JANUARY 27 • 2022 | 43

there to offer help when others 
are suffering.
And so it has proved to 
be. There were Jews helping 
Gandhi in his struggle for 
Indian independence; Martin 
Luther King in his efforts 
for civil rights for African 
Americans; Nelson Mandela in 
his campaign to end apartheid 
in South Africa. An Israeli 
medical team is usually one 
of the first to arrive whenever 
and wherever there is a natural 
disaster today. 
The religious response to 
suffering is to use it to enter 
into the mindset of others who 
suffer. That is why I found so 
often that it was the Holocaust 
survivors in our community 
who identified most strongly 
with the victims of ethnic war 
in Bosnia, Rwanda, Kosovo and 
Darfur.

THE POWER OF STORIES 
I have argued, in Not in God’s 
Name, that empathy is struc-
tured into the way the Torah 
tells certain stories — about 
Hagar and Ishmael when they 
are sent away into the desert, 
about Esau when he enters his 
father’s presence to receive his 
blessing only to find that Jacob 
has taken it, and about Leah’s 
feelings when she realizes that 
Jacob loves Rachel more. These 
stories force us into recognizing 
the humanity of the other, the 
seemingly unloved, unchosen, 
rejected.
Indeed, it may be that this is 
why the Torah tells us these sto-
ries in the first place. The Torah 
is essentially a book of law. Why 
then contain narrative at all? 
Because law without empathy 
equals justice without compas-
sion. Rashi tells us, “Originally, 
God planned to create the 
world through the attribute 
of justice but saw that it could 
not survive on that basis alone. 
Therefore, He prefaced it with 
the attribute of compassion, 

joined with that of justice.
” That 
is how God acts and how He 
wants us to act. Narrative is the 
most powerful way in which 
we enter imaginatively into the 
inner world of other people.
Empathy is not a lightweight, 
touchy-feely, add-on extra to 
the moral life. It is an essential 
element in conflict resolution. 
People who have suffered pain 
often respond by inflicting pain 
on others. The result is violence, 
sometimes emotional, some-
times physical, at times directed 
against individuals, at others, 
against whole groups. The only 
genuine, non-violent alterna-
tive is to enter into the pain of 
the other in such a way as to 
ensure that the other knows 
that he, she or they have been 
understood, their humanity 
recognized and their dignity 
affirmed.
Not everyone can do what 
the elderly Japanese man did, 
and certainly not everyone 
should try disarming a 
potentially dangerous individual 
that way. But active empathy is 
life-changing, not only for you 
but for the people with whom 
you interact. 
Instead of responding with 
anger to someone else’s anger, 
try to understand where the 
anger might be coming from. 
In general, if you seek to change 
anyone’s behavior, you have to 
enter into their mindset, see 
the world through their eyes 
and try to feel what they are 
feeling, and then say the word 
or do the deed that speaks to 
their emotions, not yours. It’s 
not easy. Very few people do 
this. Those who do, change the 
world. 

The late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks 

served as the chief rabbi of the 

United Hebrew Congregations of the 

Commonwealth, 1991-2013. His teachings 

have been made available to all at 

rabbisacks.org. This essay was written 

on Feb. 6, 2018.
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24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110

Southfield, MI 48034

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24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110

Southfield, MI 48034

1-248-945-1111

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110

Southfield, MI 48034

1-248-945-1111

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110
Southfield, MI 48034
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What Is
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We focus on Probate Litigation 
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24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110

Southfield, MI 48034

1-248-945-1111

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110
Southfield, MI 48034
1-248-945-1111

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110
Southfield, MI 48034
1-248-945-1111

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110

Southfield, MI 48034

1-248-945-1111

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110
Southfield, MI 48034
1-248-945-1111

What Is
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We focus on Probate Litigation 
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24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110

Southfield, MI 48034

1-248-945-1111

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110
Southfield, MI 48034
1-248-945-1111

What Is
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24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110

Southfield, MI 48034

1-248-945-1111

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110
Southfield, MI 48034
1-248-945-1111

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Southfield, MI 48034
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