The major challenge that I see today – is timeless, universal and existential. It is the experience of human alienation – of loss, uncertainty and fear. Loss of loved ones, solitude in moments of crisis, uncertainty and fear about what will be, the distance of community and its touchstones of safety and stability.
Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl said, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
This is the role of faith leaders at this time – to collectively face our profound and fragile human experience, and invite a response of compassion.
Put Most simply, this is a call to care.
We begin by tending to our own wellbeing by being mindful and present with our humanness, acknowledging our own pain, uncertainty, loss and grief, bringing tenderness and care to ourselves. Our wholeness contains our suffering. It is an invitation for healing and is a unique and empowering gift of female religious leadership today.
Practically, this is where our spiritual technologies of practice and ritual come into play – daily discipline invites us to presence, to slow down, to resource ourselves emotionally.
These remarks were shared by Rabbi Rosenbluth during the RfP webinar “Confronting COVID-19 from the Prism of Faith, Gender and Human Rights.”