{"id":42355,"date":"2018-10-18T16:34:23","date_gmt":"2018-10-18T13:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=42355"},"modified":"2022-05-16T23:22:27","modified_gmt":"2022-05-16T20:22:27","slug":"the-lessons-of-suffering-cultivating-compassion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-lessons-of-suffering-cultivating-compassion\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lessons Of Suffering: Cultivating Compassion"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":50634,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[405,436,412],"acf":{"old_id":"42355","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":37918,"related_cahpter":"73","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Turning memory into empathy and moral responsibility","content":"<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the Torah\u2019s central projects is to turn memory into empathy and moral responsibility. \u00a0Parashat Mishpatim contains perhaps the most well-known articulation of this charge: \u201cYou shall not oppress a stranger (ger), for you know the feelings of the stranger, having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt\u201d (Exodus 23:9; cf. 22:20). By <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ger<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the Torah means one who is an alien in the place where he lives\u2014that is, one who is not a member of the ruling tribe or family, who is not a citizen, and who is therefore vulnerable to social and economic exploitation. The Torah appeals to our memory: having tasted the suffering and degradation to which vulnerability can lead, we are bidden not to oppress the stranger. The Torah\u2019s call is not based on a rational argument, but on a demand for empathy: since you know what it feels like to be a stranger, you must never abuse or mistreat the stranger.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On one level, of course, the Torah is appealing to the collective memory of the Jewish people: the formative story around which we orient our collective life is about our harrowing oppression Egypt and our miraculous redemption by God. But I would argue that we should also individually personalize the Torah\u2019s demand that we remember. Each of us is obligated to remember times when we have been exploited or abused by those who had power over us. From these experiences, the Torah tells us, we are to learn compassion and kindness.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Part of us responds to the experience of suffering by wanting to make sure that no one else has to endure what we did, but another part of us feels entitled and above reproach: if you had been through what I\u2019ve been through, we can hear ourselves saying, you would understand that I don\u2019t owe anybody anything. The Torah challenges us to nurture and cultivate the compassionate response and to make sure that the raging, combative one never becomes an animating principle of our lives.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We surely have moral obligations which are incumbent upon us because of the simple fact that we are human beings. In its recurrent appeals to memory, the Torah seeks to amplify and intensify those obligations, to remind us, even when it is difficult to hear, that the fate of the stranger is our responsibility. If we wish to take the obligation to serve God seriously, we must seek to grow in empathy and compassion.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":93261,"id":93261,"title":"pro28-mercy compassion","filename":"pro28-mercy-compassion.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/pro28-mercy-compassion.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/rachamim-is-not-mercy\/pro28-mercy-compassion\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"pro28-mercy-compassion","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":93259,"date":"2021-05-19 13:01:46","modified":"2022-05-31 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