Enduring Wisdom

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thank you for joining me. I'm Rabbi David Lyon from
Congregation Beth Israel in Houston. Long ago, the rabbis asked
the question who is truly wise? They answered the one
who learns from everybody. It's not a completely positive comment.
They meant that we can learn from those who are
excellent role models and mentors, but we can also learn

(00:23):
from those who are failures and fools. If we learn
the right lessons from each, we might become truly wise.
The hard part still lies with us to find the
right teachers and to learn the right lessons. The rabbi's
question who is truly wise? Was written in the Mission
around the third century. Though we can't know exactly why

(00:46):
they asked it, we know that they were part of
an emerging rabbinic era that sought inspired leaders. Their effort
to identify the best was also their way of excluding
the worst. In light of the destruction of the ten
Temple in Jerusalem in the year seventy CE by the Romans,
the rabbis aimed to preserve the past and its essential lessons,

(01:08):
many of which came from the Hebrew prophets. The Hebrew prophets,
among them Amos Hoseiah, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, to name just
a few, prophesied about living according to Torah and keeping
the Covenant. Later scholars clarified what makes a true Hebrew
prophet not a false one. First, Hebrew prophets are God's mouthpieces.

(01:30):
They speak God's words, not their own. Second, they are
reluctant prophets. They don't want the job. When God called Amos,
he said, I am not a prophet, nor am I
the son of a prophet. That as he claimed to
be unqualified, he didn't want the job, but his reluctance
also made him an objective mouthpiece who came without bias

(01:54):
or self interest. Third, they often come at unpopular times
that his Hebrew prophets come just as the people are
living only selfish and opulent lives. Hebrew prophets are the
first recorded buzz kills, some would say, who preach the
Torah and ways to bring honor to God and blessings
to themselves. Fourth, they are not God. They are mere

(02:19):
human beings whose words are gods and whose role is
to bring God's message to the people. And fifth, they
demonstrated moral courage and willingness to speak truth to power.
Think of Moses and his role before Pharaoh. It's just
as we read in this week's tore A portion call
Ree in the Book of Deuteronomy, God commands Israelites not

(02:42):
to follow false prophets. False prophets could be found in
even among the Jews, including Bar Kochba in the second century,
who let a rebellion against the Romans and was killed,
and the more familiar Shapatid's Fee of the seventeenth century,
who declared himself the Messiah and the Ottoman Empire and

(03:02):
converted to Islam under the threat of execution. In history
down to this day, there are false profits all around
us and on the internet. Prophets don't have to roam
the land to find us. They only have to reach
us on social media or by phone. From the Tora portion,
we learn you must destroy all the sites at which

(03:25):
the nations you are to dispossess worshiped their gods from
Deuteronomy chapter twelve. Today we can also block and delete
internet sites, callers and messages that are false and misleading.
But for the fact that we follow the link or
the video reel, we would be doing something more worthwhile
Torres says, destroy it for good I can't tell you

(03:49):
how many calls and voicemail messages I get from people
wanting to loan me the money that is the equity
on my home, or offer me some great deal. Happens
almost daily, and daily I delete those messages, I report
them as junk, or I block the phone number. It
takes a couple of extra seconds or even just a minute,

(04:11):
but it's so worthwhile to be sure that we aren't
drawn into something ultimately that will hurt us or deceive us.
Second Taurus says, if there's a needy person among you,
do not harden your heart and shut your hand against
the needy among you. Actually means within our own community,

(04:31):
but we know that we should all give to all
those who are needy. We can give anonymously, but we
should know something about the cause of organization beyond what
we're told on the phone or by text. Even the
poorest among us has something to give, but not if
it causes that person to become dependent too. Thankfully, major
cities like my own, and I hope like yours, have

(04:54):
many community resources that offer help that doesn't depend on
anonymous callers to you. And finally, Tora tells us that
if there appears among you a prophet or a dream diviner,
and he gives you a sign or portent. Do not
heed the words of that prophet or that dream diviner.
Even if their prophecy or dream divining might come true,

(05:17):
it's usually just a trick or a coincidence. True outcomes,
even if they aren't immediate, emerged to reveal enduring blessings
for all. Not unlike in ancient times, the unsettled nature
of our world sends us looking for signs to the
fast pace of change and just searching for something to

(05:38):
rely on. And waves of uncivil and indecent behavior all
around us send us in all directions seeking safety and truth.
So we return to the age old question, who is
truly wise? Answering it correctly might enable us to endure
these trying times and emerge where we know truth and light, decency,

(05:59):
and humility will thrive. The prophets are still sources of
general truths for more living. They still urge us to
feed the hungry, clothe and naked, and care for the
widow and orphan, the most vulnerable among us. They also
relate these timely and timeless teachings to God and to Torah.

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When we read in Torah that God calls heaven and
Earth to witness against us. God calls on the most
durable acts of God's creative works. Unlike humans and animals,
Heaven and Earth stand as witnesses to everything that passes
between them. It's an awesome note of humility that we
sometimes take for granted during our finite time on earth.

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What wisdom will we carry with us to make our
limited time here a reflection of such a remarkable gift.
What difference will we make to improve the world around us,
whether we are remembered for it or not. In the past,
I've asked young and old alike, those who are on
their deathbeds, what wisdom they will leave those who live

(07:03):
on beyond them. Among the elderly, I've been told be
kind to each other, because the struggles and pain we
cause each other are senseless. Love and beloved, they said,
time passes quickly, so cherish the days you're in and
the people you're with. And many have said, to quote

(07:25):
a Yiddish proverb, Man plans and God laughs, They're all
so true because they come from people who really lived
these lessons. Among those who are not elderly, I've been
told it's not fair because there was so much more
life to live and take nothing for granted, and they

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hope that their life made a difference, that it wasn't
for naught. Surely we feel the pain and ache of
those who are younger, but they're not without perspective too.
And when I visited a young man who was in
the hospital who told me that he felt that life
was unfair, I urged him to know that because of

(08:09):
the impression that he made on his peers and on
those who worked closely with him in the field where
he made a living, he would not be forgotten, and
his life was an inspiration. He appreciated those words. It
couldn't save his life, and those words couldn't offer all
the consolation that he needed, but he appreciated knowing that

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while he was here, he made a difference. Is no
wonder that in a Jewish meditation from a prayer book
called Gates or Prayer, we find these words, Mortality is
the tax that we pay for the privilege of love, thought,
creative work, the toll on the bridge of being from
which clods of earth and snow peaked mountain summits are exempt.

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Just because we are human we are prison of the years.
Yet that very prison is the room of discipline in
which we, driven by the urgency of time, create That's
our cue. That's a Jewish queue, it might be your
Q two. The urgency of time in this world, in

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the here and now, drives us to create. We create,
with sacred teachings a world that is filled with moral outcomes.
There we enable human beings to live, just as the
prophets taught us to do, how the rabbis of old
urge us to be, and what our teachers in our
generation helped us to learn. Not much has really changed

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about what the world needs, but the circumstances have shifted,
and so the big question becomes yours and mine. Who
is truly wise? How could it be possible for us
to be wise? As we continue to age. I would
urge you, just as I have done from myself, to

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study the texts and teachings of our respective faith traditions.
In those sacred texts you'll find words and ways to
live the best life that you can. And if there
are those texts that contradict our life today, or urge
somebody to defeat those who are different, remember that these

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words were still written in ancient times, and we who
live in a democratic society and a pluralistic nation and
a western world for the most part, have to live
in the world where we find ourselves and lift out
of the ancient world and out of sacred text those
teachings that endure and give respect and dignity to all

(10:48):
of God's creations. In the first chapter of Genesis, it
says that God created a person, one man, Adam, and
the rabbis taught later that God created only one man
so that no one could ever say that my father
is greater than yours. You might be familiar with that

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teaching if you are, teach it to others. If you aren't,
then learn it now to see yourself not as small
and insignificant, but meaningfully related to the divine and to
all that God created. And because Heaven and Earth bear
witness against us, we understand that our time here between

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Heaven and Earth is limited, and while we are here,
we should make a positive difference. So ask yourself, who
are my role models? Who are my teachers? Are they
those who come from ancient texts, medieval teachings, literature in
the modern world, or perhaps role models around you to

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day teachers you remember and admire, or those you work with,
or those you aspire to be like in the future.
The most important task that we have is to be discerning,
to be sure that we're learning from the best, and
find ways around those who teach us less and the
wrong lessons, to find our way back again to truth,

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to morality, to goodness, and to the blessings that we
and others who are touched by our life deserve. I'm
Rabbi David Lyon from Congregation atth Israel and Houston. To
listen again or to share this message, please find it
at my podcast called Heart to Heart with Rabbi David
Lyon at Sunday ninety nine dot com on the iHeartRadio app.

(12:36):
These are challenging times, There's no doubt about it. I
don't know anybody who sits comfortably at home or sits
comfortably at work and says everything is well and tomorrow
will be fine. It's hopeful, it's aspirational, but most of
us do feel that the world is a bit rocky
and things are shaking, and we can't predict or or

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understand exactly what will happen in the near future, what
will endure ahead of us. There are many things that
will endure, but for sure we can put at the
very top of the list the wisdom of our ages
and the truths, the biblical teachings, the prophetic lessons about
human dignity and ethics and morality. They have endured more

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than we have seen in our own lifetime. But now
that we are here and viewing the world around us,
we would be foolish not to rely on and teach
and live by those teachings that have come down to
us through the ages. What makes them sacred isn't necessarily
that God gave them, but that they endured it all,

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that they were passed on and taught from one generation
to the next, because they were so precious, and as
a result we have inherited something so special, so durable,
that we call them sacred. Let's be sure to use
our time and place in this world to preserve those
teachings and those morals, so that even as the world

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continues to change, it will never be without what makes
us all wise and well teachings that speak about each
other and our relationship to God, Because through our deeds
we bring honor to God, and as a result, we
feel blessed and fortunate to be in relationship with God
and in relationship with each other. Let's continue to build

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bridges of goodness, life, hope, and greater peace. I'm Rabbi
David Lyon. Thank you for joining me, and I look
forward to being with you again next time.