Living n the Edge
By Moshe Katz
Krav Maga Instructor, Israel

February 14, 2010   

Some people feel that we martial arts types who engage in full-contact fights and reality training are living on the edge and getting a little too close to the edge sometimes, too close for comfort. 

Living on the Edge, great song by the band Aerosmith. None of us really want to live on the edge, too risky, makes us nervous. There are some daredevils among us, those who go bungee jumping or who love extreme sports, or in Israel, those who spent their entire salary before the month is over and hope that somehow they will not fall into debt. But for most of us regular folks, we keep our distance from the edge, too risky, no thank you. 

But do we really? Perhaps we each have our own edge that we dangle in front of? Perhaps each of us, in our way, approach the edge of the cliff and look down, just to experience the sheer thrill of the terror, do we?

We Jews have the "Fiddler on the Roof" syndrome, as Tevye says, We try to eek out a little tune while keeping our balance and not falling off the roof and breaking our neck".   Picture it if you can, a Hasidic, traditional looking Jew, standing on a pointed roof, playing an old Jewish melody on his fiddle, trying not to fall down. That is life itself! For the Jew it was always a matter of trying to make a living in a hostile environment, trying to survive the local anti Semites and the evil governments, all while maintaining our ancient way of life. The classic fiddler,  balancing himself on the roof and trying to scratch out his unique melody to get through his harsh day.

We all have our edge, we all have that cliff we are wary of and don't want to get too close too but sometimes we get brave enough to sneak a peak. For some it is a family situation, an interpersonal issue, for others a financial issue, we take our risks, we play our tune, we stand on the roof and try not to fall down. We face our own truth and our own test.  

Why? Because on the roof we can see to a greater distance, or perhaps it is the challenge of trying not to fall down. Perhaps this is a fear we can cope with while in real life we have challenges that appear outside of our control. Sometimes we need to face the music. So we take our fiddle and we go to the roof, we take our bow and once again try to play our tune....If I were a rich man, dah da di dah da dum...

We are standing on the edge, playing our tune and trying not to lose our balance, this is life in a single image.

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