Contracts benefit, but covenants transform,
the former mere transactions but
relationships the latter, pulpit and platform
where minds are open, never shut.
Cooperating, fauna which have selfish genes
survive because they are a team,
their hidden covenants providing them the means
to thrive, as if they have a dream
like Martin Luther King’s, so that they all can see
beyond their petty selves to where,
cooperating with the so-called enemy,
they triumph, since they dare to share.
Inspired by a speech Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, gave to an assembly of Anglican Bishops at Lambeth Palace on July 29, 2008. He used the concept of what Richard Dawkins has called the selfish gene to illustrate the difference between contracts and covenants.
His response to this poem on September 8, 2008 was:
Dear Gershon:
Thank you very much for your very, very moving letter. I loved the poetry and the prose. May G-d continue to bless all you do.
בשלום וברכה
Jonathan Sacks
Gershon Hepner, MLK Day 1/18/21
Gershon Hepner is a poet who has written over 25,000 poems on subjects ranging from music to literature, politics to Torah. He grew up in England and moved to Los Angeles in 1976. Using his varied interests and experiences, he has authored dozens of papers in medical and academic journals, and authored “Legal Friction: Law, Narrative, and Identity Politics in Biblical Israel.” He can be reached at gershonhepner@gmail.com.
