Outside the president’s office on the 12th floor of Belfer Hall on the campus of Yeshiva University in New York City is a framed letter written in 1818 by Thomas Jefferson to Mordecai Manual Noah, a prominent Jewish leader of the time. 

In the letter, Jefferson notes the religious intolerance of the time toward Jewish people and the two forces that have power to coerce and subjugate religion: the law and public opinion.

The solution to the universal dilemma of religious intolerance, Jefferson writes, is education. By educating Jews to be experts in the sciences and other scholastic and professional fields, they will be thought of as “equal objects of respect and favor.”

In speaking to Brigham Young University students gathered in the Marriott Center on Jan. 31, Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman, president of Yeshiva University, said although that letter was written in 1818, it could have been written today.

“For still in this country, 200 years later, we are at times faced with an environment in which public opinion acts like an auto-da-fé, in which we have seen and experienced modern day leaders and influencers who fan the flames of religious intolerance.”

Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman, president of Yeshiva University, speaks during a BYU forum at the Marriott Center on the BYU campus in Provo, Utah, on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023.

Christi Norris, BYU

Rabbi Berman was the featured speaker for Tuesday’s forum at BYU after joining Elder Clark G. Gilbert, the Church commissioner of education, and BYU President Kevin J Worthen and BYU–Hawaii President John S.K. Kauwe III at a forum focusing on the fate of the religious university earlier in January at the offices of the American Council on Education, in Washington, D.C.

In his remarks at BYU, Rabbi Berman noted that in many ways religious education is still seen with suspicion.

Part of the collective work of religious institutions today, he said, is to formulate and highlight the value of education in a religious setting. He then shared what he conceptualizes as the need for and value of a faith-based education by describing the differences between a life of consumerism vs. covenant.

Consumer vs. covenant society

“We live in a consumer society,” Rabbi Berman said, where the focus on the acquisition of goods and status foster an individualistic, egocentric culture where individuals are constantly reminded of what they don’t have instead of being thankful for what they do have.

Rabbi Berman shared the words of Jewish theologian and public intellectual Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, who wrote, “Through constant creation of dissatisfaction, the consumer society is in fact a highly sophisticated mechanism for the production and distribution of unhappiness.”

There is another model of life, however, which is based on the covenant, not the consumer, Rabbi Berman said.

The covenant, he said, was first introduced by God to Noah and then afterward to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children. “In this worldview, one’s goals, life decisions and very sense of self are thought of in a whole different context.”

To illustrate, Rabbi Berman shared about the unexpected and “profoundly painful” death of his father. In Judaism, one of the customs of mourning is to recite a prayer every day, three times a day, in a service with a quorum, which requires 10 men being present for prayer. 

This posed a problem when he recently had to travel. When in Rome, Italy, he visited a Jewish day school where 10 teenagers he had never met left class to pray afternoon services with him. Later, when he traveled to Casablanca, Morocco, and arrived at synagogue after 10 p.m., a parent of one of the university’s students and eight other men came to pray evening services with him.

From afternoon prayers with Jewish teenagers in Rome to evening services with sephardic men in Casablanca, “I have prayed with them, and they have helped me commemorate the life of my father,” Rabbi Berman said.

Students gather in the Marriott Center on BYU campus for a forum with Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman, president of Yeshiva University, on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023.

Christi Norris, BYU

Why would these people be moved to help someone they had never met? “We are all the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We all share the same mothers of Sarah, Rebecca, Leah and Rachel. Although we have never personally met, we are all one family. … Our sense of identity is covenantal.” 

It’s not simply defined by the moment but by a shared history that is passed down from generation to generation. “What greater expression of this point is there than the warmth shown to me then to helping me commemorate the memory of my father. Our whole lives are memory. My loss is their loss. My story is their story. We are linked in our grieving for the dead because we are bound by our covenant for life,” Rabbi Berman said.

Transactional vs. transformational

When he was a congregation rabbi, Rabbi Berman said he was always struck by those who were dating and came in with a long checklist of what they wanted in a spouse. 

“Relationships, unlike purchases, are something that evolve and deepen — they are created together. A purchase is unilateral. If a car doesn’t meet your specifications, it will not serve your purposes. But marriage is covenantal. It’s not about objects but relationships and requires leaps of faith.”

The consumer model values detailed knowledge, metrics, research and analytics while covenant prizes faith, empathy, loyalty, curiosity and discovery. In being a consumer, there is very little risk while being in a covenant there is vulnerability, uncertainty and risk.

“But the upside is different as well,” he said. “The consumer is only transactional, the covenantal is transformational.”

One of the primary challenges is confusing the two modalities, Rabbi Berman said. “One should not go to the supermarket and approach their purchase of breakfast cereal like they were forming a covenantal bond with it, and one must not seek a spouse with the perspective of a consumer.” 

Living in a consumer culture can impact one’s thinking and the way he or she dates and builds relationships. But it can also do the same for how covenantal individuals think about education.

To illustrate, Rabbi Berman focused on three questions:

1. Who are our students?
2. How do we study?
3. Why do we study?

‘Who are our students?’

In the movie, “Chariots of Fire,” Scottish runner Eric Liddel, who won several gold medals in the 1924 Paris Olympics, is confronted by his sister who wonders why, as a believer, he runs competitions instead of spreading the word of God. Liddel explains, “I believe God made me for a purpose. … He also made me fast, and when I run, I feel His pleasure.”

All have a different way of feeling God’s pleasure, Rabbi Berman said. “We were each created for a purpose. And we each experience God’s presence in our own unique ways. Our educational goal is to help students discover and develop the capacity to experience God’s pleasure by finding the godliness within themselves.”

In a consumer society, people are objects to be turned into dollar signs. In a covenantal society, however, “education is not just a window into the world; it is a light into the soul. What you study helps develop your whole personality. Whether you, too, are a runner, or an artist, educator, or healer, a values-driven education creates opportunities for one to develop the different aspects of the self — to discover purpose and experience divine pleasure in self-expression.”

Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman, president of Yeshiva University, speaks during a BYU campus forum in the Marriott center on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023.

Christi Norris, BYU

‘How do we study?’

When the Jewish people accepted the Torah at Sinai, they collectively uttered the famous Hebrew words, “naaseh v’nishma,” meaning “we will do and then we will listen,” Rabbi Berman taught.

Usually one needs to hear the instructions and afterwards agree to the action. How does one “do” before listening?

“In a consumer society knowledge precedes commitment. One needs to know what one is buying before deciding on the exchange,” Rabbi Berman said 

But in a covenantal relationship, the opposite is true. “One cannot access the knowledge unless one is first fully committed. It’s like marriage, as we said before, only once there is a commitment that vulnerability can be exposed, that one puts in the work, even through the hard times, to reach levels of closeness otherwise impossible to reach.”

Which is what the Jewish people said about the Torah, Rabbi Berman said. “God says to Moses and the people: ‘I have a book.’ The Jewish people answer, ‘I am in.’”

Their commitment to study is not dependent on the difficulty of the text or the way it makes them feel at the moment, he explained. “I am here to study it and keep it. And because of this attitude, we are driven to explore, study, and grapple with the Torah, Jewish ideas and knowledge as a whole. We believe that all disciplines of knowledge teach us something about ourselves and God, so we are committed to understanding them.”

At the root of this is the mandate to seek truth, Rabbi Berman continued. “We were committed from Sinai and we remain committed until this day and forever.”

For the consumer, education is about utility or “how does this help me?” For the covenant, it is predicated on commitment. 

“So long as higher education is exclusively focused on information and research for utility, we will be outpaced by technological change.” But the covenantal model of faith provides meaning and values in the lives of students. “Faith nourishes, strengthens, and enriches life. It guides one beyond acquisition of information towards an earnest quest to truth,” Rabbi Berman said.

“How do we study? With a lifelong passion to seek the truth.”

‘Why do we study?’

Rabbi Berman explained that they have faithfully transmitted their tradition from generation to generation until today.

They date their beginning at Sinai, not 1886 when the university was established. “What is our end? It is redemption.”

They try to teach their students to use their God-given talents to live a life of contribution and service, Rabbi Berman said, “To locate their studies and personal development within a greater story. And in this story they are all leaders. Our students are the leaders of tomorrow because they contextualize their lives within our covenant of faith. 

“Faith is a reminder that your life is part of a larger story. Faith is a reminder that your life has a story. That you are not just accidents of history but drivers of history.”

Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman, president of Yeshiva University, speaks during a BYU forum held in the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah, on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023.

Christi Norris, BYU

Why study? To lead lives of contribution and service for the Jewish people and for the world at large.

“These are the hallmarks of an educational institution with a covenantal framework,” Rabbi Berman said. “One that prizes faith, empathy, commitment, loyalty, curiosity, resilience and discovery, while highlighting the importance of being thankful with what one has, and looking for opportunities to help others. Where there is less focus on the I, and more on the ‘we.’”

This type of model can be expanded to help heal the real crisis in America, which is a crisis of meaning, Rabbi Berman said. 

A consumer society provides answers that are ephemeral and not fulfilling. “Perhaps what we need is to establish a covenant across America. One that is built on the recognition of the sanctity of each individual, a quest for truth and an ambition to inspire the next generation to lead lives of service and contribution.”

Education as covenant

Returning to Jefferson’s letter posted outside of his office, Rabbi Berman said in Deuteronomy 4:6, Moses teaches that education does more than help make its members “objects of respect and favor” as Jefferson suggested.

“Our Torah is meant to be a beacon of redemptive light to show society the wisdom, decency, and dignity, of living committed spiritual and meaningful lives. Our values-driven education shows society that there is more to life than being a consumer — we can approach the world and our lives as a covenant. Where commitment precedes knowledge. Where instead of transaction, we are transformed.”