Tikkun Daily Blog Archive (https://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/category/culture/empathy-culture/page/12/)
“God’s way up is down” – Which is why God says, “Go to hell.” Follow the One who was numbered with the transgressors to sit among the condemned, the written-off, the outcast. And while you are there, listen. Because Jesus didn’t go to hell to stay there.
The situation in Israel/Palestine is intolerable and calls for a response grounded in compassion, empathy, understanding and healing. We at the Network of Spiritual Progressives offer such a response and hope others will join us.
We invited people in the Tikkun community to share some memories of their personal connections to Zalman. We cannot publish them all—so many hundreds of people pouring out their wonderful experiences and wishing to honor this great Tzaddik! So we’ve selected a representative sample.
In the wake of the heightened conflict between Palestine and Israel, Warren Blumenfeld offers lessons to be learned from Dennis Shepard, who showed his son’s murderers mercy.
After nearly a month living in Jerusalem, Cherie Brown reflects on the acts of brutality and racism she witnessed, which are put in stark contrast by the acts of great kindness she observed from this same group of people on her journey.
Lets use July 4 to celebrate all those who have stood up for peace and non-violence, social and economic justice, environmental sanity, human rights, and a world of love and generosity! We are inviting anyone in Northern California who wants a different kind of energy to come to our NSP picnic.
To celebrate the five year anniversary of Project TURN’s classes inside NC prisons, Ben Theimer, a Duke Divinity student, shared a short reflection about his TURN experience and laughter in prison.
We are proud that Rabbi Michael Lerner, co-chair of the NSP– Network of Spiritual Progressives, and rabbi of Beyt Tikkun Synagogue-Without-Walls, stood with other community leaders in urging the conservative Catholic archbishop of San Francisco to withdraw from an anti-homosexual group’s rally in Washington, D.C. Read about it here.
To many, Bob Bergdahl himself is a traitor, learning about the enemy in a way that many just don’t understand. The controversy surrounding him is almost as big as that surrounding his son Bowie. Yet that is all politics, and we must recognize it as such. Muslims are not evil, Islam is not evil, and understanding the enemy is not the same as being a traitor. Let’s focus on the real – humanitarian – issues, not the political ones.
‘A letter to Bob Bergdahl’ is a beautiful display of support and camaraderie for the man who overcame pain and grief in the face of his son’s capture, and learned that empathy and understanding of one’s so-called ‘enemies’ can be the most effective path to healing.