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INDIVIDUALITY WITHIN A SYSTEM
B.S.D.
Rabbi Akiva Tatz M.D.
Excerpt from 'World Mask', Targum Press
 A high level of order is where the components of a whole are organized and connected in such a way that they blend into a unified entity. This composite entity functions precisely because of the harmonious blending of its components.
An example of this type of order would be a complex machine - the parts of the machine are interconnected in such a way that the machine functions properly. Each part would be useless on its own, but together they achieve their purpose. This is not to be confused with a lower-level order: the type of order which a [catalogue] index imposes on a library ensures the function of the library as a whole, but each book in the library has its own separate identity and use - even if the index disappears and the books become completely disorganized, each book remains a book. However, in the case of a machine, the individual parts are nothing on their own; it is only in their interconnectedness that they achieve any meaning at all. In the library, the index makes each self-contained part accessible and therefore useful; but in the machine, the order and organization are the entire reason for the existence of the parts; no individual part has any use without all the others.
In an engine, for example, there may be a small screw in the carburetor which is almost insignificant in terms of its intrinsic value - it may be worth less than the smallest coin. But without it the engine does not run; and if that small screw were to fall out when the vehicle powered by that engine were in an inhospitable and dangerous place, the hapless driver may feel that it is worth the value of the entire vehicle. Without that tiny part he has nothing at all. While the engine was running smoothly that part was unconsidered and unappreciated; now that it is missing its value has become apparent.
Systems which are set up in such a way that all the parts are needed before any become relevant have a unique quality: each part manifests a paradoxical duality. Each part is at one and the same time nothing and everything: nothing because it is only a part, without the rest of the system it is utterly useless; and everything because when all the other parts are in place and functioning, it becomes essential and critical. Each part depends on all the others entirely, in this it is utterly subservient; and yet all the offers depend on it, in this it is utterly controlling.
Such a system is the Jewish people. Each individual Jew is essential and unique, utterly necessary for the cosmic purpose which the Jewish nation must manifest, and yet lost in his merely biological smallness when not fulfilling his destiny as a Jew. In fact, at a broader scale, all of mankind and the Universe constitute such a system: everything in the world is created unique in its position and function and will ultimately reveal how critically necessary it is in the greater scheme of reality...
It is a feature of our emotional makeup that we respond both to the experience of being unique and single, and also to the experience of blending into a team or crew. Actually, these responses are antithetical: if it is natural to thrill to the experience of being a single, all-important individual, there should be a negative response to losing one's identity in a group; yet we find, paradoxically, that both are thrilling.
For example, in a situation where disaster is imminent, all present are immobilized by fear or surprise, and one acts decisively and heroically and saves the day unaided. Such an event yields a great thrill; in fact, such is the stuff of many a young person's fantasy. There is a special thrill in the awareness that the entire deliverance depended on one individual; the very aloneness of that individual in acting is the source of that unique surge of ego-experience.
However, it is also a clear feature of human consciousness that we thrill to experiences in which the individual parts blend into a harmonious whole in such a way that the parts become locked into the whole indistinguishably: a mass display of precision gymnastics in which no individual stands out but the entire human mass seems to function as one being, for example, evokes a special feeling in both the participants and the onlookers. Certain team sports which depend on perfect interaction between members of the team provide a unique thrill. In such activities, if one member were to make a small move expressing his particular individual existence, the entire experience would be destroyed...
We respond in these two seemingly opposite ways because that is exactly the nature and purpose of the human experience: each of us is unique, cosmically important; yet we achieve our uniqueness precisely when we fit into a larger order perfectly. Remarkably, it is exactly when we blend into the Universal picture exactly as we should in terms of our private, unique qualities and abilities that we thrill to the realization that no-one else could fulfill this particular function, no-one else could stand exactly here and do what must be done here. I fit in perfectly so that I become indistinguishable as an individual, and yet in so doing my individuality swells to the proportions of the Universe. I am nothing, and yet I am everything. Each person reflects the uniqueness of the image of the Creator; the totality of the Universe reflects the Oneness of the Creator; and in depth, the two are not in contradiction.
This idea gives rise to insights into the work of each individual. First, one must strive to discover one's uniqueness. What is my particular task? What essential part of the Universe is mine to build? This question is critically important - a life spent pursuing some unrealistic and inappropriate goal is a life wasted, and worse, damages the entire structure. When that small and seemingly insignificant screw in the carburetor of that engine which we considered previously falls out of place and rattles around in the cylinders, for example, the entire engine may be irreparably damaged.
Second, one must realize that the thrill of fitting in is a much more mature experience than the thrill of being a loner at any cost. The immature personality will choose to step out of line in order to experience its own uniqueness; the fact that the overall structure is being betrayed and damaged is not relevant to such an undeveloped mind. Immaturity cannot see the beauty in yielding the self in order to actualize the self; in truth, however, that is the only way to genuine selfhood.
A fascinating feature of Torah life is that it is normative in its practice and yet it develops sharply individualistic personalities. This would seem to be paradoxical, but it is fact. Torah living demands attention to fine detail in everyday living, and in fact the secular prediction might be that people who conduct themselves according to closely defined halachic norms would turn out to be robotic clones of the same pattern. Such a prediction would seem to make sense. And yet the opposite is true: highly developed Torah personalities are strikingly individualistic, as anyone who moves in the Torah world knows.
Study and expression of that reflection of the Universe which is Torah leads to a sure grasp of individual purpose and identity. Torah life hones and shines individual greatness, and yet orchestrates the individual elements into a great harmony.
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