Rabbi Thomas A. Louchheim
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From the Desk of Rabbi Thomas A. Louchheim ...
Personally Speaking
by Rabbi Tom Louchheim
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The following is the text of Rabbi Louchheim’s address to the graduating students of Hebrew High School.
It was once a cold and blustery day when Rabbi Isser Zalman Melzer, Dean of the Eitz Chaim Yeshiva in Jerusalem was returning home. As he began to climb the steps to his apartment, he suddenly stopped and retreated down the staircase as if he had forgotten something.
“As I walked up the steps,” he told his students later, “I heard the young woman who cleans my apartment once a week. She was mopping the floor, singing while she mopped. I knew that if I had walked into the apartment, she would have become embarrassed and stopped her singing. The singing helps her work and I did not want her to work a bit harder, let alone deny her the joy of her singing. Despite the cold, I decided to wait outside until she finished her work and her song.”
Within our Torah portion this week we read the famous words now found on our country’s Liberty Bell, “Proclaim liberty throughout the land and to all its inhabitants thereof” (Leviticus 26:1). My young graduates, liberty is not just about freedom. It is about sensitivity and awareness. When we employ someone, we are indebted to them. For, in addition to the paycheck, we are responsible for the worker’s feelings, working conditions and general welfare. Our awareness of them, not just what we owe them monetarily, is what liberty is about as well.
In a few moments, you will be our 5768/2008 graduates of Hebrew High. What your teachers and your rabbis have been trying to teach you these last four years is about awareness. Be aware of not only your friends and family; be aware of your surroundings and your world. What your teachers and your rabbis have been trying to teach you these past four years is that it is not enough to be aware; you must be able to respond - just as Rabbi Melzer responded so compassionately to one of his employees.
If I may be allowed a moment of illustration. My rabbinate has been an attempt (I am not always successful mind you) of being aware and having that awareness influence my thoughts, my feelings and my actions.
The art I have placed in my office is an attempt to remind me of that challenge.
1. On one wall is an artist’s depiction of Northern Israel, Mount Hermon, an open field and underneath, ancient Hebrew letters buried there. I look at that and am reminded of my connection to the land of Israel, my heritage and the Hebrew language.
2. Next to it is a photograph of the Grand Canyon. This picture reminds me of Abraham Joshua Heschel’s challenge to us to see the presence of God in the awesome beauty of our world.
3. On the wall opposite the Grand Canyon is an artist’s perspective on the Peace Treaty between Israel and Egypt, signed by President Jimmy Carter, President Anwar Sadat, and Prime Minister Menachem Begin on March 26, 1979; a reminder to me that anything is possible.
4. On the same wall, a quote from Rabbi Leo Baeck. In Berlin, he had been a leader of the German Jews; in Theresienstadt (1943 until the end of the war), he became a spiritual leader and symbol, leader to thousands of Jews from all parts of Nazi-occupied Europe: “A spirit is characterized not only by what it does, but no less, by what it permits, by what it forgives and what it beholds in silence.”
Finally, there is a small picture that few people notice of the Dalai Lama bowing toward me and I toward him. One might think that the photograph embodies the power of the spirit between Judaism and Buddhism: Two spiritual beings appreciating each other. In reality, Martha Lochert took this picture as we were greeting each other. The Dalai Lama, looking up at me from his bow with great curiosity, is at that moment asking me, “Where is your yarmulke?”
My dear graduates, may these pieces of art remind you, as they remind me each day, of the kind of awareness that you may hold dear in your lives:
1. Israel, its land, its people, and its language are your eternal heritage.
2. God’s awesome beauty surrounds you—all you have to do is look up and look around.
3. The Peace Treaty is another example that amidst all adversity you might face, anything is possible.
4. Rabbi Baeck reminds you not to tolerate injustice in silence.
5. Finally, humor. Look up at life and laugh a little.
l’Shalom,
Rabbi Thomas Louchheim
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