{"id":59574,"date":"2021-02-12T15:25:13","date_gmt":"2021-02-12T21:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=59574"},"modified":"2021-02-12T15:34:39","modified_gmt":"2021-02-12T21:34:39","slug":"off-the-pulpit-hard-hearts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/off-the-pulpit-hard-hearts\/","title":{"rendered":"Off the Pulpit: Hard Hearts"},"content":{"rendered":"

By RABBI DAVID WOLPE<\/p>\n

The Torah tells us \u2018Do not harden your heart (Deut<\/em>. 15:7).\u2019 The verse is speaking particularly about the poor, who turn to you for help.<\/p>\n

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In a beautiful passage, G.K. Chesterton says of Charles Dickens: \u201cDickens did not dislike this or that argument for oppression; he disliked oppression. He disliked a certain look on the face of a man when he looks down on another man. And that look on that face is the only thing that we have really to fight between here and the fires of hell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jews have too often seen that look (indeed, Chesterton himself was far too inclined to look that way at Jews). Therefore, it is painful when Jews themselves look cruelly or indifferently at others, more preoccupied with triumphalism than compassion. When everything is turned to politics, then to shouting, then to denigration, faces are disfigured by that ungodly look. Maimonides teaches that \u201cone who is insolent (literally \u2018fierce faced\u2019)\u201d is suspected of not being a Jew. Hard hearts, sneers and shouts are not the way to a light unto the nations.<\/p>\n

(Rabbi David Wolpe is the senior rabbi of Sinai Temple of Los Angeles.)<\/em><\/p>\n

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