Apples and Apple
At Touro Synagogue
Rosh Hashanah First Day
September 10, 2018
On the first day of Rosh Hashanah at Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, things were just right. The weather cooperated, there was a good crowd, yet it was not crowded, Rabbi Marc Mandel and Saul Woythaler raised us up during shofarot, we delighted to the davening of Dr. James Herstoff, Dr. Henry Spencer and Rabbi Mandel, the layning of Sam Spencer and our co-presidents, Professor Louise Ellen Teitz and Paul Tobak, sponsored kiddush lunch. We were happy in our seats, thanks to the work of Renee Talewsky.
After greeting us, Rabbi Marc Mandel spoke about Rosh Hashanah and apples,
“There is a custom on Rosh Hashanah to eat apples and honey. The Jewish people are compared to an apple, as it says in the Song of Songs - as the apple tree is unique among the trees, so is my beloved Israel.
“Recently, the company Apple achieved something never accomplished in American history. It became the first company to be valued at $1 trillion. With one trillion dollars, Apple could buy one billion people a $999 iPhone X and still have a billion dollars left in the bank.
“Even more remarkable, in 1997, Apple stood on the brink of bankruptcy and was just a short step from going broke. Steve Jobs revealed that the company was 90 days away from total insolvency.
“Steve Jobs started Apple in his parents’ garage when he was 20 years old and in 10 years Apple grew from two founders into a company with over 4000 employees.
“After he turned 30, Jobs was fired from the company that he himself started and he endured a public shaming, and what seemed then like the end of his career. Steve Jobs said the following to the graduates of Stanford University, ‘I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could’ve ever happened to me. The business of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It helped me to enter one of the most creative times of my life.’
“Several years later, Jobs returned to Apple and turned it into the giant it would become by way of his genius. He understood that setbacks were stepping stones to greatness. Downfalls are not permanent. Failures are trials meant to make us stronger. The first tablets of the Ten Commandments were smashed – it was the second set which remained.
“As we celebrate the new year Apple can be a lesson to us - and an inspiration to us – if we face challenges that seem insurmountable, just remember how close Apple was to being broken, and today it is the most successful company in American history.
“With this New Year, let us pray that our dreams will bring us great success when we are challenged with difficult days.”
“There is a custom on Rosh Hashanah to eat apples and honey. The Jewish people are compared to an apple, as it says in the Song of Songs - as the apple tree is unique among the trees, so is my beloved Israel.
“Recently, the company Apple achieved something never accomplished in American history. It became the first company to be valued at $1 trillion. With one trillion dollars, Apple could buy one billion people a $999 iPhone X and still have a billion dollars left in the bank.
“Even more remarkable, in 1997, Apple stood on the brink of bankruptcy and was just a short step from going broke. Steve Jobs revealed that the company was 90 days away from total insolvency.
“Steve Jobs started Apple in his parents’ garage when he was 20 years old and in 10 years Apple grew from two founders into a company with over 4000 employees.
“After he turned 30, Jobs was fired from the company that he himself started and he endured a public shaming, and what seemed then like the end of his career. Steve Jobs said the following to the graduates of Stanford University, ‘I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could’ve ever happened to me. The business of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It helped me to enter one of the most creative times of my life.’
“Several years later, Jobs returned to Apple and turned it into the giant it would become by way of his genius. He understood that setbacks were stepping stones to greatness. Downfalls are not permanent. Failures are trials meant to make us stronger. The first tablets of the Ten Commandments were smashed – it was the second set which remained.
“As we celebrate the new year Apple can be a lesson to us - and an inspiration to us – if we face challenges that seem insurmountable, just remember how close Apple was to being broken, and today it is the most successful company in American history.
“With this New Year, let us pray that our dreams will bring us great success when we are challenged with difficult days.”
Steve Jobs’ 2005 commencement address at Stanford is one of the great speeches. He told three short stories from his life.
Jobs dropped out of college after realizing that he was wasting his parents’ savings...but then studied things that interested him such as calligraphy. It was of no use to him until the creation of the first Macintosh computer. He was able to ensure that both the fonts and the computer were esthetically pleasing.
His second story was about how being fired was good for him. At first he was in shock. “But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.”
Finally he spoke about death, “When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: ‘If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.’ It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”
He ended with a quote from the Whole Earth Catalog, “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.” If you are satisfied, you will not strive to improve. If you think you are smart, you will not push the envelope because you know better.
Shanah Tovah Umetukah from Jewish Newport.
You may read Jobs’ speech at https://news.stanford.edu/2005/06/14/jobs-061505/
@tourosynagoguenewport @jewishnewportri
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