Speech
Harmony and Integrity (1989)
I was uncertain what to talk about… so, bedi’leita beraira, I decided to speak about the actual theme of the Convention: harmony and integrity! Truth to tell, the theme is both timely and timeless – which is a fortuitous phenomenon, because it allows me to speak in abstract generalities without committing myself to any political positions, even if my theoretical views most certainly have practical implications. Thus, our subject is as fresh as next week’s Jewish Press or last week’s Algemeiner, and as venerably aged as any of the hoary polarities or dichotomies in our sacred tradition. Shalom and emet (or chesed and tzedek) each has claims on our attention, commitment, and loyalty – and they often pull in opposite directions. Emet, or integrity, has absolute claims, undeterred by external considerations or societal demands, while shalom, or harmony, insists upon the value of communal happiness, human survival, and mutual accommodation. Another way of putting it: integrity advocates the harmony of ideas, theories, and commitments – while harmony propounds the integrity of man, community, and society.3.The two are not only theoretical constructs, and not only values, they are also dimensions of personality, characterological factors. Harmony is favored by the irenic types, those who clamor for "unity" and are by nature compromisers, while integrity is the catchword of thosewilling to sacrifice anything and everything for "principle," the extremists. The harmony people are generally considered "soft," the integrity partisans--"hard."How do we resolve the conflict? How do we reconcile the divergent claims of שלום and אמת, each of which is itself a divine Name?There are, I believe, two grand strategies of reconciliation that I can discern in our מסורח. Let us call them the Linear and the Circular Strategies.The Linear Strategy admits of one solution only: it is in the nature of a line to allow only one point at any one position; a line implies a hierarchy of one point …
