Courage

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Courage Is Speaking The Truth

 

Courage is… speaking the truth. Nizar Amer, a Druze-Israeli diplomat, defended his country Israel in response to Syria at the UN. Spoken with dignity and clarity, he expressed the truth: “Today we heard numerous accusations against my country, Israel. ..While you continue to kill, we continue to heal the wounds. The truth cannot be hidden any longer.” As the Lubavitcher Rebbe states with crystal clarity “G-d gave the Land of Israel to the Children of Israel as an eternal inheritance…” as it says so in the Torah. The Courage to speak the truth, shatters the lies.

27th day of the Jewish month of Kislev – the month of Courage
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Courage Is Not Knowing How To Do Something And Getting Started Anyway

Courage is …getting started. I may not know how to do something, but I’m going to start because it’s moving me in the direction I want to move. When we start something new, we have a choice – we can think ‘oh, that’s so scary’ or we can think ‘oh, this is new and vulnerable.’ That sensation of vulnerability in the body can feel like ‘fear,’ but the true emotion of fear puts us in a state of intense awareness – like ‘pay attention.’ When we think that something is scary, we go into fight and flight. If we can’t fight or flee, then we freeze which is like lockdown mode and shuts off our intuition. So when we want to start something new, that physical sensation in the stomach/solar plexus is best identified as vulnerability, rather than fear. Fear is for emergencies when you need a quick reaction to something physically dangerous; vulnerability is for starting something new that changes our old ego perception of self. For this we need intuitive flow and Courage.

25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev – the month of Courage

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Courage Is Doing The Difficult

Courage is … doing the difficult. Sometimes we have to go against our nature to help ourselves or others. Like the brave and pious Yehudit of the Chanukah story who killed the general of the Syrian – Greek army. Her city was under siege, her people dying of thirst and though not a warrior or weight lifter, she found a way to enter the enemy camp and do the difficult. She saved the lives of thousands with her Courage. Happy Chanukah!

24th day of the Jewish month of Kislev – the month of Courage

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Courage Is Leaning In

Courage is … leaning in. As Mark Nepo says ‘leaning into our experience, though we don’t like the hit, moves us on.’ He compares this to salmon who expose their underside to the current and this is what launches them further up the waterfall. I’m not a salmon and I don’t like leaning into difficult experiences – I’d much rather shut down or turn away, but I know from mind- body work, the only way to move forward is by leaning in; ‘…it is the impact of being revealed, through our willingness to be vulnerable, that enables us to experience both mystery and grace.’ And that takes Courage.

23rd day of the Jewish month of Kislev – the month of Courage

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Courage Is Fighting For Your Soul

Courage is … fighting for your soul. The Jewish holiday of Chanukah is happening this Saturday night and it commemorates the victory of the Jewish soul. In the 2nd century BCE, the Syrian-Greeks tried to force the Jews of Israel to accept the Greek gods and culture and abandon their belief in their G-d and the Torah. A small group of Jews, the Maccabees, said “No way!”, got their brave on and miraculously defeated one of the mightiest armies on earth. They drove the enemy from their land and reclaimed the 2nd Bais Hamikdash (Holy Temple) in Jerusalem. After the war, the Maccabees lit the Menorah in the Temple with a cruse of oil that was only enough to burn for one day, yet miraculously burnt for eight – hence – Chanukah is celebrated for eight days to commemorate this miracle of oil. As the Previous Rebbe says “We must listen carefully to what the candles are saying.” Never be afraid to stand up for your soul.

22nd day of the Jewish month of Kislev – the month of Courage

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Courage Is Being Modest With Our Body

 

Courage is … being modest with our body. The way of the world as it is now, the more bare, the more guts. But what if it were the complete opposite? What if the more modest, the more guts? At this time, Hollywood, Cosmo, and the media dictate to women how to dress and how much of their body to show off. And they claim that this is what makes women powerful – the ability to bare cleavage and then say ‘blank you’ to anyone who claims that they shouldn’t dress that way. The big lie of the modern day is that a woman should be able to show off her breasts, and her rear and that men shouldn’t give a darn. Women yell at men and say they shouldn’t look or be distracted by their showing of these parts. But what if these parts are precious, to be kept private for the sexual attraction and enjoyment with a beloved partner and not just for show for any joe-shmo? A man’s nature is to look at the physical parts of women – it’s how the Creator created them. The nature of women? To look at the whole person. Dovid Hamelech (King David) said that ‘the glory of the King’s daughter is on the inside.’ ‘King’ refers to Hashem (G-d) and women as daughters expect to be seen and respected for their whole inner essence – not just their physical parts. And yet, when we bare those parts, we yell that we don’t want to only be seen for our physicality. Let’s stop yelling at men and know that for a woman’s true, powerful glory to be seen, she doesn’t need to bare her breasts, she needs to bare her essence. And that is beautiful and courageous.

21st day of the Jewish month of Kislev – the month of Courage
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Courage Is Speaking Up

 

Courage is … speaking up. Since I run my life according to Jewish mysticism, I’ll share how I’m seeing the political situation of these days, which I know has been frightening a lot of people. Taking an eagle eye perspective and a Jewish mystical perspective, I’m seeing this: the Torah speaks of the meeting up of Esau and Yaakov (Jacob whose name gets changed to Yisroel) as a meeting up of divine forces in the world to bring about a time called Geula – when the world is transformed to a state of peace, health, abundance and revealed spirituality.

At the time mentioned in the Torah, Esau was supposed to meet up with Yaakov, but he didn’t – he wasn’t ready yet. And now, since we are at the year 5777 Jewish calendar time and the world as we know it transforms into this incredible peaceful state of Being before the year 6000, Esau is ready to meet Yaakov. Esau was a rough, course red faced character – similar to the way Trump is showing up. He supports Israel, which represents Yaakov. So to me, this meeting up of these spiritual forces is happening now through this farcical political situation. It doesn’t mean that all his policies are right on, but the bigger picture looks like this to me. And the result, as ‘crazy’ as it sounds, is an incredible revelation of Divine essence which results in Peace.

There – I spoke up 🙂

20th day of the Jewish month of Kislev – the month of Courage

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