Coming Next Week: Mensch•Marks for the New Year
A daily dose of ethical guidance to keep us grounded in a crazy, unhinged election year. Starts Wednesday, Sept 4 (Elul 1).
All of religion can be distilled down to the question of how to be a good person. To be religious is to be good – and to be good is to be religious. You can find a version of the Golden Rule in almost every living faith; but for Jews, especially, being a mensch is at the core of an authentic Jewish life.
In my book Mensch·Marks: Life Lessons of a Human Rabbi - Wisdom for Untethered Times, I write:
One isn’t born a mensch. Nor is it a status that one ever completely achieves; for to boast that you are mensch is, by definition, not to possess the requisite humility to be one. Becoming a mensch is a life-long process, a journey, an aspiration.
Although the word mensch means “man” in German, the Yiddish word is not gender specific, nor does it correlate to what might be considered “macho” qualities. Quite the contrary, in fact, To be a mensch, only kindness matters.
The Talmudic tractate Avot, 6:6 provides a roadmap as to how to live an ethical life. This passage includes 48 middot (measures) through which we can “acquire Torah.” See the full list of middot here. Each day during the High Holiday period, running from the first of Elul through Yom Kippur, I’ll be highlighting one of these middot, in order to assist each of us in the process of soul searching (“heshbon ha-nefesh”) and our preparations for the new year.
Leo Rosten defines mensch as, “someone to admire and emulate, someone of noble character. The key to being “a real mensch” is rectitude, dignity, a sense of what is right, responsible, decorous.”
Each of these “Mensch•Marks,” as I call them, these benchmarks of menschiness, will be illuminated with bite-size essays, stories and anecdotes from various sources, including my own experiences. Any wisdom I share is not from a pulpit on high, but rather from an unfolding story of a fellow traveler, one who has stumbled, failed and persevered, struggling with the questions large and small, and through it all has tried to live with dignity and grace.
And there is a tie-in to this election season. While being a mensch should certainly involve a desire for consensus building and peace, the authentic mensch also seeks justice and is compelled to refrain from sitting on the sidelines when the hour requires taking a stand. These Mensch•Marks will not shy away from the obligation to stand up for what is right. Nor should we.
(See my prior article, Rabbi’s Moment of Truth is Truth, which discusses this very thing)
To be specific, there is only one mensch running for president right now, and it ‘aint the one with XY chromosomes. These daily, quick illustrations of prime Jewish values will make that fact crystal clear - as I’ve already done in a different way in my prior posting, Thanks for asking, Donald. Here are 52 reasons why three quarters of American Jews won't vote for you.
And as reminders of where Jewish and ethical values might have a role to play in the existential choices we voters are about to make, I hope you will share these bits of wisdom with your family and friends. Make sure they all subscribe to my Substack (free or paid) so they won’t miss a single one!
Warm wishes for a year of personal growth.
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