Rabbi Dr. Akiva Tatz
Integrated Individuality
Rav Eliyahu Dessler speaks of a particular level of order in the word, which he calls, “Order for the sake of unity of function.” Consider, for example, an electronic radio or motor vehicle. Within the item, the various parts are disposed in such a way that it functions. Each component needs to be exactly where it needs to be. A car needs the rubber in its tires and the glass in its windows. If you would invert their roles and use glass for the tires and rubber for the windows, you would be in trouble.
In this level of order, integration is not only important, but vital. Imagine driving a huge, four-wheel car in the middle of nowhere. What would happen if a little screw falls out from your engine and gets buried in the desert sand? You would suddenly realize that this little screw meant your life. While it was in place doing what it should be, you didn’t notice it. The tiny piece of metal is worth less than the smallest coin. But now you appreciate how the whole engine needs it, and without it, you will remain stranded in the desert.
The same applies to the human body, or strictly speaking, the Jewish people. Each part is not merely nice to have; it is not akin to having one more book in a library. Each part is so critical that the others are meaningless without it. And everything and everyone else is also meaningless without them. When each piece is doing what it should, it remains unnoticed. However, when it falls out of place, then you suddenly realize its importance.
Let’s take this idea a bit deeper. The highest level of order in the world is structured this way. Whether it be cells in the human body, integrated units in a team or a marriage or letters in a Sefer Torah, every little detail makes the greatest of differences. If one letter in a Sefer Torah is invalid, you don’t have most of a Sefer Torah; you have nothing. Its validity is completely dependent upon one little letter. It is remarkable.
But this is not fanaticism. In the formation of a child, if one gene is slightly out of place, will you say that on average, you have billions of other genes, so why be worried? Certainly not. Your radio is not working because one wire is cracked. But isn’t 99% of the radio perfectly functional? Why should one tiny, meaningless wire defect an entire radio?
The reason is because when dealing with this level of integration, every fragmented nuance is essential to the totality of its functioning. A Sefer Torah is an organically alive entity. Every letter is critical. And if it is missing even a tiny bit, it is not alive. We are not being any more obsessive than we are about our genetics or one small wire in our radio.
In Kabbalistic terminology, were you to examine each part individually, you would discover that the whole is contained within each part. This is so because, from one perspective, the whole needs that one part.
In truth, the physical world reflects this reality. Any one cell in the human body contains the genes for the entire body. Were you to take a cell from the bottom of your toes and examine its genetic makeup, you would not find genes for toes. You would find genes for the entire body. Any cell of your body is capable of creating an exact copy of your whole body. The same is true of a tree. Even one sliver of bark can regenerate an exact clone of the whole tree.
The same is true in the creation of a child. When genes fuse to produce a child, one cell is formed with one genetic code. It then divides into two, four, eight, sixteen, thirty-two, sixty-four etc. But each one of those cells contains the same genetic material as every other cell.
But then, suddenly, a number of cells begin forming a head, and others, a foot. Scientists remain unclear how this occurs. How do the cells in one place know to become toes and the cells in another place know to become a head? This is one of the mysteries yet to be addressed in science. Yet in Jewish thought, the reasoning is clear. The genes for the formation of the entire child is contained within each individual part of the child.
Applying this to a psychological level, as human beings, we have an innate energy that thrills at being individuals and at the same time thrills at losing individuality in a group relationship. On the one hand, people like to exist as independent entities. In conventional psychological terminology, they call it the “lone ranger syndrome.” For example, let’s say you play a team sport. For many, the greatest fantasy is the scene where there are ten seconds remaining in the match and you are losing. However, all of a sudden, you get hold of the ball and in a dazzling display of brilliance, you beat the opposing team and score the winning goal. It is an amazing fantasy.
At the same time, we as human beings also revel in losing ourselves to a totality. If you have ever experienced the surreal feeling of being a part of a group that is functioning perfectly, you know that at one and the same time, you have lost yourself completely in the mass movement of the group and yet possess a remarkable sense of individuality.
Consider a battalion of thousands of soldiers marching for hours on end in perfect precision. It is a magical and hypnotic experience. You can continue moving forwards endlessly because suddenly you swell to the proportion of thousands of people and become incredibly energized.
Such is the paradoxical nature of the human condition. We possess both the thrill of individualism and the thrill of functioning as part of a larger proportion than ourselves. The underlying reason for such dichotomy is that the human being is designed exactly the same way the world is designed. Hashem has created us to coexist as both apart and separately unto ourselves, and yet at the very same moment, part of a collective unit which subsumes its members in complete integration.
While this concept affects many facets of life, one particularly important application relates to viewing the Jewish people as one inseparable, cohesive unit. Every Jew is absolutely vital to our entire nation. Each and every person has something important to offer and indispensably contributes to the totality of Klal Yisrael. In this respect, the Jewish people’s wholesomeness is contingent on each and every Jew. Especially as we move into the holiday of Sukkot and come together as one nation, we ought to realize that only when we unite together as “one man with one heart” will we be able to achieve our goals and attain perfection.
