To Heal a Fractured World: The Ethics of Responsibility

tears are a universal language, and help a universal command.

It is called darkhei shalom, ‘the ways of peace’. That is the idea I explore in this chapter.

it is far from obvious that if you sin, I should bear part of the blame and punishment.

Faith does not mean certainty. It means the courage to live with uncertainty. It does not mean having the answers, it means having the courage to ask the questions and not let go of God, as he does not let go

this the only answer can be: a grant of freedom to X by a superior power, which is suspended every time X acts in a way of which the superior power disapproves, is not a grant of freedom. This is a logical axiom true in all possible worlds. God does not abandon the world. He speaks to humankind, he teaches us how to behave, he instructs us in the w

in the long term under such conditions. Morality is the history of humanity’s attempts to construct a common life on the basis of shared codes, conventions and convictions.

An awakening from above changes nature, but it does not change human nature.1

During the six weekdays, we think of ourselves as creators. On the seventh, we become aware that we are also creations – part of the natural order, whose integrity we are bidden to respect.

The prophets articulated utopian peace; the sages, a non-utopian programme for peace in the here-and-now.

The second difference is that the existence of God changes the moral equation even on the assumption, which I make throughout this book, that God empowers us to be his partners in the work of healing a fractured world.