Theme: Responding to Tragedy
How should we react to violence and hatred? Our outrage is very profound, but productive outrage is not expressed through fear, but through positive action, and ultimately recognizing that there is a calling that we have to live up to.
Console and Love
First and foremost we need to console and comfort the families and community of the murdered martyrs. We must offer them moral support. But even more than that: We are all one family. One organism. Their loss is our loss. Their pain is our pain. Their grief is our grief. Though we have no answers — and no answer would ever be adequate — we cry together. And in some mysterious way, empathy and crying together empowers those suffering and infuses strength in the entire organism.
Wake-up Call
We must see this as a unique opportunity to wake up: Perhaps this is our time to affect real change. It is time to start thinking differently, speaking differently, acting differently. A loud call has to ring out that we — all people, not just Jews — will not tolerate such atrocities. A brutal attack has to be treated and prosecuted in the strongest way possible — to send a message to anyone out there who may harbor hateful feelings. We simply cannot tolerate hatred in the name of killing Jews (or any other ethnic group). But there is also a larger lesson, as the mystics teach that we have to learn from everything.
The Spiritual Lesson
Adding in acts of goodness and kindness has always been the Jewish response to hatred — never an “in kind” type of response. Obviously we protect and defend ourselves, but we increase in acts of goodness and kindness to demonstrate that light is stronger than darkness, and good is more powerful and vanquishes evil. Every time there’s a community, a city or a country that faces challenges we have to come together in study, prayer, and purpose — ultimately being a living example of what it means to live a meaningful life. We must demonstrate what it means to love our fellow humans. It is our work to stop anyone from falling back into spiritual slumber — especially ourselves.
Strengthen the Foundations
The only thing that stands us in good stead in uncertain, insecure times like this are our spiritual foundations. We are in need of absolute faith and belief in our inner and higher value system. We are in need of passion — a passion for our cause and calling, a passion no less than the passion of those waging war on us. You can have all the tools and weapons in the world, you can devise the best schemes, but if you don’t believe in your cause, and you don’t believe that you can and will prevail, you will not be able to achieve victory. Victory is for those that believe in it the most. Persistence will always win over complacency. A committed individual is more powerful than a hundred uncommitted people.
Exercise: It all begins with the absolute conviction and commitment to your cause. Define your cause. Do something to advance it. Add one good deed. Journal about it in your MyMLC journal.
View all content on Responding to Tragedy: Massacre In Pittsburgh: How to Respond in a Healthy Way | Responding to the Pittsburgh Massacre
Go deeper into this subject: Hate Crimes and Anti-Semitism | Racism: Can We Get Beyond It? | Balance |
