Isaiah Berlin, Traditional Religious Piety and American Optimism

In a recent issue of The New Republic Simon Schama reviewed Letters:1928-1946, a collection of Isaiah Berlin's correspondence from that period.  He begins recounting an experience Berlin had in February of 1942, when at age thirty-two he was asked to be a member of a Jewish religious court in New York City.  The case before the assembly was that of a one-legged octogenarian whose amputated leg was nowhere to be found after surgey.  "This, as Berlin recognized, was no joke," notes Schama.   Unless the leg was laid to rest on "hallowed ground", in some degree of proximity to the old man, upon the Messiah's return, it would not be reunited with its owner. The old man could tolerate going through this life without a limb, but not all of eternity.  A somewhate amused group of judges wondered what, if anything, they court could do about the old man's situation. "That's what I want to know," the old man replied.. After some discussion, a solution was found.  A part of the old man, for example a fingernail, would be buried with proper care, with the understanding that, under such conditions, it would suffice.

Schema goes on to describe how Berlin relayed the story to his parents in a letter:

In a letter to his parents, back in solid Hampstead, Berlin, famous for his relish of the human comedy, described the scene without a trace of condescension, much less farce. "The thing was really most pathetic," he wrote, using that last word literally. "A man condemned to wander about on one leg for eternity, unenviable even in Paradise." What touched Berlin was not just the plight of the old man, but also the inspired improvisation of the two judges, faced with an apparently impossible request. Short of the ideal solution--the recovery of the missing leg--their task was to find some way in which the pain and the fear of the sufferer could be eased, and this they satisfactorily accomplished. By Berlin's lights, this was humane intelligence operating properly, and authority applied to its supreme duty: the minimization of suffering.

Berlin's response is instructive for any academic who looks on his or her community of origins with undue impiety and disdain because of a perceived provinciality and/or superstiition.  This is especially true for those who attain a theological education. 

Schama also points out some interesting insights Berlin had about American culture:

Though he genuinely admired American energy and forthrightness, the mistaken conviction that exhaustive iteration was the same thing as comprehension depressed him. Ultimately he thought that the national passion for the unequivocal could only be sustained through an exercise of eye-shutting make-believe akin to a children's party game: the conversion of the world from what it was to what America wished it would be. This optimization of the world, he thought, was a willed self-deception about the reality of human behavior; namely, that there were no conflicts that, with the application of enough goodwill, money, and robust determination, could not be resolved. 

Comments

[Robfre]

Scot

you quoted Schama on Berlin'This optimization of the world, he thought, was a willed self-deception about the reality of human behavior; namely, that there were no conflicts that, with the application of enough goodwill, money, and robust determination, could not be resolved.'

Each question answered yields a thousand more questions. When the KINGDOM is fulfilled on Earth, then surely enough goodwill you know....

It seems to me that Berlin is chasing around the bush here somewhat by not considering that some Americans have never lived in the USA, nor were they born to USA citizen parents but were born rather to that ideal called freedom that most of us who are US citizens fancy. It may be deceptive to think that the world will succumb to freedom's ring, but we do know that when Americans in exotic places are displaced, violently, abruptly and unfairly from their rights and responsibilities then an outcry is made, and so far the response varies. And I do agree that iteration is mere folly without the presence of nuance, personality, and service. Iteration, then may become a goal or ideal based manifestation, that is changed(thus disguised) by the realities of assimmilation. I begin to head into gray areas which I detest, that method of whining excuse-if God is without blemish and we are striving to become like Him as we become one with Him then where is there room for anything other than light, then I remember the forgiveness I was in need of and probably will be in need of...did I hear that almost all attempts at the President/Congress/Judicial systems save the USA have ended within thirty years of inception?

[autoglass]

A tradition will always be in the mind of many people. Especially historical happening that gave a big impact to the people.