Inspiring People / 18 Jan 2021

Where Is Dr. King?

The attention around Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend seems muted.

Breaking False Dichotomies, Compassion and Empathy, Hold Dualities Together, Longform, Longform, Uncategorized / 14 Jan 2021

Now What?

Donald Trump is mentally ill and needs a constitutional straitjacket. He is hungry for adulation to compensate for a mind-blowing inner lack of self-worth -that even those of us most horrified by his venality have to feel a smidgeon of compassion for. His most violent followers – a minority of the 70+ million people who voted for him – rendered needy, powerless, and stripped of their dignity by serious societal stress – have through their adulating Trump felt powerful. The violence of last Wednesday and the violence of Trump’s administration is a toxic compensation for his feelings of inadequacy and for the feelings of the minority of his supporters ready to use violence. And of course, Trump’s speech last night, calling for no more violence and proclaiming that no true supporter of his would threaten fellow Americans is exactly the opposite of what he feels and believes. Trump traffics in political violence. It is oxygen for his sense of self and It is precisely his truest supporters who are the most violent. And the relationship between him and these supporters, which makes both sides feel “whole”, is pathological — at a research-worthy level. And of course, there was no self -reflection or accountability in his speech or any recognition that his words -even if “misunderstood” – may have in some way incited the mob behavior that killed six people. There couldn’t be because the mob literally created Trump’s feeling of self which is why he wasn’t shocked by the violence but, as reported, delighted by what he was watching on TV. Trump is an evil Chauncey Gardiner. Donald Trump is not capable of self-reflection. One can only imagine the pressure he felt and the damage he realized to his self-interest –his “brand” – that made him give last night’s speech….

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Breaking False Dichotomies, Hold Dualities Together, Longform, News & Politics, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized, Wisdom Daily News / 13 Jan 2021

Reckoning or Reconciliation?  How About Both?

To impeach or not to impeach. That is the question. Or is it? Perhaps the more important question at this moment is not a question of what to do, but of why we do it. That has certainly been my approach, as I am asked if there are any spiritual or religious responses to the cresting chorus of those who are ready to explain the “right answer” to the question of impeachment — Focusing on the “why” more than the “what.” The question of whether or not the President should be impeached, or “25’ed,” is often framed as a question of reckoning vs reconciliation — of punishing bad acts or paving a shared path forward. Since no culture can last long without some combination of justice and mercy, the question of reckoning vs reconciliation is a false dichotomy, and we need to back up and consider not which is the right response, but why any of us is advocating for whichever one we choose, and only then reconsider our initial response to the question of what we should do. Thinking about the “why” can lead us to a better”what,” whatever it ends up being. I am inspired by one of the peak liturgical moments on both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but this is not a sermon. I am inspired by these days precisely because, taken together as a package deal, as they typically are by most people, they are days of reckoning and reconciliation, with Rosh Hashanah being more about the former, and Yom Kippur being more about the latter, reminding us that we all need at least some measure of both. So how might we go about getting some of both in this fraught and still deeply polarized moment, regardless of the answer to the impeachment question for…

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Inspiring People, Interviews With Wise People Of Today, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized, Wisdom Daily News, Wisdom Warehouse / 11 Jan 2021

An Interview with Rabbi Avram Mlotek

Kohelet / Ecclesiastes 12:12 warns us that “to the making of books, there is no end,” suggesting that maybe it’s enough already with the book, and that was over 2,000 years ago! So, let me start by asking you — one author to another — why another book, and what, if any, of Kohelet’s concerns accompanied you in the making of this one? What would our libraries look like if the Jewish canon ended with Ecclesiastes’ nihilistic, subversive, depressive charge? The people of the book deserve as many books as there are Jews under the sun! And in the same way that a Torah scroll is incomplete if but one letter is missing, so it is with our people, with each voice needing representation. Why Jews Do That or 30 Questions Your Rabbi Never Answered is a book for those who might not find themselves at home in any Jewish library just yet but are craving a way in. Why ask “why?” Some people write books describing the whats and the hows of Jewish practice. Others create books to tell the stories of the great “who’s” — the women and men who play pivotal roles in our 3500-year-old story. You focus on the “why.” How come? The sages of the Talmud instructed that it be our own questions that animate seder night when we relive the Passover experience. If we cannot forge these questions ourselves, the rabbis offer some examples: like, “Why is this night different from all other nights?” When King David cries out, “Why have You forsaken me?” he is inviting each of us into the desperate state of why. For me, the why encompasses the who, what, where, when, and how too. It is the epitome of Jewish questioning. Each question in my book has a “why”…

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News & Politics / 11 Jan 2021

How Americans Can Win Back Our Country

Where do we go from here?