Good morning, Chaverim,
In these days when it feels as if we are absolutely drowning in a sea of violence, this is a voice that I really needed to hear…and I suspect you might too…
Here is today’s Everyday Gratitude Quote in the Middle of a Pandemic:
“The greatest single antidote to violence is conversation, speaking our fears, listening to the fears of others, and in that sharing of vulnerabilities, discovering a genesis of hope.”
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks
The raw, undeniable truth that Rabbi Sacks shares with us in this quote hit me like a ton of bricks…and the task that it lays at our feet feels so overwhelming…
How??? How can we get warring factions (from conflicts near and far, large and small around the globe…from our American cities exploding with out of control domestic violence and gunfire day after day after day, to Cuba and Haiti and Honduras, to Gaza and Tel Aviv, to Syria, to Afghanistan and countless other venues in which people are attempting to manage their fears with violence) to sit down with one another to share their fears and vulnerabilities???
Because I have no doubt that Rabbi Sacks’ approach is dead on…that, if we were really brave enough to begin any conflict resolution discussion or negotiation with an honest confession of what really scares us about the “other”, about the conflict itself, about what it is that the conflict is allowing us to avoid facing and what might happen if we stopped fighting….we might just be able to find that elusive “genesis of hope” from which understanding and compassion and, eventually, justice and peace might one day flow.
This important and critical effort will take practice…lots and lots of practice…and, like any task that is so enormous and overwhelming, I think it must start with the first step, with our own efforts to practice resolving our own conflicts, in our homes, communities and neighborhoods, by sharing our fears and vulnerabilities and seeing just how far that “genesis of hope” can take us.
Wishing you all a Shabbat filled with gratitude and peace.
Marci
