My Graduation Charge to the NEJA Class of 2025

Here's the video, audio, and transcript of the graduation charge I delivered to the NEJA Graduating Class of 2025 on June 8th, 2025.

Jun 18, 2025

Article voiceover

1×

0:00

-9:04

This week’s Torah content is sponsored by Chaim and Rifka Peck, the awesome parents of two of my NEJA students, in honor of the marriage of my dear talmidim, Chayim Zifkin and Shira Stein. Though they don’t know the couple personally, the Pecks chose to dedicate their sponsorship to their simchah—a beautiful gesture in a time when Israel and Jews around the world are under attack. “Let there soon be heard in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sound of joy and gladness, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride.”

Click here for a printer-friendly version of this article.

Note: Since I didn’t write out the speech in advance, I had no transcript to work from. Instead, I used sofer.ai to transcribe the audio. I then cleaned up the transcript—removing speech tics and adjusting wording here and there to reflect what I intended to say, rather than what I actually said. So if you decide to watch the video or listen to the recording (both of which better capture the energy of the event), just know that there may be minor differences between what I said then and what you read below.

The Rabbi Schneeweiss Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

My Graduation Charge to the NEJA Class of 2025

“There are these two young fish swimming along.” That is the opening line of David Foster Wallace’s This is Water speech—a commencement address that we've been through three times, usually in conjunction with the Rambam. When you honored me by asking me to give this graduation charge, I automatically associated to that.

But then I realized that a commencement address is not the same thing as a graduation charge. The purpose of a commencement address is to kind of show off the oratory of the speaker or the institution. But a graduation charge is supposed to be “benedictory” and “exhortative,” which is a fancy way of saying that it’s supposed to be a “blessing” and a “warning.”

I was thinking about this: we're really ideally suited for this, because we've spent the whole last year learning about tefilah, which is very focused on berachah (blessing), and we spent the year before learning Mishlei, which is very focused on Shlomo Ha’Melech's warnings about making foolish decisions.

Let's start with the berachah. And rather than try to spring a new idea on you guys, I want to anchor this in something that I hope you all know.

The first berachah of the Shemoneh Esrei begins with “Baruch atoh Hashem,” You, Hashem, are the source of all blessing, “Elokeinu v'Elokei Avoseinu,” our God and the God of our forefathers, “Elokei Avraham, Elokei Yitzchak, v'Elokei Yaakov,” God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob. One of the main questions—one of the many questions—we dealt with (which I think in our class was asked by Nechama) is: Why does it say “Elokei” three times? Why not just say “Elokei Avraham Yitzchak v'Yaakov”? Why do you have to say “God of Abraham, God of Yitzchak, God of Jacob”?

Now, raise your hand if you know the answer. ::: all graduates raise their hands ::: Okay, I know you all know the answer. But I'm just going to read from Abby's final. The answer that we learned from the Eitz Yosef (R’ Chanoch Zundel ben Yosef), Abby says, is as follows:

If it said “God of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov,” we would mistakenly think that Avraham independently discovered Hashem with his mind, but his sons believed because they were raised that way. By saying “God of” each, it shows that they each found Hashem independently.

Well said, as usual, from Abby. Or as Moshe said, “they each did their own homework.” The way the way the Eitz Yosef says this is:

“she'ein l'adam leha'amin b'Elokah mitzad minhag avosav,” a person should not believe in God because of the traditions (or customs) of his ancestors, “ki zeh minhag umos ha’olam,” because this is the custom of the nations of the world, “ela mitzad chakirah al pi Toraseinu ha’kedoshah,” rather, a person should believe in God based on their rational inquiry guided by our holy Torah.

And when I hit that phrase, I thought to myself: that is the perfect description of you guys – independent analysis guided by the Holy Torah.

What I realized is that being an Avraham is very difficult. To discover the truth independently, without any help—that's a rarity. And, no offense—I include everyone here—we are not Avrahams. You guys are not Avrahams.

But what you are is something more important than Avraham: you guys are bnei Avraham. You are the ones who are charged with taking what you have learned from the Torah, from all of your teachers, from your whole heritage and really individualizing it and making it yours.

And I think that that's what I've enjoyed so much about learning with this group—with you guys—for these last two years. First of all, you always bring your A game. And I think this is the only senior class that did not have any senioritis, even until the very end.

::: OUTBURST OF OBJECTIONS FROM THE ADMINISTRATION AND REST OF THE FACULTY WHO (EVIDENTLY) WITNESSED A GREAT DEAL OF SENIORITIS :::

Okay, okay! In my class, in my class, I did not see any senioritis. In fact, even on their senior skip day, they wanted to schedule a separate class to make sure they had tefila and they didn't skip any days. So I really appreciate that.

What I appreciate is not only your curiosity, and your genuine love of Torah and respect for Torah. I really appreciate how each of you made this your own. When I think about what you bring to the class—I mean, I could go on and on, but I mean:

Abby, you always ask the best questions, and you always raise your hand to give answers even when no one else has the courage to do so.
Nechama, you have this way of eloquently expressing everything that we learn in a way that is not just spitting back but is synthesizing it and really making it your own in the most beautiful language.
Talia, I think out of everyone, you show the most gratitude for how much Torah has enhanced your life and appreciating the beauty of what you learn.
Aron, you manage to give these out-of-the-box answers that somehow are found in the mefarshim, and it's just a very, very, very good application of your mind.
Moshe, you probe the limits of what we learn and you are always comparing and contrasting what we learn in my class with what you've learned in other classes and asking very quirky questions—which I really appreciate.
Amitai, your dedication to self-improvement and your commitment to becoming your best self is truly an inspiration to all of your classmates and to me.
· And Neve, you are the queen of real-world applications and practical examples, embodying the best of Shlomo Ha’Melech and Marcus Aurelius.

All seven of you have shown yourselves up to the task of being bnei Avraham: carrying on the Mesorah (tradition) and making it truly your own. And I've seen you develop so much into yourselves over these past two years. I don't know if you remember what you guys were like at the beginning of 11th grade, but let's just say each of you has come a long way.

But now we segue into the warning. This is a time of transition, and you've gained a lot here, but you're going to go out into the world, and it's very easy to lose your way.

So, quick review: We learned this year that lehitpalel does not mean “to pray.” It means “to judge oneself.” And “lehitpalel la'Shem” means not “to pray to God,” but “to judge yourself in Hashem's framework,” through His value system. We learned a lot about who Hashem is: that Hashem is the One True Existence Who is non-physical and outside of time. Part of that is that He does not change, as Hashem Himself says, “Ani Hashem, lo shanisi – I am Hashem I have not changed” (Malachi 3:6), and “Ekyeh Asher Ekyeh – I Will Be Who I Will Be” (Shemos 3:14).

And therefore we learned that when you daven, you're not trying to change Hashem. Rather, you are trying to change yourself, and align yourself with Hashem's will so that He can do good for you, as we say in Pirkei Avos: “Aseh retzono ki’rtzonecha kedei she'ya'aseh retzonecha ki'rtzono – Make His will like your will so that He will do your will as if it were his will” (Avos 2:4).

And, perhaps most importantly—and this one you can answer when I ask you the question—we learned from the Ralbag that the purpose of Judaism and the purpose of life as a human being is to become … a … ::: graduates all shout the answer along with me ::: TRUTH SEEKER! And all of you have done that in your own ways.

But being a truth seeker is more than just learning. Being a truth seeker involves taking the knowledge you have and integrating it into your personality, making it real to you—as you've done throughout Mishlei—and having it affect your actions.

And that takes courage. And it's a different kind of courage than being an Avraham. Avraham had the courage to start something new without any support. But the type of courage that you need to be a ben Avraham or a bas Avraham requires you to forge your own path, guided by the Torah—to harmonize your individuality and your authenticity and your creativity within our tradition, and in service of the system as a whole, like a Mishleic tzadik or an eishes chayil.

The danger is: it is all too easy to just fall asleep: to go back into living life mindlessly; to—as the Rambam says—be one of the people who are “shochechim es ha'emes b'havlei ha’zman – those who forget truth due to the temporal vanities”; to fall into faceless mediocrity and habit; to daven by rote without judging yourself; to learn Torah by just saying the words and not asking questions.

I would like to pretend that you are all set to do this—and we have given you tools—but really, you're going to have to keep this up on your own. As a professor in another school said—what’s the quote?—“The time will come when you must choose between what is right and what is easy.” That professor—Dumbledore is his name—spoke about it as though it was “a time” that's “going to come.” In truth, it is really an everyday thing. It's an everyday struggle. You have to not fall back into your default way of operating. You have to remember: “This is water, this is water” at all times.

And therefore, my conclusion—my bracha to you—is among the first berachos that Hashem said to Avraham. He said “ve'heyeh beracha” (Bereishis 12:2) – “You should be a blessing,” “May you be a blessing.”

May you follow in the footsteps of Yitzchak and Yaakov, taking what you've learned, making it yours and sharing it with the world.

David Foster Wallace concluded with the statement, “I wish you way more than luck.”

I will conclude by saying: go forth, ve'heyeh beracha.

I hope I did it justice! Let me know what you think!

The Rabbi Schneeweiss Substack

My Graduation Charge to the NEJA Class of 2025

Here's the video, audio, and transcript of the graduation charge I delivered to the NEJA Graduating Class of 2025 on June 8th, 2025.

My Graduation Charge to the NEJA Class of 2025

Discussion about this post