It then comes to the lettuce: Stuff that is not needed, takes up space, appeals to those with a taste for it.  It is the last potential stop before biting into the substance of the matter, which contains... the madness. It has become a world in which we can afford the madness: The second wife, (v.15) the wayward child (v.18) … bring it on.  John Lennon wrote anthem for atheism, aptly named: Imagine. 

There is a chiastic structure to the parsha.  The end reflects the beginning.  The parsha opens with a victory against an unidentified enemy.  It ends with the obligation to obliterate the memory of Amalek. 

זָכ֕וֹר אֵ֛ת אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂ֥ה לְךָ֖ עֲמָלֵ֑ק בַּדֶּ֖רֶךְ בְּצֵאתְכֶ֥ם מִמִּצְרָֽיִם׃ Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt—

It is significant that the attack of Amalek occurred just after the Exodus. It sought to cancel the glory of the moment. At the moment that the slaves, the most subjugated were freed, the enemy 

 וַיְזַנֵּ֤ב בְּךָ֙ כׇּל־הַנֶּחֱשָׁלִ֣ים אַֽחֲרֶ֔יךָ  cut down all the stragglers in your rear.

The Exodus allowed for the rise of the downtrodden.  The parsha validates the various gleanings that are left for the poor on the basis of remembering the slavery in Egypt. We must leave the corner of the field, the forgotten sheaves, the fallen grapes, etc. to undo the time when Pharaoh instructed the enslaved Israelites to find their own straw.  Perhaps we cannot abolish the exploited, but we can ease their struggles. 

The Amalek of my parent's generation. the Nazis, tried to annul the material progress the Jews had achieved.  As the Jews were emerging from their oppression of disenfranchisement in Europe, now able to achieve their newfound dreams; just as they were seeing the European enlightenment as an alternate path to the Old Torah that taught them to eternally hate Amalek, the force of cancellation rose (again?) to create another eternal enemy, whose memory must be erased and can never be forgotten. 

Life is but a dream, It's what you make it. We eat our reality sandwich, biting through the premonitory lettuce and swallowing the delicious but (somewhat) poisonous meat.  It is madness. There is still a place for the ancient advice.