(12) Moses said to the LORD, “See, You say to me, ‘Lead this people forward,’ but You have not made known to me whom You will send with me. Further, You have said, ‘I have singled you out by name, and you have, indeed, gained My favor.’ (13) Now, if I have truly gained Your favor, pray let me know Your ways, that I may know You and continue in Your favor. Consider, too, that this nation is Your people.” (14) And He said, “I will go in the lead and will lighten your burden.” (15) And he said to Him, “Unless You go in the lead, do not make us leave this place. (16) For how shall it be known that Your people have gained Your favor unless You go with us, so that we may be distinguished, Your people and I, from every people on the face of the earth?” (17) And the LORD said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have asked; for you have truly gained My favor and I have singled you out by name.” (18) He said, “Oh, let me behold Your Presence!” (19) And He answered, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim before you the name LORD, and the grace that I grant and the compassion that I show. (20) But,” He said, “you cannot see My face, for man may not see Me and live.” (21) And the LORD said, “See, there is a place near Me. Station yourself on the rock (22) and, as My Presence passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock and shield you with My hand until I have passed by. (23) Then I will take My hand away and you will see My back; but My face must not be seen.”
Alternatively, the word כבדך does not refer to this highest emanation but to the כבוד אחרון, i.e. that Moses requested the insights into G’d’s workings to be made visible to his physical eye rather than to his mental eye. (2) We need to examine how Moses could have assumed that the abstract, i.e. any aspect of G’d’s כבוד, could possibly have qualified for perception by the human eye. Moses who was on a level where his physicality had receded into an insignificant aspect of his being, [had he not gone without food and drink for 40 days? Ed.], was not conscious of such limitations as he had not really experienced them. He did not think in terms of his physical attributes losing their effectiveness as he had long since ceased to rely on his physical attributes. He thought in terms of what he would retain of his physical attributes after he would leave an earthly existence. He hoped to attain already at this time what he felt sure he would attain as soon as he would die. G’d told him that this was not possible. The fact that his soul was housed in a functioning body made the granting of such a request impossible.
(ה) הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, אֵין בּוּר יְרֵא חֵטְא, וְלֹא עַם הָאָרֶץ חָסִיד, וְלֹא הַבַּיְשָׁן לָמֵד, וְלֹא הַקַּפְּדָן מְלַמֵּד, וְלֹא כָל הַמַּרְבֶּה בִסְחוֹרָה מַחְכִּים. וּבְמָקוֹם שֶׁאֵין אֲנָשִׁים, הִשְׁתַּדֵּל לִהְיוֹת אִישׁ:
(5) He was accustomed to say: A boor cannot fear sin. An ignorant person cannot be pious. A timid person cannot learn. An impatient person cannot teach. Not all who engage in a lot of business become wise. In a place where there is no man, strive to be a man.
(ה) לֹא יִהְיֶה הַתַּלְמִיד בּוֹשׁ מֵחֲבֵרָיו שֶׁלָּמְדוּ מִפַּעַם רִאשׁוֹנָה אוֹ שְׁנִיָּה וְהוּא לֹא לָמַד אֶלָּא אַחַר כַּמָּה פְּעָמִים. שֶׁאִם נִתְבַּיֵּשׁ מִדָּבָר זֶה נִמְצָא נִכְנָס וְיוֹצֵא לְבֵית הַמִּדְרָשׁ וְהוּא אֵינוֹ לָמֵד כְּלוּם. לְפִיכָךְ אָמְרוּ חֲכָמִים הָרִאשׁוֹנִים אֵין הַבַּיְשָׁן לָמֵד וְלֹא הַקַּפְּדָן מְלַמֵּד. בַּמֶּה דְּבָרִים אֲמוּרִים בִּזְמַן שֶׁלֹּא הֵבִינוּ הַתַּלְמִידִים הַדָּבָר מִפְּנֵי עָמְקוֹ אוֹ מִפְּנֵי דַּעְתָּן שֶׁהִיא קְצָרָה. אֲבָל אִם נִכָּר לָרַב שֶׁהֵם מִתְרַשְּׁלִין בְּדִבְרֵי תּוֹרָה וּמִתְרַפִּין עֲלֵיהֶן וּלְפִיכָךְ לֹא הֵבִינוּ חַיָּב לִרְגֹז עֲלֵיהֶן וּלְהַכְלִימָן בִּדְבָרִים כְּדֵי לְחַדְּדָם. וּכְעִנְיָן זֶה אָמְרוּ חֲכָמִים זְרֹק מָרָה בַּתַּלְמִידִים. לְפִיכָךְ אֵין רָאוּי לָרַב לִנְהֹג קַלּוּת רֹאשׁ לִפְנֵי הַתַּלְמִידִים וְלֹא לִשְׂחֹק בִּפְנֵיהֶם וְלֹא לֶאֱכל וְלִשְׁתּוֹת עִמָּהֶם כְּדֵי שֶׁתְּהֵא אֵימָתוֹ עֲלֵיהֶן וְיִלְמְדוּ מִמֶּנּוּ בִּמְהֵרָה:
(5) A disciple shall not feel ashamed before his fellows who mastered the subject the first or the second time, whereas he did not grasp it until after hearing it many times, for if he will be ashamed of such a thing, he will find himself coming in and going out of the Beth Hamedrash without any instructions at all. The sages, therefore, said: "He who is bashful cannot be instructed and he who is in an angry mood cannot instruct." (Pirke Abot, 2.6). Whereof are such things said? In instances when the disciples did not understand a subject because of its depth or because their mind is short; but if it appears to the master that they are indolent to study the words of the Torah, and sluggish in acquiring them, because of which they did not understand, he is obliged to rebuke them and shame them with words in order to make them energetic. And on this subject the sages said: "Cast gall amongst the disciples." (Ketubot, 103b). It is, therefore, unbecoming for a master to conduct himself light-headedly in the presence of the disciples, not to amuse himself in their presence, nor eat or drink with them, so that they will stand in awe before him and receive instructions from him diligently.6Pesahim, 55a. G.
Why Chutzpah Is The New Charisma - And How To Use It To Get What You Want (Forbes, May, 2012)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/crossingborders/2012/05/18/why-chutzpah-is-the-new-charisma-and-how-to-use-it-to-get-what-you-want/2/#41e2377c1659
Crossing BordersWe write about women who navigate geographical, professional and social borders. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
Maseena Ziegler , Women@Forbes
I’m going to say it straight up: Charisma is old school. Not Vince Vaughn Old School but Bill Clinton’90s old school.*
This is Chutzpah. Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Here's why.
We are living in a new era dominated by Millennial hoodie-and-Converse-wearing billionaires, a world in which a staggering rate of change and disruptive innovation is the order of the day. Old-fashioned charisma is no longer enough to get attention, get ahead, or get the job anymore. Now, it’s those with the fearlessness to go after what they want and the audacity to do it how they want who are making their mark and changing the world.
Some may call that chutzpah, a Yiddish word for the confidence or courage that allows someone to do or say things that may seem shocking to others. In other words, it’s having the “gall” or “nerve”.
In this fast-moving,140-character world, most of us have the attention of a fruit fly. To make an impression on someone who matters, you may have only a few seconds. And I believe that what counts in those few seconds is not a display of charisma but chutzpah.
Suppose you happen to enter the elevator at the same time as the company CEO, whom you’ve never had facetime with before. How can you get in the big boss’s mindspace in just ten seconds? Charisma or chutzpah?
Life comes down to these moments: a chance meeting in an elevator or an airport or coffeehouse line. It’s at these times that you have the opportunity to throw your life into a whole other direction, just by stepping out of your comfort zone, throwing caution to the wind—and daring to have chutzpah.
I’m reminded of a story that leadership expert Robin Sharma likes to share about the legendary Hollywood agent Irving Paul "Swifty" Lazar's chance encounter with Frank Sinatra in a men’s room. Definitely worth a read – click here.
So what is chutzpah exactly—and is it a good thing or a bad thing?
Here’s one definition, and forgive me if you’ve heard it before: Chutzpah is when a man kills both his parents and begs the court for mercy because he’s an orphan.
“There’s nothing good about chutzpah in Yiddish,” says Michael Wex, an expert on the language. “It’s an unambiguously negative quality characterized by a disregard for manners, social conventions, and the feelings and opinions of others.”
But then again, the Yiddish greeting “Shalom” means both hello and good-bye, so chutzpah might have an opposite meaning, too.
I found a rabbi who concurs.
“To be a good person, you do need these two opposites: a sense of shame that prevents you from acting with chutzpah to do the wrong thing, and a sense of chutzpah that prevents you from being ashamed to do the right thing,” says Rabbi Tzvi Freeman.
Rabbi Freeman defines chutzpah as “a kind of cosmic attitude, as though there’s nothing really there stopping you from doing whatever you want.”
I love that. But the rabbi did laugh when I had the chutzpah to propose to him that we make that the new de facto definition for chutzpah going forward.
I admit I’ve been intrigued by the word chutzpah ever since Guy Kawasaki told me I had it. I happened to get in touch with Guy about a year ago because I wanted him to endorse my book. I was a no-name, first-time author who was self-publishing, so conventional wisdom suggested I didn’t stand a chance of getting a prize quote from the best-selling author and former chief evangelist for Apple. Despite Guy initially declining my request, I shamelessly pursued him until he agreed—“Because I really admire your chutzpah!” he said.
While Kawasaki defines chutzpah as “calling up tech support to report a bug in your pirated software,” I like to tell myself he meant it in a slightly more complimentary form for me. Regardless, my chutzpah got me what I wanted.
But with chutzpah, it’s all about moderation. Too much, and you’ll come across as brazen or worse, be dismissed as a complete nutcase.
There are many examples in history of those who have used their chutzpah for a greater good. Some would say that Nelson Mandeladisplayed audacity and even insolence in his response to an oppressive regime in South Africa. Indeed, Michael Wex makes a point of reminding me that chutzpah made a crossover into the English language back in the Civil Rights era when Rosa Parks was described as having chutzpah for not giving up her seat on the bus.
Therefore, while chutzpah involves a lot of nerve, if used appropriately it’s about being driven to act on your calling, to do something you otherwise would be too afraid to do.
“If you have a sense of purpose,” Rabbi Freeman tells me, “then your chutzpah is going to be in the right place. It’s about saying ‘I’m not here just for me’ because otherwise you’re going to mess everything up. You have to recognize the world is not about you. There is some purpose, something that you and only you is going to have to get done. So chutzpah is the attitude where you say, ‘Nothing is going to stop me from making that [whatever that may be] happen.’”...
My Guide to Chutzpah
- Take pride in your chutzpah. Don’t apologize for it, and care what others say.
- Your action must come from a place of truth. If it doesn’t, your chutzpah will go amiss.
- Chutzpah should not mean letting go of your principles or dignity.
- Chutzpah should always be expressed in moderation, much like everything in life.
It was said of Reb Simcha Bunem that he carried two slips of paper, one in each pocket. On one he wrote: Bishvili nivra ha-olam—“for my sake the world was created.” On the other he wrote: V’anokhi afar v’efer”—“I am but dust and ashes.” He would take out each slip of paper as necessary, as a reminder to himself.