Who Is Wise?

The next time you’re sitting with friends or family, try asking everyone the following:

Ben Zoma says: Who is wise? Who is strong? Who is rich? Who is important?

What are the obvious man-on-the-street answers to those questions? What would you guess are Ben Zoma’s answers?

Man-on-the-street answers:

Who is wise? Someone with a very long beard, or someone with many fancy letters after their name.

Who is strong? Someone who can do a lot of pushups.

Who is rich? Someone with at least $1,000,000 in net assets.

Who is important? Someone whom people pay money to see, or who has a statue or building in their honor.

Ben Zoma:

Who is wise? Someone with the attitude, “I need to pay attention to everyone because everyone has something to teach me.”

Yes – even that random person you encounter in line at the grocery store, the barista who serves you coffee, everyone.

Who is strong? Someone with inner strength, who acts with self-control — not only in avoiding temptation but also in overcoming inertia or laziness and taking action when needed.

Yes – doing what you know you should do even though you don’t feel like it.

Who is rich? Someone who is able to focus on enjoying the present moment.

Yes – actually slowing down and pausing to savor the now.

Who is important? Someone who treats everything in Creation as important.

Yes – if something or someone exists, that means that it or they are part of God’s plan and that makes them important.

Is Ben Zoma has turned the average man-on-the-street answers on their heads – he has shown us a new, elevated, uplifting way to think about how we live our daily lives.

But because his lesson is counter-intuitive, does he mean to suggest that these four orientations are rare because they are hard to achieve, or does he mean to encourage us that they are within anyone’s grasp?