“ … [W]isdom is not only a respect for tradition, an appreciation of time, it is living by faith. The Bible describes the unbeliever not as a sinner, but as a fool.”

Organizations display mission statements and core values offering potential clients and partners a glimpse of corporate beliefs and ideals. Corporate behavior is expected to flow from the advertised list of corporate characteristics spelled out in a set of values. Knowing what a company believes and stands for makes it more trustworthy, perhaps. Someone might feel connected and able to make sense of business strategies based on the statement of values.

People, too, develop a set of guiding principles – personal core values – to guide daily life. One’s personal core values, one’s set of beliefs and ideals, should, likewise, determine one’s actions. In his sermon of November 21, 1965, Rabbi Olan considers wisdom to be a chief core value, saying “Life, which is not a simple matter, demands many things of man, knowledge, faith, courage, and always wisdom….”

For him, wisdom seems to equate with sense. Rabbi Olan suggests that a person who has wisdom (sense) also is a person of faith, of necessity, concluding that the “trouble with atheism is…. that it makes no sense.”

How might we respond to Rabbi’s assertions about wisdom?

*Written by Lillie Jenkins Walker.*