The people of the Mission
This story began about 13 years ago, when one of the founders of the Am HaZikaron Institute, Alexander Yonatan Widgop, starting with 35 relatives known to him, searched for another fifteen hundred people and thus created his own family tree. Having reconstructed the genealogy of his family, he paid attention to the fact that although many of his relatives for 100-120 years knew nothing about the existence of other family branches and lived not only in different countries, but even on different continents – their spheres of activity and destinies were not only unusually similar, but often simply repeated each other. These strange facts may have seemed like an amazing coincidence, but they were the initial reason for the Am HaZikaron Institute for Jewish Heritage, Culture and Genealogy in Israel to begin collecting material to verify similar strange coincidences in other Jewish families.
After 10 years of extensive and rather meticulous work, the Institute’s researchers, acting as true empiricists, not only found and revealed unique patterns existing in Jewish clans, but also came up with surprising, even sensational results. which were recognized with the “Zeiti Yerushalaim” award and medal for their contribution to the development of national heritage.
The study proved that each Jewish clan has certain dominant characteristics that have not changed over the centuries, and thanks to which each Jewish clan has its own unique strategy of existence and survival. Further analysis showed that each Jewish clan has its own special mission in this world, which is steadily fulfilled (even without always being aware of it) by almost all members of the clan. This discovery turned out to be unexpected for the researchers themselves – after all, they had only set themselves the task of discovering and verifying whether there really are any regularities in the lives of Jewish families.
Even more impressive was the final conclusion of the study: the existence of a very specific mission of each Jewish clan allowed for the first time, based on experimental scientific data, to talk about the existence of a very specific mission of the Jewish people as a whole, and consequently of each Jew individually. This mission, which was formed millennia ago, was divided among the clans and continues to be consistently fulfilled by the entire people to this day.
But, uh, first things first.
Speaking in dry terms, the factual material collected during the research conducted by “Am HaZikaron” has convincingly demonstrated the presence of unchanging patterns in the intergenerational transmission of a number of certain dominant traits (which will be discussed below) among members of Jewish clans throughout the centuries. A set of parameters was identified by which these traits were determined, describing the clans in the most complete way. This conclusion was reached on the basis of a study of data on 63 different Jewish clans in the time span from 150 to 950 years of known history of their existence, which corresponds to data on the lives of about 6,000 people. The sample included very different clans – both famous Jewish clans, which left a rich trace in history by their active activity in one or another direction, and clans much less prominent in social, scientific, economic, etc. life during the studied period. The study has convincingly shown that neither the difference of historical epochs, nor historical cataclysms, nor the social structure of society, nor the property status of the clan members had practically no impact on these dominant features or attributes. Also the isolated residence of relatives for at least 100-150 years not only in different countries, but also on different continents, in the absence of any connection between family branches did not influence the invariability of these dominant features. The dominant features of the family were steadily preserved in the family, despite the kinship distance between family members for 10, 25 and more generations, in the complete absence of any information about other family members. Thus, the study led to the unequivocal conclusion that, at least for the studied period of 950 years, the dominant traits of Jewish clans remain unchanged.
In analyzing the results, the researchers had to formulate and introduce a completely new concept – “metaclan”, which differs from the familiar concept of clan. It differs in that in addition to blood kinship it also includes a set of the same dominant personal qualities. According to this definition, each person simultaneously belongs to different clans (through his ancestors), but only to one metaclan, the carrier of the dominant features of which he is. Accordingly, among the members of one clan there can be representatives of several metaclans.
So, what are these dominant traits or traits of the genus? It is this question, first posed in this way, that researchers have answered.
Here are just a few examples from the study demonstrating some dominant traits. (For the sake of completeness, in this article we will illustrate different traits on the example of different metaclans. It should be emphasized that each metaclan possesses a set of all dominant traits).
The study proved that one of the dominant features of the metaclan is the choice of the sphere of activity. It turned out that members of all studied metaclans choose no more than four spheres of activity. For example, in one of the studied genera (S-n), the people who achieved the greatest success in their professional activities devoted themselves exclusively to three spheres of activity – either they were revolutionaries (in one or another field), or poets, or researchers in the field of human nervous and mental activity. The most remarkable thing is that all the above-mentioned occupations were not passed from father to son. On the contrary, very often families were observed in which the father of a revolutionary became a researcher and the son a researcher: the daughter a poetess, etc. In another metaklan (K-n), on the other hand, for the last 400-hundred years, all the members of the family were engaged in other fields of endeavor. They were exclusively either rabbis, mathematicians and physicists, or philosophers. And in this lineage the occupation was not passed on from father to son.
Moreover, it turned out that members of one clan choose statistically exclusively certain partners (at that, for a man it is a non-Freudian type of mother, and for a woman – a non-Freudian type of father). In each clan, therefore, a particular partner typology is dominantly constructed in both the female and male lineages. The researchers found a high percentage and literal external similarity of unrelated partners within the same metaclan. For example, in one of the genera studied (G-t), the researchers encountered a surprising recurring pattern. Some men chose as their partners women who looked very similar to their great-grandmothers (who had also once belonged to this clan). It should be noted that they never saw photos of their great-grandmothers, which were found much later, during the genealogical research. Just as noteworthy, neither their grandmothers (entered partners) in this line nor their mothers bore any resemblance to the aforementioned great-grandmothers. At the same time, extreme external similarity was observed even among the partners – representatives of different nationalities.
It was also discovered that the fates of members of the same family at certain time intervals are constantly repeated. Under the term “fate” the researchers, of course, understood a certain mystical fate, but quite real, based solely on facts, life path of specific people. And human destiny was considered as a certain set of life events within the framework of known regularities or unknown regularities of a higher level, the so-called “randomness factor”. It turned out that life events which are extremely widespread in one genus, were not observed in another and vice versa. For example, in one of the studied clans (R-n), for 250 years in each generation there were several cases of sudden tragic deaths. When the main means of transportation were horse-drawn carriages – members of this metaclan fell under horses, when trains appeared – under trains, they became victims of shipwrecks, automobile accidents and airplane crashes. Moreover, this phenomenon cannot be described by the factor of so-called “tragic accident”, which is naturally present in all genera. The recurrence of these tragedies in this particular genus compared to others exceeds any reasonable factor of statistical probability. At the same time, the researchers saw this whole picture only by connecting all the branches of the metaclans that were scattered and isolated over a long period of time.
Another example of the so-called “clan pattern” is how people in some clans always tried to build their destiny in spite of any “life circumstances”, and in other clans, on the contrary, obeyed them. This was traced quite clearly in all the studied clans.
It was also found out that even characters, habits, hobbies repeat with the same rigid regularity among members of one metaclan, as well as their destinies. For example, in one clan (F-x) the overwhelming majority of both men and women were characterized by a very conflict character. They were emotional, nervous people, at the same time possessing a great measure of determination. Over the generations, a great number of very successful businessmen were recorded, creating large fortunes in the most unfavorable conditions. At the same time, over the years, researchers have not encountered any other Metaclan with so much litigation. They sued the states in which they lived, business rivals, housemates, sons sued their fathers, and daughters sued their cousins. And this phenomenon was observed in all distant and unfamiliar branches of the family.
No less impressive was the fact that members of the same clan have extremely similar behavior in family relations. For example, in one of the genera (V-c), more than half of the Metaclan members living in the 20th century had more than one marriage (both women and men), and most of them had more than two marriages. At the same time, it is known that in an earlier period the men of this clan also had long-term extramarital affairs. In the other genus studied (Gr-sky) there was only one divorce at all in its history! It turned out that each clan is characterized by one or another pattern of family-marital relations, which can be fixed numerically.
Even the very way of life of members of the same genus turned out to be identical in many respects, and this in the complete absence of any connection between them. For example, in one of the Metaclans (M-m) for 13 generations there was a large percentage of people who during their lives constantly got into deadly dangerous situations and survived in them. The lives of most members of this lineage resembled an adventure series or a real thriller. They got into the most incredible situations – drowned in icy water, were injured, attacked by predators, rescued from a burning airplane. And each time they survived literally by miracle. And this happened both during wars and in peacetime. They were always in the epicenter of military actions when there was a war; in peacetime they were constantly involved in some extreme situations; they could be found in risky expeditions and travels; some of them were connected with the criminal world, etc. It seemed that the members of this metaclan unconsciously throughout history tried to exist on the edge of life and death, constantly risking and testing fate. And, for example, another clan, unlike the previous one, for 16 generations behaved in the exact opposite way. Members of this metaclan (D-sky) have never once distinguished themselves by behavior that goes in any way contrary to the social norm. It was as if their existence was originally aimed at maintaining tradition and creating the least risk for the existence of the metaclan.
It turned out that the discovered regularities, or such conditional “determinism” directly concerns the social behavior of metaclan members, and completely independent of the country, epoch, and political conditions of the environment. For example, in one metaclan (L-s), during 400 years of its recorded history, its members were constant initiators of social protests. These people were always striving to change the surrounding society. Moreover, during this period of time, social systems changed, their living environment changed, often dramatically, but, despite this, their demands to society were still critical and oppositional in nature. Their actions included joining the Hasidic stream of Judaism at a time when they themselves were “Misnagdim” and lived in the thick of Lithuanian Jewry, which had declared a real war on Hasidism. In the 20th century, if they lived in a capitalist society, they fought for social justice and became fierce socialists, and those of them who, on the contrary, lived in a social dictatorship became famous dissidents. And their protest was always public, effective and never went unnoticed in other countries. And another genus studied by researchers (V-r) serves as an example of a completely different social behavior – adaptation and maximum adaptation to the surrounding society. Even with such a dramatic experience as a change of the country of residence (which happened more than once to the members of this metaclan), they found their place in any new environment within a few years and successfully developed in it, achieving significant success in various fields of activity.
It was also found that representatives of the same genus, despite temporal, geographical or kinship distance, have the same persistent (repeating in certain time intervals) psychological indicators, such as: dominant behavior, temperament type, creative and intellectual abilities, peculiarity of thinking and perception, dominant motivation and, finally, personality orientation.
Researchers have also identified a number of striking examples, which could be attributed to the field of coincidence or chance, if it were not for their large number and repetitiveness. It is worth citing at least one of them. For example – members of one metaclan (W-m), separated from each other by 200 hundred years and living in different countries (one – at the beginning of the 18th century in the Austrian Empire, and the second – at the beginning of the 21st century – in Israel), developed and tried to implement practically the same social program aimed at the development of the surrounding society. Despite the historical distance of the authors of these programs, the essence of them is extremely similar, to the point that some points are absolutely identical in wording and content. It should be noted that the later author was not familiar with the work of the earlier one, and had no idea about the existence of such a relative at all.
Summarizing the general results of the conducted research, it turned out that 63 considered Jewish metaklans completely preserve their dominant characteristics, at least during the centuries of their studied history. At the same time, the new considered genera demonstrate the same preservation of the set of dominant features, from which we can assume that this rule applies to all Jewish genera. It would seem to be expected that common features of characteristics of members of one metaclan (patterns) should quickly disappear with the growth of kinship, geographical and temporal distances over the studied 950 years. All the more surprising are the results of the Institute’s study, in which it was found that statistical correlations of the dominant characteristics of the members of a single metaclan are virtually undamped.
Such interesting research results have raised many questions. What does it all mean? What are the possible conclusions and interpretations of the facts revealed in this study? What do the discovered patterns mean?
After all, reasoning sensibly, if members of metaclans have persistent dominant traits and the sets of these traits are so obviously different from each other, the result is that this results in some “generic function” or, conventionally speaking, some “specialization”.
Naturally, the question arises – do they perform their function in connection with a certain unchanging set of qualities they have, or has this set of qualities been formed in connection with the need to perform this or that function? It would seem that there is every reason to agree with the first statement – we can find many examples confirming this approach in the animal and plant world. But the results of the described study contradict this statement – generic traits are preserved, and functions are often performed not due to (as it happens in the animal and plant world), but in spite of the conditions offered by the environment (and this in a sense resembles the life of the Jewish people in the Diaspora – their centuries-long existence despite numerous persecutions).
So, the observed functions cannot be explained by environmental requirements. Why, then, is this particular set of traits or qualities in this or that genus formed and so persistently preserved as a result? For what does this narrow specialization, fixed by the research, exist or serve?
All this suggests the existence of additional meta-factors that play an important role in determining the function (note that such meta-factors are also suggested when considering the history of the Jewish people as a whole, since its life took place predominantly in spite of the environment).
So what are the meta-factors that determine this function itself? Researchers at the Am haZicaron Institute have put forward a number of assumptions that explain this phenomenon.
They hypothesized that each Jewish metaclan (as well as each member of this meta-clan) has its own mission, which determines this set of invariable qualities that lead to the fulfillment of certain functions. That is, a function (which is, in fact, a set of some rigid indicators or even skills) does not exist by itself and does not arise accidentally or spontaneously, but is determined or arises in connection with a rigid necessity to fulfill a certain mission. In search of confirmations of this hypothesis, the researchers started from the quite utilitarian notion of “function” as a set of attributes and turned to the world of ideas or concepts to which such a category as “mission” belongs. They did this by carefully analyzing data on 63 metaclans studied during the study.
For example, in the meta-clan (V-c), we constantly meet people who are extremely active, in constant motion, energetic, and opposed to any manifestation of stability and orderliness. Wherever they moved, their organizational skills, openness to new ideas and ability to respond quickly to events created a situation in which they found themselves in the very epicenter of events. That is, throughout the three centuries of metaclan (V-c), this set of dominant traits remained unchanged. More often than not, their function was to create, provoke and initiate events around them. There was always a movement around them, as if they were some centers of turbulence that spread their influence on everything around them. When summarizing the 300-year history of this metaclan known to researchers, it became clear that its mission was precisely to act as a catalyst for the emerging new processes of society.
And in metaclan (D-y), during the famous 400-year existence, people were born who were thorough, businesslike, rational, and liked constancy in everything. They were busy, practically without exception, first of all, organizing their existence. At the functional level, the main thing for them was quality of life, comfort, stability and security. At the same time, they always acted in the interests of sustainable (but not maximum) expansion of the field of their life activity. That is, the main functional task of these people was, first of all, to build a comfortable and stable situation for themselves and, accordingly, around them, in the surrounding society. Integrating and absorbing the ideas arising around them, they contributed to their smooth gradual realization. In a certain sense, one could say that their meta-goal or mission was to act as a kind of cementing compound for the society in which they currently existed.
Having studied a large number of Jewish metaklans, the researchers naturally asked the question – what is the mission of a clan as such? Having analyzed the obtained results, they came to the conclusion that the mission can be defined as a permanent, purposeful (though often unconscious), meta-task, transmitted at the genetic or energetic level from generation to generation, ensuring the spiritual and physical survival of the metaklan and a certain type of its interaction with the surrounding society and environment. Each metaclan (and consequently all its members to a greater or lesser extent) rigidly fulfills its mission or its purpose.
Having formulated the concept of mission, researchers have tried to find its origins.
So, they reasoned, if the statement that the set of clan qualities is formed in connection with the presence of this or that mission of the clan is true, then it is worth turning, first of all, to the very history of the emergence of the Jewish people and, perhaps, there it will be possible to identify the origins of these missions.
Turning to the origins, we see that the Jewish people emerged and continues to exist not because of the well-known common reasons (unity of the territory, mixing of different tribes in a certain territory, primacy of socio-economic relations, unity of language, etc.), but, of course, first of all, due to a certain concept or idea chosen by this people. Note that, here and below, the consideration of this concept is conducted not in connection with any historical speculations, but in connection with the fact that this very concept was the dominant ideology and determined the meaning of the existence of the Jewish people throughout its almost 4000-year history. In other words, in this context we operate with biblical events or theological statements precisely because the people themselves regard them as the basis for the concept they themselves have chosen. It is beyond the scope of this article to discuss the historicity of the events themselves.
One of the main points on which this concept rests is the situation of free choice, that is, the conclusion of an equal contract with G-d, in which both parties assumed a number of obligations. And in this sense, of course, not only did the Jews become G-d’s chosen people, but G-d was recognized or “chosen” by the Jews. In general, it should be noted that the very situation of making an alliance with an object that is not fixed by the five senses (and for the representation of which it is forbidden to use even imagination), apparently, had to “blow up the brain” at a certain point, as Einstein put it. And to “blow up the brain” or to change the very way of thinking not only of a single individual or a unique personality who directly concluded this unusual contract, but also of a whole nation that voluntarily agreed to fulfill the terms of this contract. It is hard to escape the impression that this conceptual component has been the most significant dominant feature of spiritual and, as a consequence, perhaps, historical survival. It is also noteworthy that it is this contracted alliance or this chosen concept that traditionally still gives life to the Jews as a particular community in the eyes of themselves and the surrounding peoples.
In analyzing this concept, on which the very existence of the Jews as a people is based, it is worth starting with the originator of this world-famous history, a particular person who directly and directly entered into such an unusual transcendental union. It was this person or this patriarch who was destined to pass on the fulfillment of his part of the contract, or, in other words, his mission, to at least 12 of his descendants (the ancestors of the future tribes). That is, at the source (or forefather), who gave life to the long-lived people, we can observe at once two joined tendencies: the first – ideological or conceptual and the second – vital or physical (given the fact that one of the main conditions for the conclusion of the union was the “multiplication of Abraham” in his offspring).
As we know from further biblical history, each of the tribes, already at that time having its own mission, orientation and dominant set of characteristics, was divided into clans, and each clan played one or another role in the formation and survival of this nation. In other words, a certain focused informational charge once transmitted (but did not undergo, according to the results of the study, significant changes) to an ene number of clans, thus materialized in a variety of variations.
If we simplify the previous discussion and reduce it to more familiar situations, then the following analogy seems appropriate: suppose that a certain person at some point in his life was enlightened by the idea of creating a growing, profitable business that could eventually become a leader in a certain area of global industry. To realize this task, which he starts practically from scratch, he plans to involve all members of his family (as well as those who will be born in the future) to ensure not only the financial well-being of his family for a long period of time, but also to turn his business into a mega-business. In this case, the concrete realization of this general, designed for many years, meta-task, of course, is broken down into a number of specific practical tasks or functions, which are distributed among the members of his family according to their personal abilities. He may start with a small store in which one of his sons will sell goods, one will do the delivery, and one will do the bookkeeping. Later on his business will grow into a whole network of stores, malls, etc., and he will have to solve new problems. And in connection with this will have to solve new problems – marketing, advertising, etc., etc., etc. If it is a family business, then, of course, some of these tasks will be taken on, first of all, by his close and distant relatives. His grandchildren, and great-grandchildren will enter into the business. In addition to performing the immediate functions assigned to them, each will certainly also be responsible for the expansion and prosperity of the entire mega-business, acting within the framework of the common meta-task formulated by the founder.
If we apply this, of course, simplified analogy to the history of the Jews, and replace the idea of mega-business with “carrying the light of Torah” (and thus monotheism, ethical values and all that the Jews as a people have brought and are bringing to the world), then this is the picture of the existence of the Jewish people that emerges from the facts found in the study.
Turning to another central event in the Jewish tradition and looking dispassionately at what happened at Mount Sinai (the receiving of the Torah by the people of Israel), we see that there was a fundamental change in the information possessed by the participants in this event. The new information received (the Torah), which the people themselves considered to be foundational, could not but affect their further existence. Moreover, one of the postulates of the doctrine speaks about the necessity of passing on the received knowledge to descendants. In this context, we mean not so much the text itself, which is sacred to this people, as the fulfillment of certain meta-tasks formulated in it.
The results of the study unequivocally indicate that these meta-goals (perhaps not always on a conscious level), have been passed down from generation to generation and have remained and remain fixed in Jewish ancestry to this day.
Maybe it was the Jewish tradition, which says that everyone is responsible for the fate of the world, and therefore the fate of the world depends on the actions of everyone, that turned into a meta-task or mission for the clan (M-s) and made its members, moving from country to country during the last 250 years, to take a direct part in almost every revolutionary event on the reorganization of society, and the clan (W-r) to play one of the leading roles in the realization of the economic reorganization of Europe in the 17th-19th centuries.
Thus, we can perhaps for the first time speak specifically about what exactly the Jews have retained as a result of their survival. As we turn to the research, we will recall that each Jewish lineage has a set of dominant qualities that is unchanging over time. It is possible that this is how the Jewish clans managed to carry through the millennia the global knowledge received at Mount Sinai.
If we summarize and analyze the results of the study and consider them in the context of history, it inevitably follows that the Jews are a people with a specific mission, which, according to tradition, was assumed by Abraham and confirmed by the entire nation at Mount Sinai. This mission, the essence of which is set forth in the Bible, has been fulfilled by the Jewish people to this day, the proof of which is its unchanging existence (as evidenced by a study whose factual material covers almost 1,000 recent years).
It would seem that, at first glance, the conclusions and findings of this study are far removed from the problems facing the modern reader. The presence of some conceptual context would seem to have no literal reflection in life… But on the other hand, the last thing we are willing to accept is that the existence of each of us carries no meaning. It is the concept, idea, or philosophy of life and the ability to realize one’s own purpose that ultimately defines a person’s life, distinguishing him from other primates. And if man is a representative of his people, and his species is a part of that people – then what is the mission of each of us? What do we bring to this world and what is the meaning of our existence? And, finally, what is the mission of the entire human race and how far or, on the contrary, how close are we to its fulfillment?
If we look at the problems raised in this study in their most relevant and acute manifestation today, it becomes clear that many geopolitical problems existing in the world today may have a different ground for analysis. If one studied nation has a mission, it is likely that, naturally, other nations have their own missions as well. Do they conflict with each other? Are they correctly interpreted by the peoples themselves or their leaders? Does this lead to local or, on the contrary, global conflicts, to the “clash of civilizations”? Or maybe the missions of the peoples, according to the original plan, should complement and mutually enrich each other?
Published in the literary and artistic almanac “Chasha” in No. 1, 2016. Moscow, library of the magazine “Maecenas and Mir”