mitoch shelo l\u2019shma, bah l\u2019shma<\/em>. Part of this counsel is the understanding that often emotion follows action, rather than preceding it. Act joyously and you will feel joy.<\/p>\nIt is easy to get caught in theory and propose ways to live without living. The ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus critiques those too enmeshed in theory this way in his Discourses: <\/p>\n
\u201cA carpenter does not approach you and say \u2018Listen to me talk about the art of carpentry. He makes a contract for a house and builds it\u2026Do the same\u2026Eat like a man, drink like a man\u2026get married, have children, take part in civic life, learn how to put up with insults and tolerate other people.<\/p>\n
Discourses on pluralism \u2013 or attacking others for their lack of same \u2013 are less important than demonstrating how you can absorb and understand views that are different from your own. Counsels to kindness matter far less than kind actions. Discourse is second to doing.<\/p>\n
At the end of the Torah Moses is praised for \u201casher asah Moshe\u201d \u2013 that which Moses did. What Moses said obviously mattered enormously, but only because his actions gave credibility and power to the words he spoke in God’s name.<\/p>\n
(Rabbi David Wolpe is the senior rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles.)<\/em><\/p>\n
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