Synagogue Sermon
Some Fatherly Advice (1969)
I beg your indulgence if I take advantage of the pulpit, this morning, for matters of personal privilege. First, I thank all those who have come to join Mrs. Lamm and me in our simcha, and hope that we shall be able to reciprocate at happy and joyous occasions in the lives of all members of the Center Family and all our friends. It is a special privilege to extend a warm, heartfelt, and fraternal welcome to a former neighbor, a revered colleague, and – above all – a dear friend, the distinguished Chief Rabbi of the British Commonwealth, Dr. Immanuel Jakobovits, who has spanned the ocean in order to repay a sixty year old debt in our mutual exchange of celebrating simchas in our respective families. I am pleased not only that my eminent guest has come to grace our joyous occasion, but that he has consented to teach and address this congregation this afternoon. Second, my sermon this morning will consist of remarks inspired by what is for me the obviously personal nature of today’s event – some fatherly advice, in the tradition of King Solomon’s remarks in Proverbs: שמע בני מוסר אביך – listen, my son, to the teaching of your father. But though these words may be directed specifically to my son, I do not mean them exclusively for him, but also for all other young people. Perhaps, if it be not an immodest conceit, they may be of some relevance and value to others as well.My fatherly advice, my מוסר אביך, is essentially this: grow up fast, set high goals, strive for greatness, because nothing less will do. Halakhically, bar mitzvah is the time that a youngster reaches the status of gadol, his legal majority. But it is far more than a legal category or physiological state. It also implies maturity, and, even more than that, gadlut means greatness. And the world thirsts for greatness. Society is pitifully mired in a morass of mediocrity, Jewish life is being strangled by smallness, and only greatness can save them. Shakespeare said (in his “Twelfth Night”): “Some are born…
