Rabbis' Blog

At the Kosher Food Club lunch this week the teens mentioned an ethics course offered at school. When I asked what the course was about, they shrugged and said “Debating ideas back and forth.”

I was intrigued to learn more about this course and how the students viewed it and asked if the syllabus included any rules as to what is considered ethical or not. I was surprised to hear that in the context of the course “ethics” meant your own personal beliefs, so I decided to make an impromptu experiment.

“Can you explain why murder is fundamentally wrong?” I asked the group. They all agreed murder was terrible and intolerable, but could not formulate a logical argument why it was fundamentally wrong. Things get more complicated when considering the fact that killing in self-defense seems to be the right thing to do. Where do you draw the line?

In this week’s parshah we learn about “Matan Torah,” the dramatic event when the Jewish people received the Torah at Mt. Sinai. There was a tremendous commotion throughout the world, with an impressive display of thunder and lightning as G-d communicated the Ten Commandments directly the recently freed slaves gathered around the mountain.

It was a truly consequential event but when reading the story something truly perplexing emerges. Most of the commandments deal with elementary issues like honoring parents, being honest and not killing or stealing. Do these simple messages justify such global pomp and ceremony? Don’t we all know this intuitively?

Here’s the thing. If society abstains from killing and stealing just because it feels wrong - without being motivated by fundamental principles - people will find ways to rationalize the worst possible behaviors. Need I say more than “Nazi Germany?”

I recently saw a Facebook post of a letter a German high school principal shares with his teachers every year.

“I am one of the survivors of a concentration camp. My eyes have seen things no man should see. Gas chambers built by well trained engineers, children poisoned by well trained doctors, babies killed with needles by well trained nurses, people shot and burned by high school and university graduates.”

“This is why I’m skeptical of education. My request to you is as follows. Strive to make your students human. Don’t allow your efforts to produce knowledgeable monsters and inventive psychopaths. Literacy and math only matter if they help your children become more human.”

This is why the Revelation at Sinai and the Ten Commandments are such a big deal for all humanity. They yanked ethics out of the “liberal arts” column and placed it squarely in the “exact sciences” column. Ethics are not defined by our feelings or societal norms; they are determined by G-d. The fundamental reason we must never murder is because G-d forbids it; and the same G-d permits killing in cases of genuine self-defense.

Sinai made it possible for world peace to happen. So long as we rely on our own subjective reasoning to shape societal norms there will always be jealousy and war. When we allow the fundamental principles of G-d to guide our way of life, this will set the stage for all humanity to live in total harmony and cooperation.

Yep. Sinai was a big deal.

My grandparents, Rabbi Gershon Mendel and Bassie Garelik, were newlyweds when they embarked on their life-long mission to Milan, Italy. The Rebbe appointed them to be his emissaries to bring the light and joy of Judaism to Italian Jewry in the winter of 1958, and they were sent off from Chabad World Headquarters with much pomp and ceremony, brimming with idealistic optimism.

Six years later the daily grind was getting to my grandmother. Upon their arrival there they established a Jewish school and those early years were extremely challenging, to put it mildly. Things came to a head and she shared her frustration with the Rebbe in a letter which stated amongst other things, “I feel like my soul came to this world to knock on people’s doors to recruit their children to a Jewish school and get rejected.”

The Rebbe responded with a beautiful letter of encouragement and I’d like to share one paragraph we can all learn from.

“In the literature of Chassidus, such activities are classified and explained under two categories: “seeding” and “planting.” The difference is this: In the case of seeding, as, for example, sowing wheat, the fruits take less time to appear than in the case of planting a tree. The reason is that in the case of the former the results, though many times the original effort, are considerably smaller than in the case of planting.”

“Similarly in the efforts and activities of a human being, there are such that come under one category and/or the other. If, therefore, it sometimes takes longer for the efforts to come to fruition, this is no reason for discouragement; on the contrary, the reason may well be that it is a case of “planting,” where the ultimate results will be infinitely greater.”

Needless to say, this school is today a thriving institution and the pride and joy of the community.

On Monday we will celebrate Tu B’Shevat, the fifteenth day of the Jewish month Shevat which is identified as the “New Year for Trees.” While this date holds the most significance and relevance regarding agriculture in the Land of Israel, it is the message we can learn from trees that should inspire us on this day - because the Torah compares people to trees.

Contrary to a wheat field where one can throw seeds into the ground indiscriminately and expect results very soon, trees demand much attention and patience and the results can take many many years until they finally appear. But fruits are far superior than wheat kernels in so many ways. Children demand tremendous attention and patience and it can take years of sweat, tears and aggravation until we see the delicious results and the same is true of community.

Jewish education and community activism are a labor of love, and with the right amount of effort, patience and belief in the cause we will see the fruits of our labor in due time.