In Jewish tradition, inner preparations for this High Holy Day season invite us to consider what part we want to play in the ongoing creation of the world. Jewish liturgy invites us to consider that creation is not just something that took place a long time ago, but Hamchadesh b’tuvo b’chol yom tamid maseh bereshit – “In God’s goodness, He renews the work of creation every day.”
Since we are part of the Divine image and expression, all of our thoughts, choices, and actions are part of that ongoing renewing of creation. When we look around at the world, at the frustrating and infuriating injustices that pop into our newsfeed each day, many of us wonder how we can make a difference. How can our part in creation help create a more just world?
At a local level, there are always opportunities for direct service. Whether it is feeding hungry people, serving on our school board, or volunteering for our religious community, these opportunities are direct, immediate, and usually uncomplicated. However, when we look out at the wider world, the policies or decisions made by the government at home or abroad, many of us feel powerless to make effective change. While we can certainly make our voices heard to our local representatives and it’s important to do so, many of us turn to rhetoric, mostly on social media to share what we think and believe about what is happening in the world and what should be done about it. We share news articles, opinion pieces, other people’s posts, and sometimes our own thoughts as a way to give voice to the perspectives we believe are important with the hopes that other people will think the same.
It is worth considering whether these sharing of thoughts online – our own or others – is effective in creating the world we want to see? Is it possible that someone with a different perspective on the issue will read the piece we are sharing and due to the piece’s sheer rationality or impassioned rhetoric will change their mind? Possibly. But more often than not others who see things differently will label what we’ve shared negatively in some way – whether in their minds or in the comments, and nothing has changed. If the shared post or article provokes strong feelings in another, many will express those feelings online in ways that are attacking and disrespectful. What started out as the desire to make the world better by sharing the “important” or “correct” perspective on the issue has only resulted in getting cheers and thumbs up from those who already agree and provoked more division and disrespect from those who don’t.
When we look around at the world and see the injustice and the pain and the suffering, we would do well to contemplate the root cause of what we see. From my perspective, it is the way that people feel separate from one another. It is the way that we consider some people’s dignity and humanity less than others and then make choices based on that assumption. It is the way that we don’t experience the Earth as a living being that needs our care and consideration. In sum, it’s the way that haven’t truly internalized m’lo kol ha’aretz k’vodo – that the Holy One of Blessing fills all of creation, and when we realize that then, Hashem yimlokh l’olam va’ed – God will rule over the entire world for eternity. These are our prayers during this High Holy day time.
Ultimately, if the change we want and need to see is a continual unfolding of Divine consciousness in our human family, then we need to use our voices in ways that affirm our shared humanity and Divine image. When we attempt to use facts to convince people to view something happening in the world in a certain way, we are not affirming our shared humanity. We are instead saying that there is a moral way to view the situation and it’s ours. For those who see it differently, they are not seeing what is true and right.
There are some important problems with this approach. First, our world of online media is being driven by goals of engagement, not truth. And given the extreme political divides in the country, different news sources are going to share the “facts” in ways that are one-sided, not nuanced, because they are looking for outrage which is what engages. In general, people don’t trust “facts” anymore unless they are supporting an already existing perspective or come from a news source that supports that perspective.
Second, facts only exist in the mind and rarely touch the reality of the heart.
There is an entire body of research summarized by social psychologist Kurt Gray in his book Outraged: Why We Fight About Morality and Politics And How To Find Common Ground where he shows that it is stories, not facts that move people to a different perspective. Stories of vulnerability – stories where people share their experience with the issue and why it is important to them is what allows other people to listen. When people share their own fears of harm in ways that are genuine, then it can promote understanding and connection. We all have fears of harm and while I might not agree with you about what will cause harm, I can understand your concern and validate your humanity.
This kind of mutual understanding and vulnerability is most effectively realized in face to face conversation. When we are with each other in a genuine way, we can hear and share our common connection even if we disagree about what will best benefit society. This shared presence and experience of connection is a deeper truth than the details of the discussion. And it’s only from an awareness of shared connection, of the Divine Presence that permeates us and the space between us, that we would be most open to consider different facts, information, and perspectives.
As we approach the High Holy Days and contemplate how we want to create this coming year, how we want to share and engage others around issues we care about, my hope is that we will focus primarily on actualizing our deeper connection with one another. Instead of attempting to address the issues we care about through promoting material that seeks to persuade others of a single perspective online, we can make an effort to seek out those people in our world that see things differently than us and explore the issues with love and awareness of our shared Divine connection.