Courageous Pathways

Dear Brandeis community,

 

 

Good morning, welcome parents and loved ones, welcome students and faculty and staff, to the graduation ceremony for The Brandeis School of San Francisco’s class of 2017!

 

Eighth graders, it is my honor to be the first to address you this morning as graduates, as we mark the passage of your years here at Brandeis, from kindergarteners holding tight to your parents’ arms to the strong young people standing before us today. We are all so very proud of you.

 

Last week, at your final tefillah service of your Brandeis careers, I was struck by the Mishebeirach, our prayer for healing. It’s a prayer that has been on my mind lately, with several members of my family in need of healing, in ways large and small. It’s also a prayer that marks my sense of my trajectory as part of the Brandeis community—I remember a Shabbat dinner at home, not long into our time here, when my daughter Sonia came home and sang the Misheiberach, suddenly so prayer-literate as a 1st grader. For those who don’t know, the Debbie Friedman version (which we tend to sing here) begins like this:

 

Mi shebeirach avoteinu
M'kor hab'racha l'imoteinu
May the source of strength,
Who blessed the ones before us,
Help us find the courage to make our lives a blessing,
and let us say, Amen.

It goes on from there, to wish for physical and spiritual healing, but it was that opening section that really caught my attention last week. What would that mean, to make your life a blessing? And what kind of courage would it take to do so?

 

Graduates, this morning I want to offer you three courageous pathways. I believe each of you has walked your own versions of these paths in your time at Brandeis—it is my hope that you continue to do so, as you scatter to the wider world.

The first courageous pathway is that of spiritual audacity—of allowing yourself to see the injustice in the world that is need of repair. You have learned this path in being changemakers and pursuers of peace, in the 7th grade tzedek program, in designing solutions to San Francisco’s homelessness crisis, or in debating the finer points of the U.S. Constitution. This is the path of justice, of righteousness, of speaking truth to power. As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, “Who is a Jew? A person whose integrity decays when unmoved by the knowledge of wrong done to other people.” The world you are growing into, that we hope and expect to see you one day lead, will need you to be moved by injustice, and to take action against it.

 

The second courageous pathway is that of integrity—in some ways a smaller and more quotidian kind of courage, but no less important for it. You have learned this path in morning meetings, in advisory check-ins, in peace talks with your friends, on sleepovers, or on the playground. This is the hard work of finding your moral center and holding fast to it; it will help you know which jobs to take, when to go along with the group and when to go your own way, even which parties to attend and which to skip. No less an authority than J.K. Rowling wrote—in the very first Harry Potter book, so you know it was important!—that “it takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.” In high school, in college and grad school, in the wide world beyond, let your courageous heart, your ometz lev, your integrity, be your guide.

 

The third courageous pathway is in being willing to take risks—of being willing to try even if you might not succeed, or imagine new possibilities that others can’t see. As William Faulkner wrote, “You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.” You have learned this path in leaving family to journey to Israel for two weeks, in chanting Torah in front of your friends, in coding, in building bridges, or in writing poetry. Whatever challenges lay ahead of you, stepping into risk by being bold, being creative, and seeking new angles of thought or opportunity will help you meet them and succeed.

 

So graduates, my wish for you this morning and always is this:

 

May you be spiritually bold.

May you let your heart be your guide.

May you imagine new possibilities for yourselves and for our world.

 

May you have the courage

To continue to make your lives a blessing—

Because you have already been a blessing, and a joy, for us.

 

Mazel tov, graduates. We are so very proud of you.

 

Wishing you all weekends full of blessings, my friends.

 

Warmly,

 

Dan