Last Thursday, I was privileged to stand with more than 70 fellow graduates on the campus of the Jewish Theological Seminary, which this year celebrated its 130th commencement ceremony. Wolf Blitzer, the CNN anchor, delivered the commencement address, which offered inspiring personal stories about his Jewish upbringing. He also shared his observation regarding the surge in antisemitism, but was still hopeful about the Jewish future in America.
Reflecting on that experience, I was reminded of a message I wrote for the January 2023 issue of The Shofar, titled “Back to School.” I wrote about heading back to school and my first day back on JTS/Columbia campus after a decade, noting that I felt like a fish returning to water. In that message, I observed that “…the spirit of learning is the humility of the soul. Going back to school is a mindset, a way of life. It is also the way of light, a hunger for knowledge and a thirst for wisdom.” I quoted Mark Twain, who said “I never let my schooling stand in the way of my education.” That statement could not have been more true during the past year.
Since Oct. 7, education has shifted from inside the classroom to the outside. All of it was taking place in the “public square.” The whole campus and beyond becoming one big educational lab. The separate buildings and facilities did not separate us any longer. Students studying nuclear physics joined students focused on journalism and architecture to demonstrate, to protest, and to make an encampment.
Nobody expected the next developments. Seeing Hamilton Hall, where my classes took place, being taken over by students in the name of a political agenda means that the campus is no longer defined by its boundaries, even when the gates are locked. The real education, perhaps, was to realize how quickly things can escalate or deteriorate — like a sunny afternoon disrupted by heavy rain clouds, thunder, and lightning. On the beautiful campus of Columbia University, the stately old buildings steeped in history were giving birth to new realities.
In a year fraught with pain and anxiety, we need the light of education to see a way through the unforeseen challenges. As we approach Lag B’Omer, the holiday of great light and bonfires on the 33rd day of the 49 days between Passover and Shavuot, we can experience that light. On that day in ancient history, according to the Talmud, the 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva stopped dying in a plague. But why did they die in the first place? The Talmud answers, because they lacked respect for each other. The light of education illuminates the main message, that respect for each other and fellow students is the first lesson.
Perhaps that is the meaning of graduation — to be given the principles to seek truth, to discern what is true and what is false but knowing that the ultimate truth hides in the method, in the process, in the attitude, in showing respect to everybody and everything that contributes to one’s education, on campus and beyond it.
As we witnessed on campuses across the nation, the Jewish world is under attack. The first step in repelling darkness is by coming together in an illuminating respect. May it be so.
May God bless us with a bright summer,
—Rabbi Gadi Capela
[Photo credit: Havi Miller]