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Articles
by Rabbi Zalman Shacter-Shalomi
The
Dialogical Mentality
By Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
from Paradigm Shift
This
piece was prepared for a meeting when we, a group of professors
and graduate students from Temple University under the leadership
of Professor Leonard Swidler, traveled to German universities
to meet with our counterparts. It was first offered in German
and then translated into English. One can discern a verbal
gestalt patterned after the Sermon on the Mount and 1 Corinthians
13. The classical form is used here to wrap a radical content,
in much the same manner as the original material, which departs
from the established norms.
You
have been told that the dialogical mentality consists
of the ability to allow for another's point of view. But
I tell you that unless you have the ability to see beyond
the Pharisees Hillel and Shammai you have not entered into
that Kingdom.
You
know well the oft-quoted story of Hillel and Shammai. The
Greek goes to Shammai and wants to learn the whole Torah while
standing on only one foot. Shammai beats him with a builder's
rod. The Greek leaves and goes to Hillel. He responds: "What
you don't want to be done to you don't do to someone else.
All the rest is commentary; go and learn to the finish."
And the Greek became a Jew.
You
have been told that the dialogical mentality consists
of the ability of Hillel to teach not only the point of view
of its own school but also that of Shammai - and this, by
the way, is why Hillel's opinion prevails, because in his
school the words of both Hillel and Shammai were taught.
But
I tell you that the dialogical mentality really consists in
knowing that "the words of these and of those are the
words of the living God." Beyond the tale of "you
are right" and "you are right" - "how
could they both be right?" "You, too, are right."
Beyond this, to the point of knowing that if Shammai had not
hit the Greek. Hillel's pointed "don't do something to
someone else that you would not have done to you" would
not have convinced him on one foot. Only because of the Greek's
resentment of Shammai's builder's rod did Hillel's verbum
touch him so deeply. The dialogical mentality knows somehow
that the Greek's pain at Shammai's beating carved the space
for Hillel's teachings to flow into his awareness.
You
have been told that there is negative theology and positive
theology. There is the negative theologian who would strip
God of all the attributes and whose certainty grows as he
strips them one by one, saying neti neti. Then there is the
positive theologian whose certainty grows as she invests God
with omni attributes. This and That and more. But I tell
you that the dialogical theologian is the one who sees
that what the negative theologian discards is what the positive
theologian picks up for attribution. He then realizes how
the process of divesting and investing is what gives the certitude
and not the arriving at the goal that is inexhaustible and
endless.
The
dialogical mentality differs from the disputational
mentality. The disputational mentality begins with premises
that it is uncritical about. They precisely serve as premises
because as PREMISES they have a regression stopper built into
consciousness. You cannot and may not ask me how I arrived
at the premises because they are not conclusions I arrive
at. You assume the assumptions; they are given, not taken.
Now when you have a given in the mind of one who disputes
with another who has another given, then all you can do is
convince the other to give up that given in favor of your
given, but you cannot have a dialogue. Like in the "pick
up" the question is, "Your place or mine?"
The turf of the game decides the outcome. In the disputation
I want to impose my turf, my given, my
one and only true hermeneutic, once and for all abrogating
all others, and I have a proven one, self-coherent and strong.
The dialogical mentality you have been told is greater
because it has made relative all turfs and rules and leaves
them open for consensual negotiation.
But
I tell you that unless even the assuming of the assumptions
is open for inspection by awareness there has not been any
dialogue - only a sporting event.
Dialogue
does not happen where we are adversaries.
Dialogue
is collaborative.
Dialogue
sees that there is better sight in two eyes than in one.
Dialogue
seeks to communicate.
For
where there are turfs they will be laid waste.
And
where there are rules they will paralyze themselves into constriction.
But
where there is dialogue there is a process that even when
it passes away continues in that passing.
In
dialogue there is a sharing of reality maps in which two seekers
share experience - both as Erlebnis and as Erfahrung,
in an ever-clearer seeking of understanding one another rather
than overstanding one another.
Dialogical
mentality is at home anywhere in the Uni/ Verse.
When
it moves Toward the One it seeks the polarity of the
Uni.
When
it moves Toward the Many it seeks the versatility of
the Verse. Its Universe of discourse courses back and
forth and is independent of either polarity.
You
have been told that dialogue implies two dimensions. But
I tell you that the dialogical mentality, being aware
of them both, implies three dimensions and transcends them
in the Self.
You
have been told that it is the substance of dialogue that matters.
But I tell you that it is also the form that needs minding.
Dialogue
is aware of mutual form and loves each other's form because
it gives depth to the cognitive dissonance and helps one to
really get to see the out- and in-lines of one's
own cogitations. So, as the structural strokes of this presentation
are appreciative of the beatitude of the peacemakers,
the substantive issue calls for a new beatitude: Blessed are
dialoguers, for in their concerned sharing they fulfill what
is written (Malachi 3:16): "Then did those who respect
God [more than their own creeds] talk with one another and
YHVH attended and listened in and wrote it in a book before
Him titled: THOSE WHO FEAR YHVH AND RECKON WITH HIS NAME."
Amen,
Alhamdullillah, Shanti, Om
Articles
by Rabbi Zalman Shacter-Shalomi
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