Geoffrey Mitelman is Associate Rabbi of Temple Beth El of Northern Westchester.
Compassion is a deep-seated value in every religious tradition. Judaism
teaches that the world stands on Torah, on prayer and on acts of loving
kindness. How can we build a culture of empathy? 1.
find specific language and cultural norms to talk about compassion/empathy
in particular ways. To "ethicize the ritual and
ritualize the ethical." To use
tools that are underutilized because they are sometimes viewed negatively
- in particular, making compassion more "unconscious" than conscious and
utilizing social pressure.
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How can we build a culture of empathy?
To find specific language and cultural norms to talk about compassion
/ empathy in particular ways
To "ethicize the ritual and ritualize the ethical"
To use tools that are underutilized because they are sometimes viewed
negatively -- in particular, making compassion more "unconscious" than
conscious and utilizing social pressure
The Science of Compassion: A Conversation With Professor
David DeSteno
Compassion is a deep-seated value in every
religious tradition. Judaism teaches that the world stands on Torah, on
prayer and on acts of loving kindness. Christians celebrate the story of
the Good Samaritan in Luke. And a major reason the Dalai Lama is so
honored is because of his Buddhist teachings on compassion.
Does religion foster or hinder our ability
to be compassionate?
What situations most bring out
our compassion?
What situations bring it out the least?
What's the relationship between compassion and ethical action?
Retributive Justice and Restorative Justice
It's important to remember that there is a
difference been retributive justice, which gives us a primal sense of
pleasure, and restorative justice, which is about our responsibilities
as we try move forward from this moment on.
The Need for Self-Compassion
And yet providing unconditional love and
acceptance for ourselves can often be harder than it looks. As theTimesarticle
explains, "People who find it easy to be supportive and understanding to
others, it turns out, often score surprisingly low on self-compassion
tests, berating themselves for perceived failures like being overweight
or not exercising."
