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Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Secret to Immortality
Caroline B. Glick Silencing dissent in America
Oct. 29, 2009
Lini S. Kadaba: Do tactics avert flu or reduce humanity?
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Atheists in Bubbleland
JWisdom.com Why what we wear impacts who we are With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Damaging disclosures with a twist
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Are you ready for the ultimate pleasure?
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
Steven Emerson: Terror Cases Share Desire to Kill Americans
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really? By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Perfect Number
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick How Turkey was lost
Oct. 15, 2009
Jeff Jacoby: Peace vs. the 'peace process'
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review

Emotion v. intellect


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By Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski

A world-renowned psychiatrist answers: How can we know factual reality when our emotions distort our perception?

“We were like grasshoppers in our eyes, and so we were in their eyes.”

  —   Numbers 13:33

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | This verse was the origin of all my writings and emphasis on self-esteem. In this unique syntax, the Torah (Bible) teaches us a psychological principle of the greatest importance: The way you feel about yourself is how you think others perceive you.


The foremost commentator, Rashi, expands upon this concept. The spies said, ''We heard the Canaanites say, 'Look! There are ants crawling in our vineyards.' '' The Torah says that the spies felt as small as grasshoppers, which are still much larger than ants. Furthermore, how could the spies know what the Canaanites were saying? How could they understand their language?


Rashi is teaching us that low self-esteem is progressive and self-reinforcing. If you have a distorted, negative self-concept, it is apt to further deteriorate. You may begin by feeling as small as grasshoppers, but your self-image will shrink and you will eventually think even less of yourself. In addition, you will assume that others are making negative comments about you, even if you are not privy to what they are saying. A distorted, negative self-concept can lead to paranoia.


The Midrash on this verse expounds another important psychological principle. ''G-d said, 'I forgive you for saying, ''We were like grasshoppers in our eyes.'' But why did you say, ''and so we were in their eyes?'' How do you know that I did not make you appear to them as mighty angels? For that I do not forgive you' '' (Tanchuma).


Why was the second statement a more grievous sin than the first?


Rabbi Henoch Lebovitz explains that a distorted negative self-image is an emotion. I have noted in my books that there is a strange phenomenon. People who are most gifted may have the most profound low self-esteem. Their undeniable, factual achievements seem to make no impact on their self-concept. Whatever the source of low self-esteem, it is an emotion that is not altered by factual reality.


The concept that G-d is omnipotent is an intellectual belief. The Midrash says that when G-d told Moses that the Israelites should go into the sea, Nachshon went into the water up to his neck and then the waters divided. It was Nachshon's faith that enabled him to overcome the emotional fear of drowning, and it was this faith that warranted the miracle.


Rebbe Shneur Zalman (Baal HaTanya) says that it is innate within the human being that intellect can triumph over emotion. When we allow our emotions to outweigh our intellect, it is a laxity and dereliction on our part.


The Midrash says that G-d forgave the spies for having a poor self-concept. That is an emotion which is not easily overcome. Their sin was in failing to exercise their ability to act according to their intellect. Having witnessed the many miracles of the Exodus, they knew intellectually that G-d could make them appear to the Canaanites as mighty angels. It was not even a lack of faith that was their sin. It was their failure of surrendering to their emotions when they should have followed their intellect (Chidushei HaLev, Bamidbar p. 86).


This is a teaching which we should apply regularly in our lives. As far as our distorted self-concept which depresses our self-esteem is concerned, this is something which we should seek to change by finding ways to elevate our self-esteem.


But until we achieve that goal, we should not allow this emotion to determine our behavior. We should be able to act on factual reality.


But how can we know factual reality when our emotions distort our perception?


By getting an opinion of ourselves from a reliable objective observer. If we are told that we are good, worthy and competent, we should act accordingly even if we do not feel that way.


Nachshon brought about a miracle by following his intellect rather than his emotion. You can accomplish virtually miraculous things by acting according to intellect rather than emotion.


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Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski, M.D. is a psychiatrist and ordained rabbi. He is the founder of the Gateway Rehabilitation Center in Pittsburgh, a leading center for addiction treatment. An Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, he is a prolific author, with some 30 books to his credit, including, "Twerski on Chumash" (Bible), from which this was excerpted (Sales of this book help fund JWR). Comment by clicking here.

© 2009, Mesorah Publications, Ltd.