The Jewish Epigene
Rabbi Sholom D. Lipskar
about the author
Since receiving ordination from the Central Lubavitch
Yeshiva in Brooklyn in 1968, Rabbi Sholom D. Lipskar
has been an emissary in Miami for the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
In 1969 he founded the Landow Yeshiva Center in Miami
Beach, Florida. He has served as its principal and dean of
its elementary school, yeshivah academy, and high school,
and was responsible for training its rabbinical students.
In 1981, he founded The Shul of Bal Harbour. As its head
rabbi, he is both the spiritual leader and educational programmer for all ages. Also
in 1981, Rabbi Lipskar founded the Aleph Institute and the Educational Academy
for the Elderly. The Aleph Institute is a non-profit national humanitarian organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for Jews in limited environments,
including prisoners and military personnel and their families. Rabbi Lipskar has
created alternative punishment philosophies and developed unique educational
opportunities for the general public in the field of treatment of closed populations.
He directs the pioneering Educational Academy for the Elderly.
Rabbi Lipskar is the founder and chief organizer of the Miami International
Conferences on Torah and Science.
[email protected]
abstract
Torah action is the epigene that G-d gave the Jewish People. Genetically, Jews
are like all other peoples. Generations of performing Torah commandments
Based on a presentation at the Tenth Miami International Conference on Torah and Science,
December 13–16, 2013
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THE JEWISH EPIGENE 19
have helped create a unique behavior pattern that functions beyond the genetic
structure but impacts on it. We have to keep on renewing the positive behavior,
though, for the epigene to continue working. Our collective and personal will
— expressed in the ħayyah level of our souls — must keep on driving us to be
different for our own good and for that of all humankind.
the enigma of jewishness
A
re Jews a race, a people, a nation, or merely a religion? We always
try to find relationships among explainable aspects of nature and
the unexplainable aspects of life, but whatever you call Jewishness
flies in the face of reality. e enigma of Jewish continuity is a part
of every Jew. Until the phenomenon of epigenetics was discovered,
there was no language available to bridge the physicality of human
experience described by science with the inner aspect of human experience described by the Tanya. Epigenetics is a result of the power of
nurture, which in Jewish thought is called hargel naạseh tevạ (“habit
becomes nature”). Habit can become second nature to such a degree
that at times it is difficult to differentiate between nature and nurture.
We are familiar with public debates over whether certain behavior patterns result from nature or nurture. Is criminality a result of genetics
or deprivation? Rabbi Menaħem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher
Rebbe, specifically stated that even when a person has a proclivity that
can be mapped in his hippocampus or hypothalamus, nevertheless
nurture is the key to how that person will live because action has the
most fundamental impact on the personality.
Action — not necessarily intellect — can lead us to the truth. The
Talmud Sages are proof of this. The Talmud contains analytical differences of opinion among the Sages. One Sage says that the law should
permit a certain action. Another Sage says the law should prohibit it.
They both present convincing scholarly arguments, while other Sages
expound the same law even differently, but after the final ruling is
decided, they all behave in the same way. This teaches us that action
is more important than intellectual gymnastics. Habitual action determines behavior.
Jews and non-Jews are genetically the same. If — G-d forbid — I
should ever need a heart transplant, I would rather receive the heart of
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20 B ’ OR HA’ TOR AH 23 5775 (2014–2015)
a twenty-four-year-old truck driver from the Midwest than a seventyyear-old rabbi from Meah Sheạrim, simply because it’s more practical
to receive the physically stronger one. What, then, is the qualitative
difference between the truck driver and the pious rabbi? The difference
is that each one lives in a different environment. Their daily routines
produce epigenes that impact their genetic potentials in different ways.
Now we know that no matter what your genetic structure is, you can
influence your physical health. A human being is more than a physical
body, though. A human being has a soul. The best neurologists have
acquiesced to the concept of a mind that operates and hovers in the
brain but is not the brain. They now agree that there is a consciousness
that transcends brain activity. There are many reliable records relating
what people who returned from near-death experiences saw when they
were separated from their bodies.1
Just as the body has its needs and functions, the soul too has its
needs and functions. Every person needs a healthy interaction between
body and soul. According to the Tanya, the soul has many manifestations. In describing the first four levels of the soul, I shall posit where
I think the dynamic epigene fits in.
Nefesh
Nefesh is the life force that resides in our blood. According to the
Kabbalah, the entire created universe is endowed with life force. The
life force of a human being is so strong that a skeleton buried thousands
of years ago still contains genetic information and identity.
Ruaħ
Ruaħ (spirit) is the part of our soul that feels and has emotions, such as
love and fear. Animals have emotions, too. Some people even claim that
they have emotional relationships with trees and plants. Real emotion
is not simply pain and pleasure, but can include unexplainable feelings,
like selfless love. Such feelings are found in the limbic system.
1. Editor’s note: See Irving Block, G-d, Rationality and Mysticism (Milwaukee, WI:
Marquette University Press, 2008). Professor Block uses near-death experience
accounts as part of his philosophical proof of the existence of G-d and the soul.
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THE JEWISH EPIGENE 21
Neshamah
Neshamah (the classic name of the soul) is the intellectual part of our
soul that cognizes, comprehends, analyzes, synthesizes, and integrates
knowledge through the brain. Although exclusive to humans, neshamah also includes instinctive functions shared by animals.
Animal brains, though, are merely operating systems. Only the
human brain can originate processes. The neshamah can control our
emotions. In the language of the Tanya, moaħ sholet ạl ha’lev, the brain
governs the heart. Otherwise, the Torah would not command us to love
G-d. How can you command somebody to love? Does love consist of
only the words “I love you” or is it an internalized feeling? The fact that
G-d commands us to love Him means that we are capable of producing
love at will. So the neshamah or intellect can impact the emotions and
influence the entire person.
Ħayyah
Ħayyah (life) is the source of will and desire that can control nefesh,
ruaħ, and neshamah. Hovering over the body without any physiological
manifestations, ħayyah reflects the more pristine, spiritual, and essential connection of the person with G-d.
Will and desire drive our intellect and potential for free choice. What
differentiates the intellect of a brilliant Nazi from that of a compassionate person? Intellect is not created by genetics, because the genetic
structure of these two people is the same. About a decade ago, there was
discussion about finding a gene that causes people to act criminally. It
was hoped that the gene could be altered, but today it is known that the
genes of a criminal and a holy tsaddik are not different. One is driven
by the will to do evil, and the other by the will to do good.
I suggest that the factor that makes the difference is the epigene,
which originates at the level of ħayyah. Will and desire are such powerful forces that they can drive a person to do almost anything. If you
want something badly enough, and if your desire is strong enough,
you’ll make sure you get it. That’s the level of ħayyah, the driving force
that can compel us to change our behavior, to act differently, and as
a result to bring about epigenetic change that can express or repress
certain genes.
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Ħayyah and epigenetics solve the enigma
The ħayyah level of soul can influence a person’s behavior to the point
of epigenetic change.
One of the issues of Jewish identity that epigenetics can help explain
is the disproportionate number of Jewish Nobel laureates. Jews are only
about two percent of the world population, but twenty percent of all
Nobel Prize winners are Jewish. Because of high assimilation rates I
don’t know how many more Jews are part of the remaining eighty percent. There is no genetic difference between Nobel laureates and other
people.
There is another question demanding serious study. After the
Holocaust, nobody gave the Jewish survivors preferential treatment.
No university opened its doors and said, “Come on in, Jews. We’ll let
you in on a bell curve.” Yet so many survivors who suffered unbelievably and lost everything performed brilliantly in universities and built
successful families and careers. How were they able to do this? I was
born in a dp camp in 1946, and my family did not manage to settle in
Toronto until I was five years old. There was no affirmative action for us
because we were displaced persons who escaped Stalin. The world did
not open its doors to help us. Yet our larger family, the Jewish People,
created the most extraordinary nation in the world. Our yeshivahs are
overflowing with scholarship. We have contributed to higher education
at every level and in every field. The Jewish contribution to science is
phenomenal. How was the Jewish People able to rise from the valley
of death and destruction so quickly and incredibly? What drove us?
The Biblical twins Jacob and Esau, born from separate seeds from
the same father and mother, were complete opposites. The Midrash says
Esau had murderous tendencies. His incestuous grandson Amalek is
the eternal archenemy of the Jewish People. (The chronology is given in
Genesis.) In contrast, Jacob was even greater than Abraham and Isaac,
because all his offspring were excellent, unlike Abraham, who begot
Ishmael, and Isaac, who begot Esau.
True, Esau brought food to his father, but did Isaac want to study less
with Esau than with Jacob? What brought about the difference between
the two brothers? Clearly, the behavioral patterns that each one chose
for himself caused the difference.
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THE JEWISH EPIGENE 23
The Torah says that Esau was a man of the field, a cunning hunter.
Jacob, however, was scholarly and sat in the tent and learned (Genesis
25:27). These opposite behavioral patterns produced not only two different brothers but more significantly, two different peoples, who have
been enemies of one another. The spiritual epigene does not completely
change a person and his offspring forever, though. The epigene can be
transmitted for a few generations, and then it has to be nurtured in
order to be renewed. In the messianic age, Esau will be a high-level
person.
Let’s go back to our question about the uniqueness of the Jewish
People. The incubator of the post-Holocaust over-achievers, the Jewish
Nobel Prize winners, or the Start-Up Nation, was not intellect. It was
Torah and mitsvot — action. Performing Torah commandments is the
original behavioral pattern of a Jew. This is our epigenetic system given
to us by G-d.
It is not hard to imagine that certain behavioral environments create
certain responses. When I was involved with elementary-school education there was a lot of discussion about using a Japanese method of
teaching children to play the violin at age two (the Suzuki Method).
The idea behind it was that music can touch certain areas of the brain,
bringing more clarity and breadth.
We don’t know what the impact of putting on tefillin is. What is the
impact of observing Shabbat? We don’t have tools to measure these
behavior patterns. What do we know about the cosmic forces that take
place within ourselves? The slightest act can change everything. Ask
the environmentalists about this.
Creative genius stems from disciplined, structured environments.
Creative genius does not blossom by dancing on the beach chanting
about how the sky touches the earth.
A-lmighty G-d gave us an epigenetic system that can encourage
positive emotion, stop negative emotion, and improve intelligence.
Studies such as that conducted by Mariah Evans of the University of
Nevada in 1990 show that the mere presence of books in a child’s home
can profoundly impact the child’s academic achievement. If books on a
shelf can measurably impact a child’s performance in exams, imagine
what the impact on behavior must be if those books are holy books that
the child absorbs and lives by. Jewishness is a total system of behavior.
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Jews dress differently, eat differently, sleep differently. Everything in a
Torah-observant Jew’s life takes place within a structure.
place a violent prisoner into a torah incubator
Here’s an example how powerful the Jewish epigenetic incubator can
be. When we started the Aleph Institute for Jews in prisons in the mid1980s, we initiated a program to take Jewish prisoners out of prison
for two weeks at a time. The Christians had a program, so Washington
granted us our program. Naturally, hundreds of prisoners volunteered
to participate in our program to go outside for two weeks and reunite
with their families. My family gave us the use of a hotel they owned in
South Beach. On the first day, a few hours after the twenty-one inmates
arrived, the chief chaplain from Washington showed up, saying that he
had come for a few days to observe our program.
A day later the chief chaplain came over to me and said, “Rabbi,
you can do whatever you want. This is the best program I’ve ever seen.
Whatever you need to do, you have my underwritten statement that it
is perfect.”
I asked him, “What happened?”
He replied that one of the participants, an inmate from a tough
prison in Tallahassee, came over to talk with him. This huge fellow had
been involved with some very unkosher things before his imprisonment. He begged the chaplain to get him to go back to prison. Most
people would give their eye teeth to get out of prison, so the chaplain
told him he was crazy.
“You don’t understand. This is worse than prison. We get up in
the morning, and the first thing we have to do is to wash our hands,
three times on each hand. And that’s not enough. We have to say a
prayer. And then we have to wear these things with strings [showing
the chaplain the tsitsis we required them to wear to give a full Jewish
experience]. Then we get a cup of coffee and do another prayer. This is
already prayer number three. Prayer number one was when we washed
our hands, prayer number two was before the coffee, and now we get a
real prayer.” The prisoner told the chaplain the whole story of putting
on tefillin. “Then we finish the prayer, we go to eat, so we have to wash
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THE JEWISH EPIGENE 25
our hands again. Do a prayer again and then we finally eat, and then
we have to do a prayer again. And then we study!”
The Christian programs don’t have study. They don’t have a Shulħan
Ạrukh, and their Bible-reading is not like our Torah study. They go to
churches to help out, but don’t have daily instruction on how to keep
kosher and so forth.
“Then after study, before we go to lunch,” the prisoner continues to
tell the chaplain, “you won’t believe that we pray again! Minħah — this
is a long prayer. Then we wash again for lunch. By the time eight o’clock
comes around, I am wiped out! I have never been like this. In prison, I
wash the floors in my bunk and then goof off all day.”
Two weeks later, we asked each participant to stand up and speak.
This same guy, who was six foot four and probably used to work out
three or four hours a day lifting weights, gets up and says, “I want you
to know that when I first came here, it was the worst experience of my
life.” Picking up his yarmulke, he goes on, “You see this little cap I’m
wearing? It’s the heaviest weight I have ever lifted. And the fact that I
have it on my head reminds me of who I am and where I am.”
The Jewish epigenetic experience enables us to transcend our baser
selves. We don’t need chemical intervention. A Torah-observant Jew
lives in a laboratory that produced an extraordinary people. We have
the proof of 3,500 years of history.
The first book that Rabbi Yosef Yitsħak Schneerson, the sixth
Lubavitcher Rebbe, wrote is a treasure called Ha’Yom Yom. It contains
a saying for each day. Today’s saying for the twelfth of Teves is a challenge to read to the participants of a Torah and science conference. I
shall translate it for you:
In 1887 when my father [the previous Rebbe’s father] was elected to
direct the Ħevra Kadisha burial society, he was accompanied by a
multitude in the Simħas Torah procession in the shul. Then he recited
the maimar [Ħasidic discourse] beginning “Ain Ha’Kadosh Barukh Hu
ba b’trunya [G-d does not make impossible demands].”
The next part is difficult, and it is only now that I understand it:
Also the great minds assembled here must put aside their intellect
and not be led by their reason and knowledge, for they are liable to
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be misguided by their intellect to the point of — G-d forbid — a bitter
end. The essential thing in these times of the footsteps of the Moshiaħ
is not to follow intellect, reason, and knowledge, but wholeheartedly
to fulfill Torah and mitsvot with simple faith in the G-d of Israel.
What does this mean?
It doesn’t mean that you should not think, or that you should not
study or conduct research, or contribute to society. It means that you
should not use only your brains. The brain should not be the standard
of your behavior. Your behavior should transcend your intellect. Your
ħayyah — the willpower of your soul — should drive you to the positive
action of mitsvot. This positive action can form an epigene that can
overcome bad genes.
One of the laws of burial is that the length of a gravesite must be four
amot. The height of the average adult is only three amot. Why, then,
does Jewish law require four amot? Our rabbis tell us that when our
hands are extended over our heads, we become four amot high. Why
should the hands be extended beyond the head? Because in the world
of absolute truth, the hands are higher than the head. The mitsvot that
we did make the difference on our day of judgment.
Intellect and emotion can make us feel good. But it is action, good
deeds, mitsvot, that determine the powerful epigene of the Jewish
people.
Photo by Ellen Goldberg, copyright ©.
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