My precious students:* Your graduation and this opportunity to offer a blessing and charge for the future that you will invent, arrives in perfect harmony with the Torah portion this week, Shelach. In it we read from the story of Moses blessing and offering a charge to twelve scouts about to enter Canaan, to begin a journey toward a future of their invention.
We tend to think that in telling its stories Torah is limited to using only the now fixed in time 22 letters that comprise the Hebrew alphabet. This is reinforced by the very first words of Torah, “In the beginning God created et” (Genesis 1:1) What’s et? Et is a definite article in Hebrew spelled by joining the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet (aleph) to the last (tav).
Some read et as a kind of synecdoche for the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. In other words, “In the beginning God created the 22 letters and with those letters God created the world.”
Yet a Torah scroll does not limit itself to 22 fixed, uniform letters. For example, this week in one verse the letter yud is super-sized. (Numbers 14:16) That yud is but one of 16 letters that are sometimes written super large or super small. In every Torah scroll some other letters by design have decorative dots or crowns or are written upside down. The Sages of Talmud refer to nearly 100 variants for letters in the Torah.
That there are differences is clear. But making meaning out of those differences is up to us. My graduates, just as you have made meaning out of the differences among your unique selves, making meaning out of the Torah is now up to you.
Which brings me to one of my favorite and least well-known Dr. Seuss books, “On Beyond Zebra!” The book turns 60 this year. It actually came out before “The Cat in the Hat” or “The Lorax” or “The Places You’ll Go.”
“On Beyond Zebra” tells the story of a young Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell learning there’s more to know about the world beyond the fixed, uniform alphabet that ends with the letter Z. Dr. Seuss encourages the reader to use her own imagination to construct a world of meaning -- a world that goes beyond fixed, uniform, and artificial boundaries.
Listen to Seuss as very young Conrad recites the A, B, Cs:
Said Conrad Cornelius o’Donald o’Dell
My very young friend who is learning to spell
“The A is for Ape. And the B is for Bear
The C is for Camel. The H is for Hare” . . .
“Through to Z is for Zebra, I know them all well.”
Said Conrad Cornelius o’Donald o’Dell.
“So now I know everything anyone knows
From beginning to end.
From the start to the close.
Because Z is as far as the alphabet goes.”
Seuss then shifts the voice to another boy who sets out to teach the very young Conrad about the world: :
“In the places I go there are things that I see
That I never could spell if I stopped with the Z.
I’m telling you this ‘cause you’re one of my friends.
My alphabet starts where your alphabet ends! “
. . .
So, on beyond Zebra!
Explore!
Like Columbus!
Discover new letters!
Like WUM is for Wumbus
. . .
So, on beyond Z! It’s high time you were shown
That you really don’t know all there is to be known
This unnamed teacher reveals a whole set of letters that exist beyond Z and that are used to spell the names of fanciful creatures imagined by Seuss in words and drawings. At the end of this lesson:
I tried hard to tell
Young Conrad Cornelius o’Donald o’Dell
A few brand-new wonderful words he might spell.
I led him around and I tried hard to show
There are things beyond Z that most people don’t know.
I took him past Zebra. As far as I could.
And I think, perhaps, maybe I did him some good…
Because, finally, he said:
“This is really great stuff!
And I guess the old alphabet
ISNT enough!”
Dear Class of 2015, like Conrad Cornelius o’Donald o’Dell the old alphabet of A to Z -- or even Aleph to Tav -- is not enough for you. You demonstrate that already with the two traits I spoke to you about when we sat together on the lawn earlier this week. One is your truth, your emet (lit. “truth), the authenticity to be just who you are. The other is your compassion, your chesed (lit. “lovingkindness”) that you demonstrate in relationship with others.
Each of you is empowered by these two forces -- emet and chesed -- truth and compassion -- to go well beyond Zebra.
I have witnessed it in your ‘all-in’ commitment to learning. And how you translate your learning into action with your passion to be upstanders instead of bystanders. Your teachers have seen you go well beyond Zebra with your insatiable thirst to know more, wonder more, ask more, and do more. You are strong individuals who value each others differences. Each of you is fearless about discovering and pursuing your own unique Jewish path.
I am so struck by your ability to make meaning 'on beyond Zebra' with your signature truth and compassion, let me put my prayer for you today in in Dr. Seuss-like terms:
In the places you’ll go
there are things that you’ll be
That you never could spell
if you stopped with the Z
I’m telling you this
cause you’re each my dear friend
Truth and compassion matter most in the end
My precious students, ultimately the value of your learning at Jewish Community High School of the Bay lies not in some narrow 22-letter range of what you’ve learned, but rather in how what you’ve learned inspires you to act bringing the world closer toward hope and wholeness. The value of your JCHS education depends on how inspired you are to write through your deeds a Torah of your invention on the journey of life -- one for yourself filled with letters beyond Z or Tav.
*My charge to Class of 2015 at Jewish Community High School of the Bay (@jchsofthebay) was delivered June 11, 2015 and was inspired by Mike Feinberg (@KIPPBigDog), co-founder of KIPP, reading “On Beyond Zebra” to the 30th anniversary celebration of The Wexner Foundation (@thxwex) in April 2015. I am grateful for the enduring inspiration of my Wexner Graduate Fellowship that continues to blossom years beyond my rabbinical studies.
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