P R A I S E    of         D E S I R E

The simple word itself is of a rare beauty.
How can we not love this word that means so much and so many things.

And here I am again, writing a eulogy. And God knows if I have written many.  The one that was the most successful was the one about LOVE. I received comments, even a marriage proposal. It's crazy!

´Better the sight of the eyes than the wanderings of desire.´ This is
not from me but from Ecclesiastes, which Marek Halter raised in The Book of Abraham.
And this was what King Solomon in his wisdom had to say about desire. And poor me, what else can I say?

And here is a sentence found in a Midrash about the same Ecclesiastes that says: "No man leaves this world after having fulfilled half his desire". It must be said that this desire is not so easy. Especially since a wise Muslim also found it necessary to say that "He who rushes madly after an inordinate desire, runs the risk of meeting destruction and death. His name is Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib.  This same personage immediately said:
"Fighting against one's desires is the greatest struggle of all and the person who does not have control over his desires does not have control over his mind.

Speaking of wisdom, let's think of that Jewish philosopher who has
been the most abused throughout the ages and I keep asking why we
can't absolve him today. Why do our religious authorities remain so
severe, refusing to remove him from the 'Herem', that exclusion from
our community which others call excommunication? Baruch Spinoza
expressed many good thoughts, among them, "Do not desire anything for
yourself that you do not desire for others.´´

Long before Spinoza said that desire is a self-aware tendency, Maimonides, in his Guide to the Lost, teaches us that man naturally feels a desire to seek the highest points, and often gets bored with preparatory studies and abandons them.

In the same vein we can add that those of us who are governed by reason do not desire anything for themselves that they do not also desire for the rest of humanity.

The rabbis teach: "A person does not die with half his desires in hand. For he who has a hundred, desires to make two hundred."
This means that fantasy exceeds reality. King Solomon addresses one of the two fantasies that drive people.
One fantasy is about objects or possessions. The second fantasy is about man's sense of permanence. Man's fantasies make sense, but only if he will live forever.

It is interesting to note that this word 'desire' tends to be associated with other equally important words, such as 'passion', 'reason' to mention only these two. An unknown author said: Where there is passion and desire, there will always be a new frontier. Ovid, on the other hand, thinks like you and me, that when we are pulled by a new force, desire and reason pull us in different directions.  We see the right way and approve of it, but we follow the wrong way.

I found a Bedouin saying very nice: "Beware of what you desire, because you will always get it.´´ As for the Kama-Sutra, it informs us that desire, inherent to nature, is reinforced by intelligence and the practice of pleasure as well as the liberticidal and sexual law. Moreover, sexual attraction means burning with desire.

I could end by saying that ambition and desire can indeed bring one up the ladder and generate satisfaction. But it can also be counterproductive. Permanent dissatisfaction makes you unhappy. The self-sufficient is the one who knows his own balance. Just as the rich man is the one who is content with his lot (Pirke Avot).

And remember that to be kept waiting for a long time, to be reluctant to satisfy the desires of others, is to be desired.