Hope is the belief that, together, we can make our lives better. There is no greater good than hope. View the study sheet here. Watch the recording here.
How to handle the most stressful and challenging circumstances in our lives? Lower our expectations? Hide from a troubling world? Quietly have faith? Outwardly express an optimistic outlook?
During the Vietnam War Vice Admiral James Stockdale was held as a prisoner in North Vietnam for seven years. He observed two different responses among his fellow prisoners. Some were optimistic about their outcome; others were not. Those who survived tended to be of the non-optimistic group.
Recent studies in psychology draw a distinction between optimism and hope. The former focuses on the expected quality of future outcomes. The latter focuses on one’s capacity to achieve specific goals.
Torah is a narrative that emphasizes not passive faith but human agency to change the world and oneself; not submission but empowerment. Its folds contain both black letter prescriptions and blank, open spaces, opportunities for the exercise of our imagination and creativity. Our primary instrument for making meaning within those open spaces is hope: the conviction that our lives matter and that we can make a difference.
Join us here at 7:00 p.m. (PST) Thursday November 11 as we explore no greater good than hope.
