Season of Senioritis: Don't Let the Light Go Out (Emor 5777)

Toward the end of each school year, there are moments when the excitement, energy, and (even) inspiration with which the year started seems to fade. Every grade has its own version of senioritis. At those moments it is important to remember that we each are responsible for the daily inspiration needed to keep being motivated. No single event or moment from August is sufficient to keep us motivated through an entire year.

Eldridge Stree Synagogue, New York

This week’s Torah portion, which includes a feature of every Jewish sanctuary, the ner tamid (a so-called “eternal light”), teaches a powerful lesson about continually encouraging motivation.

And so does an Ethiopian folktale about an elderly king worried about which of this three children would succeed him. Each child had unique traits. The oldest was strong. The middle child was clever. The youngest had insight. The king loved them all equally and tremendously.

But because only one could succeed him, the king held a contest. He brought his three children to the royal garden -- to the front of a tall, dark shack. No windows, just one small door. There he challenged them: “You will each have one week to fill this shack. Whoever fills it the most completely will become the next ruler.”

The oldest child spent every day of his week lugging large boulders and huge rocks to the shack. He filled the shack with all these stones, stacking them to the roof. Then he found smaller pebbles to try to fill in as many crevices as he could see. At the end of the week, the king smiled inspecting this work.

Then the middle child spent every day of his week carrying pillows, comforters, and feathers to the shack. He stuffed these into the shack, cleverly pushing more fistfuls of feathers in wherever the feathers started to settle. At the end of the week, the king smiled inspecting this work.

Finally the youngest child spent every day of her week inside the shack reading books. Since the shack had no window, she kept a candle burning all day and night to aid her reading. As her father approached the shack at the end of the week, she stepped out the shack. Then she reached back in to light one last candle. When the king opened the door to the shack he was startled to see the entire shack completely filled with light from that one candle.

That light filled every corner and crevice of the shack. The king lifted his daughter’s arm declaring her the winner. He knew it was her insight, more than the strength or cleverness of others, that would inspire his people.

It has been the practice for five hundred years to include a ner tamid in a Jewish sanctuary. That practice comes from this week’s Torah portion (Leviticus 24:2) about a ner tamid in the ancient wilderness tabernacle. Although “tamid” literally means “always” or “continuously,” Rashi (12th century) reads “tamid” here to mean routinely, regularly, day by day. As Freema Gottleib writes in her treatise about light in the Jewish tradition, “The original nuance of the Hebrew [ner tamid] does not mean ‘perpetual light,’ but implies a fixed routine - continual but not continuous.” (p.190)

So it is with us as we approach the end of a school year. Educators and students alike need to find ways to continually encourage and inspire each other. Nothing said or experienced in August is sufficient to keep the motivation going. Only with continual encouragement and inspiration can we successfully close the school year. May each of us have the wisdom to continue inspiring others and the strength to continue motivating ourselves.