In this country in particular, the families that arrived on Ellis Island with only a few pennies to their name knew that the way to prosperity lay through education. To make a good living, our grandparents and great-grandparents knew that we had to start with developing our minds.

So it might not be so coincidental that graduation time corresponds with the season of Shavuot, the season of the receiving of our Torah.

For, as the Lubavitcher Rebbe once put it in The New York Times, education is not just about making a good living: it is about making a good life.

What is the purpose of the teaching of religion, as our tradition sees it? It is not as a substitute for making a living, developing our minds, developing our technology, developing our political power, or any of the numerous creative and fruitful enterprises to which people and their societies regularly dedicate themselves.

Rather, it is to guide and govern our creativity so that our power is always directed toward the good.

One doesn’t have to go too far back in history for examples of societies that were well-educated, scientifically advanced, technologically sophisticated and efficiently organized, yet devoted all their powers to horrifically evil ends.

The need to govern our powers so that they are used only for the good is basic. It is our first priority if we at all care that a horror like the Holocaust not be repeated.

So, the first question is this: Though we devote years of our lives and an ever-increasing and large part of our wealth to the education that gives us the power to make our living, what do we devote to the even more important task of governing our powers?

Can anyone maintain that this would not require even more thought, even more effort than simply nurturing the powers themselves?

And the second question is: What are we going to do about it?

We are fortunate to live in an age in which the opportunities for Jewish education are blossoming.

Our classic heritage, once reserved only for those who could cross the language barrier, is now available in elegant and readable translations, with clear and appealing commentaries.

The Internet abounds with Web sites that make libraries of information available for free, in searchable format.

Institutions like the Jewish Learning Institute and the Florence Melton School find new ways to engage adult minds, and there are options for Jewish children as never before.

All that is required is our choice.

In a world crying out for coherence, for harnessing our immense powers to the good, it’s up to us to step forward.

Educating ourselves has always been the key, the sure path to success, and it still is.

Let’s rededicate ourselves to the study of Torah, of our Jewish heritage, and the application of its benefits to a world that cannot do without them.

© 2007 Rabbi Shmuel Klatzkin