on s d r wo e som
Resilience
Seven times the righteous falls and gets up. — Proverbs 24:16 Resilience in Judaism is ancient, found in the words of our foundational Exodus narrative, a story that leads us from slavery to freedom. A story we tell again and again. A story we share with every human who inhabits this earth, every soul in need of redemption. We share this story to welcome everyone with open arms into our sacred space. We share this story to open our hearts to suffering and meet people wherever they might be. We share this story to remind ourselves that in every generation there will be both great challenges and great blessings. And that it is how we meet these challenges and share our blessings that will define us as people. Not just as a Jewish community. Not just as Newton or Boston or America. But as the remarkable, resilient, creative human race of which we are all part and parcel. — Rabbi Laura Abrasley (2020) Judaism sees social change not only as taking place at organized events like protests and marches and rallies, but sees the work of improving our world also, if not essentially, as a daily, even hourly, even minute-tominute task. As Jews, we are meant to be activists in every moment, perpetually confronted with opportunities to positively impact the world around us. And, at its epicenter, is Shabbat. The day of rest that is probably the most radical of all Jewish laws and customs. And the most essential to social action. Shabbat comes to remind us that there must be a time when we stop and simply rest. Stop doing all the things we constantly, regularly, routinely do during the week. The never-ending todo lists, the perpetual “one more thing” we just have to get done, the constant running to and fro, even if they are directed towards social change and global improvement. It allows us to retreat into a state of slowed-down existence so that we can restore our energy and our drive to keep on doing the work that needs to be done in order to make our world a better place. — Akiva Gersh (2018) I thought resilience was the capacity to endure pain, so I asked Adam Grant, a psychologist and professor at Wharton who studies how people find motivation and meaning how I could figure out how much capacity I had. He explained that our amount of resilience isn’t fixed, so I should be asking instead how I could become resilient. Resilience is the strength and speed of our response to adversity – and we can build it. It isn’t about having a backbone. It’s about strengthening the muscles around our backbone. — Sheryl Sandberg (2013) The truth is that we all suffer at different points in our lives. Each of us faces challenges and endures pain — both our own and that of our loved ones. As creatures who are finite, mortal and flawed, it is not ours to choose whether we suffer. But we do have the power to choose how to respond. We may not be the masters of our fate, but we are the captains of our souls. — Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson (2012) Resilience is often misunderstood. In Jewish thought, resilience is not bouncing back, but is a process of becoming greater. — Sherri Mandell (2015)
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