Rosh HaShanah: In the Beginning

It's time to begin. With another summer unfortunately cut short by Harvard registration, upperclass students return to another year of sports, extracurriculars and, of course, classes. The start of the academic year also coincides with Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year, which begins tonight. Rosh HaShanah ushers in a period of Jewish holidays whose predominant theme is that of introspection and repentance. The holiday is an appropriate match for shopping period in that sense: "What sort of person am I?" and "What could I have done better?" become "What sort of Harvard student am I?" and "What more could I have accomplished?"

For some people, running the gauntlet of screaming and overenthusiastic students pitching their extracurriculars at the Activities Fair is a reminder of what they themselves haven't done, or what they wish they had. Harvard seems to value achievements above all else, and Harvard students are typically characterized as overachievers. Americans in general seem to be afflicted by the particular desire to accomplish and succeed.

I learned this last fall when I took a semester off to study in Strasbourg, France. The Universite de Strasbourg has no varsity teams. There is no school newspaper, nor political journals, nor even a Model Congress, despite the presence of the European Parliament just a short bus ride from the city center.

Why? Students there are too busy with academics. There is no "culture of extracurriculars," like that at most American colleges, that emphasizes student organizations. But students seem happy with their university experience, and plenty go on to well-paying jobs without ever "accomplishing" anything outside of the classroom.

Once when a family invited me to dinner, my host asked an interesting question. "Why," he wondered, "are you Americans so frantic? You're always trying to do something." It was difficult to respond--in part because I wanted to ask why the French seemed so relaxed and even indifferent. There is something in our national character that causes us to strive to be better, to work and improve. Moreover, there's the American Dream, and the notion that, for example, any of us could grow up to be president. The French really don't believe that--their presidents have gone to the same finishing school, the Ecole Nationale Administrative, for most of the past half-century. The qualities that might make you a good leader are thought to be innate. Either you have them and are placed on the track for leadership, or you don't and are consigned to do other things.

Being in this different environment was a refreshing change from Harvard. I learned a lot without worrying about what I was doing or getting done. But the experience is by no means over, as it has raised questions that I continue to think about, questions which gain increasing relevance as my final year at Harvard begins.

What do I want to get out of my Harvard experience? What have I accomplished here, and what more could I accomplish before I leave? In a sense, I think these are precisely the wrong questions to be asking. What is important here is not so much what is accomplished, but what is begun.

The important things, after all, take a lot of time and reflection. The large majority of us will spend four years here and take away a degree certifying our knowledge of an area of study. The learning process is by no means limited to these four years within the confines of Cambridge--it's life-long. But it may never be as intense as it can be here. The opportunities here for learning seemingly disparate fields such as Russian and computer science and for having both Hindu and Jewish friends are endless. But in many areas we really only scrape the surface, getting a glimpse of the vast subjects we know nothing about. The challenge we face here in this season of beginnings is to recognize these areas, and to start learning about them.

At his 1961 inauguration as president, John F. Kennedy '40 said, "All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it be finished in the first 1,000 days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin." As Rosh HaShanah 5757 approaches, let us focus not on what we're accomplishing, but on what we're beginning. I wish you all a happy and a healthy New Year.

Josh Greenfield begins his senior year in Leverett today.

What is important is not so much what is accomplished, but what is begun.