THE ART OF STANDING UP FOR YOUR VALUES
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THE ART OF STANDING UP FOR YOUR VALUES
You know that feeling when you speak up at work and immediately regret it? When you defend someone being treated unfairly, only to become the target yourself? When doing the right thing costs you everything… your comfort, your security, maybe even your job? It happened to me. Too many times. I did the right thing, again and again in life, and I got burned, I got hurt.
Most of us learn the “lesson” fast: Keep your head down. Mind your business. Don’t be a hero. But what if the real lesson is the exact opposite?
When Moshe was a young man with everything to lose, he sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave. He intervenes. He acts. He stands up for justice, … and it costs him everything. His position, his safety, his entire life as he knew it as Prince of Egypt. Moshe runs. He hides. He spends the next forty years as a fugitive, running from Pharoah, becoming king of Kush, and then being chased out of Kush. Moshe did not just have a bad week. Moshe did not just have a bad decade. Almost half of his lifetime Moshe was paying the price for one moment of standing up.
You would think he would learn the lesson that every New Yorker knows : Mind your own business!!!
Now here’s where it gets interesting, and where the Torah reveals something so profound about human nature that it should be taught in every leadership program, every therapy session, every moment of doubt we face….
After forty years of suffering the consequences of his intervention, Moshe arrives in Midian. He’s exhausted. He’s a stranger. He knows no one. He has nothing. He sits by a well, probably just trying to catch his breath, and to figure out where he’ll sleep that night. And then he sees it: shepherds harassing young women, driving them away from the water. Here’s the billion-dollar question: What does Moshe do? Moshe! Mind your own business!!! But no. He gets involved. He steps up for justice, like he did years ago. As if, he never learnt the lesson! Any reasonable person would think: Not again. I learned this lesson. I’ve been there. Done that. Look where ‘helping’ got me last time. Forty years of running, hiding, surviving. No thanks.”
But the Torah tells us something fascinating: “And Moshe arose and saved them.” The whole story of Moshe’s life in between the time that he saved the Jew and got into trouble, until now, is deleted. The Torah skips the 40 years, the years that Moshe became King of Kush. “Moshe fled from Pharaoh and settled in Midian and sat by the well”. 40 years in one sentence!! Why does it bridge all of this? To teach you something so profound! Moshe spent forty years thinking about one thing: I did the right thing. Not “I made a mistake.” Not “I should have stayed quiet.” Not “Why did I get involved?” For forty years, every single day, Moshe replayed that moment and concluded: “That was justice. That was the right thing to do. I would do it again.”
Most of us would spend that time in bitter regret. Moshe spent it in moral clarity. The suffering didn’t make him cynical. On the contrary. The time alone with himself made him certain. When Moshe sees those young women being harassed, he doesn’t think twice because he’s spent forty years thinking clearly, deeply, and with absolute conviction, this is who I am, and these are my values.
I remember the time when I stood for something real. I set boundaries, I respected myself, and because of it, I got into big trouble. I was told by people who loved me but did not respect my values, You should have kept quiet. For forty years, Moshe told himself, I should not have kept quite! This is exactly the lead up of why G-d chose Moshe at the Burning Bush to lead the people out of Egypt! After Moshe built this muscle of standing up for justice, no one could stand up to Pharoah like Moshe could! Pharaoh was the master at making people feel bad for challenging him! But Moshe would never feel bad or regret standing up for truth after Moshe thought about it for 40 years!
When Moshe tells G-d he thinks it may not be a good idea for him to take the job, Moshe says, Maybe I am not worthy! He does not say, “Will I survive? G-d, you know what happened to me the last time I stood up for truth in Egypt?”
How did Moshe adapt this mindset? Simple. Moshe believed that Integrity is greater than currency. Moshe repeatedly gave up safety, certainty, comfort, a quiet life…. all for integrity. He built a legacy of Moshe Emet Vtorato Emet, enough trust to be the Jew to bring the Torah of G-d to His people.
This is the question we need to ask ourselves daily. What integrity that we believe in, are we backing away from, because of currency? What legacy are we giving up because of currency?
We only have one life to live. Stand up for your values.
