2020 traditionally stands for perfect vision, but the finest foresight could hardly have foreseen the coronavirus pandemic. It was what Donald Rumsfeld called “a known unknown.” We all knew about epidemics, as we say in Avinu Malkeinu, “mena mageifa mi’nachalateinu.” We prayed not to be exposed to one, but as often as we said that prayer, did we really think it could happen to us? Yet there is an important principle at stake.
What do we learn from this? I believe this current crisis is saying to us three things, especially to you.
The first is this. Many years ago, a very great work of sociology was published from Harvard. It was called “The Lonely Crowd,” and it analysed the different character types that are needed in different eras of human history. The authors came to the conclusion that at ages of great change, what were needed were inner-directed people, people with their own internal compass, their own deeply internalised set of values and principles. Yeshiva University has given you a great and necessary gift of inner-directedness.
You know that to be a Jew is to follow your own inner light, your own inner voice, do what the Rambam defines as serving Hashem with love, oseh ha’emet mipnei shehu emet, doing what is right because it's right.
The second gift was defined by that explorer of the unexpected, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the man who wrote about the unpredicted and the unpredictable and called it “The Black Swan.” Subsequently, he developed an interesting concept which he called anti-fragility.
He was objecting to the idea of resilience. Resilience, he said, means you don't break under pressure. Well, that's good news, but much better news is the characteristic that allows you to grow stronger under pressure.
That is what he calls antifragility. Well, the more you carry the Yeshiva's values with you, the stronger you will become. And right now, the world needs people with emotional and spiritual strength.
And the third and final value takes me back to one of my first encounters with Yeshiva University and with its great, eminent, and deeply revered President, Rabbi Norman Lamm. He used to say to me, you know, there is only one joke he knows of in the Mishna - “Talmidei chachamim marbim shalom ba’olam.” Rabbis increase peace in the world. He said, “That must be a joke because the more rabbis, the more rows.” I said, “When a rabbi becomes a builder, when anyone becomes a builder, they become a maker of peace.”
Because the greatest way of making peace in the world is by building stuff. You can see that from the Torah itself. The only time the Israelites were not fighting or complaining was when they were building the Mishkan.
To be a graduate of Yeshiva University is to be a builder. And right now, the world needs rebuilding. The economy, businesses, healthcare, disrupted schools and universities, virtually every single aspect of life has been damaged and is in need of repair.
“Call them not your children, but your builders.” Go and build. So this is my blessing to you. Go and be proud ambassadors of this great place. May Hashem bless you and may you be a source of blessing to the world.
