I love the idea of hope. How can we live our life with no hope, right? Hope is the antithesis to fear. While fear paralyzes us, hope drives us to an action. We all know that there are times where we experience defeat and failure. I don’t know anybody who lives life that is only composed of goodness and joy. Sometimes we have “oyes.” That is part of our life. Our life is really the sum of all the” oyes” and the joys that happened to us. This past week we saw it on an international level, with the rockets being fired at Israel for no apparent reason and with no provocation. And I’ve seen it also with my close circle of friends, the feeling of despair.
But as I sit here reflecting on the fact that it’s Israel 71st birthday, the concept of hope rings very deeply within my soul. I believe that hope is what carries us through the lows of life, through the “oyes” and make us rise into joy. Hope is the antithesis to fear. It is not a wonder that the Jewish national anthem is titled the hope. What would we do without the hope? Where would we have been if we didn’t have hope? Instead of being and remaining in a fearful place, we lean away from fear and more toward hope. And sometimes leaning toward hope means that we have to develop courage. Now- get this—courage is a word that is originated in Latin and it means heart. To have courage is to have a heart! How about that gem for a small discovery and appreciation today?
And in Hebrew, you ask—what is courage in Hebrew? What I am going to reveal to you is awesome—I have goosebumps just thinking about it—courage in Hebrew is Ometz Lev. Same lev as in my book, Moments of the Heart. Lev is a heart. Courage in Hebrew means the adoption of the heart!
So how do we show courage? How do we cope with despair? By taking actions that show courage, actions that show our hearts’ desires, actions we are willing to adopt! So we hope and we cope. We hope and we act. Hoping is internal and coping is external. Coping requires you to take some kind of action. The word for coping in Hebrew is l’hitmoded. The word midah means a measurement. So really, we can look at coping as finding proper measurements of actionable behaviors. We hope for the best and we copy by taking actions with what we have now for a better future ahead. Hoping and Coping!