“Chutzpah is  the Yiddish word for nerve… It takes real chutzpah for anyone to try to outline for another the components of a well-reasoned faith. faith is such a personal matter that what one person says can, at best only partially satisfy (or dissatisfy) another!”  These are precious words from Rabbi Belfour Brickner.

He continued:” Any faith worthy of a personal commitment needs to begin with a belief in oneself… This aphorism comes very close to saying it all. Until and unless one has a healthy ego, one will not only be unable to lead or guide others, but one will also be unable to make up one’s own mind and thus become easy prey for others who have strong opinions and even stronger convictions.”

Although I am approaching 71 years, coming from an educational system where conformity, obedience, and compliance were considered premium, my ego is still undergoing reconstructive rehab. In another essay I wrote why I rely heavily on my favorite authors to integrate my new beliefs and values.

For a meaningful life Victor Frankel had this to say: “The answer lay in the way each individual thought of himself or herself.”

“As long as they found some meaning in their day-to-day existence, as long as they looked forward to some small survival goal, they had a better chance of making it than those who lived only in the past.”

“His faith was pinioned on a sense of self: I am worthwhile. I have something to live for.”

According to Rabbi Brickner: “Frankel lived by a quotation from the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche: He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how.”

The early first-century rabbis, according to Brickner interpreted the biblical phrase “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself to mean You shall love your neighbor, he is yourself.