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I suggest that we search for an answer in the early history often acquired at the expense of an outsized ego. Wisdom,
of our people, the lives of the founders of Judaism and the that precious gift, sometimes results in a deficit of personal
people of Israel. Let us consider how they succeeded and happiness and fulfillment. Excessive wealth often conjures
perhaps failed in their most cherished ambitions, whether up the illusion of wisdom and also masks the dark fears of
collective or private… defeat. Every high excellence exacts a high price. Only G-d
is perfect and without blemish. This is a law of the spirit,
Consider our Teacher, Moses. His influence was exceed- inscribed in our very existence as humans.
ingly great for all the history of our people and, indeed, at
least half the civilized world. Yet his dream of liberating Second, man must not falsely convince himself of his
his people from idolatry was not entirely successful, and omnipotence, of being capable of the perfect fulfillment
his cherished ambition to lead them to the Promised Land of his every ambition, lest he accelerate his own disas-
was an abysmal failure. trous end. He must know that every success breeds its
own home-grown failure. Such scars are the sacrifice
David was the greatest of our kings, one who solidified the that success offers up on the altar of humility, and such
monarchy. Yet his ambition of building the Beit HaMikdash defeats are the tributes that excellence pays to our very
was denied to him; it was left to his son to erect the Temple.
humanity. As the Midrash taught us, “a man does not leave
Judah became the leader of the family, progenitor of King this world having achieved even half of his ambitions”
David and the ancestor of leaders. But he leaves the stage of (Kohelet Rabbah 1:13). If one is truly an adam, a mensch,
biblical history with a stain attached to his dealings with then his ambitions exceed his ability to realize them. Know
the woman he did not recognize as his daughter-in-law. in advance: there is no perfect success in life. Failure is
programmed, as we would say today, in the very structure
Joseph was the beloved of his father, the favorite of his of human existence.
twelve sons, who realized his ambition to rise to enor-
mous eminence. However, his status was recognized only So how will history judge Dr. Yosef Burg? It will, I believe,
among the Egyptians; the gift of malchut, of sovereignty grant him admiration for his espousal of moderation, the
over his brothers, was denied to him by his doting father derech Hashem as the Rambam termed it, and count his
and transferred to Judah. Indeed, the late Zionist publicist failure to achieve it in our bewildering and contradictory
and author, Maurice Samuels, refers to Joseph as “The age as inevitable, as a sign that his dreams surpassed the
Brilliant Failure”. ability of himself as well as his peers to realize them; that,
as Robert Browning wrote,
Jacob was involved, from his birth, in an antagonistic
relationship with his twin brother Esav. In the famous Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp,
encounter with a mysterious stranger, whom tradition Or what’s a heaven for?
identifies as the guardian angel of Esav and his descen- Dr. Burg is one who reached for the heavens. His goal was
dants, prefiguring the millennial battle with Rome and a polity that conducted itself peacefully and rationally
its heirs, Jacob emerges safe – but not sound. Despite his and eschewed all manifestations of extremism… But, in
survival of this fateful wrestling match, his victory is the grand tradition of our forefathers, what he wanted
incomplete, it leaves him scarred. He retains a limp and and valued most was denied to him. Politically, his party
we, for generations after, are bidden to refrain from eating went to self-defeating extremes, and his/our community
the sinew of an animal, the gid hanashe, as a symbol of that to this day shows signs of transforming unreasonableness,
failure to complete the battle against Esav. Jacob’s failure exclusiveness, and ignorance of all worldly culture into
is thus memorialized for all posterity… veritable virtues.
So, all the above giants of our mesorah were successes in So we who have gathered here to say our last farewells to
some ways, failures in others. Each attained great tri- him declare that his frustrated ambitions for us should
umphs, yet tasted as well the bitterness of failure! They not be forgotten. They should be revived and allowed to
emerged scarred, blind, emotionally wounded, frustrated, inspire another generation all over again. Dr. Burg was
rejected. Why so? What is the Torah teaching us? The honorable in his successes and brilliant in his failure. Learn
lesson, I submit, is that perfection has not been granted from him: Quick successes are doomed to vanish; noble
to basar v’dam, to merely mortal man. And this is so for failures ultimately prevail, and in the fullness of time may
two related reasons. yet prove to be successes…
First, just as the experience of divine revelation is fraught One aron, the casket, carried his earthly remains to inter-
with danger; every encounter with greatness… is filled with ment in Israel. The second is carried in the hearts of all
mortal peril and leaves its painful mark. The prophet is Jews, especially those of us who cherished the spiritual-in-
singed by proximity to G-d Whose presence appears as a tellectual dimensions of this extraordinary Jew whose life
consuming fire. Genius often warps one’s personality and was dedicated to the people of Israel, the State of Israel,
afflicts various quirks upon one so gifted. Superior talent is and the Torah of Israel – in a word, to us.

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