Ask the Professor - Rutgers University
THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY
RUTGERS
Department of Economics · Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
75 Hamilton Street · New Brunswick · New Jersey 08901-1248
To The Sponsors of The Tefillin Bank
I am writing to express my deepest gratitude for your wonderful gift of Tefillin, which came to me by way of Rabbi Dovid Dubov - a most extraordinary man, to whom I am enormously grateful. Rabbi Dubov has described your remarkable project of encouraging the use of Tefillin. It- and the Tefillin themselves- will always be an inspiration to me.
In today's aggressively secular world, it might seem strange that a university professor would care about Tefillin. Surely- people might ask- Tefillin are a throwback to ancient times, ritual objects with little or no relevance to today's world? I couldn't disagree more strongly. Precisely because the world is so aggressively secular, we need as many reminders a possible that there is much more to life than the merely material. That is where my Tefillin come in. What is written in those little boxes is, truly, a reminder of what we need to guide our lives. When I put on my Tefillin, I connect with my past and with Torah, and I prepare for my future.
And what, you may well ask, is someone surnamed "Killingsworth" doing with Tefillin? My mother was Jewish, but that is only the beginning of the story. She was not at all observant (her mother, who came from Ukraine in the 1920's, thought that all religion was the opiate of the people!). During all my years of growing up, I never set foot in a synagogue, lit a candle or went to a seder. But my mother did have a very strong sense of Yiddishkeit, and perhaps for this reason I always felt drawn to Israel and to Judaism. In college, I took part in innumerable performances of Handel's "Messiah," and always found great inspiration in the text- much of which comes from Isaiah. My first wife was a committed Catholic, but was fond of saying to me: "You're Jewish, and you owe it to yourself to recognize that." I listened to her, and told myself I would study when I had time. Then she died of cancer, and I finally heard her- and realized that I had better start studying now, since I might never have time to do so. I finally celebrated my bar mitzvah, on Shabbat Nachamu- whose text is, of course, the one Handel chose for the opening of the "Messiah."
I continue to study and to benefit from the encouragement of persons like yourself and Rabbi Dubov. My heartfelt thanks once again for your generosity, and for the inspiration of your example.
Yours sincerely,
Mark R. Killingsworth
Professor of Economics
