Praxis Makes Perfect

I’m writing this column during the “counting of the Omer,” the 49-day period that connects the festival of freedom – Passover – and the festival of Torah – Shavuot through the ritual of counting 49 days through seven weeks,. The classical rabbis have a surprising statement connecting the themes of the two holidays: “No one is free except they who engage in talmud-Torah (Torah study).” (Pirkei Avot 6:2) What could that mean?!

In order to understand how Torah (in some sense) might be essential to our freedom, let’s look more closely at the notion of “freedom.” I think there are three aspects of “freedom” that are relevant here:

1. Freedom as consciousness. Freedom implies that our actions are our actions, freely, consciously chosen. In this sense, freedom is not only the negation of enslavement to others, it is the opposite of enslavement to habit, to animal instinct, or to what Judaism calls the “yetser hara.” The yetser hara is the “dangerous aspect” of our nature that some connect with the Freudian id – our raw, unchanneled, uncontrolled desire – or perhaps with the illusion of a permanent physical self.
2. Freedom as the ability to create an intended effect in the world. I mean, what kind of freedom is it if you can’t get anything done? In a philosophical sense, we might say that this aspect of freedom is the opposite of enslavement to the past.
3. Freedom from falsehood. The two previous aspects of freedom require this one. Here, freedom implies a lack of enslavement to assumptions, to ignorance, or to limited perspective.
   

There’s a really useful word that describes the activity of free people in the above senses: “praxis.” My favorite definition of “praxis” comes from the Brazilian educator, Paolo Freire. According to Freire, praxis is “reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it.” (“Praxis” is a word with an interesting history. It was used by Aristotle to describe a particular sort of thoughtful action unique to freemen, action in the social/political sphere whose aim was its own excellence, not some other outcome. The Eastern Orthodox church uses it to talk about faith-in-action, not theoretical theology, but lived theology. In the West, the term was revived by a certain sub-school of Marx-influenced theorists and from there, with more or less taming, made its way especially into the fields of Education (ETS, the SAT people, have a test series for beginning teachers called “praxis”) and Social Work. There are now companies and journals in high tech, engineering and architecture called “praxis,” indicating a commitment to the connection of thought and real-world action.)

For Freire and others, praxis is an inherently dialogical activity. It involves thoughtful give-and-take with others. That’s partly because of the need, mentioned above, of freeing ourselves from our own limited perspectives. It also stems from the idea that because we live in society, our interactions can, in some ultimate sense, be based either on dialogue with each other or on power over one another. In this sense, freedom requires dialogue. [I wrote about this in a separate article on the importance of “covenant.”]

In Judaism, we have a term for “praxis”: “Torah” (or sometimes the common combination phrase “Torah umitzvah.”) As you know, “Torah” in Judaism is much more than the Five Books of Moses. Torah is the Jewish way of thinking about the world. It is a dialogical process of releasing ourselves from assumptions and limited perspectives in order to reveal a more divine truth. Torah-and-Mitzvah implies action; It is the Jewish process of living consciously and doing tikkun olam – changing the world for the better.

Although freedom doesn’t require that one call their praxis “Torah,” one who doesn’t engage in praxis/Torah is likely to be enslaved to habit or yetser hara or enslaved to the past and to limited, self-centered perception.

Thus:

No one is free except they who engage in talmud-Torah”

or:

Praxis makes perfect.

[More to be added]