Sherre Hirsch

I had the incredible fortune of providing commentary for ABCNews.com on the National Prayer Service. The keynote was Reverend Sharon Watkins, the General Minister and President of the Disciples of Christ. To put it mildly, her sermon rocked the Cathedral with that special mix of intimacy, wisdom, humor and humility. But it was her central metaphor that struck a chord within me.

In a portion of her sermon Reverend Watkins told a story -  attributed to the Cherokee tradition -  about the two wolves that struggle inside each one of us. “One wolf is vengefulness, anger, resentment, self-pity, fear…The other wolf is compassion, faithfulness, hope, truth, love…”
Then she looked directly at President Obama, who was sitting in the front pew, and said, “We need you to feed the good wolf within you, to listen to the better angels of your nature, and by your example encourage us to do the same.”
OMG. Reverend Watkins was talking Jewish. In Judaism, we understand within each one of us is a yetzer hara, an evil inclination and yetzer hatov, good inclination. Both are intrinsic and important to our nature. According to the rabbis, even the evil inclination  - when properly directed  - can enable us to “build houses, make love, feel passion.”  But Judaism commands us to keep it in check. To nourish that side of us that strives to do good. To regularly feed that part of us  - through service and ethical behavior.
Reverend Watkins, the Cherokees and the Jews are saying the same thing. Ethical behavior is practiced over time. It is not a one time deal. Day after day, we behave according to our values and to our morals and lo and behold, we live like angels.
Regardless of your beliefs, words to live by and to practice.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 9th, 2009 at 12:08 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.