Turning from coldness to caring
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The rabbis at our synagogue, Temple Sinai in Washington, D.C., have recently begun including a prayer for the safety of U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians in our Shabbat Services as well reading the names of the U.S. soldiers killed each week in Iraq and Afghanistan when they read the kaddish list.
These are among the suggestions in the Iraq War Community Action Guide on the RAC’s website for creating opportunities for prayer and reflection in response to the war in Iraq.
They are not antidotes for murder and atrocities, but perhaps they can help alleviate some of the gross callousness Bob Herbert powerfully describes in his New York Times op-ed piece yesterday, “While Iraq Burns”: There is something terribly wrong with [the] juxtaposition of gleeful Americans with fistfuls of dollars storming the department store barricades and the slaughter by the thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians, including old people, children and babies. The war was started by the U.S., but most Americans feel absolutely no sense of personal responsibility for it.”
Herbert goes on to describe the widespread indifference of Americans who are hell-bent only on scooping up the best bargains, whether they need them or want them . . . or not.
Turning ourselves – one by one – from coldness to caring precedes turning a whole country. It’s only a first step, but without it, we can go no further.