The Amen Effect: Ancient Wisdom to Mend Our Broken Hearts and World

had always imagined that the role of clergy was to navigate moments of crisis and rupture with the right combination of solace, inspiration, and challenge: from the pulpit, at the graveside, in public protest.

I don’t quite know what to say, so I mostly listen. I’ve found during the past forty-eight hours with Gail and Colin that my role as their rabbi is less to dispense wisdom—I wouldn’t dare—and more to engage in the very holy work of not running away.

Despite the fact that the Kaddish is the hallmark of Jewish mourning practice, Jonah was not alone in struggling to make sense of it. The prayer is hard. It’s written in Aramaic, the vernacular of the Jewish community in the ancient world, precisely so that everyone who recited the words back then would understand exactly what they were saying. Iro

Gail answers her own question, remembering something she had been told by another bereaved parent in the community that morning. “Let me be clear,” this mother had said. “Your house is the scariest place on earth right now. So anyone who walks through your door is a friend. I promise you that.”

sacred companionship.

Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable!

There is a timeless wisdom in entering the sacred circle: this is, on some fundamental level, what it means to be human. Today, you walk from left to right. Tomorrow, it will be me. I hold you now, knowing that eventually, you’ll hold me. Every gesture of recognition marries love and humility, vulnerability and sacred responsibility.

to reclaiming the prophetic tradition and working with multi-faith partners to build a society of equity and equality, compassion and justice.

The science of apathy and empathy, loneliness and resilience is critical to understanding the complex puzzle of the human brain and the human heart, and essential to understanding our emotional lives, our communities, and the broader society.