The Reaction to The Diminished Value

“Secularism has no moral foundation” -Berel Wein Ha-Rav

During the first two thousand years of civilization, the world lacked the Torah. Paganism flourished, and such polytheistic messages had no central, ethical theme. These Pagan societies had no compass. These societies were almost as amoral or immoral as the secular societies we have today…

When Avraham Avinu (Abraham in the Bible) had promoted the message of Torah, that moralistic interested began to flourish, and later, there was a spiritual awakening that led to the rise of a higher level of consciousness. This created the chain reaction of ideas that led us to the rise of Dharmic religions, Zoroastrianism, Greek Philosophy. Note, this is not the highest level of consciousness but led to a world of realization in the sense that life now had a greater purpose. Two Thousand Year later, in the era of history after the Romans destroyed the temple, there was the rise of Christianity. This subsequently led to the rise of Islam. This further added spiritual meaning on a level that these other, non-Jewish religions could not meet. The general culture now included a sense of moral development where they could all comprehend a similar moral compass especially with Islam which is more like Judaism than Christianity…

Now, in the era before the Geulah, we have the rise of secularism and impurity where this ascension of higher thought is now clouded with the confusion that has come with the Progress of The World. There was a heightened sense of creativity in the late 18th Century and 19th Century CE. This was a time when the knowledge of the higher waters (spiritual) and the lower waters (physical) started increasing and proliferating throughout the World.

We have observed how our society has changed since the rise of the technological advances that came with the inventions of the Industrial revolution and later generations. This all happened in a time period that included changes in the understanding of Faith and Community. The beginning of the physical changes led to a series of social changes including the reformation and subsequent erosion of the Jewish identity which led to changes in attitudes on relationships especially when it involved the topic the marriages between Jews and non-Jews.

Progressive secular Jews do not value the same Jewish tradition or identity as many Observant Jews value, yet many people are becoming accustomed to the Traditional and Orthodox Judaism that their ancestors had abandoned when they came to Israel and/or the Americas.

Modern society doesn’t value the authenticity of human relationships. Many Jews still marry non-Jews, yet many Jewish women are reaching out to Shadchanim (matchmakers) to help them find a Jewish husband.

So while we have a world where holiness is a diminished value, we also see a wide range of people who are seeking higher meaning in life. People don’t want to just live in the mundane. They don’t want secularism.