Ariel Wolf '01 at Alumni Weekend Shabbat Services

1/5/2017

They laughed, they cried, but most importantly, our Beth Tfiloh Congregants were overwhelmed with the powerful message Ariel Wolf ’01 delivered to the congregation over Alumni Weekend Shabbat. He spoke of fond BT memories, a devastating loss of a classmate, and the message of staying connected (after 15 years…) to where we established our passion for learning, along with our Jewish identity- here at Beth Tfiloh.

Rabbi Wohlberg, Cantor Albrecht, honored guests, and distinguished alumni, especially my fellow classmates from the Beth Tfiloh class of 2001, and most importantly from that class, my wife Andrea,

Thank you very much for allowing me the honor of delivering these brief remarks here today. In particular, I’d like to thank the chairwoman of the alumni council, Jana Ponczak, for this opportunity. As many of you know, Chairwoman Ponczak is not only a talented, wise, and entrepreneurial leader of this important alumni group, but she is also my sister. Apparently, the President-Elect's Transition Team is not the only body currently struggling with compliance with federal anti-nepotism laws.

My goal here is to welcome everyone to BT’s Alumni weekend. There are a number of special events and get-togethers taking place. I urge you all to attend. Tonight, after the student-alumni basketball game, the 2001 Girls championship basketball team—which included Andrea, by the way—will be inducted into the BT Athletic hall of fame. After that, there will be a ceremony in which I will be inducted into the Beth Tfiloh Penmanship Hall of Fame, a ceremony not to be missed.

For those of you counting, the last time I was invited to deliver a speech on this stage was 15 years 5 months, and 12 days ago. Now, that's a very long time, and I’m not going to dwell on the fact that this long interval between invitations has been deeply disappointing to me.

But I accept the fact that it's probably taken this long for the firestorm caused by my previous remarks to fully dissipate. I’m sure many of you in the audience here remember well the details of that hard-hitting High School commencement speech, the title of which was “aim high.”

It’s regarded as one of the great orations in Western Civilization, perhaps exceeded only by Churchill’s remarks on the “Gathering Storm,” but far surpassing Queen Elizabeth’s orders to the British troops before defeating the Spanish Enchillada.

As an aside, this now concludes my recitation of all facts retained from Mr. Fuld's 9th grade World History class.

I guess the point is I am going to enjoy this, because apparently I won't invited back again until at least the year 2031.

This week’s Torah portion, Chayei Sarah, is well known for the description of Abraham’s work to secure a burial place for his wife, Sarah. But I would like to focus on the passage that occurs just after this discussion. The Torah says,

“And Abraham was old, advanced in age, and the Lord had blessed Abraham with everything.”

Let’s take this piece by piece. Abraham was old, advanced in age. But was he? Back then people lived a pretty long time. Methuselah lived to 969. Noah to 950. And I believe my 3^rd grade math teacher, Mrs. Goldstein, who was also born around that time, is now pushing 8,000. But Abraham was a spry 175 years old. So the Rabbis disagree over whether this was physical age, or just the way he felt at the time.

In fact, there is one opinion in the commentary that this passage was describing the weekend of Abraham’s 15^th High School reunion. He felt, well, super old. Rashi disagrees of course, noting that Abraham never attended high school, but rather received his GED through a distance learning course offered online.

I empathize with Abraham every year when we read this passage. Not in the sense that, like Abraham does in the next verse, I feel compelled to call over my manservant, clutch him by the inner thigh, and have him swear a blood oath to travel to the Land of Canaan and seek out a spouse for my eldest child. It’s more that I empathize with his sense of feeling older, more content perhaps, ready to look to the future and to the next generation as the lodestar of our collective destiny.

15 years is a long time. It seems all the more so when your memories of high school are so positive, so formative. Thinking about my time at Beth Tfiloh I realize that the farther away I get from graduation, the more fondly I recall the experience.

And here I’d like to take a moment and speak to the recent graduates here today, which is to say I am speaking to all of the 18 to 20 year olds in the congregation who voluntarily woke up before noon on a Saturday, which is to say I am speaking to no one.

I won’t stand here and spout some trite aphorism that “15 years goes by in a flash.” I, like you, would have rolled my eyes at that. I will say that 15 years actually is a long time, and that you can accomplish quite a bit during that time, provided you use the skills that Beth Tfiloh has provided to you—except for those skills that you may have gained during the ill-fated “Latin” elective experiment of 1999.

Let me give you some context here on 15 years.

When we graduated in June of 2001, the Internet had been around for some time already, but was still accessible mostly through the use of a “modem.” By way of explanation to the younger members of our audience, a modem was a very expensive piece of telecommunications equipment one would acquire by heading to the neighborhood blacksmith, who would forge it upon a smoldering anvil using iron tongs.

You would then return home, plug the modem into the side of your horse, and presto—the animal would be able to bring you all of the telegrams being dispatched across the Old Mill Highway, just past Jebediah’s Saloon.

Think about that. 15 years later, we now have Snapchat, which allows you to instantly send a picture of yourself to a friend with a squiggly birthday hat added to your head and a cat’s face replacing your own. 15 years from now, God only knows what we will be able to accomplish with technology, but I can tell you I am sincerely hopeful for its ability to elevate humanity to even greater heights.

Let me make the point in a slightly different way, as I reflect upon this reunion gathering. 15 years ago, all 66 graduates of the BT Class of 2001 were exactly the same, in that they all stood on stage and accepted their high school diplomas, and were headed off to college, yeshiva, or in the case of that one guy, federal prison.

But fast forward a decade and a half – we are now doctors, lawyers, scholars, business owners, activists, carpenters, policymakers, information technology professionals. Right now among us we have a top White House staffer, a famous journalist, a robotics professor, a Marine Corps warrior, and, I understand as of a few months ago, a new federal parolee.

All of this happened because of the love and devotion that Beth Tfiloh showers upon every student at the school. I am forever grateful for the opportunity to have attended this great institution.

That brings me to the second half of the pasuk. “And the Lord blessed Abraham with everything.” The commentators have trouble with this. Sarah, his beloved wife, had just died. His son, Isaac, was unmarried. He had banished his other son, Ishmael, and his mother. Rashi notes that the word “HaKol” is the same numerically as “Ben,” or son, an allusion to the fact that maybe Abraham and God saw things differently.

What’s clear is that at this moment as we take stock of our accomplishments, none of us can say what will happen in the next 15 years. I can guarantee that few if any of us will be blessed with “HaKol,” or everything.

When I spoke at graduation in 2001, my theme was optimism. Then a few weeks later on my second day of college 9/11 happened. We have faced other challenges along the way. We lost family members, friends, and most painfully, a beloved member of our class, who we remember for her un-paralleled spirit and unbridled joy. But we saw to moving forward, overcoming our struggles, banding together, and honoring those who no longer are with us.

Beth Tfiloh gave us the resilience to forge ahead into this complicated world with a passion for learning, a strong Jewish identity, and a devotion to bringing about positive change to the communities around us. That is what I celebrate on alumni weekend. You may have noticed that the world could use these things right now, more than ever. Like Abraham in this week’s parsha, I know that I and my fellow classmates have a lot more to give to this world. But I also look to the rest of the BT alumni family—those of you who are just now venturing forth and starting your careers—as the future leaders of our people and of our country.

I wish you all a Shabbat shalom on this special alumni Shabbat, and I look forward as always to keeping in touch and learning of all the great successes that you all will achieve in the months and years ahead.

Thank you.

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Ariel Wolf '01 at Alumni Weekend Shabbat Services

Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School