A significant section of parashat Ma’asei deals with the halakhot concerning the murderer. On the one hand, the Torah may seem very harsh in its rulings. A closer look would reveal very important lessons concerning the role of decisiveness in judgment.

Most people have had the experience of going to a restaurant with other people and having to wait on one person who can’t make up their mind over what to order. The person ordering agonizes over what to get, and meanwhile, everyone else is hungry and waiting, because their order won’t be placed until the indecisive individual comes to a decision. You just want them to order anything just to get the ball rolling.

Yeshua is clear on decision making, Let your word be “Yes, Yes” or “No, No”; anything more than this comes from the evil one (Matt. 5:33–37). This command has simpatico with the cannon of Jewish tradition.

Counting the Omer is an opportunity to learn decisiveness. This tradition marking the days from Passover to Shavuot (see Lev. 23:10-21) reenacts the journey from bondage in Egypt (Mitzraim in Hebrew, meaning “the narrow place”) to revelation at Mount Sinai.

I had hoped that I wouldn't have to come to the place where I would need to make this decision. It was my sincerest hope that it would all work itself out and I would be able to refrain from confronting such a difficult situation. But it didn't work out that way.

I’ve been reading a great book on management — The Speed of Trust, by Stephen M. R. Covey. Trust, the book’s sub-title claims, is “the one thing that changes everything,” the key to success and effectiveness in every organization and relationship.

Decisiveness is a middah that really holds the amidah together. This shows up in a few particular ways. First, decisiveness shows up in the shacharit service where there is supposed to be no break between the conclusion of the shema section and the beginning of the amidah.

Sometimes we wait around to see nature move when we make decisions; maybe we even wish the walls would fall in our favor. But that isn't what we can expect in the world.

Decisiveness means taking to heart what needs to be done enough to take the steps to accomplish it. It is not enough just to know what needs to be done; one must not tarry in the knowledge so long that action becomes superfluous or forgotten.

We all battle our own private Amalek within us. It causes us to question ourselves, doubt and inhibits any deliberate steps forward

The Baal Shem Tov was able many times to defy nature in his quest to serve the Creator. His connection to the Divine and his determination to walk out a life of holiness literally moved mountains. This kind of decisiveness is not found in everyone. But what does it take to have this ability?

The Sages teach, and this is widespread in Jewish thought, that man must act in even a small way in order to open the gates for Hashem to respond from above.

The greatest impediment to ethical growth may not be ignorance, but immobility. We might have a sense of right, and a conviction about some excellent course of action, but fail to pursue it through indecisiveness, endlessly weighing the pros and cons, or the difficulties and complications and never getting around to doing the right thing.