Moshe Dror: What the New Age Means to Me

What the New Age Means to Me
Dr. Moshe Dror, 1982

My interest is not what is the New Age.
I have studied it, lived it in America and in Europe,
And it has transformed my life,
Just as it has transformed the lives
Of millions of others.
I know it is real.

What interests me is what is the New Age in Israel.
In its long and sometimes distinguished history,
The Jews have had to develop internal mechanisms
Of adaptation to every major transformation
Transformation process of Western civilization.
How will Jewry and Israel
Create its adaptive mechanism
To this most powerful transformation in millennia?

It seems to me that whatever
The precise definitions of New Age are,
Post-industrial, Aquarian conspiracy,
Cybernetic, or Messiah Now,
Or whatever names one uses,
There is a real congruity
Between old-new models of reality, and some of
The deep structures of the Jewish tradition,
Which can only be experienced Jewishly in Israel.

There is no direct evidence of these
Deep structures only experienced in Israel,
But it is more than wishful thinking,
Nostalgic glorification, or mere chauvinism.
It is a function of the following factors:
The process is primarily a spiritual journey,
A search for deep meaning in life.
It expresses itself through relationship
On a very personal soul-to-soul level.
It is different from most of the systems
Now functioning is Israel,
Which seem unaware of its existence.

It is to be taken seriously,
For lives can be, and have been,
Transformed through it.
Love is the basic energizing
Factor in its realization.
It is difficult to foster in overpopulated areas,
Built-up areas,
And would thrive best in the desert,
Yet an untouched realm of a benevolent God.
At issue is not how to create it,
But rather how to get out of its way,
And go with the flow, and
Be able to remove the blocks.
It is a transformation not only of
A number of historical changes,
It is, in its own way,
The only personal and collective hope
For a sane and livable future.
It is infused with the powerful insights
Of the Judaic message to the Jews
And to other people the world over.
It is founded on principles similar to the Tao,
And on the mystical insights of Judaism,
Rather than on the philosophy and spirit
Of Anglo-Saxon Protestant Europe,
That founded the industrial age.
It is "hadesh yamenu keqedem", which translates
"renew our days as of old"
(Qedem is from the Hebrew qadum, which means old,
And also from leqadem, which means
To go forward into the new,
And the root meaning of Qedem is in the East,
Where the sun rises,
And Israel is in the East, where a larger,
Liberating vision of this can be acheived).
It is "hayashan yitḥadesh vehaḥadash yitqadesh",
From haRav Kuk, which translates as
"The old will be made new and the new made holy",
A spiritual sacred journey,
A "Lekh Lekha" of Genesis 12:1.

The New Age is:
Change growing out of consensus of spirit, and
Win-win orientation, and
Planetary transformation
Beginning with personal transformation, and
Inner experience central to learning, and
Transcending perceived limitations, i.e.
Risk taking and cooperation,
Rather than competition, and
Each person as hero
Of his/her spiritual quest, and
Shifting from a carbon-mind
To a carbon-silica-mind, and
Shifting from synthesis to synergy
To syntropy to synagogue, and
Believing in the possible human.

The New Age is not:
Manipulation and domination over nature, nor
Learning emphasizing only understanding, and
The external world, nor
Emphasis on only linear,
Left-brain thinking, nor
Persons who are external,
Neutral and objective, nor
Power as control over another person, nor
Over-concern with being "normal", nor
Too much emphasis on nostalgia,
The "good old days", nor
Living a we-they, either-or,
Us-them existence, nor
Non-willingness to take real risks, nor
Limiting spiritual reality to religion,
And its establishment.