The Secret to Jewish Survival

Critical Habits from a 4000 Year History

There's a haunting image like to share every year during the Jewish holiday of Chanukah.

It is a candelabra set in a window against a Nazi flag. It was taken in Germany in 1933.

The image is striking because of its contrasting elements.

A symbol of Jewish pride and practice against the symbol of the evil that sought to destroy it.

Many Tyrants

The Nazis were part of the long line of tyrants who sought to destroy the Jewish people. But we survived.

So the question is why? Why have Jews survived against all odds?

The traditional answer is God. God chose the Jewish people to follow the Torah and serve, as the prophet Isaiah put it, as a light unto the nations.

I believe in this teaching. But I also think there's more.

The answer lies in our way of looking at the world. It is one any person or culture can embrace. It has an odd name, but a clear meaning.

So what is it? A low-time preference.

Sounds kind of strange, doesn't it? What is a low-time preference? It is a way of living rooted in delayed gratification.

Today is Not Just Today

We live not only for today. Rather, we embrace this day as part of a larger tapestry.

The present moment is part of a chain of tradition going back thousands of years and pointing ahead to many more.

Consider this Talmudic story. A young boy was walking along a road. He came across an elderly man planting a tree.

The boy asked the man why he was planting a tree. He was old, and surely he would not live to see it grow.

The man replied, "See these other trees around us? My ancestors planted them for me.”

“Now I am planting this one for my children's children, so they can sit in its shade.”

Every Action Matters

Every action we take expresses a time preference.

A high-time preference activity seeks immediate gratification.

For example, we are hungry so we eat. Or it is raining so we open up an umbrella. 

Low-time preference activities do not have an immediate payoff. But their impacts are longer-lasting and enriching.

Raising a child, or learning a new language, are low-time preference activities. They ripple through one’s life and into future generations.

Judaism is filled with low-time preference pursuits. They include:

1.Education: Every Jewish home has books. Many great rabbis in Jewish history are known not by their proper name, but by the title of their most prominent book!

The concept in Judaism of Torah Lishma means “learning for its own sake.”

We do not learn only to get a degree or a certification. We learn so we can learn more!

Why? Well, a nimble mind can go anywhere. It can adapt to new times and places.

Learning is an inherently low-time preference activity because its payoff can last a lifetime.

2. Holidays: In 1965 Sandy Koufax was scheduled to pitch game one of the World Series. He was the league's best picture.

But he told his coach he would not pitch that game because it fell on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, our most important holy day.

How is that a low time-preference choice? Because Koufax knew some things are more important than winning.

And, ultimately, his choice gave him a kind of immortality because every Jewish American knows the story, and we look to him as a role model for keeping one's religion in a secular world.

Paradoxically, he had a much more significant impact by not pitching than he would have by pitching that game!

We can all learn from him and from Jewish tradition. Take time for what’s most important.

That will extend our time and impact here on earth. It has worked with the Jewish people for 5000 years.

Judaism Demystified

Now that you know why Judaism has survived, perhaps you have a few more questions.

I answer a lot of them in my first book, Judaism Demystified. It is a short introduction to Judaism for people of all faiths.

I answer lots of questions, including what Jews believe about Jesus and the differences between Reform, Conservative and Orthodox Judaism.

You can find it below.