Compassion and Empathy

When Faith Preempts Facts
Another Way Of Looking At Things, Breaking False Dichotomies, Compassion and Empathy, Longform, Soul Writings, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized |
January 14, 2022

When Faith Preempts Facts

Our Torah is filled with stories of remarkable courage, leaps of faith, and ventures into the unknown. From Abraham leaving his homeland at God’s behest to his near-sacrifice of his son, we learn from our very first patriarch the ways that faith – often of the “blind” variety – is central to our collective story. But for all the dramatic leaps taken by our ancestors in scripture, one of them stands out among the rest. One of them, in fact, that isn’t even explicitly mentioned in Torah! After a treacherous race out......

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Rabbi Elan Babchuck
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The Plague of Uncertainty
Another Way Of Looking At Things, Compassion and Empathy, Longform, Longform, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized |
January 07, 2022

The Plague of Uncertainty

Throughout Moses’ showdown with Pharaoh, there is one overarching, emotional plague that God wreaks upon the Egyptians: uncertainty. They do not know when the litany of discomforts, outrages, upsets, frustrations, pains, and fears will end. We gain insight into the Egyptian mindset just after Moses pronounces that God will bring locusts to eat whatever remains of the crops after the hail. Moses departs Pharaoh’s court and then we read (Exodus 10:7): “Pharaoh’s courtiers said to him, ‘How long shall this one be a snare to us? Let the people go to worship......

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Joshua Stanton
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The Great Forgiving
Compassion and Empathy, Grief & Coping, Longform, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized |
November 19, 2021

The Great Forgiving

This week’s Torah portion always gets me in the gut. It’s the story of Jacob returning to his long-estranged brother Esau, from whom he fled 20 years beforehand after betraying Esau by stealing his birthright and blessing. Now, so much time has passed, Jacob doesn’t even know Esau anymore. We can tell this because Jacob takes great pains to send gifts ahead, to prepare for Esau’s wrath but hope for his forgiveness, to plan for any eventual outcome. Jacob can’t anticipate Esau’s reaction. Despite Jacob’s worry that Esau’s still violently mad about......

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Rabbi Julia Appel
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And I Did Not Know...
Bring The Sacred Down To Earth, Compassion and Empathy, Inspiring Story, Longform, Uncategorized |
November 11, 2021

And I Did Not Know…

“I GOT ONE!” With the recent announcement by the CDC that the Pfizer vaccine has been approved for children ages 5-11, my wife Lizzie scrambled to find available appointments for our two oldest children. She refreshed the browser each time the search came up empty, going through the painstaking process of inputting their information multiple times until – finally – she landed appointments for both of them. I can’t quite explain how cathartic it felt to see the confirmation screen with their names on it, to know that we would soon reach......

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Rabbi Elan Babchuck
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