The Struggle Between Optimism vs. Realism

as a first-year law student, my property professor was perhaps the meanest, nastiest and brightest of them all. he was enigmatic; despite being a holocaust survivor, he held classes on the high holidays.

the classroom was his operating room. rather than a scalpel, he performed surgery with words. with a few questions, he could remove one’s courage. with some more questions, he could make people cry. students sat in class in fear; it was as if they were in the waiting room of a sadistic dentist.

at some point, i had to go to his office hours. in his little room, i became overwhelmed by the feeling of intimidation. i struggled and stammered. he immediately told me that “i would never become a lawyer.” after thirty-three years of practicing law, those words remain etched into my grey matter. “was he serious?” to this day, i still wonder.

as a young associate, three decades ago, i represented a client who had a simple task. they were to attend a psychiatric evaluation to be cleared to return to work. if they passed this exam, they would receive one year of back pay- over $50,000.00.

although this exam was not part of my legal work, i prepped them for the evaluation. how hard could it be to coach someone to say, “i was having some emotional problems and i now i am feeling much better. i can do my job!”?

the answer to the question was “impossible!” my client was, what we call in the legal profession, “meshuga”. despite being sweet, polite and practically every accolade you could give to a genteel person, they were crazy. i spent hours sitting with them practicing. in the end, i told the person- one-half being motivational and the other being reality- “no matter how much i help you, you are still going to blow it!” my psychic cat powers were right back then. they failed the examination.

the torah portion nitzavim-vayelech contains a most interesting declaration. in moses’ final speech, he calls out the children of israel saying “for i know that after my death, you will surely become corrupted, and deviate from the way which i had commanded you. consequently, the evil will befall you at the end of days, because you did evil in the eyes of the lord, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands.”

was this statement motivation or prophesy?

history confirms that moses’ statement is prophesy multiple times forward.

was the statement also motivational?

given this torah portion’s proximity towards the jewish new year and the day of atonement, moses’ words may serve as inspiration to people as they approach a time of reflection.