{"id":46101,"date":"2018-11-30T12:35:40","date_gmt":"2018-11-30T18:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=46101"},"modified":"2018-12-01T01:02:36","modified_gmt":"2018-12-01T07:02:36","slug":"off-the-pulpit-no-in-thunder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/off-the-pulpit-no-in-thunder\/","title":{"rendered":"Off the Pulpit: ‘NO’ In Thunder"},"content":{"rendered":"

By RABBI DAVID WOLPE<\/p>\n

When I speak to high school students, I tell them that the only word that gives you freedom is \u2018no.\u2019 The one who cannot say \u2018no\u2019 is a slave.<\/p>\n

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But if you cannot say \u2018no\u2019 your \u2018yes\u2019 has little meaning \u2013 it is not affirmation, but coercion. In this spirit, Emerson wrote in his journals, \u201cI like the sayers of No better than the sayers of Yes.\u201d He was not against affirmation; he was for freedom.<\/p>\n

Every request is a demand on your time, your attention, your resources. Every yes means saying, even if implicitly, \u2018no\u2019 to something else. So say it out loud: Melville wrote Hawthorne in a letter that he admired him for saying \u201cNO! in thunder.\u201d<\/p>\n

The courage to say no when others are saying yes (and indeed at times, to say yes when others are saying no) is essential to living one\u2019s own life. Do you wish to be yourself? Learn to say \u2018no.\u2019 As the Kotzker Rebbe taught, if I spend my life being someone else, who will be me?<\/p>\n

(Rabbi David Wolpe is the spiritual leader of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles.)<\/em><\/p>\n

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