To Heal a Fractured World: The Ethics of Responsibility

But if we believe we are here for a reason, then there is a tikkun, a mending, only we can perform; a fragment of light only we can redeem; an act of kindness, or courage, or generosity, or hospitality only we can perform; even a word of encouragement or a smile only we can give, because we are here, in this place, at this time, facing this person

Words create moral obligations, and moral obligations, undertaken responsibly and honoured faithfully, create the possibility of a free society. So – always do what you say you are going to do. If we fail to keep our word, eventually we will lose our freedom.

“The reward for charity (tzedakah) depends entirely upon the extent of the kindness (hesed) in it.”21 In the same vein, a modern rabbinic figure writes that “the essence of acts of hesed (lovingkindness) is the heart that is put into the deed.”22 Judaism is about what you do, why you do it, and how you do it. Jewish ethics ask for deeds of love don

The first demand made of a Jew is goodness. Nothing else is more important, no command more central. Tied to the consciousness of God is the need to be good. A verse from the biblical Book of Leviticus reads: “You shall not pick your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am