Leap of faith: We should respect and learn from one another

The New Year presents an opportunity for a reset

I love spending quality time with my kids over the summer holidays, but there is a sense of relief that descends as school returns, and we can get back into a sense of routine! I am so grateful to the teachers and schools who walk through the most formative years with our children and us together despite shrinking budgets, challenging behaviour and a rapidly changing world.

My daughter, who has just started preparing for GCSEs, came home excitedly this week to report how wonderful it was to be in a science class where everyone wanted to learn – she felt in one lesson she had absorbed more than in months of lessons last year. It reminded me of a school parent who had complained to me that her frustration with the school was that the teachers hadn’t earned her childs respect. I was rather taken aback – surely our teachers (and everyone!) should automatically have respect. Respect can be lost, but surely we should respect everyone we meet rather than expect everyone to earn our respect? As Ben Zoma says in Pirkei Avot: “Who is wise? One who learns from every person.” If our children are waiting for teachers to impress them, rather than excitedly waiting to learn, it makes it a real challenge.

On Yom Kippur, another moment of resetting in the year, we will read about Moses asking if he can see all of God. The answer is a firm no – no one can see all of the Divine and live – our brains aren’t built for it. But Midrash tells us that all the Israelites gathered at Mount Sinai were able to see a glimpse of God. Each person was able to access a tiny part of the greater whole. I love this image as it reminds us that there is something to be learnt from everyone else’s glimpses. Alone, we can’t possibly grasp it all, but collectively, we come closer to the whole truth, and there is something to be learnt from everyone and what they have seen.

This is a time for resets, fresh starts and committing to be the best version of ourselves in the coming year. I hope that my children, their classmates and their teachers understand the power of these resets, and the opportunities to learn that each new year presents them, both at school and in the Jewish year.

Rabbi Debbie Young-Somers is at Edgware and Hendon Reform Synagogue