Bravery

Ben Zoma says:

Who is brave?

The one who subdues his negative inclination…

(Talmud - Avot 4:1)

When we think of examples of bravery, we think of people like the race car driver who travels at 160 miles per hour, or the mountain climber who scales Mount Everest, or the sky diver who jumps out of a plane.

But our sages don’t cite such feats when discussing bravery. Rather it is the one who conquers his Yetzer Hara—our self-destructive tendencies.