Graduations are wonderful occasions to look back on the experience,
celebrate the accomplishment, and look forward with optimism to the next stage
of life. Synonymous with graduations, especially for university students, is
the commencement address- that last message that a student receives from the
institution before moving on. Time Magazine identified their Top 10
Commencement Addresses. The list includes a variety of speakers, from Winston
Churchill to Steven Colbert. As I went through the list I noticed that a number
of lessons that emerge from the Top Ten Commencement addresses are sentiments
that we can learn from this morning’s Torah reading, Parshat Shelach,
especially within the context of the story of the Spies and its aftermath.
In 1963 President John F Kennedy delivered the commencement address at
American University. In it he said:
Let us examine our attitude toward peace itself. Too many of us think it
is impossible. Too many think it unreal. But that is a dangerous, defeatist
belief. It leads to the conclusion that war is inevitable, that mankind is
doomed, that we are gripped by forces we cannot control.
We need not accept that view. Our problems are man-made — therefore,
they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of
human destiny is beyond human beings. Man's reason and spirit have often solved
the seemingly unsolvable — and we believe they can do it again.
JFK is expressing the sentiment: if you think you can do a thing or you
think you cannot do it- you are right. Genius may be mostly perspiration, but a
person needs that 1 percent of inspiration- and the belief that s/he can
accomplish the goal. Looking at the Meraglim, we had 10 versus two. All Meraglim
saw the exact same scene and yet Kalev and Yehoshua came to a different
conclusion- how can this be? The answer is that all the Meraglim were right-
those who felt that they could not conquer the land were right and because
Kalev/ Yehoshua felt that they could conquer the land- they were right as well.
How we approach a task and whether we are optimistic about the outcome has a
profound impact on the success of the endeavor.
Steve Jobs gave the commencement address in 2005 at Stanford University.
He had already been diagnosed with cancer, and his remarks were influenced by
that experience. In that speech he said: Your
time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.
Jobs is alluding to the fact that even though we often comfort people by
saying that “it’s never too late”- in reality sometimes it is too late. We need
to cherish every day of life and do all that we can while we can. We can never
get back the opportunities of today and there is no guarantee of how many
tomorrows any of us will actually see. Some things can’t be undone and some
things can’t be made up for. We learn this lesson in Parshat Shelach from the
Maapilim (end of Chapter 14). They tell Moshe, “we realize the mistake of our
ways and we won’t repeat it.” And Moshe tells them “it’s too late”- they don’t listen and they are destroyed by
Amalek and the Canaanim.
In sum, Parshat Shelach contains a number of powerful lessons for our
graduates and really for us all: 1) Success often depends on our attitudes and
our belief in our ability to succeed. 2) As much as we are a religion of second
chances, sometimes in life it becomes too late - so plan accordingly.
If we really internalize these lessons of Parshat Shelach, then may
Hashem bless our graduates and us all as we move onto a new Parsha.
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