What Does it Mean to Be Courageous?

Good Will Is Courageous

When the wounded Ivanhoe is taken to Isaac's house, Rebecca takes care of him. She has knowledge of medicine, and for her kind efforts in having him get well Ivanhoe offers her a "casque full of crowns." Rebecca shows a deeply courageous mind when she says she wants only:

One boon in the stead of the silver thou dost promise me....to believe henceforward that a Jew may do good service to a Christian, without desiring other [recompense] than the blessing of the Great Father who made both Jew and Gentile.

Rebecca feels that two things which are different—Christianity and Judaism—are alike because both come from "the Great Father." Ivanhoe is deeply affected by her largeness of mind and her kindness. He is feeling very low, and when he calls himself an "ill-fated wretch" Rebecca wants him to see that things are not against him, and her logic is quite sound:

'Nay,' said Rebecca, 'thy weakness and thy grief, Sir Knight, make thee miscalculate the purposes of Heaven. Thou hast been restored to thy country when it most needed the assistance of a strong hand and a true heart, and thou hast humbled the pride of thine enemies [at Ashby]...and for the evil which thou hast sustained, seest thou not that Heaven has raised thee a helper and a physician, even among the most despised of the land? Therefore, be of good courage...
Ivanhoe was convinced by the reasoning...In the morning his kind physician found him entirely free from feverish symptoms ...

Rebecca's kindness makes me grateful for the education I am receiving from Aesthetic Realism about love, what it means for a man and woman to have good will for each other. I am proud to know and love Meryl. I need her criticism, her kindness, her humor and what she teaches me about the feelings of women.

At the end of Ivanhoe there is a dramatic occurrence which shows that a notion of courage based on contempt cannot work, and with all the bluster, it undermines one's life. When the Templar Bois-Guilbert abducts Rebecca, hoping to make her his lover, Rebecca is accused of being a Jewish sorceress who has Bois-Guilbert under her spell, and she is sentenced to die on a burning stake. Her one recourse is to find a knight to joust on her behalf against a knight representing the Templars—if her knight wins, she will live.

Ivanhoe gallops for miles to be Rebecca's knight. Ironically Bois-Guilbert himself is forced to be the knight for the Templars. He knows that if he wins the jousting match Rebecca will die minutes later, and he is in a terrific battle. Pacing into the lists, "He looked ghastly pale, as if he had not slept for several nights."

Ivanhoe and Bois-Guilbert charge at each other, and with the lightest touch of Ivanhoe's lance, Bois-Guilbert falls. His helmet is removed and:

The eyes...were fixed and glazed. The flush passed from his brow, and gave way to the pallid hue of death. Unscathed by the lance of his enemy, he had died a victim to the violence of his own contending passions.

Through the study of Aesthetic Realism, every man can learn about those "contending passions" in himself, and what is more, can learn how to have the best, most courageous thing in him win—his desire to honestly like the world. This is the most liberating, grounded education that has ever been, enabling men to feel new self-respect and pride in their lives, and I am so happy it is reaching people everywhere.

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