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ENTERTAINMENT

16

September 20 2012

DETROIT
JEWISH NEWS

i.t,

Patch

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image. It seems illogical that Divine
justice should depend on the calendar
date. Some Talmudic rabbis assert
that "God judges the world every day"
(Avodah Zara 3b). A millennium ago,
Saadia Gaon pointed out that God
does not need a book. Another objec-
tion, made explicit especially among
moderns, finds the whole notion of
"being judged" problematic.
Following Ariely's lead, we might
suggest that people become more
moral after recalling moral principles,
whether by recalling the school's
honor code (even if it does not have
one), or remembering some of the
Ten Commandments (even if we do
not believe in them). Doing so gives
us an opportunity to reset our moral
compasses.
The poet and essayist Ed Codish, a
former Detroiter now living in Israel,
believes that the moral effectiveness of
the prayer book depends on our seeing
it as metaphor and "may be impaired
by the close proximity of crowds who
take the often difficult and irrational
imagery of the liturgy literally."
Ariely maintains that we learn dis-
honesty in a gradual process. First,
we bend the rules, behaving a little
dishonestly. If we get away with that,
we get comfortable with that level of
dishonesty — comfortable and desen-
sitized. Next time, we might cheat a
little more. Unless we reset our moral
compasses, the process has no obvious
end point. So honest people convince
themselves to do totally dishonest
deeds.
Commenting on Ariely's work,
therapist and addiction counselor
Eleanor Aharoni notes that other bad
habits also get worse. Aharoni says
that "most addictions ... are progres-
sive:' For example, "gamblers that I see
start out 'having fun' at the casinos."
A harmless pastime, until they have
the "fortune or misfortune to walk
away with a win. This is reinforc-
ing." Winning "shows up on an MRI
highlighting the pleasure cells in the
frontal lobe of the brain." The gambler
then returns to play again and again
for the high. Pretty soon, without
intervention, "instead of gambling
once in a while, he is going four to six
times a week. Of course, he feels a win
is just around the corner."
Rav Huna, a Talmudic sage,
expresses the same idea in an ironic
statement, "Once a person has trans-
gressed and repeated the transgres-
sion, it becomes permitted to him. Do
you think that it is really permitted to
him? Rather, it becomes to him as if it
is permitted" (Yoma 68b).
Rabbi Yehonatan Chipman explains:
"Once a person has gotten into the
habit of performing a given action a

few times, even if it runs counter to a
value system to which he is ostensibly
committed, he stops thinking about it,
and it becomes automatic."

At The High Holidays
But apparently one can resist spiral-
ing into dishonesty and other kinds
of evil. One way to resist is to recall
principles of honesty. Rosh Hashanah
might work the same way even for
rationalists who reject Jewish folk-
lore. The prayer book affirmation of
Divine justice may provide us with
a way of recalibrating our moral
GPS. Maybe Rosh Hashanah does not
need supernatural intervention to
accomplish powerful moral results.
Yoni Kadden, head of the history
department at the Gann Academy in
Massachusetts, observes: "I'm not sure
to what degree Rosh Hashanah and
Yom Kippur are generally behavior
altering as much as they are minor
course corrections (vital over the long
haul to be sure). And the days sure are
cathartic.
"Do they work to set the tone for
ensuing time? Perhaps. Certainly in
the immediate aftermath of Rosh
Hashanah and Yom Kippur, my lashon
hora quotient [tolerance for malicious
gossip] goes way down."
Nava Finkelman, an Israeli occu-
pational therapist who has a graduate
degree in social psychology, objects
that Ariely's "experiment is a one-
shot, short-term-effect deal." Perhaps
the effects Ariely has discovered do
not last, and the positive effect of the
"Rosh Hashanah liturgy should last us
until, at the most, Yom Kippur."
Nelson Lande, senior lecturer
in philosophy at the University of
Massachusetts, Boston, wonders
whether we need Ariely's experiments
to under§fand how Rosh Hashanah
works. DOrit we know from our own
experience that "the Rosh Hashanah
service resonates with almost every-
one, that it taps into a very deep
current of morality and religion, that
that serves to infuse us with a height-
ened moral sensitivity for the coming
year? I think that we don't need Ariely
to tell us any such thing."
Rabbis sometimes lament that Rosh
Hashanah does not-seem to change
us all that much. But perhaps Rosh
Hashanah gives us the opportunity
to halt the easy decent into really bad
behavior, the permission to repeat
what we have done wrong in the past,
to rationalize and then go further. As
Yoni Kadden says, "I doubt that too
many people change their lives dra-
matically ... My guess is that for the
people who take it seriously, it's just
reminding and gently guiding — but
that's crucial in our lives, isn't it?" ❑

