{"id":46690,"date":"2025-05-09T01:37:57","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T08:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=46690"},"modified":"2025-05-08T19:37:06","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T02:37:06","slug":"finding-hope-through-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2025\/05\/09\/finding-hope-through-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding hope through science"},"content":{"rendered":"

The organizer of a conference panel I\u2019m going to be on asked me some questions ahead of the event. He asked how to find hope from a Jewish perspective amid challenging times. I responded with both academic Jewish content and personal information about my sons\u2019 recent big success at a science fair. This person, a male academic, quickly grasped the personal narrative I provided \u2013 he thought it was about being a mother. Let\u2019s not be \u201cessentialist,\u201d I suggested. My ability to provide information about hope doesn\u2019t stem from reproduction alone.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If one looks at what is going on in the United States, where there\u2019s interest in limiting women\u2019s reproductive rights, including motivating women to have more children and boost the birth rate, one might think that is what women are mostly for: reproduction. Yet, all sorts of data indicate that, for example, in a country like Israel, which has a high education rate and good possibilities for women, a high birth rate is also possible.<\/p>\n

Perhaps choosing to have multiple children is easier with better health care, reliable social networks and support and maternity leave, and in a country that ranks high in terms of happiness on a global scale. Countries without birth control or proper education for women have high birth rates, but there are also high mortality rates. Focusing on women\u2019s reproductive capabilities alone misses the boat. If women are educated and engaged in their country\u2019s workforce, they contribute more than their biological value \u2013 the quick response of a male academic to traditional rhetoric about mothering left me disappointed.<\/p>\n

This notion of maintaining hope during challenging political moments can be approached in many ways. I\u2019m still sorting out what I\u2019ll say in the five-minute slot on the conference panel. However, something I learned yesterday in the Babylonian Tractate of Makkot, on page 20b, made me think further about these issues.<\/p>\n

Makkot 20b is about haircuts and ritual cutting as a mourning practice. First, Jews are not supposed to cut their hair in certain ways. Second, self-harming through incisions or ritual mutilation isn\u2019t considered an acceptable mourning practice \u2013 self-harm isn\u2019t OK.<\/p>\n

While I studied this, I was also checking out the Canadian election results. My father, in the United States, was surprised that we hadn\u2019t let our kids stay up late to watch what was happening. I explained that we\u2019d voted early, and that our kids had voted in a school mock election. Also, we wouldn\u2019t know the complete results until later anyway. More importantly, my kids needed sleep to cope with other activities later this week. Sleep felt like more important self-care.<\/p>\n

It struck me that much of our tradition, and Jewish law, tries to maintain a complicated form of self-care. Even in dire circumstances, Jewish tradition encourages us to practise resiliency, intellectual curiosity and hope. Each day, the sun will rise, our souls will return and we will have what we need, like clothing and food, and feel grateful for it. As I write this, I hear Omer Adam\u2019s popular musical version of the traditional prayer said on rising, \u201cModeh Ani.\u201d (Google it, it\u2019s good!) \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While we also pray for our country and its leaders, sometimes we jokingly invoke the words that Tevye quotes his rabbi as saying in Fiddler on the Roof<\/i>: \u201cA blessing for the czar? Of course! May God bless and keep the czar … far away from us!\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My household felt strangely conflicted about voting. We knew for instance that the Conservatives, in the past, cut funding for research and science, which worries us. Choosing parties that maintain or grow science funding is important to us personally, since my husband is a science professor. His lab needs funding to do research. Good science research can protect us. However, the Liberals have a poor track record of protecting Jewish Canadian citizens. Our local NDP MP has expressed something akin to real hate in my dealings with her. So, again, we can think like Tevye\u2019s rabbi: we bless the outcome of a democratic election \u2013 no matter how it goes \u2013 while hoping those in charge don\u2019t get close enough, through their actions, to do us any harm.<\/p>\n

Similarly, the rabbis acknowledged that mourning causes us great psychological pain. This might encourage some to self-harm. Ideally, we should control that impulse. Self-care is a balancing act. It\u2019s not always clear how to make safe choices.<\/p>\n

Locally, I watched politicians\u2019 interactions with the Jewish community with interest. In one case, an incumbent Jewish Liberal MP of a riding known to historically have a \u201cbig\u201d Jewish community mentioned that perhaps only 5% of his riding was Jewish. His efforts made to support the Jewish community and offer allyship to Israel were an expression of his conscience. That choice likely didn\u2019t help his chances and maybe even was an impediment to his campaign, but that decision to act conscientiously offered me hope, too, even if I couldn\u2019t vote for him because I don\u2019t live in his riding.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, our choices aren\u2019t as clear as we\u2019d like them to be. It can be hard some mornings to rise full of hope and gratitude amid the political chaos and death we hear about each day. Given that, we need the reminder of ancient, traditional Jewish prayer and thought, too. There are days when I feel praying is a rote practice. Other days, I remember that we\u2019re doing this in a way that brings us connection with ancestors who maybe didn\u2019t have enough food, who suffered with terrible plagues or physical danger. In many ways, things are so much better for us than they used to be. This alone is worth our gratitude.<\/p>\n

When the rabbis warned long ago against cutting oneself, they lived in a world without antibiotics or effective medical care. My conversation about finding Jewish hope wasn\u2019t simply about reproduction, my maternal pride, but rather my pride in the kids doing good science. I have hope because I don\u2019t only believe in blind faith, I also believe in science. Whether it\u2019s Israel\u2019s Iron Dome, Jonas Salk\u2019s polio vaccine, or other discoveries, doing science is another form of self-preservation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The world can be a painful place. We must make compromises to continue as a small minority ethno-religion. Those choices require us to acknowledge what\u2019s happening, to make nuanced decisions based on what\u2019s best in the moment, and to build a better world each day.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong. I\u2019m proud of my children, whatever they do, but I\u2019m filled with hope because my Jewish kids won all sorts of accolades at a divisional science fair. To me, that\u2019s Jewish self-care for the future. Yes, it\u2019s also a political statement, too.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Joanne Seiff <\/b>has written regularly for the <\/i>Winnipeg Free Press and various Jewish publications. She is the author of three books, including <\/i>From the Outside In: Jewish Post Columns 2015-2016, a collection of essays available for digital download or as a paperback from Amazon. Check her out on Instagram @yrnspinner<\/a> or at joanneseiff.blogspot.com<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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