Rebuilding Our Hearts
The cool, distant glare of history does not always reveal the granular, immediate heat of our anguish.
The cool, distant glare of history does not always reveal the granular, immediate heat of our anguish.
Quite a number of years ago, when I was a much newer rabbi and still living in the United Kingdom, I befriended a local pastor.
Parashat Mishpatim is a perfect storm. Opening the book of Exodus during volatile political times is an exercise in confirmation bias in the best of cases, but Mishpatim speaks to our current reality – in an election year, no less – in uncanny ways.
Engaging with difference should not be mistaken with accepting a doctrine of moral equivalency or finding ‘common ground.’ We do not need to paper over our differences. We can be strong in our moral convictions. Yet there is a distinction between moral courage and moral absolutism. We must invite shades of grey.