Our sages did not invent the idea of virtuous living. Aristotle, Philo, Confucius, our Talmudic sages and so many more were the driving forces of the European Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution along with the Haskalah or Enlightenment Movement.
Something started to shift in our thinking as we are now in what many consider a Technological Revolution. Where values and virtues were once the foundations of education and public life, they have been moved more to private or exclusive realms, yielding to a public life ruled by facts rather than values.
According to some broad and strong research being done by the Oxford Character Project, the modern world is seeing a difference between public life being ruled more by what we consider facts than by values. Without turning this time into a didactic Ted Talk, I want to propose that we may become so fact driven—what we think we know for sure today—that we set aside intangible values because they may not fit so neatly onto a grid or into a spreadsheet.
In other words, we may not be able to track our values and measure their effectiveness in quite the way we can measure our blood pressure trends on a health app. And this is why times like these and places like this help us to do our character checkups in real time. When we come here for either educational, social, spiritual and ritualistic purposes, we are giving ourselves a chance to look outside the margins of metrics and into the borders of our being—our souls.
Over Rosh Hashanah I revealed to you the ten core values of CBS based on the summer survey that I received. Over 25% responded to help me perform a collective Values Check—a spiritual and character assessment leading up to the New Year. Just like our own fiscal years and tax seasons, the four New Years found in our Lunar Calendar give us place settings so we can pay into our character account. Then, in the month of Elul we can collect our receipts and figure out if what we projected the year earlier actually played out for us. Did we hit on some values? Did we miss on some? Did we discover that our values have changed and caused us to reinvest our energies in other areas of our lives on the fly? And did our virtues help us to clarify our values and help us to improve ourselves and those around us?
Were we able to not only survive this past year, but were we able to flourish in some ways? Researchers at Baylor University and Harvard’s Human Flourishing Program define flourishing as: “The relative attainment of a state in which all aspects of a person’s life are good, including the context in which that person lives.”
Are there parts in your life where you are flourishing? Can you list three places in your life where you feel you are flourishing? If you can even name one place in your life that is flourishing, then you have something on which to build. This means that your values and virtues are working together in some part of your life. Congratulations. Because there is your opening to a happier and more purposeful life. And if any of you feel that every aspect of your life is flourishing, I’d like to meet you. I’d like to see if what you have is contagious so let me shake your hand.
I’m sure you’re eagerly anticipating the remaining Five Virtues of CBS. Number six is Tikun Olam—Repairing the World. The story goes with the Beginning of the Universe; the Divine Light was poured into and sealed within ten vessels. So intense were the lights that the vessels shattered, throwing its light and sparks into every part of the universe.
Humans were created to work with other living things and God to discover and collect the hidden sparks of holiness in our material world. Our tools for gathering these holy sparks are our virtues. By running to repair the world, our intentionality sets the discovery and collection process into motion. As we collect these sparks and elevate them through our actions—we call that Hiddur Mitzvah (Elevating Mitzvot), we lift them back to their source, eventually restoring the broken vessels and completing the task of Tikkun Olam.
First found in The Book of Exodus 15:2—the second sentence of The Shirat Moshe: “Zeh Eili V’anveihu” – “This is my God, whom I will ‘Nahvah’—beautify or elevate.” What is a simple example of an elevating mitzvah? Decorating the Sukkah right after Yom Kippur. That’s a good start to the year. Sukkot and Simchat Torah can give us a running start into the New Year in a most positive way. And by your responses, you are hard wired to be able to do this.
Another way we can elevate CBS and your lives is through Tzedaka—Charity. Charity and its various forms of philanthropy and altruism can be powerful. Once in a small town, the community baker began leaving loaves of bread at the doors, windows, gates and other entrances to people’s homes. Of course, the people were convinced that the baker was responsible for doing this, but they could never be certain. Everyone did not know if the baker or someone who purchased the loaves were responsible. There were no doorbell cameras or electronic security at the time.
One particular cynic, the town blacksmith, decided to prove once and for all that the town baker was responsible for gifting these loaves of bread. One night, a few hours after returning from the synagogue from the evening prayers, the baker set out to deliver the loaves. The sleuthing blacksmith stayed in the shadows, following the baker from place to place and instead of outing the baker, the blacksmith felt so moved that he went to his shop and started to think of ways he could do something so caring, and so easy to help make others happier.
The next morning the now enthusiastic blacksmith went to the bakery. He noticed that the baker’s oven was in need of repair. The next night the baker left his shop to deliver loaves to the community, the blacksmith went into the bakery and began repairing and restoring parts of the oven. This task took many visits and the baker hardly noticed that the oven was being worked on at first. Over time the baker began to see how the oven was no longer aging but improving and looking almost like new.
One Shabbat morning, the baker asked for an Aliyah to thank God for the miraculous reversal of fortune he had been given. After his Aliyah, he gave a whole week’s profits from his bakery to the congregation and told everyone what had been happening. The blacksmith smiled and felt elevated as well. The blacksmith found a deeper purpose in what he did day in and day out and the blacksmith’s work started to take on a new level of quality, like the community had not seen.
Mitzvot comes in all shapes and sizes. The smallest gesture may change the trajectory of a person’s life and may impact others in ways we may not realize. Mitzvot are not good deeds, though good things are often the outcomes of performing intentional mitzvot. Some of the best mitzvot we can perform are the most elegant in form and in function. Don’t overthink. You have the ability to improve others just by your presence. If you look around right now, you can see so much potential. Just do something nice to or for others.
The parable of the baker and the blacksmith reminded me of a similar story akin to an O’Henry story. Two siblings owned farms on opposite sides of a mountain. One sibling had a large family while the other was alone. One sibling, knowing how the other has so many people to feed, would leave unbound cuttings of wheat, barley and corn in the fields of his more prolific sibling.
The more prolific sibling and family would sneak into the sibling’s fields and quietly cultivate and feed the plants with extra fertilizer. Each sibling, seeing how their fields were flourishing, believed that their altruism was bringing some kind of Divine Blessing to them and their farms. It was going to happen that one late night, the siblings met at the summit of the mountain. Each were on their way to do what they’ve been doing for a few seasons now. At that moment of their encounter, they realized that the blessings they were receiving were not directly that of a Divine force but the Divine force working through someone else.
I think that it’s not such a bad thing that those sparks of light got scattered all over the universe. Every day, we see how those sparks either ignite something inside of us that make us do something really original and really impactful. Sometimes those sparks light up our lives or the lives of others through the things we do. Sometimes those sparks show us a way of improving our lives, helping us and those around us to flourish. Maybe there’s a spark inside you right now that is building up, growing brighter and stronger so that, someday in maybe one, two or three years, you will be able to shine your light on this dark and mysterious world.
This last parable was all about Shalom Bayit—Peace or Wholeness in our house. When the lights of our Values are held within the vessels of our Virtues and carried throughout our lives to the places that we go, and the living things we encounter, we can make a difference.
Each one of us has a spark today. Don’t spend so much time admiring it. Celebrate it, feed it, share it, and pass it along quietly to the ones you love. In a moment we will open the Ark and pass a vessel of our values throughout the sanctuary. We will celebrate its symbolism. We will nourish our minds and enrich our souls. We will share its light with those around us and carry this time forward into a new year.