Shabbat, October 1
Harvard University is commonly acknowledged as the oldest institution of higher education in the country. It was founded in 1636, which means that this fall, 2011, a freshman class walked onto the hallowed Harvard grounds for the 375th time. But in the 375 yeas of Harvard’s existence, the freshman class of 2011 was asked to do something that no freshman class had ever been asked to do at Harvard before - to literally sign a pledge that is an expressly outlined code of behavior.
The pledge is not academic in nature - in other words it doesn’t talk about cheating, or plagiarism - instead, it is about the way the students act towards each other, towards their professors, and other people that they encounter. When the students sign the pledge they promise, and now I am quoting from the pledge itself - “to act with integrity and respect,” to “to sustain a community characterized by inclusiveness and civility,” and also to make Harvard a place “where the exercise of kindness holds a place on par with intellectual attainment.”
This new requirement, as you may imagine, has not been without controversy. Traditionally Harvard has shied away from traditional pledges and honor codes, and when any such behavior code is created there is always the question of who gets to decide what is considered proper behavior and what is not. Some have even suggested that the pledge’s encouragement of kindness is actually not a good thing, because kindness can discourage the true spirit of debate.
The debate about the pledge itself is still going on, and although freshman have been required to sign it, the original plan of posting the behavior code in every dorm has, at least for now, been scrapped. The idea behind the pledge I think is admirable - essentially to lay out for students when they enter the community what the community’s core values are with the hopes that they will incorporate those values and then actually implement them, use them when they interact with one another. But there is where the real challenge lies - namely, how do you get someone to translate a code of behavior that they sign, or even what they believe or feel is the right thing, into action, into what they do in their lives on a day to day basis?
A few days ago David Brooks, the NY Times columnist, published an article about exactly this problem. The title of the article was “the Limits of Empathy” and he described recent research that suggests that human beings are sort of naturally wired for empathy. That is to say when we see another person in trouble, inside we automatically feel bad about it. And he talks about how empathy has become a hot buzzword today, with books out like “The Age of Empathy,” and “The Empathy Gap,” indicating that our society believes that empathy is important, that we should try to teach empathy to our children, and encourage empathy in one another, in how we relate to one another.
The problem that Brooks points out in his piece is this: the feeling of empathy doesn’t always translate into action. In fact, research is showing that even people who have high levels of empathy frequently don’t act on those feelings. Its not that its bad to feel empathy for others - its just that the empathy we feel doesn’t seem to be enough to motivate us to do something to help the people we have the feeling for. Feeling the feeling, or thinking the thought, or saying the words, in the end doesn’t seem to help us actually do the thing that needs to be done. To say all of this in colloquial language, we seem to be much better at talking the talk than we are at walking the walk.
Since we are a small crowd this morning, I hope you don’t mind if we talk politics for a moment. The confluence of two events - one being the gearing up of the next presidential election, and the other being the fact that Rabbi Loeb’s yartzeit is coming up in just a couple of weeks - has me thinking about what Rabbi Loeb would have thought about President Obama, and how he has handled that last few years. You may remember that Rabbi Loeb was intensely supportive of the Obama candidacy during his initial presidential run - it was right around the time Rabbi Loeb retired, and so he felt he could get involved and be supportive and active politically in ways that he hadn’t before - I remember he proudly put an Obama for President bumper sticker on his car - (it wasn’t straight - but that was Mark!).
But I think today, if he were alive, and speaking frankly, Rabbi Loeb would tell you he was disappointed with what the President has been able to do. He would probably say that the President too easily gave in to big business and banking on financial reform, was too willing to compromise with the Republicans on health care, and I am guessing he would have a few other choice phrases to use and positions to take issues with. But more than anything else I think he would feel that the promise that President Obama seemed to symbolize - a promise that was largely created through the President’s use of words - has not come to fruition. His words were inspiring - in fact, they still are - but he has not been able to match his powerful rhetoric with action. It is precisely that challenge - matching words with deeds - that will ultimately define President Obama’s legacy. And only time will tell if he’ll have a second term to work on it -
It seems to me that matching words with deeds is also a challenge for us, and it is something we grapple with at this time of year more than any other. This is Shabbat Shuva, the Sabbath of Repentance, neatly tucked between RH and YK. The text chosen by our sages for the haftara this morning comes from the prophet Hosea, and the prophet focuses on a great call for human repentance on the grand scale. But the second verse seems to speak directly to us, those of us on the journey towards a better and purer life -
קחו עמכם דברים ושובו אל ה
Take words with you, and return to Adonai -
The word in the verse for words is ‘dvarim’ - the last book of the Torah is called in Hebrew “Devarim” - from the first words of the book - Eileh HaDevarim - these are the WORDS that Moses addressed to the people...
But the word ‘devarim’ can also mean in Hebrew - ? Things - so the verse from Hosea could be translated - take your things - your deeds, you actions - with you, and return to Adonai -
We’ve said the words - thousands of them, literally, over the last number of days. Now the true challenge of teshuvah lies before us - not only to talk the talk, but to walk the walk - to turn the words that we’ve said into deeds that we’ve done, the promises that we’ve made in our hearts to actions that we’ll take with our hands. May we do that not only in the coming days, but throughout the entire new year -