Last week, I spent 48 hours in Israel, racing between our Belev Echad centers. One of my stops was at our horse farm. I came just to visit, but I left having taken my first-ever riding lesson - from a soldier who, a few years ago, could not bring himself to walk out his own front door.
In 2017, Dror was a young man in the artillery, in peak form. While training one night in the Golan Heights, his vehicle overturned on rocky ground and plunged into a ravine. Two of his friends were killed. Dror survived with a broken back.
He spent eight months entirely unable to move. Then, he had to learn how to walk and do the simplest tasks all over again.
But he had invisible injuries too, and those took longer to recover from. Dror blamed himself for his friends' deaths. He isolated himself, pulling away from everyone he knew. The young man who had loved music and animals and life stopped leaving his house at all.
A few years ago, we bought a horse for Dror. Taking care of the horse got him out of the house. Slowly, in the saddle, he came back to himself. He smiled again. His confidence returned. Now, he teaches other soldiers how to ride. And he taught me too!
So there I was, a Chabad rabbi from New York City, having my first-ever riding lesson. Dror showed me how to get up onto the horse. How to sit on it. How to position my body and hold the reins. He showed me how the horse senses your fear and then settles you down. It's actually pretty amazing, this horse therapy!
And somewhere in the middle of the lesson, up on that horse, it hit me: Of all the people in the world who could teach me not to be afraid, here was the one who had been more afraid than anyone! A man who, a few years ago, could not get out of bed, much less out of the house. And now he was calmly putting his rabbi on a horse and steadying my nerves. How powerful!
We all have fears. Sometimes we challenge ourselves to overcome them; other times we give in to them. But when we push ourselves to face our fears head on, we not only are no longer afraid, we unleash an incredible power that propels us forward more than we could have ever dreamed, and uniquely positions us to help others facing those same fears.
Our Sages teach that the mitzvot we find most challenging are the ones most closely connected to our soul’s mission in this world. So instead of saying, “Going to shul is too hard for me, but I love saying blessings before food - I’ll just do that instead,” challenge yourself and say, “Going to shul is hard for me. Instead of giving up, I’m going to push myself to not only go myself, but to bring others with me.” You will soon find yourself like Dror: Not only having overcome your own fear/challenge, but teaching others how to as well.