Page 31 - The Legacy of Abraham Rothstein - text

Pneumonia and pessimism

dead. She said, “To accustom you to expect the worst of life and
receive it with fortitude.”
As did the Romans, we Jews had our stoics and hedonists. One
class of rabbis was pessimistic, believing we should restrain our
desires and pleasures; to console themselves and their followers they
created a paradise, a future life of everlasting joy without pain. The
other class believed in reaping pleasure here in this life as recompense
for all the pain and suffering. One of the last of them said that this
world is like a wedding where the guests are invited to enjoy the
repast and the enjoyment. “Grab and eat,” he said. “Grab and drink,
for tomorrow it is over.”
I do not believe in avoiding pleasure and being gloomy all the little
time that we pass on this tiny earthen ball. We could not live without
enjoying things that are pleasant physically or mentally. It is essential
to the health of a person: we know how bright thoughts and pleasant
surroundings have an effect on the body, healing certain diseases of
the body and mind, but there are hundreds of desires and pleasures
that we seek and strive for all our lives, as long as we have the
strength, that do not compare to the suffering they cause us in the
end, or to the suffering they bring to others. Many pleasures, like
power, money, and sex, entail an equal amount of suffering in
exchange—for oneself or others.
The ancients who wanted pleasure, mostly by acquiring property,
did the simple thing: they went to war, exterminated or enslaved the
enemy, took the property, and satisfied their desires. In modern times
we fight, too, but under different pretenses. When we want the
pleasure of having our fellow man envy our possessions, we enslave
men and make them produce diamonds from the depths of the earth
or pearls from the depths of the sea, men who suffer with their
health or lives for our little pleasures. When young I worked in a
bakery where flour was milled from wheat in the same building. One
of the workers, a strong man who had worked faithfully for a long
time helping enrich the mill owner, became sick with lung disease. He
had inhaled too much flour dust, congesting his lungs. To get enough
air into his lungs he had to open his mouth like a yawn. He became
thin, his shoulders rose higher and his neck sank in between. When

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