Synagogue Sermon
I Am a Jew - editor's title (1959)
Modern psychologists speak much of self-identification. The self-image that one entertains, the way a man pictures himself as if he were a third person, is of the most crucial significance in understanding the workings of man’s mind. Some psychologists recently devised a test by which to detect the underlying motif of a person’s personality. They approached a number of people and asked them for their immediate reaction to the question, “Who are you?” The answer is most revealing. For instance, the woman who says, “I am a woman,” or the man who says, “I am a man,” reveals a fundamental concern with his masculinity or her femininity. The one who answers, “I am so-and-so’s son,” or “so-and-so’s daughter,” reveals some kind of involvement, whether good or bad, with his parents. The Negro who answers, “I am Colored,” reveals a strong feeling of resentment for racial discrimination, just as the Southern White who answers, “I am White,” reveals a fraudulent superiority built on what is no doubt a deep feeling of inferiority. The man who answers, “I am a chemist,” is obviously concerned with his professional career, and the man who says, “I am an American,” is obviously more political minded. Self-identification, therefore, the image one holds of oneself is a clue to man’s basic, fundamental personality. And when we have defined for ourselves who we are and what we are in our own image, then we will have experienced a self-revelation. We will have gained some insight into our own selves. Then, when we really intimately know who we are in our own eyes, can we approach Almighty G-d and ask him to remember us – in that way.How interesting that in that amazing book of the Bible, which tradition has chosen to read on Yom Kippur afternoon, the Book of Jonah, we read of a startling incident – startling because it tells of a question which is unusually similar to the question these psychologists we have mentioned used in determining personalities.Recall that when Jonah first attem…
