Good morning.
Find yourself a teacher, win yourself a friend, and be one who judges everyone by giving them the benefit of the doubt.
These Talmudic words are part of a compendium called ‘Pirkei Avot,’ or ‘Sayings of the Fathers’ that are traditionally read on the Sabbath day. Today, on the first day of classes of the fall semester, you do not need to be a student to benefit from their insight.
Find yourself a teacher. Seek out people whose experiences, skills, and perspectives are different from your own, and whose knowledge and wisdom often exceed yours.
Win yourself a friend. Friendship is a reciprocal relationship. Not only must you find the friend, but you must earn the friendship by being a friend, offering companionship, empathy, concern, support and trustworthiness.
Be one who judges everyone by giving them the benefit of the doubt. We’re all too adept at recognizing the flaws of our antagonists and even of our friends. It’s tempting to interpret the actions of others in the worst possible light. It is better for all of us to do the opposite, consciously striving to judge others in the best possible light, in the words of Rabbi Irving Greenberg, shows our true respect for them. People who judge in this way will be better people themselves and will more likely evoke the best possible behavior from others.
How should we interpret these words at a tumultuous time like this one?
Yesterday, many of us attended a particularly beautiful convocation for the first year undergraduates. The enthusiasm and the optimism of the new students uplifted us all as we sensed the seemingly limitless possibilities ahead, and judging from the new students I met with, openness to hearing and benefiting from the diverse views of a diverse group of people.
Yet we also know that this fall is not likely to be calm, with memories of the spring still fresh. We expect that there will be debate and argument, there will be dissent and protest. There will no doubt, be hard feelings and hurt feelings among us, if you believe the headlines. And last month was awash in them. Those of us who are fortunate enough to be a part of universities have no choice but to brace ourselves.
What a bleak notion that is at an institution such as this one.
As a place to find a teacher and to win a friend, it is hard to imagine a better environment than ours. This is one of the world’s finest centers of learning and teaching with some of the world’s greatest scholars and researchers. With some of the world’s most challenging issues and most complex problems in our sights.
As a place to find your teacher and to win some friends, it is hard to imagine a better environment than ours. This is one of the world’s finest centers of learning and teaching with some of the world’s greatest scholars and researchers with some of the world’s most challenging issues and most complex problems in our sights. Here we are peering into the unknown, teetering on the verge of discovery, ushering in a new era of insight. Here we are pushing the limits of understanding, pursuing genuine excellence in every domain, and making ourselves, our university and the world better.
Here, we are blessed with resources beyond many of our wildest dreams. Laboratories laden with the most advanced equipment, libraries and museums brimming with collections that would take a lifetime and more to fully explore. Breathtaking architecture, beautiful landscapes, herbarium — notice plural — as well as an arboretum in Boston, a forest in Petersham, a garden in our nation’s capital, a villa in Florence, all of the many places on our campus and beyond, where we feel enlarged by association, all of the many things that make it possible for the people of Harvard to do their best work and to be their best selves.
Here we are blessed with both opportunity and community. Here we are together, and bracing ourselves is the best we can do? I don’t think so. I am a person who has faith in our capacity to listen attentively and generously, to treat one another with decency and respect, to recognize every day how special a place this is, and how much depth result, not of our physical resources, but of our relationships.
This is not a time to brace ourselves. This is a time to embrace one another. We can do so by always keeping these precepts in mind. Be one who judges everyone by giving them the benefit of the doubt. By reserving judgment, we make it possible for others to know that they are part of this community and that this community cares for them as much as you hope and expect it will. Disappointment in this regard is a crushing blow not to the will, but to the spirit, with belonging and the freedom and peace that it brings out of reach.
We cannot afford to build walls that separate us from one another. We cannot be quick to pass judgment. We must devote ourselves to knowing one another better, to seeing how things look from a perspective that differs from our own. We must try to bring day to day interactions the same commitment to inquiry and discovery that we bring to our intellectual pursuits. If and when tensions among us mount, I hope that we will approach each other, not only as fellow human beings, but as potential teachers and friends.
To do so, we must welcome humility and humanity into interactions with each other more readily than the sense of righteousness. I hope that we can grow in understanding, lifting each other up and urging each other on along the way. And I hope, most of all, that we can take the time to appreciate the fact that we have the chance to do all of these difficult things in the first place.
Here we are at an institution whose name has long been synonymous with excellence, with opportunities that few can equal. Here we are together at a university that belongs to each of us, as we find teachers and win friends. Let us be slow to judge and quick to renew our commitments to one another as we work to make the world a better place.
Thank you.