It was well documented in the news that a well known Jewish entertainer recently graduated from Columbia. He was sooooo happy. I am not interested in talking about him personally. He had a difficult childhood and was traumatized and it is not my [or anyone elses] place to judge him [or anyone]. Chazal said it best "אל תדון את חברך עד שתגיע למקומו" - Don't judge your friend until you are in his place. Are you ever really? Or like the line goes "Don't criticize your friend until you have walked a mile in his shoes. This way, if he gets mad, you are a mile away and you have his shoes." May Hashem bless him in all ways. He is not the issue.
I also am a big proponent of earning a living. It is a mitzva [see Bava Metzia 30 והודעת להם וכו' זה בית חייהם with Rashi] and I LOVE mitzvos. Especially when one gets the bonus of also having what to eat. So if someone needs to get a degree in order to get a job, then by all means. Provided, of course, that the one is able to preserve basic standards of Halacha and kedusha.
There was also a time in history where people studied secular wisdom in order to enhance their appreciation of Hashem. It seems that by and large those periods are long gone and today formal education is just a means to make money.
That being said....
The fact is that ONE MISHNA is worth more than ten degrees from any Ivy league college. So is ONE BRACHA said with kavana. We get so swept up with what secular society believes and lives we often lose sight of what is real. G-d is real and that is it. I promise. Attending a ceremony with much pomp and circumstance wearing a funny looking cap and gown in a university that somehow gypped you out of two hundred thousand dollars and getting a piece of paper saying that you finished a course of study so that you can enter the work force is just contrived, hot air. הבל הבלים הכל הבל. Really. Westerners like ceremonies but they are just a play on people's emotions while lacking any substance. [I once saw a ceremony in a certain Jewish institution that decided to start a sports hall of fame. The institutions representative said to the former athletes "When you put on this jacket you will officially be in the Hall of Fame". They emotionally donned the jacket and were inducted. Gimme a break. What does putting on a jacket have to do with being in the Hall of Fame? And why do Jews need Halls of Fame? Especially for achievements in activities that so faithfully continue tradition. Ancient Greek tradition]. How do you say "ceremony" in Lashon Hakodesh? There is no word for it because it is not real. [In Modern Hebrew there is a word but that doesn't prove anything. לא מפי בן יהודה אנו חיים].
So sweet friends let us remember what really matters. It really matters if you are kind. It really matters if you are sensitive. It really matters if you are generous. It really matters if you have meaningful relationships. It really matters if you have deep, everlasting spiritual meaning in your lives.
A piece of paper says "bachelor of ....". Ehhhhhh. Better not be a bachelor. Get married!
