The Truth Hurts (HaEmet Ko’evet), episode 79: Self-Awareness By Gili Man Wolner, Emotional Healer
I’m not someone who ever spent much time on my Israeli identity. I’ve only really engaged with my Jewish identity in the last few years, and never through the lens that October 7 brought.
On October 7, our lives were turned upside down. On October 7, we found out that we really are in existential danger. You could say we lost our innocence. We were exposed, and are still being exposed, to horrors and injustices committed against us because we are Jewish. Because you’re a Jew! It’s literally twentieth-century Europe.
And it’s confusing, because a second ago we were living a different reality. And this whole focus on Jewish identity couldn’t feel less like twenty-first-century Tel Aviv. But my brothers and sisters, if they want to kill us for it, then at least let’s know what it’s about.
In my humble opinion, Jewish identity isn’t religious, and it isn’t secular either. It’s traditional! Because even the most secular Tel Avivian is connected to tradition, and I don’t think there was ever a time when the entire Jewish people was religious. The Creator chose us as a people, and not because of religion. Religion isn’t the goal. It’s the means to our role in the world: to guide the world toward knowing God as oneness.
This isn’t an episode about “brothers dwelling together in unity” or ahavat Yisrael (love for the Jewish people), and it isn’t about self-love either. We’re really talking about consciousness.
What is consciousness? Consciousness is self-awareness. It’s the understanding that reality is a reflection of yourself. Everything here is a reflection of you. That doesn’t mean it is you. But how would you know who you are if there were no one who isn’t you, so that you’d understand that you are you? It is through the contrast between us that each of us learns who we are, as distinct from other people. And that’s the whole beauty of it! We came to embody the Creator’s many faces and expressions, in their infinite variety.
Self-acceptance means accepting yourself for what you are and for what you aren’t. That’s it.
The Bioutopia course starts 12/3 (December 3). The course is in Hebrew. Details here: https://lp.smoove.io/th59
A Hanukkah evening, Tuesday 12/24 (December 24). For details and registration, send a WhatsApp message to 0506810611 with the word “Hanukkah,” and you’ll get the details and how to sign up.
Consultation and guidance session (in Hebrew): https://jewish-motivation.gilimanwolner.co.il//
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