YouTube video: https://youtu.be/71YcFXGzSzk
Hod of Gevurah
Hi everyone, Jordan Drayer, the savvy millennial voice actress who's working on being humble in judgment. Today is one week and five days of the Omer. I'd love for you to like and share as well!
We've been looking at Gevurah in the context of discipline, but for today, Hod of Gevruah, as far as proper English translations, we're going to use judgment. Sometimes these two words are the same, as in the sentence you give a kid for not doing their chores could be considered your judgment. But since we're talking about the humility of judgment, it just sounds better and is easier to work with than the humility of discipline.
I'm going to directly answer the questions from Chabad.org as a way of showing my own humility, instead of just talking about this one or providing examples. The page says, "The results of discipline and might without humility are obvious. The greatest catastrophes have occurred as a result of people sitting in arrogant judgement of others." Strangely enough, Holocaust Remembrance Day starts tomorrow night. Although in a lot of spiritual practices, there are no coincidences.
Now the questions. "Am I arrogant in the name of justice? Do I ever think that I sit on a higher pedestal and bestow judgement on my subjects below?"
Yes, I can be arrogant. I'm going to venture to say, who isn't? When people my age or older don't know what a word means or how to spell it, I often feel superior. The fact that I'm super organized, good with facts, memorize most things, and push myself to do a variety of activities and hang out with people of all ages makes me feel I'm amazing and yes, sometimes better than other people.
This is something high on my spiritual curriculum, to talk myself down and realize people have different skills, some people do their best despite learning disabilities, and not knowing how to spell doesn't make you a bad person. It's interesting in that a lot of people say things like, "Jordan wouldn't hurt a fly," and so many people call me kind and caring. Yet I know my inner thoughts are atrocious. At least I don't say mean things out loud to others.
So I'm working on treating others with more honor. If they do bad things, instead of deeming them a bad person, I am isolating the action. For awhile growing up, I would slap myself for not being perfect and freaked out to not get an A, so I know too that my drive for self-perfectionism has leaked out onto all my perceptions of others. So perhaps as I continue down the road of treating myself better, I'll make strides treating others better as well and be less judgmental.
The exercise for today is to be aware of your personal biases and your baggage (like my extreme need for perfectionism as a kid) when judging someone. If you start to think, "That car is going too fast; it's probably some stupid young man trying to show off," maybe try to think of other circumstances. "He likes driving fast because he feels trapped in life," or "he's training to be a stunt driver." This doesn't negate the fact that fast driving is dangerous, but at least it helps you see the person in a better light.
Good luck, and I humbly ask, please like and share!
https://www.thecandidly.com/2019/why-does-setting-boundaries-make-us-feel-like-terrible-people
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