At Morning Prayers last year, President Claudine Gay—then in office for two months and five days—drew upon an incident in her youth (“My Brief Career in Reality Television”) to tell the community something about herself, her academic trajectory, and her hopes for Harvard. This morning, President Alan M. Garber—in office as an interim successor to Gay from January 2, and as the University’s thirty-first president for a month and a day (from August 2)—had little to say about himself: during his long tenure as provost, the community has gotten to know him well.
Rather, he sought to summon the community to its own best self, as it recovers from a year of turmoil and conflict, and steels itself against a possible rerun. In his beginning-of-term message sent August 29 and his class of 2028 convocation remarks yesterday, Garber sought to encourage students to commit to productive conversations. This morning, he broadened that appeal to the community as a whole, drawing on the Talmud to convey a lesson about learning and friendship—a lesson especially suited, he said, to the conditions Harvard fosters.
Speaking on a gorgeous morning, under a radiant blue sky, with the huge Harvard banners from Convocation still brightening the Memorial Church façade, Garber sounded a striking note. He outlined the prevailing belief that members of university communities “have no choice but to brace ourselves” for the fall semester, and then sought to repudiate that pessimistic perspective—a message perhaps intended not only to guide students but to rally and inspirit faculty and staff members who hope to focus on matters academic this year.
He began:
“Find yourself a teacher, win yourself a friend, and be one who judges everyone by giving them the benefit of the doubt.” These Talmudic words are part of a compendium called Pirkei Avot, or Sayings of the Fathers, that are traditionally read on the Sabbath day. Today, on the first day of classes of the fall semester, you do not need to be a student to benefit from their insight.
Expanding on that wisdom, Garber continued:
Find yourself a teacher: Seek out people whose experiences, skills, and perspectives are different from your own, and whose knowledge and wisdom often exceed yours.
Win yourself a friend: Friendship is a reciprocal relationship. Not only must you find a friend, but you must earn the friendship by being a friend, offering companionship, empathy, concern, support, and trustworthiness.
Be one who judges everyone by giving them the benefit of the doubt: We’re all too adept at recognizing the flaws of our antagonists and even of our friends. It’s tempting to interpret the actions of others in the worst possible light. It is better for all of us to do the opposite. Consciously striving to judge others in the best possible light…shows our true respect for them. People who judge in this way will be better people themselves, and will more likely evoke the best possible behavior among us.
He countered forecasts of a bleak semester to come with a positive vision of the University community:
As a place to find your teacher and to win some friends, it is hard to imagine a better environment than ours. This is one of the world’s finest centers of learning and teaching, with some of the world’s greatest scholars and researchers, with some of the world’s most challenging issues and most complex problems in our sights. Here we are peering into the unknown, teetering on the verge of discovery, ushering in a new era of insight. Here we are pushing the limits of understanding, pursuing genuine excellence in every domain, and making ourselves, our University. and the world better.…
Here we are blessed with both opportunity and community. Here we are together, and bracing ourselves is the best we can do?
I don’t think so.
His sense of Harvard’s potential, he explained, is grounded in his “faith in our capacity to listen attentively and generously, to treat one another with decency and respect, to recognize every day how special a place this is—and how much that is the result not of our physical resources but of our relationships.” Accordingly, he proposed, “This is not a time to brace ourselves. This is a time to embrace each other.”
Concluding his first Morning Prayers as president, in language that indeed sounded prayerful, Garber seemed almost to echo the hope of a different inaugural occasion, insisting that members of the Harvard community summon the better angels of their nature:
We cannot afford to build walls that separate us from one another. We cannot be quick to pass judgment. We must devote ourselves to knowing one another better, to seeing how things look from a perspective that differs from our own. We must try to bring to day-to-day interactions the same commitment to inquiry and discovery that we bring to our intellectual pursuits. If and when tensions among us rise, I hope that we will approach each other, not only as fellow human beings, but as potential teachers and friends.
To do so, we must welcome humility and humanity into interactions with each other more readily than the sense of righteousness. I hope that we can grow in understanding, lifting each other up and urging each other on along the way. And I hope most of all that we can take the time to appreciate the fact that we have the chance to do all of these difficult things in the first place. Here we are at an institution whose name has long been synonymous with excellence, with opportunities that few can equal. Here we are together at a University that belongs to each of us, as we find teachers and win friends. Let us be slow to judge and quick to renew our commitments to one another as we work to make the world a better place.
President Garber’s complete text, as provided by the University, follows. Memorial Church’s recording of his remarks is available here.
“Find yourself a teacher, win yourself a friend, and be one who judges everyone by giving them the benefit of the doubt.” These Talmudic words are part of a compendium called Pirkei Avot, or Sayings of the Fathers, that are traditionally read on the Sabbath day. Today, on the first day of classes of the fall semester, you do not need to be a student to benefit from their insight.
Find yourself a teacher: Seek out people whose experiences, skills, and perspectives are different from your own, and whose knowledge and wisdom often exceed yours.
Win yourself a friend: Friendship is a reciprocal relationship. Not only must you find a friend, but you must earn the friendship by being a friend, offering companionship, empathy, concern, support, and trustworthiness.
Be one who judges everyone by giving them the benefit of the doubt: We’re all too adept at recognizing the flaws of our antagonists and even of our friends. It’s tempting to interpret the actions of others in the worst possible light. It is better for all of us to do the opposite. Consciously striving to judge others in the best possible light, in the words of Rabbi Irving Greenberg, shows our true respect for them. People who judge in this way will be better people themselves, and will more likely evoke the best possible behavior among us.
How should we interpret these words at a tumultuous time like this one? Yesterday, many of us attended a particularly beautiful convocation for the first-year undergraduates. The enthusiasm and the optimism of the new students uplifted us all as we sensed the seemingly limitless possibilities they have, and judging from the new students I met with, openness to hearing and benefitting from the diverse views of a diverse group of people.
Yet we also know that this fall is not likely to be calm, with memories of the spring still fresh. We expect that there will be debate and argument, there will be dissent and protest. There will no doubt be hard feelings and hurt feelings among us. And last year was awash in them. [If you believe the headlines], those of us who are fortunate enough to be a part of universities have no choice but to brace ourselves. What a bleak notion that is at an institution such as this one.
As a place to find your teacher and to win some friends, it is hard to imagine a better environment than ours. This is one of the world’s finest centers of learning and teaching, with some of the world’s greatest scholars and researchers, with some of the world’s most challenging issues and most complex problems in our sights. Here we are peering into the unknown, teetering on the verge of discovery, ushering in a new era of insight. Here we are pushing the limits of understanding, pursuing genuine excellence in every domain, and making ourselves, our University. and the world better.
Here, we are blessed with resources beyond many of our wildest dreams. Laboratories laden with the most advanced equipment, libraries and museums brimming with collections that would take a lifetime and more to fully explore. Breathtaking architecture, beautiful landscapes, herbaria —notice the plural —as well as an arboretum in Boston, a forest in Peterstown, a garden in our nation's capital, a villa in Florence [respectively, the Arnold Arboretum, Harvard Forest, Dumbarton Oaks, and Villa I Tatti], all of the many places on our campus and beyond, where we feel enlarged by association, all of the many things that make it possible for the people of Harvard to do their best work and to be their best selves.
Here we are blessed with both opportunity and community. Here we are together, and bracing ourselves is the best we can do?
I don’t think so.
I am a person who has faith in our capacity to listen attentively and generously, to treat one another with decency and respect, to recognize every day how special a place this is, and how much that is the result not of our physical resources but of our relationships.
This is not a time to brace ourselves. This is a time to embrace one another.
We can do so by always keeping these precepts in mind. Be one who judges everyone by giving them the benefit of the doubt. By reserving judgment, we make it possible for others to know that they are part of this community and that this community cares for them as much as you hope and expect it will. Disappointment in this regard is a crushing blow not to the will, but to the spirit, with belonging and the freedom and peace that it brings out of reach.
We cannot afford to build walls that separate us from one another. We cannot be quick to pass judgment. We must devote ourselves to knowing one another better, to seeing how things look from a perspective that differs from our own. We must try to bring to day-to-day interactions the same commitment to inquiry and discovery that we bring to our intellectual pursuits. If and when tensions among us rise, I hope that we will approach each other, not only as fellow human beings, but as potential teachers and friends.
To do so, we must welcome humility and humanity into interactions with each other more readily than the sense of righteousness. I hope that we can grow in understanding, lifting each other up and urging each other on along the way. And I hope most of all that we can take the time to appreciate the fact that we have the chance to do all of these difficult things in the first place. Here we are at an institution whose name has long been synonymous with excellence, with opportunities that few can equal. Here we are together at a University that belongs to each of us, as we find teachers and win friends. Let us be slow to judge and quick to renew our commitments to one another as we work to make the world a better place.
Thank you.
