36.40 Afraid & Fear



The 77% Weekly
The 40/52-weeks-a-year, quick-reading, thought-lingering, spiritual-religious newsletter.

Religion-Outside-The-Box (oldrotb.wpengine.com) is a donation supported not-for-profit empowering adults to find and be with (the) God (of their understanding).  

36/40
From the desk of Rabbi Brian


 

Here’s a wonderful Chassidic quote:

I am afraid of things that cannot harm me, and I know it.
I yearn for things that cannot help me, and I know it.
What I fear is within me, and within me too, is what I seek.

How true, how true.
I fear things that I know aren’t really things to be afraid of.   I hope for things to help me that I know can’t help.   And, I know that the answers are pretty simple, if I would just get to that point.
I suggest that you take the time to type or write out the above quote. (Writing will
activate different parts of your brain than reading or
cutting-and-pasting do.)
Spiritual-religious advice this week: Contemplate your fears and how you deal with them.


 

With love,

Rabbi Brian

Rabbi Brian

The 77% Weekly

The 77% Weekly: The Religion-Outside-The-Box Newsletter helps people find and be with (the) God (of their understanding) 40 out of 52 weeks a year.


Why 77%?
Two reasons:
1) 40/52 = 0.76923. The newsletter is sent every Monday except the last of each month.
2) In school 77% was a passing grade and ROTB is delighted to remind you that life isn’t graded.

 

Religion-Outside-The-Box is a donation-supported,
non-denominational, internet-based, 501c3-tax exempt religious congregation.

 


 

Loving Enemies

December 5, 2025

Thoughts on loving our enemies ✧✧✧ Three Saturday Services in a row the group and I interacted around the topic of loving our enemies. Here are some thoughts related to our discussion. ✧✧✧ The “Love your enemies” trope is famously attributed to Jesus — in Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount and elsewhere. > Love your enemies, do good to those

Read More »

Oh, Honey.

November 27, 2025

Fall, 2025 I’m sitting in my favorite chair in the living room. The sky is getting darker. It’s almost dusk. I check the time: 4:40 p.m. The dark starts early these days. Especially in the Pacific Northwest. I make a mental note to take my vitamin D in the morning. ✧✧✧ Most weeks I get a bit panicked that I

Read More »

It’s o.k. to seek love.

November 6, 2025

Beloved reader, I am redoing the rotb.org website.  Again. Why am I redoing the website again? Because a website older than (blank) years is (blank minus one) years overdue for a facelift.  (The standard is three years for small sites and six years for large sites.)  ✧✧✧ While placing into the background a composite grid, 15 wide by five tall,

Read More »