By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – Rabbi Devorah Marcus, spiritual leader of Temple Emanu-El, told the graduating class of Community Jewish High on Tuesday evening that in the five years since their b’nai mitzvahs, she hopes that they gained more than Jewish information by attending the voluntary supplemental high school which primarily draws students from her Reform congregation and that of the nearby Conservative congregation, Tifereth Israel Synagogue.
Information, she explained, is something that can be forgotten very quickly, or retrieved very easily simply by using the Internet connection on the cellphones that most students consult frequently.
“Anyone can access information anywhere,” she said. “So, the question is what is the purpose of education in our modern world.”
She told of a midrash which teaches that even before God created the universe, God created the wisdom that was necessary for the Creation.
In today’s context, she said, “wisdom is not information; wisdom is the ability to look at information with kindness, compassion, and critical thinking skills – to be able to look at the things that people are telling you and to weigh it and to measure it and to consider its value.”
Marcus was followed to the lectern by Rabbi Joshua Dorsch, spiritual leader of Tifereth Israel Synagogue. As Beth Klareich, administrator of the high school, later would also point out, the six graduating seniors had gone through an emotional year.
The school term had started with the terrorist attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that killed 11 Jews at prayer, and near the term’s conclusion, there was another attack that left one person dead at the Chabad synagogue in nearby
Poway, California. In the middle of the term, there were school shootings in various parts of the country. And most immediately, Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal, who had been their 12th grade teacher, died suddenly of what was describe as a cardiac event. Rabbi Marcus, who had taught the class the previous year, took over the late Rabbi Rosenthal’s duties at the school.
“One of the beautiful things about the community that we really create here together is that we have a safe space where we come together, share together and support one another, whatever it is that is going on in our lives and what is going on in the world around us,” Dorsch said.
Given the circumstances of the year, he agreed that the world can seem quite scary at times. However, he quoted an adage from Rabbi Nachman of Breslov who described the entire world as a “narrow bridge.” One has to be careful to walk over it, but the key is to not be afraid.
He said it was his hope and prayer that the school had “given you the tools, the wisdom to cross that bridge, and to fight against hate and injustice everywhere.”
*
Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com