“The important thing about our lives is not how we begin, but how much power we have to stay with it until the end.”

April 12, 1970

In this sermon, Rabbi Olan identifies a set of characteristics that make for a life of value and positive impact on the world.  I’ll leave those characteristics for you to listen to or read about yourself.  But what struck me the most about this sermon were the examples he gave of people who possessed these characteristics and led valuable lives.

* the biblical Jacob

* Michelangelo

* Abraham Lincoln

* Susan B. Anthony, women’s suffrage leader

* Norman Thomas, minister and socialist

* Jonas Salk, inventor of the polio vaccine

* Dr. Benjamin Spock, pediatrician and political activist

And in generalizing about groups of people who lead such lives, he included not only artists, scientists, and businesspeople, but also mothers.

Rabbis are conspicuously absent.

*Written by Joshua F. Hirsch*