GOOD MORNING!  What is courage? The year is 1929. It's Friday, August 23rd. The Grand Mufti is preaching to a packed crowd of worshippers on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. He is fomenting them into a boiling cauldron of hate, viciousness and cruelty. Finally, he charges them with their holy mission: "Itbah al-Yahud!" -- Slaughter the Jew! -- and sends them forth to have the streets run in blood!

Groups splinter off to attack Jews in the Old City, Jaffa Road, Talpiot and Mekor Chaim. The main body of eight thousand Arabs leave the Temple Mount wielding swords and clubs marching towards the new communities of Me'ah She'arim and Bais Yisroel. Heading through the Damascus Gate, their blood curdling cries are like a screaming locomotive in a piercing unison of "Itbah al-Yahud! Itbah al-Yahud!" They are led by a sword-wielding sheik on horseback who urges his shrieking followers to carry out judgment on the Jews sparing neither man, woman or child!

Who stands between this blood thirsty mob and the peaceful Orthodox residents? A small garrison of Hagana operating out of a flour mill near the south end of Me'ah She'arim. There is no way they imagine that they can fend off the huge Arab onslaught!

Two men, Rabbi Aharon Fischer and Binyamin Zev Yarden, volunteer to stop the frenzied mob. The two walk out of the flour mill and determinedly walk towards the attackers. Reb Aharon stops and faces the approaching sheik. His payos (earlocks) blow in the wind from beneath his hat as he pulls out a revolver and ... shoots the sheik through the heart. Without their leader, the Arabs are confused and panic! Then Binyamin Zev throws a hand grenade in their midst as the fleeing mass stampede back towards the Damascus Gate, trampling their comrades in their rush.

What was going through the minds of these two young men? Did they really believe that they had a chance of stopping 8,000 marauding, frenzied, blood-thirsty Arabs? Did they think that they were going to a certain death? What was motivating them? I don't know. I can only imagine that they decided there was no choice, no other alternative and that they had to do whatever they could no matter what the cost. Though we cannot rely upon miracles when making decisions, it is true that one person plus the Almighty is a majority!

We all need courage in life -- sometimes just the courage to face the coming day. However, to change ourselves or to risk a new direction, we definitely need courage. My favorite quote on courage comes from Mark Twain: "Courage is not the lack of fear. It is acting in spite of it."

I asked my friend, Reb Zelig Pliskin who wrote the book Courage, for a list of ideas to help people strengthen their courage. Here are:

And what was going through the minds of the frenzied Arab mob when opposed by these young men? Again, I don't know. Perhaps ..."It's an ambush! There are two of them!"

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COURAGE

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Acharei Mot-Kedoshim, Leviticus 16:1-20:27

Acharei Mot includes the Yom Kippur service where the Cohen Gadol cast lots to designate two goats -- one to be sacrificed, the other to be driven to a place called Azazel after the Cohen Gadol - the High Priest - confesses the sins of the people upon its head. Today it is a very popular epithet in Israel to instruct another person in the heat of an argument to "go to Azazel." (I don't believe the intent, however, is to look for the goat...)

The goat sent to Azazel symbolically carried away the sins of the Jewish people. This, I surmise, is the source of the concept of using a scapegoat. One thing you can truly give credit to the Jewish people -- when we use a scapegoat, at least we use a real goat!

The Torah then proceeds to set forth the sexual laws -- who you are not allowed to marry or have relations with. If one appreciates that the goal of life is to be holy, to perfect oneself and to be as much as possible like God, then he/she can appreciate that it is impossible to orgy at night and be spiritual by day.

The Torah portion of Kedoshim invokes the Jewish people to be holy! And then it proceeds with the spiritual directions on how to achieve holiness, closeness to the Almighty. Within it lie the secrets and the prescription for Jewish continuity. If any group of people is to survive as an entity, it must have common values and goals -- a direction and a meaning. By analyzing this portion we can learn much about our personal and national destiny.

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Dvar Torah
based on Growth Through Torah by Rabbi Zelig Pliskin

The High Priest, the Cohen Gadol, performs a special service in the Tent of Meeting on Yom Kippur. Only he performs this service and he does it alone. The Torah states:

"And there shall be no man in the Tent of Meeting when he goes in to make atonement in the sacred place" (Leviticus 16:17).

Why does the Torah emphasize, "and there shall be no man" when he does the service?

The commentary Degel Machaneh Ephraim, points out that the Cohen Gadol might feel conceited being the only one chosen from the entire nation to perform the sacred service on the most holy day of the year. He might focus on the honor he was receiving from others and how other people would be thinking of him with respect and even awe. Therefore, the Torah tells him, "There shall be no man," that is, the Cohen Gadol should mentally view the world as if there were no other people in existence. He should do this when he enters the tent of meeting to make atonement in the sacred place. By having this mental attitude, he frees himself from any thoughts of seeking honor and approval.

This is a useful technique for people who are worried about what others think about them. If no one else exists, then you do not need to worry what they think of you. In truth, others do not think about you as much as you think they do. And if they do think about what you do, it makes little practical difference -- especially, if you use this technique to free yourself from the harm and pain caused by the illusion that they are thinking about you and that it matters.

May 5
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Jerusalem 6:47
Guatemala 6:02 - Hong Kong 6:34 - Honolulu 6:41
J'Burg 5:17 - London 8:12 - Los Angeles 7:23
Melbourne 5:11 - Mexico City 7:43 - Miami 7:36
New York 7:38 - Singapore 6:48 - Toronto 8:07

Courage is resistance to fear,
mastery of fear, not absence of fear
--  Mark Twain

Success is not final, failure is not fatal
It is the courage to continue that counts
--  Winston Churchill