Spiritual Warrior for a Day
I write with a heavy heart. People are dying. Their deaths caused by the callousness of evil charismatics indoctrinating hate and embedding fears in the hearts of suffering and deprived populations. Evil leaders’ lust for power, lust for domination, lust for blood, injecting poisons in distraught minds, broken hearts and corrupted souls. How do compassionate and caring people respond to such cruelty and depravity?
Rabbi Laibl Wolf
Emotions are tricky business. They often lead us by the nose. We are all easily led and intimidated by the idiot box blaring the smooth voices of illiterate and boorish (if not ulterior-motivated) talking heads. Our hearts bleed in response to doctored, orchestrated, carefully choreographed, instant human tragedy video clips. Talking heads partner ambitious news photographers to stage-manage the best human-interest stories for local consumption ‘back home’. Forget truth. Forget justice. Forget morality. The ‘story’ is all that counts. If retractions and apologies need to be dished out later in some fine print or throwaway comment on air, who cares? Goebbels wins the day. The big lie is the best lie. And say it often enough and it becomes the new truth. What counts is that the story moved the viewing audience, improved network ratings, and was consistent with the political bias of the network.
So terrorists and media make for perfect bedfellows. Terrorism needs its poison spewed to as wide a viewing audience as possible to recruit sick society drop-outs, and media responds synergistically making media barons richer and ego driven anchor-persons flush with self-pride.
This still begs the question: how can people of principle and truth respond to those who wave the automatic weapons and gracefully fire rockets through the orb of the blue sky bringing down passenger planes or indiscriminately attempting to destroy populous cities? An answer is provided by the great mediaeval philosopher and physician, Maimonides, who notes: One should see the world’s good and evil poised on pans of an equally balanced cosmic scale, and one positive individual act, tips the scales to the good, thereby saving the world.
You are powerful. You radiate energies of goodness to the farthest reaches of the world. The challenge is to believe in ourselves and not abdicate the important leadership role that sends waves of positive energy to the most distant shores.
Speak with inner strength. Behave assertively. Think strategically. Make personal plans to change in the world. One man, the Lubavitcher Rebbe obm writes in his biographical notes how he envisioned in his young years a totally transformed world. Step by step over the next forty years he single-handedly created a network of 4500 world institutions and ‘beachheads’ to effect that change. He was but one person. He impacted the whole world. He planned and he believed.
Momentary impulsiveness doesn’t cut it. You are a spiritual warrior. Plan. Devise. Create. Execute. Fight terrorism with heroism – the heroism that stems from inner fortitude, conviction and quest for truth.
Don’t make the mistake of naivety. A fuzzy warm loving compassionate soul does not a spiritual warrior make. Love includes tough-love. Draw a line in the sand and be prepared to defend it with your whole being. If someone threatens your physical integrity, strength of character and self-esteem demands you defend yourself. Your weaponry of compassion doesn’t defend your body. Truth and principle extends to the physical plane of a ‘real’ world of hurt, pain, and cruelty.
So how do good people respond to a troubled world? With belief in man’s innate goodness. With strength of conviction. With a willingness to express leadership qualities – whether in the family, or in community or in society at large. With faith in a benevolent higher power to appeal to. With chosen words and select behaviours.
I challenge you: adopt these characteristics fully for one day. I guarantee you will be witness to actual changes you effect in the world. Test my assertion. Be a spiritual warrior for a day.
Rabbi Laibl Wolf is the Dean of Spiritgrow – The Josef Kryss Center, Australia
