Yesterday, around the world, we Jews observed Tisha B’Av, a day of grieving the historical destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, our archetypal and historical sacred center.
Two weeks earlier, Washington’s National Cathedral, “a house of prayer for all people,” became the focus of media attention when the dean called for the removal of two stained glass panels – installed 62 years ago – which depict the Confederate flag.
Read MoreOn a single day last week, we were stunned by news of the Charlie Helbo attack in Paris and a bomb going off at an NAACP office in Colorado. At the same time, this day was no different than any other: our media regularly saturates us with stories of death and violence. In her prophetic book All About Love, bell hooks describes this phenomena as a symptom of America’s death-obsessed culture. She says, “It may very well be that…the constant spectacles of dying we watch on television screens daily, is one way our culture tries to still that fear [of death], to conquer it, to make us comfortable.” Our culture’s efforts to comfort us and conquer our dread depict deaths that are sudden, faceless, and violent. This ultimately deepens our anxiety about death.
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