Shabbat Sermon: Seconds and Years with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

It was the slap, and the rant, heard around the world.

How many of you saw Will Smith strike Chris Rock, and then rant about it, in real time?

How many of you read about it, or saw a clip of it, after the Academy Awards?

It was of course raw and shocking, unscripted drama that was by far the most dramatic thing that happened all evening.

If it were just a celebrity thing, a famous actor slapping the face of a famous comedian, it would just be another moment of sensationalist news.

But it’s not just a celebrity thing, it is very much a human thing. Because most of us, in our own quiet way, have been tempted to do our own version of what Will Smith did that night. Something ticked us off. Something got our blood boiling. Our temper went from zero to 100 in a nano second. And we were tempted to lose it. To give the other person a piece of our mind.

And yet, when we lose self-control, we lose control.