Decisiveness

I’ve been reading an excellent book on management—The Speed of Trust, by Stephen M. R. Covey. Trust, the book’s sub-title claims, is “the one thing that changes everything,” the key to success and effectiveness in every organization and relationship. The book lists thirteen behaviors that have been proven to build trust, including Behavior #8: “Confront Reality,” which sheds a lot of light on one of the traits emphasized in the Jewish discipline of Mussar or character development. This is the trait of decisiveness.

The opposite of “Confront Reality” is “Avoid Reality,” and indecision (the opposite of decisiveness) is often a way to do just that.

Huck Finn changed my life

http://www.gocomics.com/patoliphant/

RR: Hey, Eli, have you seen the recent flap about the censored version of Huckleberry Finn?

Eli: Yeah, I sure have–Huck Finn changed my life, and I can’t believe anyone would want to mess with him. Of course, I’ve always been for free speech big time, but I’m not so sure about you.

RR: Sure, I’m into free speech, although I’m more concerned about ethical speech right now. So, on the one hand, it’s unethical to speak about others in a way that robs them of their human dignity. On the other hand, I think Mark Twain was doing the exact opposite with the n-word. I mean, Jim, who is called that name countless times, is clearly the most menschy character in the whole book.

Patience Round 2

This afternoon, we saw a documentary by the Simon Wiesenthal Center (www.moriahfilms.com) on Churchill’s first year and a half as Prime Minister during WWII, which included the blitz on London. It was amazing to see the patience of ordinary Londoners as they dug out of bombed buildings and just went back to work. I don’t know if anyone today would show that kind of steadiness and perseverance in the midst of adversity. Patience is a lost virtue today, hardly recognized as a virtue at all.

I posted a piece on patience back in October as part of my Mussar work, and here’s another installment for round two of Mussar.

Though the fig tree may not blossom,

Nor fruit be on the vines;

Though the labor of the olive may fail,

And the fields yield no food;

Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,

And there be no herd in the stalls—

Yet I will rejoice in the LORD,

I will joy in the God of my salvation. (Habakkuk 3:17-18)

 

Here’s an unoriginal thought: We are an impatient generation.

Unrecognized Messiah

Occasionally I exchange emails about Yeshua with a non-Messianic Jewish friend.  In our last round my friend said, “Don’t you think that if Jesus was truly the Messiah, it would have been unavoidable for the Jews to recognize it?” (Have you ever noticed that most Jews who don’t believe in the Messiah insist on calling him Jesus, no matter how much we say Yeshua?) Here’s my response:

 

Not only do I not think that it would be unavoidable for Jews to recognize Yeshua, but I believe our corporate (but not permanent) Jewish non-recognition is an essential part of the story. It’s consistent with Jewish understandings of the Messiah to see him as hidden and rejected before he is fully revealed.

Equanimity

I’m continuing to post my weekly contributions for www.rivertonmussar.org right here at Divine Reversal. We just completed a cycle of 13 middot, or character traits, and are starting over at the first one again. You never stop growing. . .

Beloved . . . this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Messiah Yeshua. (Phil. 3:13–14)

Without balance any virtue can become a vice. Humility can become annoying self-effacement or avoidance of real opportunities because they might lead to recognition. Righteousness can become self-righteousness; order can become obsessiveness. And equanimity is no exception. Rabbi Mendel defines it as rising above events, both good and bad, that have the power to disturb our inner poise and peace. But this quality can become an imbalanced detachment from events, an other-worldliness that would contradict the spirit of Mussar.