11 Comments
User's avatar
Ed Garland's avatar

Appropriate, timely, and effective. Many of us need a bit of guidance when "being mean" is truly against our nature. The "How To" is much needed and, at least in one case I'm personally aware of, appreciated. *** Elbows Up, Ya'll! *** Thank You. 😅

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman's avatar

Thanks, Ed. I'm still not sure if we can pull this off - letting our mean flag fly while carefully preserving the nice guy within. Society has become so much coarser just in the past half year. The language we use, the trolling, the sarcasm, the outbursts of anger. These may now be permanent fixtures in our lives. But I'm still hopeful that we can find our way back to covility, once the electoral pendulum swings - if it is allowed to by Trump's growing secret police.

Kikist's avatar

Yes, the language we Americans have come to use. Especially the violence and frequency of certain 4-letter words which have become commonplace in daily discourse. As a kid, my dad washed my mouth out with soap and water if I used a certain word I´d picked up from some other, mostly bigger kid (without knowing its meaning). I think sometimes our society could use the same...;). Here in Germany I often attend US films in German because they often filter out exactly these offensive and/or barnyard expressions.

+ and -'s avatar

Thank you for your kind and wise words. I will share this with everyone and encourage them to watch or read your words. You are an inspiration in these dark times!

Kat Sutton's avatar

Thanks, I needed that!

GHolladay's avatar

Thanks for the video! It was good to hear this in your voice and see your expressions.

Samsonite's avatar

Rabbi Heschel covers the nabi, Samuel, more thoroughly in his magnum opus: The Prophets

Susan Raquel's avatar

Good evening Rabbi, I was here much earlier and glad to see you "in person". :-) There is a time for kindness and a time for meanness. Sometimes I think that it is a matter of interpretation. Telling someone that he/she is lying could be called mean; yet, if you know the person is lying then it is just a statement of fact.

Go back where you came from LOL just loved that. So true and in the end we are all just skin and bones. Well, except for my son. He told me he wants to be made into a diamond. I told him that I didn't think that they made diamonds in the rough. Do you think that was mean?

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman's avatar

What a great point! Sometimes we confuse meanness for candor. There are times when one can couch truth in ways that are less hurtful, but more often the couching only compounds the confusion.