Episode #4: What's a Jewish Response to Crisis?
Discussing the events at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, where an armed attacker took four hostages, including the rabbi. We ask: "What's a Jewish response in a moment of crisis," and look at the idea of "Spiritual Pre-hab."
[00:00] - Introduction
[01:38] - Unity of coverage, Near-universal shared experience
[02:45] - How thought-pieces and analyses are understandable
[03:20] - The human need to ask “Why did this happen?” and the example of the 9/11 commission
[04:40] - The rise in disciplines that answer big questions: “Who am I? What am I supposed to do? What does this mean about the world in which we live?”
[05:28] - How do Jews respond in these moments?
[05:50] - The Hebrew prayer for releasing captives - Matir Asurim
[06:30] - From metaphor to reality
[08:40] - Disorientation in prayer and discovering that evil is something that actually exists
[12:55] - Spiritual “Pre-Hab”
[14:12] - The tension in Jewish spirituality between routine and freshness