What does the rabbi see?
Change places with the rabbi for a moment. Instead of a congregant’s-eye view of the rabbi, attempt a rabbi’s-eye view of his congregation.
Now of course you are going to say, if you realise how short-sighted I am, that maybe I do not see everyone and everything with much crisp detail – and it is possibly good that I don’t see certain things.
But you would be surprised at how much I do see, and how much I admire of what I know and see of almost every single individual in our vast kehillah.
I have always liked the traditional concept of the Lamed-Vav Tzaddikim, the thirty-six (lamed-vav) righteous people on whose unsung merits the whole world rests.
The Talmud (Sukkah 45b) says there are thirty-six righteous men who receive the Divine Presence every day. Thirty-six is the numerical value of lo (“him”) in the verse, “Happy are they that hope in Him (Isaiah 30:18).
In later thinking the identity of the thirty-six is hidden, even from themselves. They appear quite ordinary but their hidden qualities sustain the world. The Bible – Proverbs 10:25 – already recognised that “The righteous is an everlasting foundation”, which the Targum paraphrases, “The righteous is the support of the world”.
Andre Schwarz-Bart’s novel, “The Last of the Just”, traces the theme up to the time of the Holocaust.
The Lamed-Vav concept tells me that my neighbour may be a lamed-vavnik, for what matters is not aggressive personality but inner goodness and piety. And this brings me back to my rabbi’s-eye view.
I have been around for long enough to be able to appreciate and admire the inner quality of so many people. I will not name names. But if you recognise yourself or a shule neighbour, so be it.
I think of people who have been overtaken by adversity that might have broken them, but their courage was undaunted, their spirit unshaken, their dignity unweakened.
I think of people who were brought to their knees by the disloyalty of a business partner but maintained their integrity, paid back their debts and started again.
I think of one or two who did wrong but made amends and rehabilitated themselves.
I think of some who had a quarrel with God but finally learned to live with Him, knowing it can be hard with God but it is much harder without Him.
This is not all I see as I look out upon my congregation and marvel at what I see. I see good, decent human beings who may never hit the headlines but try to live honourably, to perform deeds of love and thoughtfulness, to smile and encourage a smile in others.
And in case anyone says, “Maybe that’s me, but I’m not special!” I reply, “Your specialness is precisely in that you know what God expects of you and you live by it without a fuss…”
What else do I see? Yes, despite my short sight I have to say I sometimes see things that worry me, lapses from high standards, actions that are ill-advised, people that allow themselves too much leniency.
But then I say, “That’s what Yom Kippur is all about, to get all of us thinking about ourselves and working on our own souls. How fortunate we are to have a Yom Kippur! If it didn’t exist, we would have had to invent it!”
