21/40 Certainty

77% Weekly Newsletter

The 77% Weekly

The 40/52 weeks-a-year, spiritual-religious newsletter 
21/40 From Rabbi Brian

Certainty

     

Certainty is a state of being certain – not a state of being right or wrong.

If you’re certain about something, all it means is that you’re sure about it. You have no doubt. But the absence of doubt does necessarily mean you’re “correct.”

We all want to be right. (I’m certain of that.)

Not feeling certain is a little uncomfortable, like that sensation of your chair tipping backwards and almost falling. Nobody wants to endure that feeling for too long. (Therapists call this feeling dysregulation. In education circles it is referred to a state of disequilibrium.)
I’ve previously written  Faith: Not There, Here and Control or Suffer which both reference one of my favorite phrases:

Rabbi Brian Zachary Mayer is the founder of  Religion-Outside-The-Box.

After being ordained as a rabbi, he left the mainstream rabbinate to encourage people to find and be with (the) God (of their understanding) regardless of baggage. See rabbibrian.com and oldrotb.wpengine.com  

His “day job” is teaching High School students so that they learn mathematics.  (They learn more than math.)
The rest of the time is with his family.

Dubium incommodum est.
Certum ridiculum est.
Uncertainty is uncomfortable.
Certainty is ridiculous.

We all want to be comfortable, and we all want to be certain about things in our lives. We want our doubts removed. But the truth is, it’s not possible to ever be 100% certain. Life is always changing, always throwing us a new curve ball at the precise moment we think we’re settled in. (Think of how the seasons change, for example.)
Ben Franklin stated, In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.
We need to accept that we’ll never have full or complete knowledge about what will happen. We must learn to become comfortable with the awkward feeling of dysregulation and disequilibrium.
Spiritual-religious advice: Know that you’ll never have full certainty, and get comfortable with feeling uncertain.
  With love,

  Rabbi Brian

   Rabbi Brian   

   (In case you didn’t know, you can reply to these newsletters and I will respond back!) 
Support ROTB…

Schedule a monthly recurring donation to ROTB and receive a FREE DOWNLOAD “How To Deal With Impossible People.” 

$77 a month

 $6.42 a month
($77 a year)

$3.34 a month

($1 an issue)
    |
   |

 

Or, make a one-time donation …

 

$1000

$180

$77

$15
Donate Donate Donate Donate

 

I thank you. -Rb 
ROTB’s newsletter, website, and podcasts cost thousands of dollars to publish and maintain.  Please consider making a US tax-deductible contribution to help defray the costs. Details about donations to ROTB.

What We Pass Down

July 17, 2026

“I have the honor of sitting with the Rabbi,” Martin says as I find my seat at the reception to celebrate his granddaughter’s Bat Mitzvah. At times like this, I’m not just Brian. I’m Rabbi Brian. A stand-in for God, Judaism, and all religious persons they’ve met in the past. ✧ ✧ ✧ “We pass the Torah from generation to

Read More »

See Me.

July 9, 2026

Shoes.Shoes.Shoes.  The long glass wall separates me from a display of more than 100,000 shoes at Auschwitz-Birkenau.  Men’s shoes and women’s shoes and children’s shoes and baby shoes.  Everyday shoes and work shoes and formal shoes and boots and sandals and slippers and high-heeled shoes and orthopedic shoes.  Woven sandals and wooden-soled shoes and leather shoes and cloth shoes.  Shoes

Read More »

Last Tuesday / This Tuesday

June 30, 2026

Last Tuesday. I’m sitting in an Adirondack chair, my feet resting on a well-weathered log here in Sisters, Oregon. It’s my family’s annual week-long vacation at the same beautiful house we’ve rented for the past four summers. My favorite spot. Just above the little creek. Most of my worries are 153 miles away. ✧✧✧ This Tuesday. I’m sitting in my

Read More »
77% Weekly Newsletter
77% Weekly Newsletter