Tag: compassion

• March 18, 2026

  Ancient Torah, Modern Brain: The Science of Jewish Compassionate Reasoning

  For centuries, Jewish tradition has insisted that the struggle between good and evil is not merely theological—it is psychological. The rabbis described this as the tension between the yetzer hara and the yetzer hatov, the human inclinations toward fear and selfishness on the one hand, and compassion and moral responsibility on the other. Today, neuroscience offers a remarkable confirmation of this ancient insight. Modern research shows that human behavior emerges from interacting brain systems, some oriented toward threat and survival, others toward care, reflection, and cooperation. This convergence suggests something profound: Torah may be understood not only as spiritual teaching but as a system for training the moral mind. Ritual becomes practice. Study becomes cognitive training. Compassion becomes a disciplined capacity. What Jewish civilization developed over centuries may represent one of humanity’s earliest sustained efforts to cultivate what we might now call the compassionate brain—the ability to regulate fear, strengthen moral clarity, and act with responsibility toward others.

• March 17, 2026

  Ritual as Moral Neuroplasticity:  Judaism and the Neuroscience of Moral Formation

  Judaism may be understood not as a tradition that chose between ritual and ethics, but as a civilization that refused to separate them. From the Jewish military colony at Elephantine, to the philosophical Judaism of Alexandria, to the moral reconstruction of the early rabbis after catastrophe, we see a continuous effort to ensure that religious structure serves ethical purpose. The prophets did not reject ritual; they rejected ritual without justice. The rabbis did not abandon law; they refined it to protect life and dignity. Across centuries, Jewish civilization repeatedly returned to one central insight: that law must protect the vulnerable, power must answer to compassion, and religious life must train human beings toward moral responsibility. Seen through this lens, Judaism represents one of history’s earliest sustained attempts to build a compassion-centered civilization—one in which ritual becomes training, study becomes moral formation, and ethics becomes the purpose of religious life.

• March 17, 2022

  Compassionate Reasoning

  It is out and Oxford and Amazon are keeping the price below $35. From the Introduction: “This book, more than any of my other books, centers on the creation of a new idea and a new approach to thinking, feeling, and doing that might help transform human relations for the better. I have encapsulated that in the phrase “Compassionate Reasoning” which is founded upon an exploration of and devotion to compassion as one of the most amazing and important emotions and ethical principles that brings healing and hope to human relations. The “reasoning” part rests on the importance for human reasoning, and moral reasoning in particular, as it is expressed and described over the centuries in at least five different approaches to virtue and moral decision-making. I have asked myself how I can acknowledge the roots of this journey toward this new idea and combination of skills and practices. When …

• August 27, 2014

  Reason and Compassion

   

  

  Reason and compassion are lovers
  That give birth to our humanity,
  but only when they engage
  Daily, with intensity.
  The more one’s mind
  is drawn daily to compassion
  For all sentient life,
  the more it is drawn daily to develop
  universal principles of behavior
  that apply to all beings
  Without exception,
  Even very imperfect beings.
  The more that reason is developed daily
  the more it becomes empirically clear
  that we are all the same,
  in 99% of our being,
  the more it becomes empirically self evident
  That where we are different
  it is an advantage,
  Our diversity is our strength.

  compassion and reason are lovers,
  So that we can be.

   

  (Photo: Cultivating Leadership)…

• July 7, 2014

  Reflection on Pursuit in the Middle East and Jerusalem, July 2014

  Rebellion is only freedom when there is a path, and the path is compassion. Otherwise the new master is hate. 
  
  Rebellion is the mirror image of the oppressor, unless there is vision, and unless the vision is compassion. 
  
  Peaceful vision of a peaceful path. Otherwise, rebellion is merely an image of the oppressor. 
  
  Heroes of peace grow like wildflowers. But they flower only through those who follow them. Otherwise they are crucified, or, worse, ignored.

  Heroes of peace are simply mirrors of populations ready to love. Until they are ready, not even God can shake them.

  Peace only calls the ‘every person’, and then heroes merely lead the way when the ‘every person’ is tired of not listening to the angel within.

   

  An Abraham is always pursuing teenagers to slaughter and fulfill his vision, a Voice is always suggesting alternatives, while Sarah and Hagar drown in a sea …