Rabbi Brad Hirschfield did an interview with host of the "Spirited" podcast Simran Jeet Singh to explain the frightening ways in which fanaticism can allure those with strong-held beliefs.
The President of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership (CLAL) explained that he spent many years as a "hardcore fundamentalist" in his Judaism.
"Though, interestingly, it didn't express itself in relationship to people who practiced Judaism differently," he said. "It had to do with politics in Israel and among Palestinians, and I stepped away from that because it didn't fit with the other stuff I believed in about the dignity of every person. The most profound way to balance it for me is that I really believe I am doing what the God in whom I believe calls me to do."
It prompted Singh to ask how the rabbi sees other faith traditions who offer a supremacist view and translate that into evangelism, while he manages to rest happily in a world where he doesn't feel compelled to force his beliefs on anyone.
"Replication is a really sacred impulse," Hirschfield said. "It's literally built into our biological fabric. But if all you have is pure replication, you have no growth and no evolution. Of course, I want us to agree and support each other and be alike — and I also understand if that's all there is, nothing can change."
He explained that unless people are prepared to say, “I am good with how the world is exactly the way it is and nothing should ever change,” then they should always be open to change and evolution.
"The first question after you get over that is 'What can I learn from you?' That was something I learned in the years following 9/11 when I began to work a lot with rather radical Muslim communities around the world," he recalled. "A lot of people were very angry at me for even engaging these folks. And I said, 'well, here's the thing, you would like those people to change, right?'”
He said that people would agree that they should change, so he would explain the only way someone can be their teacher is to first be their student.
"The fact is that the only way to grow is to always be a student, even of the things you really don't like. One of my teachers taught me a long time ago these two basic rules: God never created anyone so right and so smart as to be 100 percent right 100 percent of the time. And he didn’t create anyone so stupid is to be wrong 100 percent of the time," Hirschfield noted.
"The fanatic is the one who believes they’re 100 percent right 100 percent of the time. And the God or cause they believe in is always on their side. There is nothing, nor matter how well-motivated, that ends well when you do that," he closed.
