Saturday, December 15, 2007

Food for Thought

I've just finished reading a book, The Heart of a People, that addresses the dialogue between the Christian and Jewish faiths. It's an excellent book that I highly recommend. As I cannot feasibly give it to all of you I will instead direct you to the website www.shorashim.com and encourage you to check it out.

One of the points discussed is the importance of true listening occuring between the two faiths without preconceived ideas and agendas from either side. In that understanding, I wanted to share a brief excerpt taken from the end of the book: "A classical rabbinic tale describes how an individual approaches one less fortunate and declares, 'I’m here to help you out and show you my love for you.' The recipient of this seemingly impressive display of love smiles sadly and responds, 'Thank you very much but how can you love me if you don’t know what hurts me.'”

May we all learn to listen. Shavua Tov!

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