GC#108 - Uncomfortably Numb - Perek Shira 39 - Song of The Clouds Part 3 - a podcast by Amram Landau

‘I won’t use my broken arm as an excuse for why I lost the game. He was just better on the day.’ A well-worn, oft-used tactic employed by many… including us. In saying that we were second best on the day, we shifted the blame onto someone, or something else.

‘Mustn’t grumble!’ There’s another one. We are grumbling by saying that, or at the very least, implying the grumble.

And perhaps the best and most common version – ‘No offence, but…’ <Insert insult here>. Enough said.

By projecting the negative thoughts away from ourselves, we can remain noble and upright. ‘Me? Negative? No! I love everyone.’ Others are to blame for the ills of this world. We are comfortably numb.

This is perhaps what the Gemoro is indicating when it not only seems to indict seemingly less significant parties as catalysts for the destruction, it actually paints the Romans as noble, and leaves the host of the party totally anonymous!

Once we realise that this was just a small part of the endemic problem of negativity – which still exists today, we need to shift our attitudes. Then, at least if we don’t yet feel it totally, we can want to want to begin feeling – becoming uncomfortably numb with our attitudes towards others.

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