The Truman Story – Part II: How Is Our Destiny Controlled?

Rabbi Gary S. Creditor
September 10, 1998

After last week's sermon I heard directly and indirectly about those people who would not watch a Jim Carey movie under any circumstances and thus had no way of knowing to what I was referring. [In general, I don't watch his movies either, but this was different.] I think that there are others who were open to the power of suggestion and perhaps saw it for 99 cents before it left the Byrd Theatre. In either event, I hope that you were able to discern my message. In brief, Judaism believes that there are two realities that exist concurrently, at the same time. There is the reality of this world, the here and now, in which we live. This is very real. That we are here tonight is not an illusion. We're not dreaming this. Yet at the same time there is a higher, invisible, intangible, higher metaphysical – non-physical reality. This is called Olam HaBah, the World to Come, Olam HaEmet, the True World, or Gan Eden, Paradise. That is the kingdom of neshamot, the souls of the deceased. That is the kingdom where God's presence is manifest, in warmth, love and light. In that reality, the inequities of this world are corrected, in true and perfect justice. Both these realities exist at the same time, one visible and one not. As Jews, this is our faith. It is inscribed in our liturgy. This belief is comforting and sustaining.

The central theme of The Truman Story was that he and his reality was being totally controlled and manipulated. For the purpose of the script, he was the only person not in on it. But truthfully, not only was he being manipulated and controlled, but even the people around him, who knew of the scheme, they, too, were, in a sense, being controlled and manipulated. From behind, really above the scene, was a man, a 'god', who watched every move he made, raised and lowered the sun and the moon, made it rain and made it storm. At one point, Jim Carey realizes that something is wrong with his world, and he tries to escape, but he can't put his finger on it. Not until his boat hits the wall where the false horizon hits the man made lake, does he discover the falseness of his world, and how he was being controlled. At the last moment he had to decide, whether to remain in his world, comfortable because all is predictable, all is protected, all is dependable, there is no bad, only good, or to leave it for the real world, outside. While many people don't usually watch Jim Carey and his antics, this movie is deep and probing. I said that there were at least two sermons in the movie. This is the second:

Is our destiny controlled?

How free are we?

What does it mean to be controlled or free?

A great deal of religion has been written on this subject. Our answers are only articles of faith and not provable. Yet our answers greatly determine our behavior. I begin with the kudo that Judaism is an umbrella with a range of ideas, which also differ with time. Not all parts of the Jewish people think alike. Nevertheless, it would be accurate for me to say that, particularly in Conservative Judaism, we blend the constituent pieces. To a degree there are things beyond our control, which indeed do control us, individually and collectively. We inherit our genes. We are born to parents. We are brought forth in a time and place not of our choosing. These dynamics nurture us and shape us beyond our direct control. We also invoke God in our prayers with petitions, that somehow, from that higher reality, power for our good may be exerted, so that the year ahead will be a good one. I recently heard Rabbi Harold Kushner's explanation of the Un'ta'ne Tokef prayer, where we intone "who will die by this and who will die by that…" He said that the first half of the prayer clearly indicates that a great deal of life is in our hands even as there are circumstances, a large part of life which does control us. The recent hurricanes and the Swiss Air jet plane crash – it is not that they are controlled against us. These are theunpredictable parts of life with which we must contend. That life is unpredictable is real. This is true life. We are notmalevolently controlled. From the Torah we learn that Adam and Eve had to leave the garden. The Garden of Eden was like Jim Carey's world, where all was controlled from God's PC –on-high, which has megahertz we can't imagine. But Adam and Eve had to leave the garden in order to be human. Afterwards, the Torah teaches us, we are people of choice. We have autonomy and responsibility.

I believe that to live in an all controlled environment could be very wonderful, but only if we remained as infants. They are fed, warmed, cooled, clothed, bathed without lifting a finger. We the parents carry all the worry. We are responsible for everything. But since they are not responsible, even for themselves, they are not autonomous. They don't have a developed sense of art and music, of literature and sports. They can't choose who they love or who they dislike. They can't choose a career or which book to read. They can't risk. Since it must be very boring to live without choices, unable to develop who we are, it is an existence perfect only for infants.

If we are going to have all these choices, then life can't be so controlled. The Torah says it clearly: "Today I put before good and bad, life and death, chose good and live." We can chose goodly and godly, or badly. Even as circumstances around us push on us from all sides we are autonomous creatures that make choices, some of them good and some of them bad. In the Truman Story, Jim Carey was deprived of his autonomy. He didn't have to risk and he couldn't risk. He was deprived of his personhood. That is why his dual realities were fraudulent. In our belief, having the two realitiesenhances our humanity. It does not restrict or limit it.

The Rabbis also struggle with this. In an extraordinary statement they say that all is in the hands of heaven, except for the awe/fear of heaven – yirat shamayim. Yet this is a tremendous statement. Yirat shamayim – the awe/fear of heaven is the force within us, the voice of morality and ethical conduct, that directs us, governs us in the ways we relate to others and ourselves. While I cannot control the weather or the car in the next lane, I control myself, my tongue, my hand, my words and my deeds. That is what we do control. These are the most important things.

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are the observances par excellence that assert our moral autonomy and ability to choose, that stress our humanity. We learn from these holy days that we are responsible for our choices; that we must deal with consequences. In a controlled world, this is all irrelevant. We can receive pleasure but there is also pain. We can gain, love of others, of spouses, of parents, but we also lose. In the rewording of his apologies, President Clinton is slowly learning this lesson. The very fact that we will beat our breasts for Ashamnu and Al Chet means that we can do bad and we can do good. There is the Yetzer HaRah, the inclination to do wrong, and there is the Yetzer HaTov, the inclination to do good. Only in the free world do we have the ability to chose our careers, chose our spouses, chose our living places and chose to do good, even if tempted to do bad.

While this real world, is not as simple, not as secure, not as sheltered, more than a bit uncertain, than the world of the infant, than the world of the Truman Story, this world is very exciting. It is filled with the hues of the rainbow, the sounds of music, the love of family and friends, the glory of a sunrise and the majesty of Mark McGuire homerun. This world, less controlled and more autonomous, is the one God gave us, and for it, for my life and all its beauties, I thank God every day.

Amen.