About 25 years ago (maybe a bit more), when I presided over the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills Young Marrieds Minyan, there were a few young men who would come to me and say, “Rabbi you have to watch Seinfeld!”
Baruch Hashem, I do not own a TV, so I really had no idea what they were talking about. They explained to me that it’s a great situation comedy with a Jewish main character named Jerry Seinfeld who happened to have attended Queens College. And what is it about, I asked them. “It’s about nothing,” they would explain. That’s the greatness of the show: It has absolutely no theme or plot but spoofs the mundane.
In later years, with the advent of YouTube, I was able to watch several episodes. I must admit it is a very witty show that only a Jewish mind could produce. Yet, indeed, it was about nothing.
It occurs to me that the generation that has grown up is nourished on nothing. Nothing needs meaning. Nothing needs significance. Nothing needs rationale. Whatever is popular is the trend.
Antifa, BLM, DEI, and gender diversity all defy logic but remain the social driving forces of the day. Now it is the pro-Palestinian/Hamas crowd emanating from the most elite colleges.
These nothing-minded students are engaged in a cause that has no meaning to them. Feminists ignore the abuse of women by Hamas and don hijabs, an Islamic mode of dress forced upon females. The thought should horrify any modern-minded woman today. “Queers for Palestine” supports the very society that would have people of that orientation pushed off rooftops or hanged from lampposts. I have yet to hear one college student protester who can articulate what it is exactly that they are protesting.
Nothing matters. Literally. So, when Jerry Seinfeld (who is an outspoken supporter of Israel) addressed Duke University at their graduation ceremony, it should come as little surprise that some students walked out on him. These are the nothing-heads that were raised on nothing, which is what the comedy series tapped into.
Similarly, when John Lennon of the Beatles was killed by the loser Mark Chapman, his stated reason for the murder is that “he felt like doing it,” or something similar. In truth, Lennon was a victim of his own culture. The Beatles set many trends, but one of them was “do your own thing.” So, Chapman did. (Thankfully, he has been denied parole 11 times. Hopefully, murderers like him will never see the light of day.)
Last Shabbos, we read in shul the parshah of Kedoshim, which is a roadmap how to attain kedushah, holiness. One of the prohibitions is “…and a tattoo shall you not place upon yourselves” (Vayikra 19:27). What is it about tattoos that is so offensive to the Torah? Over the years, it was unheard of for any Jew to sport a tattoo. Today, unfortunately, especially in Israel, it is commonplace.
It seems to me that mutilating one’s body by permanently adding or detracting from it is a sign that one is not content with himself. He/she is uncomfortable in their own skin. It is a sign of basic dissatisfaction with the life you have, as though to say that G-d needed a little help to make me meaningful.
Unfortunately, the popularity of tattoos in society, including Jewish society, is a sign of a void in the lifestyles of the bearers.
If only the left in Israel would realize that what drives the leftist anti-Israel approach and anti-Semitism in the Diaspora shares a philosophy with the left in Israel. The same empty mindset that rails against Judicial reform with no or skewered facts is the same mindset throughout the world that protests Israel and Jews. All radical leftists need to revolt first and figure out a cause later. This has been a pattern for decades. Israel and Jews are now the cause célèbres.
Indeed, we have nothing to worry about.
Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld is the Rabbi Emeritus of the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, President of the Coalition for Jewish Values, former President of the Vaad Harabonim of Queens, and the Rabbinic Consultant for the Queens Jewish Link.
