To Heal a Fractured World: The Ethics of Responsibility

Second is the knowledge that there is more than one way of interpreting what happens to us – more than one way (though Frankl does not use this phrase) of telling the story of our life.

The freedom that remained was the decision how to respond.

Social responsibility as covenantal, peace, justice and freedom as religious ideals and personal dignity as rooted in the image of God – these are not ideas that were born fully formed from the matrix of human imagination. They have a history that began in ancient Israel,

Hessed is the redemption of solitude, the bridge we build across the ontological abyss between I and Thou.

civilizations survive not by strength but by how they respond to the weak; not by wealth but by how they care for the poor; not by power but by their concern for the powerless. What renders a culture invulnerable is the compassion it shows to the vulnerable.

‘Everyone can be great’, said Martin Luther King, ‘because everyone can serve.’

the love that means being ever-present for the other, in hard times as well as good; love that grows stronger, not weaker, over time.

There is something inspiring in a worldview that has such power to turn negative energies into a renewed commitment to the good.

Kiddush ha-Shem, literally ‘sanctifying the name’ of God. It refers to behaviour that creates respect for God.