Word of the Year

With the coming of the new year the folks at Merriam-Webster have announced the “Word of the Year” for 2011. I was not surprised by their choice- the word “pragmatic” topped their list of words that have been looked up on their on-line dictionary during the past year.
It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that “pragmatic” would get so much use during 2011. I believe it is a perfect representation of our mood- facing limited resources we have to prioritize how to spend our time and money. Learning to do more with less calls for a “pragmatic” state of mind! It has been a hard word to learn for many of us. It’s a lesson we wish that our government would learn too… less revenue means spending taxes dollars more wisely. “Pragmatic” also means addressing the differences between “want” and “need.” I can’t think of a word that could better describe the American psyche right now- after so many generations of enjoying luxury and “frivolous spending” we now have to think about being pragmatic. I think some of the lessons have been good and I hope that, when things turn around, we will remember some of the things that we have learned.
So yes, I agree; “pragmatic” is a perfect word to describe what we have all been thinking and saying in the year that has passed. It is, however, a word that bothers me as a Jew. Being pragmatic is a great way to approach some things but it is a terrible way to address some aspects of life. While Jews have shown they can be very pragmatic- making the best decisions possible in the most impossible of situations- we are the least pragmatic people in the world! Has there ever been anything about Jewish existence that was pragmatic? Face it, we are a nation of dreamers and we always will be! That has been the key to our role in the human drama. The first Jew in the world, Abraham, did not understand being pragmatic- he believed in a God you couldn’t see, he left his homeland and went on a journey without knowing where he was going, and finally came to a new land that God promised to the children that he did not yet have!
As a people we have witnessed the worst that humanity could create and yet we affirm our belief in the goodness of man. We have wandered from place to place but still believed in a homeland to which we would return. We have seen how much hatred can come into the world but we have never stopped believing in the power of love. With a resume like that we can hardly be called pragmatic! Pragmatism would have demanded that we abandon our beliefs and values but instead we have tried to reshape the world around them.
2011 was a year in which we learned to be pragmatic about many things but not everything! In 2012 keep dreaming big and believe in the least pragmatic premises of all time- the God of Israel, the Land of Israel, and the People of Israel.