Exile and the Prophetic: Preparing our defense for the coming days of awe

This post is part of Marc H. Ellis’s “Exile and the Prophetic” feature for Mondoweiss. To read the entire series visit the archive page.

Middle of the night – pool party outside. Condo life. It happens.

Were they celebrating the Democratic National Convention? Doubt it. More than a few White Romney signs in the neighborhood. Black isn’t everyone’s favorite color here.

Adam Horowitz is reporting on a blow-up on the Israel-first campaign trail, though the Democratic Party plank on Israel reads as if it was ghost written by AIPAC. If they didn’t write it, they apparently approved the language. I suppose AIPAC doesn’t count as the lobbyists President Obama promised to restrict. Perhaps AIPAC is better understood as part of the government. They should have their own seat in the House of Representatives. And a Senate seat, too.

Then the NPR report on hunger in America. The report cited the growing number of food stamp recipients and used the category “Food Insecure.” Amazing bureaucratic terminology for the chronically overfed to employ.

Don’t know whether it was the pool party that woke me up or I’m still tossing and turning with my Zen discovery of a true Nazi. I can’t find other details of Herrigel’s Nazi past; it’s well covered up. Remembering Adrienne Rich – whatever is undepicted, censored – will be recycled.

Check out Amazon’s Nazi-washing of Zen in the Art of Archery:

It is almost impossible to understand Zen by studying it as you would other intellectual pursuits. The best way to understand Zen is, simply, to Zen. This is what author Eugen Herrigel allows us to do by sharing his own fascinating journey toward a comprehension of the illuminating philosophy.

In Japan, an art such as archery is not practiced solely for utilitarian purposes such as learning to hit targets. Archery is also meant to train the mind and bring it into contact with the ultimate reality. If one really wishes to be master of an art, technical knowledge of it is not enough. One has to transcend technique so that the art becomes an “artless art” growing out of the Unconsciousness. In this way, as the author simply, clearly demonstrates, archery becomes a path to greater understanding and enlightenment.

This program is an outstanding way to experience Zen–and an intriguing, influential work of literature.

Transcending technique. Artless art. An intriguing, influential work of literature.

We’ve known for a long time that sophistication and barbarity often go hand in hand. The literary critic (and anti-Zionist), George Steiner, explored this many years ago. The appreciation of Beethoven and the death camps can co-exist. Relaxing with the classics in the evening is one way of preparing for the next day’s death work.

Atrocity by the learned. At the Wansee Conference, where the final solution of Europe’s Jews was decided, most of the “deciders” were lawyers. They weren’t the peasants of Poland or the Ukraine, most of whom were willing to do their bit.

The wretched of the earth continue to multiply. The threats to the wretched and those notches above continue as well. Even the educated get caught up in cycle of violence and atrocity. When power is on the move, everyone in the line of fire is forewarned.

Think of the casualties over the years in the Middle East. Those with connections anywhere have fled the scene. Think of those left behind, many maimed in body and soul, not to mention the dead. Think of the bereaved in Palestine, in Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and Iran. Think of the wars that have lasted on and off for decades. The threat of more to come.

Did you see that Desmund Tutu turned down a boat-load of cash to address a conference and instead suggested that George Bush and Tony Blair be tried in the Hague for war crimes in Iraq? Referring to the invasion of Iraq, Tutu writes: “Those responsible for this suffering and loss of life should be treading the same path as some of their African and Asian peers who have been made to answer for their actions in the Hague.”

The Middle East is suffering post-traumatic stress syndrome – as a region. Or rather traumatic stress syndrome since there isn’t any end to the violence in sight.

Middle East leaders play the PTS card with flags and religion. Perhaps what is needed is a massive medical and psychological hospitalization of the wounded and the bereaved. Hospitalize the leaders, too. Call it a medical truce if you will, one that allows healing and a new beginning. .

What is needed in the Middle East is another round of standing tall and dishing it out. That’s what the leaders’ say, Jewish leaders in Israel and in America among them. Transposing Tutu: “Those Jewish leaders in Israel and America responsible for Palestinian suffering and loss of life should be treading the same path as some of their African and Asian peers who have been made to answer for their actions in the Hague.”

Platitudes from the exile? Platitudes from the prophetic? Yet, what can one do but struggle against these policies and understandings, survive the fire-fights and think in a new key? Though history seems to have an iron-clad rolling logic, it is also open, not predetermined, with forks in the road. We need to spend time preparing for a future that can’t be seen and may yet be in the air ready to land.

I am reading my John Cage biography in this light, as a fork in the road detour that might shed light on a future. In relation to the Middle East and the prophetic.

Working through aspects of Zen and the prophetic – through Cage – as we approach the High Holidays. Not searching for a coherent narrative. Just beginning. Sectional.

More on Zen

Cage begins by taking Henry David Thoreau into the musical future through Zen and, interestingly enough, the I Ch’ing. For many years, Cage hides his homosexuality, especially after he sees a good friend jailed for the sin of loving another man. Then, in the twilight of his life he admits his various loves. The change – Stonewall. Stonewall, a Gay hangout that one night erupts. Call Stonewall a local skirmish in a global field of battle.

But Zen? We’ve already look at how Zen can be seen in a Nazi light. Now, Zen at War, the book, by Brian Victoria. Have known about it for some time. Amazon describes it this way:

A compelling history of the contradictory, often militaristic, role of Zen Buddhism, this book meticulously documents the close and previously unknown support of a supposedly peaceful religion for Japanese militarism throughout World War II. Drawing on the writings and speeches of leading Zen masters and scholars, Brian Victoria shows that Zen served as a powerful foundation for the fanatical and suicidal spirit displayed by the imperial Japanese military. At the same time, the author recounts the dramatic and tragic stories of the handful of Buddhist organizations and individuals that dared to oppose Japan’s march to war. He follows this history up through recent apologies by several Zen sects for their support of the war and the way support for militarism was transformed into ‘corporate Zen’ in postwar Japan. The second edition includes a substantive new chapter on the roots of Zen militarism and an epilogue that explores the potentially volatile mix of religion and war. With the increasing interest in Buddhism in the West, this book is as timely as it is certain to be controversial.

Turning East as I did with an entire generation of Jews looking for a way out and a way in, it’s all mixed up and contradictory, as the description points out, which then demands apologies. Notice how Zen militarism has been transformed in postwar Japan into “corporate Zen.” This means, apologies all around, now pass the hat for a religion that will support a rapacious appetite for the spoils of war -without declarations and outward manifestations of war. Familiar, isn’t it?

Corporate Zen. Corporate Judaism. Our transformation has been on the corporate and military fronts. Judaism – Jewish – has bit the conformism bullet to our financial and status benefit. Jewish power now has its own heartbeat.

JuBu’s handle this corporate sensibility well. Jews without the silence do even better.

Getting Ready for the Coming High Holidays (Without Mentioning Them)

Synagogue is the place where corporate and militarism co-mingles without mentioning its existence. Consider synagogue as a time-out from the New York Times while the Times has your back. You know it in advance, as a rote prayer comfort zone that exudes power without having to show it off. Call it an ethical snobbery that can’t be challenged because it’s already in the bank earning interest. Jewish power is tied up in securities backed by the United States government. Like Israel.

Corporate Jewish. Frayed around the edges because of Israel’s sinking reputation? Doesn’t seem that way. Inside. Or from the outside either.

Zen at war, now through other means. Jewish at war, with the world. With itself?

Gershom Sholem wrote that he didn’t have a biography, only a bibliography. Of course, this isn’t true for him or Herrigel or states, religions, nationalities or ideologies. He hoped he would only have to disclose what he wanted the world to know about him, his scholarship on Jewish mysticism. His Zionism and the state of Israel was mostly for Jews. His bibliography tells part of the story. His biography exposes the accusing images of a displaced man who enabled the displacement of others.

Coming in a few weeks, another bibliographic cover, in the guise of religion. So others – and ourselves – won’t delve into the accusing images of a displaced people who precipitated the displacement of others.

Bibliography – know us by the books we’ve written. What we have contributed to the world. By our actions in the past which we romanticize as if we’re doing them now. Know us by our suffering. Which was. Respect our days of reflection where we pledge to be silent on what needs to be spoken.

Back to the Nazi Trail and Fellow Traveling

On the Herrigel, Nazi trail from Soji Yamata’s, Shots in the Dark: Japan, Zen and the West. Listen to his reviewer, Victor Sojen Hori, sum up Yamat’s treatment of Herrigel’s Nazism. Sounds a lot like Heidegger’s:

In the picture which Yamada paints, prior to his departure for Japan, Herrigel had had significant opportunity to learn about Zen from informed people. However, it is Yamada’s account of Herrigel’s life after his return from Japan which will shock people. Interested parties to date have deliberately attempted to suppress details of this period. Yamada confirms that Herrigel was a card-carrying member of the Nazi party (his party membership number was 5499332). He officially joined the Nazi party on 1 May 1937 and thereafter he rose quickly through the ranks at the University of Erlangen. He was head of the Philosophy Department from 1936 to 1938, vice rector from 1938 to 1944, became an official member of the Bayern Science Academy in 1941, and was rector of the University of Erlangen from 1944 to 1945. Yamada says that Herrigel could not have enjoyed such a successful career without being a member of the Nazi party. After the war, Herrigel wrote a defense of his actions for the deNazification court, but the court concluded that while Herrigel had not been a committed Nazi, he was guilty of being a Mitläufer, a passive fellow traveler.

Quite a court ruling, wouldn’t you say? Since we have so many Jewish fellow travelers, the Jewish community should listen up to the court’s judgment. Local Rabbis should secure a translation of Herrigel’s defense. For whatever it means in real history, learn well the distinction between active and passive fellow travelers. That might come in handy for the Jewish community when it is called to task for its own behavior. It’s already happening at the international court in the Hague where Israeli policies have reached the docket. Best to be prepared.

The “Fellow Travelers” defense. There are more than a few Herrigel’s and Heidegger’s on our campuses. Many of them are Jews. Speaking up can land you on the street. Why risk what you teach?

Herrigel’s official party number – 5499332. Did his Zen Nazi mind memorize the career card he punched? Think now. The career card punchers of our day.

Successful careers. Fellow traveling. Preparing our defense.

Thoughts for the coming Days of Awe.