YONATAN HAMBOURGER/TZALI REICHER: Finding freedom in focus

For as long as history has been recorded, there has been a paradox that has confounded societies. It’s the delicate dance between the desire for unfettered freedom, and the innate yearning for structure and discipline, that feeling of knowing we’re tethered to something that has a proven history of giving us the grounding and fulfillment we crave.

In the modern world, the call for freedom resounds through the ages. The Woodstock generation broke from its conservative parents and championed free love and alternative spirituality. The Apple generation called for its users to break free of conformity in their “Orwellian” 1984 Super Bowl commercial, while more and more permissive agendas are mainstreamed to the youth of today, to let them figure it all out for themselves. We champion autonomy and the ability to cast off the perceived shackles of tradition and rules, and the allure of unrestrained choice seems intoxicating, promising a life untethered and unburdened.

However, beneath this surface desire lies a more profound truth — that human beings, in their quest for meaning, find solace, purpose, and fulfillment within the confines of structure and discipline. This is proven by the historical outcomes of mass movements for unrestrained freedom: The “Summer of 69” era crashed under the weight of psychedelics and decadence. Apple has become the cultural enslaver it claimed to be fighting, most recently with its launch of a face computer that will inevitably hasten the disconnection and alienation many of us are already experiencing.

And we see that today’s youths are more discontent, unhappy, and depressed than previous generations, in a total repudiation of the experimental open and digital society that they have been the guinea pigs for.

There’s a reason Jordan Peterson’s “12 Rules for Life” became an international bestseller. It served as a roadmap for a disaffected generation craving a guidebook on how to reach a stable footing in a volatile world that they had not been equipped to face. These rules and guidelines paradoxically lead to a sense of purpose and order.

This past week, Jewish communities around the world studied the Torah portion of Mishpatim (laws) in the book of Exodus, which include some of the denser chapters in the entire Pentateuch. Verse after verse is filled with law after law, telling the recently confirmed Children of Israel (as of the events of Mt. Sinai in the previous chapter) the rules by which they must live for all time.

While the earlier parts of the Torah told the pulsating stories of creation, the patriarchs, and the escape from slavery in Egypt, there is no dramatic respite in Mishpatim: We just have a lengthy list of commandments and prohibitions, governing the Jewish people on the issues of commerce, dietary restrictions, capital punishment, how to observe the festivals, and more. In all, there are 53 commandments in this Torah portion alone.

These detailed laws were given to the Jewish people immediately following the “main presentation” at Mount Sinai, when God descended in fire on the mountain while smoke billowed like from a furnace as He gave over His wisdom. After the heady and euphoric events that brought the Jewish people together on the once humble mountain, in Mishpatim, God presented a roadmap for how they were to live in a society seeking order, justice and fulfillment.

This smoke and fire, tangible manifestations of the divine presence, are symbolic of passion. There is a connection between the fire and smoke that appeared at Mount Sinai and the laws that were taught there, that when performing even the most routine and mundane acts, they must be infused with passion. Discipline should not be mechanical; it should be a vehicle for channeling one’s inner fire toward a purposeful life.

When we lose sight of why we follow traditional and disciplined pathways to success, that is when self-defeating untrained freedom festers and leads to disinterest and dissatisfaction. In the pursuit of rules and discipline, there is an unseen fire — one that burns within the heart of every individual seeking a meaningful existence.

Apathy and disengagement stand as formidable adversaries to achievement and success. In a world that often glorifies apathetic and cool detachment, in favor of a hedonistic living for the now, the wisdom of the Torah’s lessons beckons us to resist the temptation of indifference. True fulfillment is not found in the absence of rules but in the active engagement with them — with a passion that transforms routine into purpose and discipline into a pathway to greatness.