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(RNS) — Stop me if you’ve heard this one.

Moshe is the coach of the rowing team at Yeshiva University. The team is doing terribly — so bad, that the president calls him on the carpet.

“What can I do?” Moshe asks.

“Look, Harvard has a great rowing team. Why don’t you go up to Cambridge and check out how they do it?” the president says.

So, Moshe makes the trip and stations himself on the banks of the Charles River to watch the crew.

He reports back to the president of Yeshiva University.

“I think I figured it out,” he says. “They have one guy yelling, and nine guys rowing!”

Welcome to Jewish history 101. That has always been both the problem and the gift of the Jewish people. We have always had many people yelling and not enough people rowing. Don’t believe me?…