How to Approach the "Other" In the Jewish Kabbalah, specifically the Zohar, there is a powerful image that we might find very useful when we encounter someone who is not our faith tradition, not our gender, not our race, or not of our political opinion. When we meet such a person, the first thing that we encounter is the "garment." This is a metaphor for all the externals concerning that person. In interfaith work, it is the appearance of the person, the way he or she prays, the way these folks celebrate weddings, or funerals. It includes the way they shape their beliefs, and teach their moral taboos. Beneath the garment is the "body." Now bodies come in different stages of development. There are the new bodies of infants, adolescent bodies, and the bodies of elders. The body is a metaphor for all the meanings and values that support the garment. The meanings and values are what the person holds dear, and these meanings and values change as th...
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Showing posts from August, 2015