The Three Most Influential Jews of All Time

Note: At Temple Micah, every b’nai mitzvah student gets to ask their rabbi a question of their own choosing to be answered by the rabbi as part of their sermon the morning of the b’nai mitzvah. This is one of those sermons.

Dear Frank - 

As is custom in this Temple Micah community, my remarks this morning are a response to a question, which you’ve developed, and then posed to me. 

Your question comes from your love of lists, of which you’ve shared this morning. 

Your question, as exactly stipulated by you - 

Who are the three most influential Jews- of all time and place, dead or alive, real or not real. (not jesus) and, they need to be in ranked order? 

And, although you’ve asked for 3, you told me I’m allowed to go up to 5. 

Now, Frank, I think I’m supposed to give some deep, spiritual answer about how each of us, made in the image of God, are of equal worth and merit.

And making such a list is not only impossible, but counter to my ethos. 

And yet, I am both intrigued and entertained by the exercise, so let’s dive in. 

Where to start? 

First with the honorable mentions - 

Adam and Eve - who started it all 

And Abraham, and Sarah, who gave us monotheism- 

What about Rebecca, whose decisive action engineered a birthright to go through Jacob and not Esau? 

And speaking of, what about Jacob - whose 12 sons became the 12 tribes of Israel? 

And what of Miriam, who ensured that Moses could be born. And for that matter, Yocheved, who defied Pharaoh’s evil decree, and protected Moses after his birth? And for that matter, what about the Hebrew midwives, who bravely went against Pharaoh and enabled countless babies to be born?

And what about Joseph, who has an entire very popular musical in his honor? 

More honorable mentions to go the the prophets - Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah, Amos 

King David, who slayed Goliath, and who wrote the Psalms, 

And King Solomon - who built the first Temple, known for his wisdom 

We must acknowledge the early sages and rabbis, who transformed the sacrificial cult into a Judaism that is intellectual, creative, and iterative? 

Or the medieval rabbis who built layers upon layers of commentary on the Torah and Talmud?

We haven’t even gotten to the Enlightenment yet, Frank! The Jews who tried to adapt to the modern era that was growing in Europe.

Or What about all the Jews who sat on Napoleon's Sanhedrin, making the case that Jews deserved emancipation? 

If you haven’t figured it out yet - your question has been keeping me up for more than a few days now. 

Because there is also Walter Benjamin, and Levi Strauss, Durkheim, and Freud.

And when we get to arts and culture - Gershwin, Kafka Chagall, Proust, Louis B. Mayer, Gertrude Stein, Steven Sondheim, and Leonard Cohen, and Dylan! and Curly, Larry, and Mo.

The leaders of social and political movements - Karl Marx, Emma Goldman, Betty Freidan, Theodore Hertzl - founder of Zionism, and David Ben Gurion, the founding Prime Minister of  Israel, and Golda Meir, and we can not forget Brandeis - the first Jew on the supreme court, and of course, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and Ukrainian President Voldomyr Zelensky.

(Which leads me to one MAJOR caveat - that this list, sadly, is mostly men, and my final list, will be, 3 men. This is not because there have not been amazing, hugely influential women, but having been denied status and a platform for much of our history- we can’t always know their impact.) 

So we continue with our honorable mentions:

Religious leaders - Rashi, Maimonides, the Baal Shem Tov, founder of Hasidism, Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Debbie Friedman, who transformed the sound of Jewish prayer, and reintroduced Jewish spirituality into the contemporary synagogue.

And the rebels like Spinoza, Shabbtai Tzvi, and Martin Buber.

And since it is October, we also have to throw a bone to Sandy Koufax - the pitcher who would not play on Yom Kippur 

And science, of course, brings us Niels Bohr, and Jonas Salk (thanks for curing Polio! btw). 

And of course, Anne Frank, and Eli Wiesel, whose testimonials helped us understand the brutality of the Holocaust, and the deep humanity of the 6 million murdered.

And I’ll add one more name to the list, Rachel Polin Goldberg, mother of Hirsch, a hostage killed just a few weeks ago after over year in captivity. Who showed us all what courage and compassion looks like.

I didn’t go through this list to show how impressive Jews are - 

Although I continue to be inspired by the impact that we’ve made - for ourselves and on the world 

And also to highlight that any valid list could include any of these people, and more - 

So now, I’ll tell you how I’ve made my list, and who made it:

1. The person has to have had an impact both within, and outside the Jewish community and culture.

2. The impact needs to be positive, rather than negative

3. For the purposes of this question, they also had to live their lives as Jews - meaning, they not only contributed to their field,  but also thought and spoke about what it meant to be a Jew (or in one case, an Israelite). This means that it is not enough for them to be technically Jewish. (I’m looking at you, Christopher Columbus).

Ok. Here it is. 

#3. Hillel the Sage 

Hillel is of the first of the teachers to transform Judaism from its sacrificial origins , 2,000 years ago.

Hillel the Elder lifted himself out of poverty - was deeply dedicated to rigorous study.

He is known by what he said and taught - Taking the complex systems and teachings of Judaism and making them understandable and relevant (even for us today). He laid the groundwork for a Judaism that was based on study and the search for meaning, and the idea that Judaism could be practiced anywhere.

It is even rumored that he was Jesus’ teacher - 

He taught us so many things:

Some of which are on are wall here: If I am not for myself, who will be for me, if I am only for myself, what am I, and if not now, when? 

He taught us that we must always increase in matters of joy.

That kindness is preferable to bluntness.

To love peace and pursue it, love all people, and try to bring people closer to Torah

That humility is the greatest attribute.

And that the fundamental principle of the Entire Torah is this “what is hateful to you, do not do to another.” And to that, he added, the rest is commentary, now go and learn it. 

This is his contribution - both the ethical and the directive to learn all that there is to learn. Foundations of the Judaism that we practice today.

#2. Albert Einstein 

I will argue that Einstein is not only the most influential Jewish person of the last two centuries, but also, the most influential person of any background.

Einstein changed the way we view ourselves:

That we are a speck of dust on a speck of dust - BUT that doesn’t mean that life is meaningless.

And - that just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

With a handful of letters, numbers, and symbols, He changed the way humanity viewed and understood the universe with his understanding of matter and his theory of relativity. 

Who does not know E = mc2? 

His theories paved the way for space travel and major advances in technology 

Importantly, because I stipulated that one’s impact must be positive - I do need to mention Einstein’s role in encouraging the United States to do atomic research, which would eventually lead to the development of the atomic bomb used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki 

And this is true - despite this, he himself held deep regret over his role in the development of  nuclear weapons.

Einstein was a notable pacifist and civil rights advocate. He continuously advocated for science to be used for good and not for harm.

And always- always, Einstein came back to the idea of shared humanity.

That every human deserved freedom and equality - and that each of us was connected and responsible for each other just because each of us is a human being on this particular planet.

And always - he felt both human, and Jewish - writing “The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, an almost fanatical love of justice, and the desire for personal independence—these are features of the Jewish tradition which make me thank my lucky stars that I belong to it." 

#1) Moses 

Who could be on this list but Moses.

Moses, defines God for a new era - he sees that God- panim-el-panim, face-to-face, the only in our tradition to have done so and lived.

Moses was a lawgiver and judge. He argued with God on behalf of the Israelite. He led us out of Egypt, and then, continued to lead.

He is a shared figure, venerated in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, as well as in generations of people fighting for their own freedom, claiming in their own language his words, “Let my people go” - 

He told us all that our freedom is worth it.

If Genesis tells us our origins, the Exodus tells us our purpose - to stand up against injustice and hold human life as sacred.

Moses shapes our laws with his voice and his teaching 

Without Moses, we would still be in Egypt.

Ok. That’s a list. Ask me tomorrow, I might have a different one. 

But Frank - I also want to go back to where I started - That each one of us - in our own way, should be on this list. 

ּּּּּBecause, when I asked you, “Can I include you” as a little bit of a joke, I actually did mean it. 

Each of us makes our contributions, sometimes in known ways, sometimes in invisible ones.

And so many of the most influential and important deeds will never appear on a list -

Because they are unrankable. But no less important. 

Never discount your own contributions - Frank. 

Mazel tov again, on this achievement,  

Your friend, 

Rabbi Crawley