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KQED's Forum

Rabbi Sharon Brous on Saying 'Amen' to Each Other's Joy and Pain

KQED's Forum

KQED

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.2727 Ratings

🗓️ 7 February 2024

⏱️ 57 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The human longing for connection – to be heard and understood – is what Rabbi Sharon Brous calls the “amen effect.” It’s the idea that we can awaken our shared humanity when we learn to talk across differences with curiosity and empathy. Rabbi Brous has for decades been ministering to members of IKAR, shepherding the Los Angeles Jewish community she co-founded as they navigate celebration and sorrow, both personal and collective. We talk to Rabbi Brous about spirituality, community and how she is grappling with the war between Israel and Hamas. Her new book is “The Amen Effect: Ancient Wisdom to Mend Our Broken Hearts and World.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Support for Key QBD Podcasts comes from San Francisco International Airport. At SFO, you can shop,

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dine, and unwind before your flight. Go ahead, treat yourself. Learn more about SFO restaurants and

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shops at flysfo.com. Support for forum comes from Broadway SF, presenting Parade, the musical revival based on a true story.

0:23.1

From three-time Tony-winning composer Jason Robert Brown comes the story of Leo and Lucille Frank,

0:29.6

a newlywed Jewish couple struggling to make a life in Georgia. When Leo is accused of an

0:35.3

unspeakable crime, it propels them into an unimaginable test of faith, humanity, justice, and devotion.

0:43.3

The riveting and gloriously hopeful parade plays the Orpheum Theater for three weeks only, May 20th through June 8th.

0:51.7

Tickets on sale now at Broadway, sf.com. From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Mina Kim.

1:16.6

Coming up on forum, we talk with Los Angeles faith leader, Rabbi Sharon Brous, about

1:21.6

community and spirituality, and how she's been grappling with the Israel-Hamas War, the attack

1:26.6

on October 7, the destruction of Gaza,

1:29.0

the reaction here in the U.S. Browse for decades has been ministering to congregants of E-Car,

1:34.4

and she wrote last month in the New York Times, humans naturally inclined toward the known.

1:39.2

Our tribes can uplift us, order our lives, give them meaning and purpose.

1:43.4

But she writes, that instinct can also

1:45.4

be perilous. The more closely we identify with our tribe, the more likely we are to dismiss or even

1:50.6

feel hostility toward those outside it. More with Rabbi Brous, join us. Welcome to Forum.

1:59.9

I'm Mina Kim. Rabbi Sharon Browse says that humans are deeply relational

2:04.6

beings with an innate yearning to be known, and decades of ministering to people at Ecar, the Jewish

2:10.0

community she co-founded in Los Angeles, to people in sorrow or confusion or in pain these last

2:16.3

few difficult months, have reinforced for Brous

2:18.7

that, quote, when so many of us feel that we are breaking, do not take your broken heart

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