Blog Posts

Have you heard about StoryCorps? It is an amazing organization.

In 2003, StoryCorp set up a booth in Grand Central Station with the goal of having people who know and love each other record their stories. These stories are collected, shared, and preserved. The belief was that stories create a more just and compassionate world by building connections between people. The impact has rippled. There is a weekly story shared on NPR, several books have been published and the booths have spread around the country.

Why are stories so healing? They remind us how much we share. They create connection. StoryCorp reminds us that everyone’s story matters. The format teaches the value of listening. Preserving stories drives home that we will not be forgotten.

Listening is an act of love. The books StoryCorps has published lift up different segments of population whose stories our country needs to hear: African American stories, stories about moms, refugee stories, stories about military service, LGBTQ+ stories, stories of 9/11, and stories about the impact of mass incarceration. Since its inception, more than half a million people have recorded their stories and those stories have been downloaded over one million times.

We have something like this in our Oral History project here at CBJ, where there are incredible interviews of our long-time members; as well as the pairings we create between generations in the L’dor V’dor program. Imagine if we created a way for everyone to record their story. There is so much we can do to amplify the power of story.

Recently StoryCorps has expanded its vision, seeking to bridge the divide in America and reduce the contempt that is plaguing our country through the simple act of sharing stories and listening. They call the initiative One Small Step. In a recent episode of 60 Minutes, Norah O’Donnell interviewed the project director, David Isay. Isay asked: “What if we just give the entire country the chance to be listened to and have a chance to talk about who they are?” He explained that so many people feel misunderstood and judged. The current culture of anger and dividing each other into silos isn’t working. In his words: “In the history of humanity nobody’s ever changed their mind by being called an idiot or a moron or a snowflake.  But you know, many minds have been changed by being listened to, by conversation, being told that they’re loved.” One Small Step lifts respect and dignity out as a core value our country should embrace.

It is so simple and so powerful. It needs to take root and grow. It is also a key idea found in this week’s Torah portion. As we are instructed to build a tabernacle, a place where God would dwell, we learn what is necessary for God’s Presence.

Where in that structure does God dwell? On top of the ark cover that contains the two tablets, we are told that there are two cherubim of gold; one on each side of the cover. “The cherubim shall have their wings spread out above, shielding the cover with their wings. They shall confront each other, the faces of the cherubim being turned toward the cover…There I will meet with you, and I will impart to you, from above the cover, from between the two cherubim that are on the top of the Ark of the Pact…”  It is difficult for me to picture this, so here is a picture from our Chumash.  The cherubim have human bodies and wings that curve and meet at the top. God dwells in the empty space between them.

Think about the symbolism; God has no physical form but is present when we face one another. This implies listening and respecting and recognizing the dignity of one another.  When we turn away from fellow our human beings, treating one another with disdain or disrespect, God’s presence cannot exist. When we are blinded by contempt, fear, and anger; or we denigrate one another; or when people make racist, sexist, homophobic, antisemitic statements; God has no place to dwell. To face one another; rejecting all the messages of hate that have become part of our everyday is to create a place where God lives. 

Our sacred call is to create relationships, a community, and a world where God can dwell as we turn toward one another. Read the commentary of Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsh: “Israel will become a pair of cherubim who, in mutual respect and consideration, are peacefully directed one to the other, each one there for the other, each a guarantor for the other, each entrusted to the other, in cooperation, a whole community keeping and protecting a whole community.”

To find God is to find one another. David Isay is creating that through stories that bring us together. One Small Step pairs different people from different political backgrounds and has them tell their biography, focusing on what they share. They are put together for 50 minutes face-to-face and talk about their lives.  

It is extraordinary to watch. Facilitators begin by asking the participants to read one another’s biography out loud and focus on what they share. When you create conditions where people who may perceive of one another as enemies can have a conversation, hate begins to melt away. People can begin to see each other in a new way.  This is where God dwells.

One Small Step is just beginning. It has completed 1,000 sessions and there are 6,000 waiting. David Isay and his group of advisors have found data supporting what we all know; that there is an “exhausted majority” in America who are sick of the division and want to find a way out. The cherubim teach us to face each other; to find a way out of divisiveness by seeing the humanity in one another; especially in those with whom we disagree.  

Can we succeed? Can we overcome the depth of division, fear, and anger that is so pervasive in our country and the world? I don’t know, but I believe that sparks start fires and the struggle to create a world where we see and listen to one another is worth it. 

It is hard to hate when looking each other in the face. This is not ignoring difference. It is not letting go of intense disagreements. It is seeing the humanity in those with whom we disagree and knowing that it is in this connection that we create room for God. This is hard work! It is work we are digging into with our Tikvah committee. Tikvah means hope and an article that will be published soon by the leaders of the committee remind us that CBJ is made up of a panoply of beliefs, traditions, and world views.  We have experienced painful moments where people have felt their voices and opinions were not heard or respected. We have done hard work over the years and are doubling down on the ongoing commitment to strategically shift the culture. We will teach the tools of respectful dialogue and seek to influence every activity and everyone in the community, embedding a cultural shift that we believe will ripple. 

Join us in these efforts. Stretch yourself to listen, especially to those with whom you disagree. Find and affirm the humanity of all who you encounter. Let’s go back to the cherubim to conclude. Rabbi Pinchas Hurwitz wrote a book about the cherubim in the late 18th century. It was at a time of great divide in the Jewish community. He taught that the cherubim are a spiritual response to the divisiveness of the times. “Just like the cherubs, even though they are definitely separated from each other, one Cherub on one end and another on the other end, nevertheless they face one towards the other in great love.” He teaches that the cherubim are above the ark because the commandments about loving our fellow human take precedence over any other law. We need the healing that comes from knowing that how we treat each other is the way to bring God into the Earth. Let’s make it real.