In his incredible book Radical Then Radical Now Rabbi Jonathan Sacks [of blessed memory and former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom] explained that sometimes seemingly insignificant experiences can have big impacts on our self-perception. He retold the following well-known story that Sigmund Freud wrote in one of his books: “When Freud was a young boy, he was holding his father’s hand. His father looked at him and said, ‘Things are so much better now than they were in my day. Once somebody came, took my Kippah, threw it in the mud, and screamed, ‘Get off the pavement, Jew!
‘What did you do?’ asked little Sigmund. His father replied, “I picked it up, wiped it off, and continued on my way.” This struck little Sigmund as a cowardly and unheroic act which, as Rabbi Sacks proposed, set him up for a life of ambivalence towards his own Jewish identity
The Rav then explained that he once had a similar but opposite experience. When he was a young boy, the terrible British saying, “Be a Jew at home and a man in the streets,” was still being used.
One time, as he was leaving shul with his father, a well-meaning congregant approached him and said, “Oh, Mr. Sacks, I’m afraid it looks like your son had forgotten to take off his yarmulke.”
This person was only trying to “save him from embarrassment.” However, Rabbi Sacks’ father got angry and told that man in a forceful tone, “No son of mine will be ashamed to be a Jew!” He then took his hand, said, “Let’s go, son,” and marched away with a huff.
Rabbi Sacks explained how this moment shaped him and allowed him to undertake years of learning philosophy and hearing people try to prove G-d doesn’t exist without the slightest doubt of his own faith’s validity, all the while wearing a kippah proudly on his head.
Reprinted from the Parshas Lech Lecha 5786 email of Torah Sweets.
