{"id":281,"date":"2013-02-21T05:49:34","date_gmt":"2013-02-21T05:49:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/keepingthefaith\/?p=281"},"modified":"2013-02-06T03:01:12","modified_gmt":"2013-02-06T03:01:12","slug":"have-a-little-chutzpah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/keepingthefaith\/2013\/02\/have-a-little-chutzpah.html","title":{"rendered":"Have a Little Chutzpah"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>There were four rabbis who had a series of ongoing theological arguments, and three were always in alignment against the fourth. One day, the odd rabbi out, after the usual \u201cThree to One\u201d vote, decided to appeal to a higher authority. \u201cOh, God!\u201d he cried, \u201cI know in my heart that I am right and they are wrong. Please give me a sign to prove it to them.\u201d As soon as the rabbi finished his prayer, a storm cloud moved across the sky above the three opposing rabbis. It rumbled once and then disappeared.<\/p>\n

\u201cA sign from God!\u201d the fourth rabbi cried. \u201cSee, I am right!\u201d But the other three disagreed pointing out that storm clouds could form on any hot day. So the rabbi prayed again: \u201cOh, God, I need a bigger sign to show that I am right and they are wrong. God, send a bigger sign!\u201d This time a much larger storm cloud appeared and a bolt of lightning slammed into a tree right beside the three opposing rabbis. \u201cI told you I was right!\u201d cried the fourth rabbi again. \u201cGod has vindicated me.\u201d But his friends insisted that nothing had happened that could not be explained by natural causes.<\/p>\n

The rabbi, then and there, turned to God once again, this time to ask for a very, very, big sign.\u00a0But as he began to pray, \u201cOh God\u2026\u201d the sky turned pitch black; the earth shook, and a deep, booming voice called from heaven: \u201cHE IS RIGHT!\u201d The rabbi put his hands on his hips, turned to the other three, and said, \u201cWell? I told you I was right!\u201d The other three rabbis looked to one another and then responded in unison: \u201cSo what. It\u2019s still three over two.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within Jewish faith there is this beautiful, argumentative contrariness. It is faith, for sure, but it is never settled. Spirituality is an on-going wrestling match with one another, and especially with God. There is a Yiddish word to describe it: Chutzpah. In a Yiddish proverb chutzpah is illustrated by a young woman who wakes in the middle of the night and goes to her parents\u2019 bedroom and murders them. She is quickly arrested and brought to trial. Before the judge she pleads for mercy, if not full pardon for her actions, based on the fact that she is an orphan.<\/p>\n

For our spiritual forefathers, chutzpah was a required spiritual ingredient for living. Moses wins several arguments with God in his desert years. Job demanded that God show up and defend his actions. Abraham bargained with God to save innocent lives. Jesus fought his Father tooth and nail in the Garden of Gethsemane. Of course the most shameless and brazen arguer of all was Jacob. He wrestled with God face to face with audacious chutzpah running out of his ears. There was sweat and blood, flying punches, kicks to the head, drool, tears, and exhaustion; God and man locked in mortal combat. But Jacob would not quit until he prevailed.<\/p>\n

More times than we care to admit, our relationship with God is not a Harlequin romance, wrapped in a tidy package with a bow on top. It is more like a game of tug-o-war. God speaks and pulls and we pull back. He yanks again and we curse and shout across the mud pit at him. He shouts back. It goes on like this for a long time \u2013 most of our lives even \u2013 and sometimes God wins and sometimes we do.<\/p>\n

Why is it this way? Because God isn\u2019t after blind, robotic faith, we behaving as androids receiving signals from above transmitted to our spiritual antenna. No, God is after a relationship with us, for us to genuinely know him. And sometimes to know this God we must wrestle with him. When we give up on listening, struggling, wrestling, and protesting \u2013 when we lose our chutzpah \u2013 we have given up on faith, and the only thing left is atheism or cynicism; hardness toward God or disbelief in him. The struggle means the relationship is very much alive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There were four rabbis who had a series of ongoing theological arguments, and three were always in alignment against the fourth. One day, the odd rabbi out, after the usual \u201cThree to One\u201d vote, decided to appeal to a higher authority. \u201cOh, God!\u201d he cried, \u201cI know in my heart that I am right and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":441,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,21,15],"tags":[3],"class_list":["post-281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-god","category-honesty","tag-ronnie-mcbrayer"],"yoast_head":"\nHave a Little Chutzpah - Keeping The Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/keepingthefaith\/2013\/02\/have-a-little-chutzpah.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Have a Little Chutzpah - Keeping The Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There were four rabbis who had a series of ongoing theological arguments, and three were always in alignment against the fourth. 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