The Rabbi's Gift

• Publication year: 1997
• Pages: 9
• Citation: Vol. 26 No. 4 Pg. 9

26 Colo.Law. 9 Colorado Lawyer 1997.

1997, April, Pg. 9. The Rabbi's Gift

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9

Vol. 26, No. 4, Pg. 9

The Colorado Lawyer
April 1997
Vol. 26, No. 4 [Page 9]

Features
CBA President's Message to Members
The Rabbi's Gift
by Miles Cortez

What is the bar doing about the worsening problems of professionalism, ethics, and civility? As in most other facets of life, people who ask such questions operate from the fundamental misconception that others are not only responsible for the problems, but responsible for finding solutions as well. Actually, the Colorado Bar Association and many local bars are doing plenty to address these issues at the organizational level. Some of our strongest committees devote countless hours to ethics guidance, the development of professionalism standards, the creation of conciliation panels, and the delivery of quality continuing legal education programs on the subject. But the fact remains that real reform and betterment of our professional community ultimately depends on our own individual improvement, leading by example, and the positive peer pressure to conform to the resultant higher standards

A year ago, I heard Judge Ken Stuart of Arapahoe County read a parable entitled "The Rabbi's Gift." I was struck by the message and prevailed on the good judge to send me a copy. He did so promptly, with the invitation to "use it however you wish in the hope that it may help build respect." Thank you, Ken, and in the fervent hope that the allegorical approach will stimulate the thinker and inspire new leaders, I share it here

The Parable

A monastery had fallen on hard times. Once the home of a great order, its ranks had been decimated by anti-monastic persecution in the 17th and 18th centuries and the rise of secularism in the 19th century. Only five monks remained in the mother house: the abbot and four others, all past their 70th birthdays. It was a dying order. In the forest surrounding the monastery sat a small hut that occasionally served as a hermitage for a rabbi from a nearby town. The monks had grown intuitive to the point where they could sense when the rabbi occupied his hermitage. On one such occasion it occurred to the abbot to visit the rabbi in hopes the rabbi might offer advice to help re-invigorate the monastery.

The rabbi welcomed the abbot, but when he learned of the purpose of the visit, he could only commiserate...