As a Krav Maga instructor, people often ask me about courage. The older I get, the less I think courage has anything to do with fearlessness.

People misunderstand courage because they imagine it as a feeling. They imagine strong people moving through danger without fear or hesitation. Reality is usually less dramatic and much more revealing. Many courageous acts happen before a person has enough time to emotionally process what is happening.

In 2006, during the Second Lebanon War, Major Roy Klein jumped on a grenade to save the soldiers around him. Israelis know the story well because it captured something deeply familiar about responsibility and sacrifice in Israeli life.

There was no time for reflection in that moment. No time to think about heroism or legacy. What came out of him under pressure was years of identity, training, discipline, responsibility, leadership, and love for the people beside him. The possibility of his soldiers dying became more unbearable to him than the certainty of his own death.

Pressure exposes what already exists inside people.

This is one reason military service shapes Israelis so deeply. The IDF is not only teaching combat skills. It places young people inside responsibility very early in life. A nineteen-year-old commander learns quickly that hesitation affects other people. Panic affects other people. Weakness affects other people. Decisions carry consequences beyond the self.

That understanding changes the relationship a person has with fear.

The modern world often speaks about courage in highly personal terms. Self-expression became more important than obligation. Comfort became more important than resilience. Large parts of Western culture now organize themselves around the avoidance of discomfort,........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)