When God copies us

On Shabbat afternoon I attended the Shabbat Shuvah derashah given by Rabbi Berel Wein at the Beit Knesset Hanassi. One might imagine that there are two Rabbis Wein. One is the author of highly attractive and infinitely readable English-language coffee-table books on Jewish history and tradition. The other is a stone hewn from the uncompromising rock-face of Lithuanian mussar, ethics and Torah-driven character development.  Just two days before Yom Kippur, the most awesome day in the Jewish calendar, there was no doubt which Rabbi Wein would be addressing us.

The atmosphere was tense as this frail old man of nearly 90, perched on a stool and clutching a lectern for support, began to speak. The Beit Knesset, packed to the rafters and beyond, listened in rapt attention, necks craned so as not to miss his words. We all wondered, what was his message for the coming days—and for the year ahead?

The main theme of Rabbi Wein’s derashah was that of attitude. It is our attitudes that shape our thoughts, guide our feelings and steer our actions. Without the right attitudes towards God and our fellow humans, we cannot begin to change ourselves to be the sort of person we would in theory want to be. But we cannot even begin to identify our own attitudes without great and patient effort. Who we are and what we are, as humans, may be apparent to others who view us from the outside, but we are generally blinded to the truth because we cannot objectively construe our own psyche.

Our inability to recognise our attitudes with pinpoint accuracy from the inside does not however mean that we cannot shape them from the outside. Here Rabbi Wein turned to Pirkei Avot. This is not a book of commandments, he argued, but a book designed to shape one’s attitudes. By way of example he discussed the character-improving effect of being don lekaf zechut (judging others in a favourable light: see Avot 1:6).

Having related the famous tale of the worker from the South, believed to have been Rabbi Akiva, who gave his employer the benefit of the doubt even after receiving no pay for three years’ labour (Shabbat 127b), Rabbi Wein sought to show that, if we give others the benefit of the doubt, God will copy our example, as it were.  Here he cited an aggadic episode in which the Heavenly yeshivah spent its time discussing the teachings of all the Tannaim except Rabbi Meir: this was because Rabbi Meir learned Torah from Elisha ben Avuyah, who turned away from Torah, and Rabbi Meir was referred to as acherim (“other people”). But it was explained that Rabbi Meir accepted only the Torah from his teacher, not his heretical beliefs (“he ate the fruit of the pomegranate but threw away the peel”: Chagigah 15a). When this explanation was accepted and real-world rabbis cited Rabbi Meir’s teachings by name, the Heavenly yeshivah followed their lead with God himself giving Rabbi Meir a name-check.

Tying this all together, Rabbi Wein urged us to improve our attitude towards others and judge them favourably—even if we don’t agree with them. If we do this, God will follow our example and judge us favourably too.

May we all be judged favourably for the coming year. Judging others favourably is a small price to pay for this privilege.