Courage

Living as a Jew means being different, and being different takes courage. But there is no training for the soul that is as important and as bracing as a schooling in courage. 

   Taking faith seriously means that it will touch you and change your life. That is threatening, both to our own complacency and to the settled attitudes of those who know us. We are told our faith in not supposed to be "too serious." But religion that does not touch our lives is a hobby, not a faith. How can we take the ultimate questions of life lightly? Faith and fate and destiny need not be solemn - few traditions are as hospitable to humor as Judaism - but they are serious.

   What if Judaism begins to seep into your soul? What will others think of you? The answer will vary, but some will be dismayed. Many will not understand. Some will respect your conviction, and recognize the courage required to take a stand of enlightened faith in our age, in our land.

   Whatever reactions you encounter, one conclusion is clear: it is a foolish life that is lived in the minds of others. The attempt to fine-tune the perception of others is draining and futile. Ultimately, inside our own souls we know if we have lived with courage or cowardice. Let others choose for themselves.

   To live as a Jew is to cast your destiny with a numerically small people, a people that is no stranger to change or challenge or disdain. It is a people that has long realized that the opinion of others cannot always be relied upon and that ultimately only the bearer of a soul can know its secret workings.
   If you live in this world and are not merely passing through it, you will have to listen to what stirs your soul. The journey itself - exhausting, exhilarating, and wondrous - will begin to enchant you, and courage will carry you past the objections of those who will not understand.

   When God called to Abraham, Abraham responded with a single word, hineni - "Here I am."

Rabbi David Wolpe,

"Why be Jewish?"