{"id":745,"date":"2013-03-06T23:00:56","date_gmt":"2013-03-07T04:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/truthsyoucanuse\/?p=745"},"modified":"2013-03-06T23:02:20","modified_gmt":"2013-03-07T04:02:20","slug":"the-most-important-lesson-of-passover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2013\/03\/the-most-important-lesson-of-passover.html","title":{"rendered":"Can We Love Those Who Hurt Us?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The most repeated commandment in the entire Old Testament is \u201cYou shall not oppress the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.\u201d It is recited in daily Jewish prayer, and describes lesson of the Israelite experience of slavery in Egypt.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/truthsyoucanuse\/files\/2013\/03\/slaves.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-747\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/341\/2013\/03\/slaves-300x224.png\" alt=\"passover\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Does God Ask the Impossible?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px;line-height: 19px\">If we think deeply about it, however, we also see that it is quite audacious. <em>Its spirit has rarely played out in human history, because it rubs up against our basic human desire for vengeance.<\/em> \u00a0We tend to hate those who have oppressed us<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px;line-height: 19px\">Leaders like Gandhi or Mandela are the exception rather than the rule. Both of them, and many others, drew their inspiration from ancient Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px;line-height: 19px\"><em>From the experience of slavery, the Israelites drew not a cause for hatred, but a lesson in the basic need for dignity and freedom<\/em>. They chose to empathize rather than demonize. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px;line-height: 19px\">They chose not to define themselves as victims. They become teachers of hope.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Why Empathy Matters<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px;line-height: 19px\">Empathy is not just a nice quality to have. It is not just for people of faith. It matters to each of us. It is critical to our happiness as human beings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px;line-height: 19px\">George Washington Carver described why empathy matters in his beautiful words, \u00a0\u201cHow far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px;line-height: 19px\">Empathy is the way we open our hearts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>To receive Rabbi Moffic\u2019s weekly digest of Jewish wisdom, click\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/rabbimoffic.us4.list-manage2.com\/subscribe?u=78d81085bd48a7dc8e634493d&amp;id=0dcd1e4402\" target=\"_blank\">here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The most repeated commandment in the entire Old Testament is \u201cYou shall not oppress the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.\u201d It is recited in daily Jewish prayer, and describes lesson of the Israelite experience of slavery in Egypt. Does God Ask the Impossible? If we think deeply about it, however,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":507,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[296,257,297,290,251,298],"class_list":["post-745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-empathy","tag-jewish-wisdom","tag-oppression","tag-passover","tag-slavery","tag-stranger"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Can We Love Those Who Hurt Us?  - Truths You Can Use<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2013\/03\/the-most-important-lesson-of-passover.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can We Love Those Who Hurt Us?  - Truths You Can Use\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The most repeated commandment in the entire Old Testament is \u201cYou shall not oppress the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.\u201d It is recited in daily Jewish prayer, and describes lesson of the Israelite experience of slavery in Egypt. Does God Ask the Impossible? If we think deeply about it, however,&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2013\/03\/the-most-important-lesson-of-passover.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Truths You Can Use\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RabbiEvan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-03-07T04:00:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-03-07T04:02:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/truthsyoucanuse\/files\/2013\/03\/slaves-300x224.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Evan Moffic\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@chicagorabbi\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Can We Love Those Who Hurt Us?  - Truths You Can Use","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2013\/03\/the-most-important-lesson-of-passover.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Can We Love Those Who Hurt Us?  - Truths You Can Use","og_description":"The most repeated commandment in the entire Old Testament is \u201cYou shall not oppress the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.\u201d It is recited in daily Jewish prayer, and describes lesson of the Israelite experience of slavery in Egypt. 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