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Tag: theology

The importance of empathy

Dr. Terri Elizabeth Givens, professor of political science at the University of British Columbia, started her lecture with a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “It takes empathy, patience and compassion to overcome anger, hatred and resentment.”

“And this really rings true during these times,” said Givens, who was giving the keynote address at Vancouver School of Theology’s May 27-29 conference called Compassion: Mutual Care in Troubled Times. “As an American, in particular, I’m very concerned about the situation. I really think it’s hard during times like this to have empathy and patience and compassion.”

Rabbi Laura Duhan-Kaplan, director of inter-religious studies at VST, introduced Givens, who spoke on May 27, giving the |opening lecture of VST’s annual inter-religious studies conference. Givens is the author of several books, including Radical Empathy: Finding a Path to Bridging Racial Divides. Her next book, Reckoning: Creating Positive Change Through Radical Empathy, will be released in October. She has written on immigration policy, European politics, right-wing politics and more.

photo - Dr. Terri Elizabeth Givens gave the keynote lecture for the Vancouver School of Theology’s May 27-29 conference Compassion: Mutual Care in Troubled Times
Dr. Terri Elizabeth Givens gave the keynote lecture for the Vancouver School of Theology’s May 27-29 conference Compassion: Mutual Care in Troubled Times. (photo from terrigivens.com)

Givens grew up in Spokane, Wash., did her undergrad at Stanford University and PhD at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her first job was at University of Washington, in Seattle, then she and her husband moved to Austin, where their careers took off. Before UBC, Givens worked at McGill University, first as a lead and advisor on the university’s plan to address anti-Black racism, then as an associate dean. 

She started studying the radical right in Europe in the mid-1990s, having first become aware of their existence in 1986, when she visited France as an undergrad. At that time, Jean-Marie Le Pen was on the rise.

“I was one of the first Americans to even pay attention to this topic,” said Givens, who added that all her research is “really about how do we create change – that’s the underlying push for all of this.”

The professor shared some of her personal history, how she was raised, her father’s death in 2001, instances of racism experienced by her parents  – her mother, who grew up in rural Louisiana in the 1930s, and her dad, who was born in 1928 near Pittsburgh. Her parents met in Los Angeles but chose to live in Spokane because they thought it would be safer for their kids.

“I think, in telling my story, I’m trying to talk about the different identities we have,” she said. For example, she is a mom, a teacher, an athlete, and more.

For Givens, integrity also has multiple variations. There’s physical integrity, taking care of ourselves. There’s integrity in terms of being honest and straightforward. And there’s integrity in terms of having a solid foundation.

Identity and integrity come into play with radical empathy, which comprises, according to Givens, six steps: a willingness to be vulnerable, becoming grounded in who you are, opening yourself to the experiences of others, practising empathy, taking action, and creating change and building trust.

About the first step, she said, “It’s not about being vulnerable with others, it’s about  being vulnerable with yourself…. We have a really hard time [with that] – even just giving ourself a pat on the back is hard…. But the reason that’s so important is … you need to become grounded in who you are, and that’s an ongoing process.”

Taking care of yourself and being grounded in yourself allows you to be open to others, she said.

Radical empathy is circular, said Givens. “It’s a constant movement towards becoming who you want to be. You want to have goals for yourself that reach beyond where you are now, but also you want to have a process to get there.”

We can tap into our integrity, she said, by telling our story, where we fit in family, community, education, health, love and marriage, relationships, and work.

“Empathy is not absolution,” she said. “It doesn’t mean I have to  say everything is OK…. Sometimes, people do things that I don’t believe are good for anybody. And so, that’s an important component and, for me, it helps me tap into my integrity because I have to create those boundaries and make sure that I understand where I fit into this broader picture and in the community.”

As she ages, the health aspect is something she is dealing with more. “My dad had a heart attack at 72, my mom had a stroke at 75. Why those things happen, how to understand that, is a big part of our ability to  function.”

With respect to love and marriage, she said, “When people ask me what’s important in the relationship, it’s, well, you want to be with somebody who makes you a better person. And that it’s reciprocal.”

This is something that applies to relationships in general, she added.

“Work is a huge part of our lives. I think sometimes we forget how important it is to make sure that our work is something that, regardless of what you do, you take pride in it. It may be something that you don’t want to be doing  forever but, where you are right now, it’s important that your work is a part of your story.” 

We can’t change the past, but we can change how we go forward, Givens said. “There are these lifelong self-reflection processes that help us learn from the people around us, whether they’re clients or colleagues or friends, and cultural humility is being willing to say I don’t know everything.”

She said, “Too many leaders are full of themselves. It’s good to be modest about your capabilities. And here’s where  vulnerability comes in. You have to be willing to admit mistakes. And I really believe that, if you have integrity, that’s not so difficult, to admit mistakes – it’s like, I’m a human being, I’m not perfect, and [having an] awareness of bias…. We know that the system is set up often in a biased way and we talk about meritocracy but what does that mean? It’s not just that you hire people who look like you or are really similar to you – it’s being willing to look beyond that and say, no, this person is the best person for the job even though we don’t have a whole lot in common.”

Givens spoke about having a curiosity about others, having an open mindset, listening without judgment and seeking, with empathy, to understand people. “And then, cultural intelligence is being attentive to other cultures and to adapt as required.” 

In the question-and-answer period, Duhan-Kaplan asked about mistakes made by our ancestors, and how we deal with them. She also asked about dealing with the expectations “placed on us in a charged environment – we might open social media for some entertainment and then what we get is, whatever perspective we have, people are ridiculing it and calling us names,” said Duhan-Kaplan. “Cultural humility – once you start to get defensive about yourself and your identity, how do you keep being open to changing?”

“I still struggle with that,” said Givens.

“As a person who’s been racialized, who has ancestors who were enslaved, and yet I have ancestors who were killing Indigenous and pushing Indigenous out of their homelands,” she explained, “one of the things I’m coming to is that we’re a sum of all of this – and all of us are…. And, again, it comes back to acceptance. I have to accept the fact that, if I look in my family history, there are these evil people and there are some really good people.”

History is ugly, she concluded. “I think it’s better to know it and understand it and be willing to say, but I’m here to be better.”

For Givens, the opposite of empathy is apathy because apathy allows us to feel badly about what’s happening but then just throw up our hands and say, “the world is crazy, you can’t do anything.” Her books highlight ways that people can get involved, what they can do, and she incorporates taking action into everything she does, she said.

Ultimately, it’s the actions, the outcomes, and the way we are engaging with the world that is important, said Givens.

Vancouver School of Theology is offering Summer School courses that will be of particular interest to Jewish community members: Rabbi Or Rose teaches Mystics in Modernity, Rabbi David Seidenberg’s class is Kabbalistic Hints in Tanakh, and Rabbi Laura Duhan-Kaplan presents Zechariah: Spiritual Activism for Difficult Times. Classes run July 21-25 at VST or online. Register at vst.edu/vst-summer-school.

Posted on June 13, 2025June 12, 2025Author Cynthia RamsayCategories LocalTags empathy, Laura Duhan Kaplan, School of Theology, Terri Elizabeth Givens, theology, VST

Meditating mindfully

Or Shalom is hosting one of the leading innovators in the field of Jewish meditation next weekend – Rabbi Jeff Roth of the Awakened Heart Project will lead a half-day retreat at the synagogue on Dec. 4.

Roth, who has been practising and teaching meditation for decades, teaches his own synthesis of Eastern techniques with a Jewish heart, which he calls Jewish mindfulness meditation.

photo - Rabbi Jeff Roth of the Awakened Heart Project will lead a half-day retreat at Or Shalom on Dec. 4
Rabbi Jeff Roth of the Awakened Heart Project will lead a half-day retreat at Or Shalom on Dec. 4. (photo from Jeff Roth)

“I was already a rabbi when I started studying Asian meditation,” he explained. “Everything I learned, I learned through a Jewish lens. I never took on a practice without altering it slightly.”

When asked if anyone has objected to his synthesis of Jewish spirituality with Asian contemplative techniques, the rabbi said, “What I integrate is the truth of the nature of mind and no one has any objection to that. I ask questions like, What is the influence of conceptual thinking on the mind? What are the effects of different thoughts?”

Roth teaches a type of meditation that involves experiencing the mind and body with a healing, nonjudgmental awareness. It is rooted in the mindfulness movement first brought to North America in the 1970s, which has steadily grown in popularity, even finding a significant place in new medical treatments and corporate environments. And Jews have played a large role in the movement, demonstrated by leading teachers like Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, Jon Kabat-Zinn and others.

Drawn to the mystical teachings of Judaism as a young rabbi, Roth said they remained “intellectual” for him until he began practising meditation. “In the quiet, in the silence, I became a mystic,” he said. “It became a direct experiential realization.”

Among his students now are many rabbis. “I teach rabbis they need to come to the silence, the witnessing, to have a deeper spiritual experience,” said Roth, referring to the practice of “just witnessing” that characterizes mindfulness meditation. By just witnessing thoughts, feelings and sensations, say its exponents, mindfulness meditation calms the body and mind and allows deeper, non-conceptual awareness of experience. “From a Jewish perspective, ‘just witnessing’ is not enough, however,” he said. “You need to be the compassionate witness.”

Roth said he draws his central inspirations from the teachings of the Chassidic masters, especially the Baal Shem Tov – Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, 1698-1760, founder of the Chassidic movement.

“The Baal Shem Tov said ‘everything is God and nothing but God,’” Roth explained. “The whole thing to do is to align ourselves with the truth of being, which in the Torah is expressed as ‘ein od milvado’ (‘there is nothing else besides God’).”

A turning point in Roth’s development came in 1981 when he received teachings from Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, the founder of the Jewish Renewal movement, which became the scaffolding of his theology of contemplation.

“Reb Zalman taught me about the four worlds, or levels of manifestation, that occur within the Holy One of Being,” said Roth. The contemplation of how the four levels of manifestation happen in our minds and bodies can guide our mindful exploration of experience, he said. “The four worlds have become a central metaphor in my teaching. I have been working out that teaching for the last 35 years.”

book cover - Me, Myself and GodRoth’s latest iteration of that “working out” can be seen in his recent book, Me, Myself and God: A Jewish Theology of Mindfulness (Jewish Lights, 2016), from which he will be presenting practices and Torah teachings at the Dec. 4 session.

“We’re trying to understand the fundamental forces that alienate us in our experience of life, in order that we might live more from a place of awakened heart, which is connected to all experience and allows us to manifest with more love and compassion in our daily lives,” said Roth. “I want to emphasize that acting with love and compassion – that’s where we’re going with the whole thing.”

For more information on the retreat, which will take place from 2:30-5:45 p.m., and be followed by a potluck meal, visit orshalom.ca.

Matthew Gindin is a freelance journalist, writer and lecturer. He writes regularly for the Forward and All That Is Interesting, and has been published in Religion Dispatches, Situate Magazine, Tikkun and elsewhere. He can be found on Medium and Twitter.

Posted on November 25, 2016November 23, 2016Author Matthew GindinCategories BooksTags Judaism, meditation, Or Shalom, spirituality, theology
Religions meet at VST

Religions meet at VST

Dr. Marc Gopin of George Mason University and Rabbi Dr. Laura Duhan Kaplan of Vancouver School of Theology at the VST event Encountering the Other: An Inter-Religious Conference. (photo from Laura Duhan Kaplan)

Encountering the Other: An Inter-Religious Conference took place at the Vancouver School of Theology (VST) May 15-17. The initiative of Rabbi Dr. Laura Duhan Kaplan, director of Inter-Religious Studies and professor of Jewish studies at VST, the conference examined how religious traditions can deal with difference and meet one another in a pluralistic society.

Thirty scholars and artists gathered for the two full days of learning about approaches to the “other” in Christianity, Judaism, Islam, indigenous traditions, Buddhism, Sikhism and Hinduism.

The conference opened with the keynote address The Journey Toward Less Violence and More Empathy: A Scientific and Spiritual Convergence by Dr. Marc Gopin, director of the Centre for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University. Gopin has long been a leader in analyzing obstacles and opportunities for religions to be peacebrokers.

Over the course of the conference, there were talks on such issues as the ongoing encounter between indigenous peoples and Christianity; the Sufi poet Rumi and his views of other religions; universalistic resources from the Hindu tradition; the interaction of Buddhism, Confucianism and Shinto in Japan; relations between the three Abrahamic religions; and the portrayal of Christianity in the Quran.

Kaplan offered a presentation on what she views as the “deep ecumenism” of Chassidic teacher Rabbi Nachman of Breslov (1772-1810). According to Rebbe Nachman, “no place in the circle of the universe is empty of God, all wisdoms express divinity,” she explains in her talk. “All are unique frequencies of Divine music that emanate from a single source. The source flows like a river between banks of polarized opinion. The biblical villain Pharaoh represents the stubborn seeker whose extreme opinions separate people. Only someone like the biblical hero Moses, who can be silent in the face of conflict, can stand up to Pharaoh.” Among other questions, she asked attendees to consider how this spiritual reality behind ordinary life could be helpful in inter-religious conflict resolution.

Another talk of particular interest to Jews was Searching for the Sacred Other in the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict by Lynn Mills. Mills, a Christian speaker, spoke of the numerous peace activists and conflict resolution organizations that are refusing to give up on finding peaceful resolutions to the conflict. She argued for the strength of approaches based on the thoughts of Jewish philosopher and early Zionist Martin Buber (1878-1965); specifically, Buber’s concept of “I and Thou,” which stresses direct, reverent meetings between people, free of intellectual and emotional baggage. According to Mills, this idea is “threaded throughout non-violent peacemaking initiatives in the region” and, she writes in her abstract, that “it is only when we cease to view the other as an enemy and instead see them as a sacred other that a true and lasting peace can be achieved.”

Kaplan said Mills’ talk was notable for the lack of controversy it engendered among listeners, as well as the sense of hope and optimism it offered.

On the Monday evening, the conference featured a presentation by Fossil Free Faith – a panel discussion on religious activism and climate change led by a Quaker, an Eastern Orthodox Christian and a Jew. And, on the Tuesday, three different bands took the stage for a world music concert – the Jewish group Sulam, the Indo-Japanese group Naad and Franco-Arabic musician Emad Armoush.

Matthew Gindin is a Vancouver freelance writer and journalist. He blogs on spirituality and social justice at seeking her voice (hashkata.com) and has been published in the Forward, Tikkun, Elephant Journal and elsewhere.

Format ImagePosted on June 17, 2016June 16, 2016Author Matthew GindinCategories LocalTags interfaith, religion, theology, VST
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