Letters to the Editor: Ahead of Rosh Hashanah, two pieces ‘harmonized with one beautiful message’
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To the editor: Thank you for the opinion pieces published on the days before Rosh Hashanah, the start of the Jewish New Year. Two very different voices harmonized with one beautiful message.
Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz reminds us “the person we were yesterday does not have absolute authority over the person we can become tomorrow” (“What if we stopped trying to be right?,” Sept. 10). LZ Granderson praises Western Michigan’s football coach, Lance Taylor: “When things didn’t go his way, he showed his players how to keep cool when the pressure comes” (“A tough loss is when character shines through,” Sept. 11).
The rabbi writes, “Moral clarity and intellectual humility can coexist.” Granderson teaches that “moral memory” is “the difference between being steered by whatever’s loudest in the room and being steered by something you built in yourself, rep by rep, long before anyone was watching.”
I don’t call myself a practicing Jew, and I am certainly not an athlete. Still, these voices drive me to be a better person. More patient, thoughtful and accepting of others.
A sweet, happy New Year to all, full of peace, understanding and hope.
Michael Tzipori, Ventura
