Stubborn Jews

Yom Kippur. The annual holiday of confusing guilt and naïve spiritual straining. Does anyone you know actually look forward to Yom Kippur? Many of us don’t, and that’s a crying shame. 
 
 Yom Kippur is not a day to meditate on your failures. It’s a day to gather strength to commit to personal success in your Divine mission on earth. Let’s get real: If you haven’t succeeded at spiritual objective X, it isn’t because of the excuses you’re thinking of. It’s because you haven’t been stubborn enough yet.

Calvin Coolidge famously said “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

As a Chabad rabbi, I spend much of my thinking time wondering how to motivate the Jews I encounter to engage more frequently and/or deeply with Torah and Mitzvos. To varying degrees of success and failure, this is my life. I take the blame when I don’t succeed, but I’m most impressed by those who do respond and stubbornly commit to whatever Jewish spiritual objective is before them. 
 
In my few years so far on this earth, I’ve learned that in life there are talkers and there are walkers; those who talk a good game but fail to deliver (exhibit A: Odor, Rougned), and those who quietly and consistently get the job done. To achieve success, particularly in the realm of spiritual work, you must be determined, stubborn, and even crazy. Those who are allergic to the talk, and are instead stubbornly addicted to the walk — these souls inspire me. Here are some recent, true examples:

I was inspired by a young man who came up to me on Rosh Hashana evening to tell me he had decided to put on Tefillin daily during Elul. What had happened before, how frequently he did this Mitzva in the past — is irrelevant. He was STUBBORN and determined to stick to this (short term, within reach) resolution, and he did.

I was moved to hear from two students on exchange in a distant Asian nation, who wanted to be introduced to their local Chabad rabbi. They were so far away that nobody could fault them for saying “we don’t know anyone here, let’s be Jewish again when we get back home”, yet they were STUBBORN enough to want to experience Shabbat and the holidays in a Jewish community environment.

I don’t know of any effective “treatment” to cool down stubborn determination. No matter what sophisticated idea you will throw at it to lower its intensity, its response will forever be “Say what you want; I’m being stubborn on this”. Eventually the opposition wears off and you march forward. As the US election cycle has shown us, you can’t beat crazy!

Driven. Determined. Committed. We admire these traits in startup founders and billionaire executives; why shouldn’t we adopt them for our personal spiritual lives? The secret is — Jews who take their spiritual growth seriously already do, and we can always join them.

Yom Kippur is a day when we can access the deepest power of commitment, commitment to the point of literal self-sacrifice that lies at the essence of a Jew, way beyond ego. It’s the same self-suspending energy that empowered millions of Jews throughout history to die rather than renounce their heritage, and it’s that same crazy energy that can empower you to finally overcome the carousel of obstacles that hinder your growth. This is an energy that we all share equally, and it can be easier to develop it when you work with a friend or a community in a common effort.

To harness this commitment to a practical post-Yom Kippur resolution, here’s an idea: spend $25–50 and get yourself a Lulav and Etrog set for the upcoming holiday of Sukkot. It’s an easy, exotic and deeply meaningful Mitzvah that takes 60 seconds daily, and the commitment is only for 7 days. I will help you make this happen in time for the holiday (if you ask nicely). Your annual Yom Kippur pangs of angst and sensations of inspiration must be worth at least the cost of a nice dinner; BE STUBBORN AND DO IT!

My closing blessing to you is: may your mantra for all your challenges be “I’m not being stubborn enough”; may your determination carry you past all doubt and cynicism and over all obstacles, and may the success you encounter as a result spur you to deeper levels of stiff-necked holy stubbornness in the pursuit of all that is good and G-dly in this world. L’chaim to a powerfully stubborn year!