Ancient Wisdom For Us Today

Shammai says:

Make your Torah study a fixed practice;

say little and do much;

and receive everyone with a cheerful face.

Shammai lived and taught at the same time as Hillel.  The two rabbis complemented each other, offering somewhat different interpretations and reasoning and thereby expanding Torah knowledge.  Their disciples took their approaches and eventually formed two “schools” of study.  Generally Hillel took an expansive and open approach while Shammai opted for a stricter, closer reading of the texts. 

Make your Torah study a fixed practice.  For all of us, whether we are studying the Torah, the Christian scriptures, or something else – Shammai advises us to make this a “fixed practice”.   What does he mean?

Clearly  he means that we must take it seriously.  Seriously enough that we organize our day around it – making sure that we have the time, the energy, and the environment that we need to do our study well.  It is not something to be squeezed in when we have a free moment.  It is not something that we’ll get to later if we have time.  It is not an “option” for us.

Whether it’s exercise time, prayer time, spouse-time or something else for us – some things are important enough for us that we make sure we devote the resources to them that they deserve.  We can see what happens in our lives and the lives of others when they DON’T do that – heart attacks, loneliness, divorces and all.

Well, ancient wisdom tells us that the same is true for us with scripture.  Study it and learn, study it with others and grow, invest ourselves in it and let God reach out through the texts to change us.  Do it as a fixed practice – early in the morning, in the middle of the day, right after dinner – whenever is best for you.  Much of what is wrong in our world today can be seen as what happens when we don’t.

Generally a fixed practice works best when you can control the environment – eliminating distractions and controlling your temptations.

I know that if I were ever to do all the things I am “supposed to do” each day (exercise, eating right, work, prayer, 8 hours of sleep …) that it would take more than 24 hours.  This is the challenge of modern life for us all.  Nevertheless, we are clearly doing some things (watching TV, surfing the net, etc.) that chew up time and energy for us.  The wisdom of the ages is this – get the important things fixed in our lives and let the other things fall away or receive reduced time.

(We often think that only our age is so busy.   What a crazy idea!  People in past ages often worked from sunup to sundown just to survive.  Talk about stress!  Talk about being exhausted!  We have it pretty good in this world and this time – if we can only get ourselves and our lives rightly ordered.)

Say little and do much.  ‘Nuff said.  This ranks way up there in the list of hall of fame pieces of good advice.  What we study should change us as people and should change what we do and how we do it.

Receive everyone with a cheerful face.  This comes close to the above!  It’s clear, makes sense, and makes the world a better place.  Why do we hesitate to smile?  The ultimate message of our faith is joy, isn’t it?  (If it isn’t – what in the world are you reading???? – it sure isn’t my bible!)

In the end, all three sayings are well-connected.

Make our study of scripture a fixed and important part of our lives.  It WILL fill us with joy and love and peace.  It will lead us to be humble and active in our world – loving and serving others.  We will say little and do much – if for no other reason than we are more aware of how much we DON’T know.  And we will be happy – greeting others with joy.  A life ordered around study of the Word of God / Scripture will become integrated, whole, healthy, and happy. 

We’ll even have enough time left over to sit outside of a cafe in France and have a beer with friends!  Life doesn’t get much better than that!

If I am not for myself,

who will be for me?

And if I am for myself,

what am I?

And if not now, when?

This is another saying of Hillel – and one of the more famous ones.

If I am not for myself, who will be for me? 

We have, in 1:14, one of the central tensions in the life of human beings – a tension which existed long ago and remains today!

We have an obligation, a responsibility, to take care of ourselves.  To be “for ourselves”.  This responsibility includes providing for ourselves a place to be, food to eat, and things to drink.   This responsibility also includes taking care of our physical health, as well as our spiritual and mental health.   And so we work and we plan and we save.

After all, if we don’t – who else will?  Yes, mom and dad when we are young – but that comes to an end as we become adults in our own right.  And while society / our community / our government has a certain role to play in providing a safe and just environment, educational opportunities etc. – it is not their responsibility to provide for those who are able to provide for themselves.  (It is another situation altogether for those who are unable to provide for themselves.)

But …   And this is a BIG BUT…

And if I am for myself, what am I?  The rabbinic commentators generally insert an “only” here as in:  If I am ONLY for myself, what am I?  Rabbinic Judaism and Roman Catholicism (my own tradition) assert that we are NOT rugged individuals making our own solitary path in life – responsible to no one and asking nothing from anyone.  We are, inherently, at the depth of our being, social creatures, connected to others.

Hence the tension.  I must be for myself and be responsible, yet I must also care for others and be in relationship with them.  And only when in communion with others can I develop to my full personal potential.

We are tightly connected to one another.

Somehow I have to figure out how to do that.  Where might I turn for guidance?  Scripture, our faith tradition, the wisdom of the past that remains wisdom for today.

And if not now, when?  We live right now, in this moment in time.  We may not be here tomorrow and we can do nothing about yesterday.  So, let’s not waste time in day-dreaming about what we are going to do for ourselves or others in the future.  Let’s not waste time regretting or celebrating what we did for ourselves or others last year.  Live now, fully, in the present moment.  Responsible for ourselves and yet in full and loving communion with those around us.

Rabbi Dov Ber of Radoshitz would rise each morning and shout: “Wake up brothers!  A guest you’ve never seen has arrived!  Once he leaves you will never see him again!”

“Who are you talking about?” they would ask.

“Today.” replied the rabbi.

So, some questions to ponder:

1. How well am I doing in providing for myself (financially but also spiritually, morally, physically?  Are some areas of the self left under-developed while we overly concentrate on the financial side?
2. Who are those in my life that I feel connected to?  How are we connected to them?
3. Am I able to live in the moment, in the now?  Or am I somehow stuck in the past or preoccupied with the future?

Hillel says:

Be among the disciples of Aaron,

loving peace and pursuing peace;

loving people and bringing them closer to the Torah.

Hillel lived shortly before the time of Jesus and is one of the greatest and most respected rabbis of any age. 

Be among the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace.  Aaron is one of the most beloved figures in the Hebrew bible.  He was the brother of Moses – and where Moses was reluctant to speak in public, Aaron was drafted to speak in his place.  Moses and Aaron were a formidable team.

From the descendants of Aaron came the priests of the temple.   He functioned as the first high priest.  In the rabbinic tradition that developed and surrounded the Torah Aaron was identified in a special way as a peace-maker.

The sages say that when Aaron became aware that two persons were caught up in a dispute that he would go to each of them urging them to reconcile, even if it greatly compromised his own dignity to be involved with small matters.

The sages note that we are urged not just to love peace but to actively pursue it.  It is not enough to prefer it, to enjoy it, to desire it for ourselves and our loved ones.  We must work actively, as Aaron did, to bring it about in ourselves, in our families, in our religious communities, in our neighborhoods, in our cities, our country, and the world.

This prayer is associated with St. Francis of Assisi.  It certainly expresses his approach to life and faith.  However, St. Francis lived about 800 years ago and this prayer first circulated at the time of World War I.  Apparently it was printed on a prayer card that had an image of St. Francis on the other side. 

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

Loving people and bringing them closer to the Torah.  Seems fairly clear!  Loving others helps bring about peace because love for others, including sinners and folks involved in arguments, brings out the best in them.

We are reminded in this saying as well – loving people involves a lot of things.  It may mean providing food or money in an emergency.  It may mean teaching them a skill or helping them find a job.  Whether we help for the short term or the long term – there is still more.  Real love means also speaking with them of the Scriptures and our faith.

Some questions to think about:

1. Where is there discord in your life and family and neighborhood?
2. What can you do about it?  Have you tried?
3. What is the worst that can happen by your intervention?  What is the best that can happen?

Shemayah says:

Love work;

despise positions of power; and

do not become overly familiar with the government.

Shemayah lived shortly before the time of Jesus.

Love work.  

On the one hand – our society appears to be obsessed with work.  Americans work harder and work longer hours with less vacation time than in any other Western country.  It is not uncommon for people to work substantial amounts of uncompensated overtime hours in professions like law, small businesses, and finance – usually with the hope that it will “pay off” with a great deal of money later.

Sometimes this sense of being-driven by our work is by our own choice and personalities.  But oftentimes there is pressure put on workers by others (managers, owners) to work this way out of fear of being replaced, of being evaluated as unsuccessful, of being seen as  not being a “team-player”.

And on the other hand are those who live in less developed countries and who work sunup to sundown to barely survive.  They farm marginal land.  They pick the crops of rich landowners.  They work in factories producing consumer goods for export to the Western world.  They scavenge through the garbage dumps of big cities looking for something to sell or use.  These folks have no choice or say in the matter.

It is likely that it was to these latter folks that this particular bit of  wisdom was first directed to since the vast majority of people in the time and place of Shemaya were poor.  But true wisdom is for all, not just for some.  What does it say to both groups today?

The rabbis of the tradition interpret Shemayah’s words as follows.

Love your work, take pride in it. Do it well.  Use it to become independent and strong, use it to take care of yourself and your family.  Learn from it and through it – becoming wiser as you age.

But don’t let it enslave you.  Keep it in perspective.  It is a means to multiple ends (food, shelter, fun, leisure time, time to study) but is not, in itself, the reason you exist!  Overworked Americans (“I just love my job!”) need to remember that  a good job doesn’t love you back.

For those in the so-called “third world” – whatever one’s circumstances might be and might require of us – take pride in your work without letting it define you.  We are more than what we do.

Despise positions of power.

These words certainly seem counter-cultural don’t they?  Yet our Jewish and Christian faith traditions are themselves quite counter-cultural.

Jesus talked about being servants to one another, about the Kingdom of God belonging to the least ones, about the “first shall be last and the last shall be first”.

What is it about power (political, economic, social, military) that has Shemaya and Jesus so wary about it?

Power tends to corrupt the power holder.  Tempted to take what is not theirs, to act in ways that are counter to faith and our traditions, and for good intentions to become warped and twisted and self-serving.  We have seen this over and over again in our political leaders (both parties), in rich people (stock market manipulation, mortgage lending and selling), in media celebrities of both sexes and all ages.  We have seen military power and capability get abused around the world century after century.

The privileges of power (money, status, honors) corrupt power holders.  They become ends in themselves.  People will do anything it takes to keep the privileges coming and growing, including moving away from God, their families and friends, and their truest selves.  Don’t almost all of those who get caught and fall from power end up telling us that “I lost track of what was important”?

Paradoxically – power can make us less free!  Who is more free – President Obama or someone on the White House custodial staff?  Who is getting woken up in the middle of the night?  Who has the weight of the free world on their shoulders?  Who is attacked in the press constantly?  Who has the freedom to come and go as they please?  Who will spend the evening playing ball with their children and talking with their spouse night after night?  EXACTLY!

Only to the extent that we see positions of power as positions of real service should we get engaged in them.   And then with reluctance, with great caution and humility, and with the wisdom of the ages to guide us and keep us on track!

Do not become overly familiar with the government.

This was written in the time of the Roman Empire – a government forced on Jews and Christians at the time.  We live in a democracy – so there is some modification to do here.

Firstly – the Roman government was efficient in building roads, aqueducts, and cities.  They were good at  expanding the empire  and conquering other peoples – but it was not real big on human rights or  freedom.  Historians tell us that from 33% to 50% of all the inhabitants of the empire were slaves!

So, Shemaya’s insight is that to cozy up to an occupying power, for whatever good intentions one might have, is a dangerous game to play.  Better to keep one’s distance – not necessarily in active and open rebellion, but remember that they have their interests in mind only – not yours!  They will use you and throw you away!

But that was then, this is now.  What does this say to us today in the United States?

I was once a government bureaucrat myself (13 years at the IRS doing computer work) and I do not EVER engage in general government bashing.  I do not believe (as so many on the fringes of our country seem to believe and say) that our government is out to steal your money or your time or your rights or your guns or anything else.

But Jesus did say that you cannot serve two masters.  Faith and politics can coincide here or there but are just as often in conflict.   Involvement in politics and even in government service will inevitably put us in situations in which we will have to choose between our faith and what the public / politics want from us.  And unfortunately, as time has shown again and again, faith ends up being pushed to the side.

So, what does it all mean?

Shemaya and Jesus are reminding us – keep things in perspective and keep the things of faith closest to our hearts.  Love your work but do not let it consume you, use it to become free.  Do not fall in love with power of any kind – it does not really free you but actually restricts your freedom and may corrupt you.  Do not make friends with an occupying government and be wary of politics in general – you will eventually be in conflict and in danger of losing your faith.

Questions to ponder:

1. Can you identify people in your life who have loved their work a little too much?
2. Do you love your work and see it as a gift from God, as a vocation?  Or is it just a job?
3. Does your work set you free or does it enslave you?
4. Where have you seen power used well?  Used badly?

Distance yourself from a bad neighbor;

do not associate with a wicked person;

and do not despair of retribution.

Distance yourself from a bad neighbor.

The closer we live to one another the more our habits (good and bad) grate on others – and theirs on us.  Apartment dwellers living above you like to dance in the middle of the night?  Next door to you the people have the TV blaring all the time?  Even in the suburbs things can grate on us – a neighbor that won’t cut their grass at all – or one that cuts their grass every day so that YOURS looks bad in comparison!

I have a particular personal pet peeve about folks in our neighborhood who do not pick up after their pets and others who feel free to just drop their water bottles and other trash along the path in our little park.

The sage responsible for this wisdom (Nittai of Arbel) is not really talking about  these sorts of aggravations however.  He certainly lived in a time and place and culture that was far, far more communal than ours is today.  He would be amused by what we consider to be serious invasions of our personal space, our “rights” to privacy and peace and quiet.

What he was talking about we can see from the context – morally “bad” neighbors.  The advice is to distance ourselves from those whose moral behavior is not consistent with our faith – lest we be enticed to behave in similar ways.  This is the negative statement of something we read earlier (let your house be a meeting place for scholars / good people…).  In both statements the wisdom reminds us that who we come into contact with, who we spend time with, etc. really matters because they influence our own attitudes, they influence our behavior in the long run.  Moms and dads, for thousands of years, have watched over and worried about the friends of their children because they knew this was true.  What we may not have realized is that it’s true for all of us at all ages!

Note that it says “distance” – it doesn’t say “declare war on this person”!  It doesn’t say “take him or her to court”.  It doesn’t say “be hostile”.  Just distance yourself.  As an experiment – instead of spending evenings wishing that the bad neighbor would just move away – try praying for them, that they might repent.  You never know.

Do not associate with a wicked person.

This phrase seems to duplicate the first, but with a slightly stronger message.  The wicked person involved may not be your neighbor but a co-worker, someone in the larger community that you come into contact with.  The same reasoning from above applies.

Several years ago in Washington DC’s tax offices a mid-level supervisor figured out a way to “game the system” and began to receive bogus tax refund checks for herself.  As time went on she took more and more but then began to need the help of others in the office.  Slowly she pulled them into the scheme – signing off on this form, cashing that check, and getting a portion of the money for themselves.  And then they all got caught.  They were all adults but, one by one, nearly everyone in the office gave in to the temptation and then adopted the attitudes and desires and behaviors of their colleagues.

The moral?  If someone or some behaviors don’t smell right – don’t hang around!   Pretty soon you don’t notice the smell any longer – and it gets stronger and stronger without you noticing!  And finally, you also begin to stink.

And do not despair of retribution.

I do not think that the sage is advising us to be constantly fueling an inner anger towards others.  Such an anger generally does more harm to us than to anyone else.  (We are not advised to be complacent either.)

The advice means, I think, that either in this lifetime or the next, people who do evil will suffer the consequences of their actions.  We cannot lose sight of this conviction!

We believe in a God who is good and just, in a creation that is fundamentally good.  As Christians we believe that the world has been redeemed.

It is not for us to know how or when retribution may happen to others, we are to worry about ourselves and our own sins and problems.  But, to become resigned to the evil ones “winning” is to lose confidence in our God, to begin to lose our faith altogether.

A rabbinic commentator also notes that this verse can be read in an alternative way – those who are sinners, who have done great wrong, should not despair in the face of their coming retribution.  They should not think to themselves that they cannot and (therefore shouldn’t even try) to change.  True repentance and forgiveness remain possible, no matter what they have done.

Questions to think about:

1. Am I constantly tempted to stray from a faithful path by someone I associate with?  What are the temptations?  How am I responding to them?
2. Do I make other choices which place temptations in my path?  Which temptations?  Are there other choices I can make?
3. Why do we tend to flirt with what we know to be wrong?

Appoint a teacher for yourself;

Acquire a friend for yourself;

and judge everyone favorably.

From a rabbi / sage who lived about 150 years before Jesus.

Appoint a teacher for yourself. The advice is to seek out someone that you will honor as a guide for your study, for your life choices.  It will be someone whose wisdom you will respect, whose words and suggestions you will take seriously.   Someone whose praise AND whose corrections or suggestions will have weight for your life.  It may take a year or even more to find just the right person that you will want to work with.

You must take an active role in finding this teacher.  This does not imply disrespect to those persons who think they are already in position to teach you (e.g. a pastor in your home parish).  You certainly may, and probably should, get input from a lot of places.  But the sage advises – choose a teacher yourself.  In doing so you will “own” your relationship and will be more likely to accept the guidance that you receive when it is difficult.

No one knows everything.  When you seek your teacher look for a person who has a deep appreciation of our religious tradition and heritage and lives it out in their own lives.  You are not just looking for book knowledge!  Such a person is often called a “spiritual director” in our Catholic tradition.

Can’t I just study by myself?  Sure you can!  But self study alone  leaves us open to reading our own established ideas and opinions and biases into our reading and study.  It becomes a closed loop.  A teacher will help guide us and break through that sort of thinking.

In the Jewish tradition there are lots of opinions – it can be said (and is) “two Jews, three opinions!”.  Jewish tradition, distinct from Roman Catholic tradition, preserves the minority opinions of other teachers on rulings of the law.  So nothing is ever completely black or white.  This makes the role of a good teacher all the more important.  Rabbis differ on what is OK and what is not, on what  a good choice might be in this situation and what is not so good.  Choose your teacher wisely!

Doesn’t this lead to an easy relativism?  Couldn’t one just keep seeking out rabbis to get the opinion you want to hear?  That is not the way the system works.  Once you choose a teacher and ask the questions you have – you are obligated to follow the opinion you are given!  No shopping around.

This sort of situation is true in Christian churches as well.  Our tradition is not nearly as definitive as is often thought.  There have been minority opinions on doctrine, on morality, and in approaches to spirituality.  It is always possible to find a current / teacher within the larger stream of Catholic thought which is suitable for you.

Acquire a friend for yourself. Sounds  a little funny doesn’t it?  We tend to think that friends come along by chance and we either hit it off or we don’t.   The sage is not talking about our casual acquaintances.  Just as we ought to seek out a teacher to guide us on our spiritual and religious journey – so too we must deliberately seek out companions to journey with.  Someone who shares your same interest in growing closer to God and to the mystery of life.

This person (or these persons) can debate with you, discuss with you, challenge you.  This will be someone to study with and share your questions and concerns with.

A good friend will help you by holding you accountable for your study and effort – AND – that you begin to actually live differently as a result of what you are discovering.  A good friend won’t let you continue to slide by the hard work of actually integrating what you learn and changing your life.

A good friend like this is priceless and hard to find.  The sages advise us – seek one out and then listen!

Judge everyone favorably. The sage is not at all suggesting that “anything goes” or “judge not lest you yourself be judged”.  In this context the connection with the previous two phrases gives us a clearer sense of what is meant.  As you search for a teacher and a friend (s) give people the benefit of the doubt.  Wisdom is possessed by almost everyone to some degree – we can learn something from almost everyone.

Appreciate all people as gifts from God, as God’s children.  If they came from God (and they did!) then some how, some way, at some time – they reflect something of the divine that might help us.

If we are slow to judge others negatively we may discover a treasure of wisdom in an unlikely place.  As we have noted before – your teacher and your friend (s) may not have formal degrees.

It all comes down to this.  Our life is a journey.  We can greatly benefit from choosing a teacher who will help us explore what it all means.  We can greatly benefit from having companions on our way who know us and understand us, who hold us accountable.  And in our choosing – don’t pre-judge potential teachers and companions.  Look at all God’s children with open eyes and open hearts to learn something from them.  Perhaps your perfect teacher is a ‘diamond in the rough’!

Our tour guide in France recently was Veronica.  She showed us lots things and places, taught us to see things that we would have certainly missed on our own.  And it was lovely to travel with so many good friends to share the experiences and the food and the time with!

Questions to reflect on and share on if you like:

1. Who have you learned “life lessons” from?  When and how?
2. Can you identify someone or some time in your life that you’re glad you didn’t pre-judge (based on race, appearance, age, status …) too quickly?
3. What qualities do your best friends have that stand out for you?  Do these best friends share with you in spiritual / religious / life-wisdom dimensions?

Let your house be a meeting place for the wise; you shall become dusty in the dust of their feet; and you shall drink in their words thirstily.

Let your house be a meeting place for the wise.   Welcome wise people – in whatever shape, color, age, sex, profession etc. they may come in.  Treat them as honored guests so that they will come back again and again.

St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the Doctors of the Church, one of the most learned and wise men of his age – or any age!

Seen here even in heaven engaged in discussion, in debate, in listening and learning.

Yes, it’s THAT important!

Let your house be a gathering place for the wise and learned in scripture, in the stories of the saints and of our tradition, and of our history.  Some of these learned people will be harder to learn from than others – some will be dry, others humorless, others very demanding.  We can learn something from each one of them.  Not all the wise and learned folks will have degrees and teaching positions!

Become dusty in the dust of their feet -  be willing to listen!.  In ancient times students literally sat at the feet of  a teacher who was seated comfortably.  It was a humbling place to be, but – that is where we need to be if we are going to learn from them.   It does us no good at all to have scholars and wise folks all around us if we cannot bring ourselves to admit these others know things that we don’t!  It does us no good if we are not willing to let go of our pride to listen and to learn.  Ask questions.  Admit it when you don’t understand.

Drink in their words thirstily.  Be nourished by their words and grow.  A favorite biblical image of this is the tree planted near water.

Trees along the Tiber River in Rome.

Trees along a pond in Brookside Gardens.

Both pictures taken by Peter Barbernitz.

Unlike trees – we get to choose what we will soak up.  We know that who we hang out with, spend time with, will shape us.  So, it seems wise to spend time with wise people and not fools.  It seems wise to eat dinner and spend our evenings with wise people – not garbage TV.

Wise folks not only come in all sorts of shapes and sizes – but can be present with us in many ways.  Books and all that we read.  Films and good TV.

Ancient wisdom for us today – surround yourself and your family with the best of knowledge and true wisdom.  Immerse one’s self in them, drink in their words.  Dare to question, to debate – after you listen.

Some starter questions:

1. Who is the wisest person you have ever met? 
2. What did they teach you?
3. Can ‘mass media’ like TV, films, books and papers really bring wise people into your home?

The world stands on three things – on the study of Scripture, on the service of God, and on acts of loving-kindness.

The rabbi who is credited with the thought above (Shimon the Righteous) probably lived shortly before the time of Jesus.

What does it mean to say that “the world stands” on these three activities?  The rabbis said that the world continues to exist only because they are being done – at least somewhere in the world.  Otherwise God would be so frustrated with our world that God would give up on it.  Not so much in punishment, but perhaps in the same sort of way that you and I might give up on something that refuses to do what it was intended to do – a car that won’t run despite huge repair bills at the shop, a pair of shoes that don’t fit, a soggy newspaper whose print has run all together.

So – the study of Scripture.  There’s a copy of the Bible in almost every home – many of which sit on a shelf gathering dust.  It doesn’t say that simply having a copy of the Scripture has much value.  Study is not the same thing as flipping through it out of boredom or even well-intentioned attempts to read the whole Bible that end somewhere in the middle of the book of Exodus.

Study of the Scriptures means that we read it attentively.  We ponder it.  We share our study with others.  We question it.  We argue about what it means.  We argue with the text itself.  We make a consistent effort with it – through busy times and slow times.  We take it seriously as the Word of God – not just a Word spoken eons ago, but a Word for us today.   Our tradition means that we seek to use it as a guide for our relationship with God and with others and as a guide for our lives.

If we attend weekly mass we hear a reading from the Hebrew scriptures, sing a psalm, hear a reading from one of the letters of the early church (normally St. Paul), and hear a reading from one of the gospels.  Then we have an 8 to 10 minute homily.  In all of this we have the opportunity to let God speak to us and transform us and our experience of the world.  One form of the study of scripture that many find very helpful and do-able os to read these readings in advance of church attendance and to meditate on them before and after. 

The service of God.  God doesn’t really need anything from us of course.  The opening lines of the old Catholic Baltimore catechism started with this very point.  “Why did God make me?”  “God made me to know, love, and serve God.”   How do we serve God?

In ancient times we served God with sacrifices in the temple.   With the destruction of the Temple Judaism shifted to a service of prayer and praise.  For Catholics that service reaches its peak in a communal celebration of the Eucharist each week.

Our Catholic tradition has something called the Liturgy of the Hours which is rooted in ancient monastic practices.  The monks stopped whatever they were doing every four hours (including their sleeping!) for communal prayer.  Service to God.  Morning prayer opens with a verse from the psalms: “LORD, open my lips so that my mouth may proclaim your praise.”

Acts of loving-kindness.  The continuing existence of the world depends on us studying the Scriptures, praising God, and DOING acts of loving-kindness for others.  There’s a bumper-sticker that talks about practicing random acts of kindness.  That’s a start.  Both the rabbis of his time and Jesus got more specific than that:

• feed the hungry
• visit the sick and imprisoned
• clothe the naked
• comfort the grieving
• and more.  Not ‘feelings’ of love and kindness, but deeds of loving kindness.

Study.  Praise.  Love.   Each feeds the other two.  They get so intertwined that they even become one act.  In one’s life lived this way each becomes indistinguishable – it’s not like one has to stop doing this to do that because they all three come together.

What brings them together?  Working together they bring us into “right relationship”.  Right relationship with God – our creator and sustainer.  Right relationship with one another.  Right relationship with creation itself.

Study.  Praise.  Act lovingly.  They work together a lot like the legs of  this three-legged stool.  (This picture comes from Amish Traditions if you would like to order one!)

Right relationship comes with study, praise, and loving acts toward others.   When we are in right relationship all is well with the world (though it isn’t ever going to be perfect).  And don’t we say, from the other point of view, when things are going wrong and we are NOT in right relationship – that “it’s as if the world is crashing down on me?”

As I get older I know how quickly one thing out of right relationship or alignment affects everything else. 

A bad toe leads to a bad knee. 

The bad knee leads to a limp and then a bad hip. 

A bad hip leads to a bad back. 

A bad back leads to a bad night’s sleep which means I’m tired at work and things go further downhill from there.

The gospel of Luke tells us that Jesus, when asked about what one had to do to enter the Kingdom of God, Jesus replied: “Love the LORD your God with your whole heart, whole mind, whole being.  This is the greatest and first commandment.  The second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself.”  Jesus did not make this up – these instructions are a part of the Scriptures and of the wisdom of earlier rabbis.  And, I think, Jesus was presuming that his listeners already knew how important the study of the Scriptures were.

Study, praise, act lovingly.  Our Eucharist includes readings from scripture and a homily – so that when we gather together we begin by study of the Scripture.  We then have praise, prayer, and a breaking of the bread together to feed us and nourish us for the week to come.   And then we are dismissed: Let us go to love and serve the LORD and one another.

What do you think?

Moses received the Torah from God at Mt. Sinai and he conveyed it to Joshua; Joshua passed it to the elders; the elders to the Prophets; the Prophets to the Men of the Great Assembly.

I thought to start this blog with selections from Pirke Avot (“The Wisdom of the Fathers” in Hebrew) from the Jewish tradition.  I choose this partly because this is unfamiliar territory for most Christians.  When we hear or read something we have never encountered before we might react by ignoring it, we might react with openness.  I hope you choose openness!

So, Pirke Avot opens with this saying quoted above.  WHY?   In itself this does not appear to be a profound statement.  It does not seem to give us guidance for life today.  Or does it?

It makes claims that are very important for our lives and for this blog:

• That there is such a thing as wisdom (AKA Torah, Scripture).
• That it has been faithfully and carefully passed on from generation to generation.
• That, ultimately, it has its source in the divine.

The Jewish and Christian traditions both have enormous respect for the texts of Scripture.  We believe the text to have been divinely inspired – in the writing , the collecting, the editing, and even today, in the reading, thinking, preaching, and pondering of them.

We also hold, at least in the Jewish and Catholic faiths, that Divine wisdom and guidance have also been embodied in our traditions – in teachings, writings, ideas, and even the art of our founding and succeeding generations.  Doctrinally we speak of a written but also of an oral tradition that come together and support one another.  We believe that both our written and oral traditions are rooted in the Divine.

The very first words of Scripture, Genesis chapter 1, tell us that in the beginning God said…. .  God spoke:  and light, and the sky, and water, and land, and everything else came into being.   God’s word was the means of creation and is embodied in creation.   For Jews that same word is Torah.   For Christians that same word became flesh in the person of Jesus the Christ.  For both Jews and Christians God’s word is true wisdom.  If we study God’s word (in scripture and our tradition and even in creation) we have the opportunity to understand how we fit into it all, to understand how our lives should be lived, to understand (as best we can) what it all means.

Now, not all the things our ancestors have said are true wisdom!  Our ancestors have been wrong about a lot of things – like the idea of the sun going around the world, like slavery being OK, and a lot more. 

There is a famous anecdote, perhaps you know it. 

A young boy is helping his father cook dinner.   He watches his father carefully cut off both ends of a large roast and put it in the pan.  He asks his father: “Why do you cut off the ends of the meat?” 

The father replies – “Well, I don’t know exactly.  It’s what my mother did when she cooked a roast.”

The next time they had a family celebration the father of the young boy asked his mother: “Why do you cut the ends off the roast before you put it in the pan?”   His mother replied: “I don’t know, it’s what my mother always did.”

The two of them went out from the kitchen to the living room where HER mother was supervising the holiday meal preparation.   “Mom, why do we cut off the ends of a roast before we put it in the pan?”

The elderly woman replied: “I don’t know why YOU do that, I always did it because my pan was too small!”

True wisdom passes the test of time.  False wisdom may last for awhile – but then it’s found wanting and gets discarded.  Suffice it to say – that young father and son will not be cutting off the ends of the roast any longer!

Time gives us perspective.  How much false wisdom is there in our culture that has recently been exposed?  (the stock market will just go up and up, housing prices will always go up, whoever dies with the most toys wins … )

Our current “modern” world is sceptical of inherited wisdom in the abstract – but are we not rediscovering how important it is to be kind to others, considerate of others, respectful of the environment and more and more?  Come back to these pages each week and reflect with us on the wisdom that God has given to us through our ancestors and our religious traditions.  Then pass it on, as best you can, to the next generations.

Here’s how things have worked in my family:

My grandmother passed things on to Pat.

Pat passed things on to me.

I’m trying to pass them on to my kids.

How has it worked in your family??????

 Ben Azzai said:

Be eager to fulfill the smallest duty and flee from transgression;

for one duty induces another and one transgression induces another transgression.

The reward of a duty is a duty, the reward of one transgression is another transgression.

This one seems fairly obvious, yet it deserves some careful thought and attention.

Rush to do a duty / mitzvah / good deed / commandment.  Look for opportunities, even seek them out, and then do them eagerly.  Let us fill our days with positive actions.  And at the same time – flee from distractions / sins / temptations / wrong-doing.   Almost always we can see these negative things coming, almost always we are aware when we are venturing into a behavioral “bad neighborhood”.  We can, and should, turn around and head elsewhere.

Why?

Because we create and live within our habits and customary choices.  If we have made a habit of considering the needs of others, if we are used to offering help to those in need, if we normally spend our time doing good things – then in idle time and in difficult times our habits will kick in.  We will, in times of doubt, be able to trust our judgments and instincts.

Equally so, if we have made a lifetime of bad choices and gotten familiar with transgressions – well, in idle times and difficult times we are likely to go down those paths again.  We don’t HAVE to, but we are likely to make the same bad judgments.

The “reward”, or result, of doing one good deed is the opportunity to do another.  The “reward”, or result,  of doing some bad thing is the opportunity to do another one.