We are all living through a time of extreme changes that constantly and persistently generates anxiety. We are all experiencing the effects of environmental degradation. We are following with trepidation a scary almost normalization of fascism and with it a degradation of human value. Familiar darkness like racism and poverty and the suffering they bring seem sharper and more jagged. Now with the horrific war in the Ukraine, we return to the dread of world war and nuclear annihilation. All of this is happening in the midst of a pandemic that has sown its’ own brand of mistrust and alienation. The pending doom that we all sense does not pause all of the routine traumas inherent in life like cancer, grief and betrayal.
There is also a pandemic of judgementalism. Due to systems and events that feel out of our control and frightening, we as a collective are generating reactions based on fear that are prefaced on a deterioration of faith. We sense that we lack environmental quality, basic resources, public trust, personal security the list goes on…. In allowing this mindset we erroneously believe that we need to shore up what we need or feel entitled to regarding others. We tend to judge others who are different from us as inherently misguided inferior or downright dangerous. This is exacerbated by internet algorithms of outrage that fill up our newsfeeds. It can be felt on the road or in public marketplaces expressed by impatience and anger. Judgementalism is key component of a social phenomenon that confuses punishment with justice. That chooses shame over reconciliation and in doing so generates a social environment that demands absurd purity over holiness. Standards that no one can achieve.
One of the teachings in Pirke Avot, the teachings of our ancestors, a third century compilation of the ethics of Jewish Sages has a teaching that powerfully resonates. The Sage Joshua ben Perchiya teaches,” When you asses people, tip the balance in their favor.” We are to judge others favourably to give them the benefit of the doubt. Judgementalism serves like a mirror. Judgementalism fosters categorization and reduces multifaceted and textured people to one story. When we are quick to judge others negatively in essence we are judging ourselves. Our judgement cannot define another person and when we do so without empathy and understanding we are involved in a form of micro-violence.
The soon approaching Passover festival, the retelling and reliving of the exodus experience offers a paradigm for liberation. Mitzrayim, often translated as Egypt, literally means the narrow place, the straits, the place of stuckness. The Exodus story is about liberation on a collective and also an individual level. Pharaoh symbolizes a system of degradation and exploitation
The first steps towards liberation are to contain and transcend judgementalism and the saccharine deliciousness of self righteousness that is essential to it. A person of faith does not need to believe in a specific dogma or creed but simply believe in the essence of their being that they can be an agent of positive change. Liberation, for it to be real, must be universal. I sense that human flourishing will require deep collaboration, understanding interconnectedness and seeing the other as created in God’s image, deserving honour and dignity. In Hebrew for word “hatavah” means to make something good. If you rearrange the letters you get the word habatah, which means to view. Perhaps the first step to healing is to change our vision. We can do that by being careful with our judgements.
Rabbi Harry Brechner is Rabbi of Congregation of Emanu-El in Victoria, B.C.
You can read more articles on our interfaith blog, Spiritually Speaking, HERE: https://www.timescolonist.com/blogs/spiritually-speaking
* This article was published in the print edition of the Times Colonist on Saturday, April 9th 2022
