New Archive:

September 2000 Issue, Volume 2

The Rhythm of Compassion: Caring for Self, Connecting with Society by Gail Straub. Tuttle: 2000. $19.95. 235 pp.

Reviewed by Jonathan Groner

A few Shabbats ago I found myself listening attentively to the words of the Haftarah, the last one we read before the fast of Tisha B'Av. I found that it had been a long time since I had really concentrated on what Isaiah was saying in the first chapter of his book. Focusing on the reading, I realized yet again that the crucial role of social justice in Judaism is not a wishful interpretation of the texts or a nineteenth-century Reform invention. It is a central point of our religion.

This is the prophet's reaction to outward devotion to God that is offered up by corrupt, unjust, insensitive people:

And when you lift up your hands, I will turn My eyes away from you
Though you pray at length, I will not listen
Your hands are stained with crime
Wash yourselves clean
Put your evil doings away from My sight
Cease to do evil; learn to do good
Devote yourselves to justice, aid the wronged
Uphold the rights of the orphan, defend the cause of the widow.

Who are the "widow" and "orphan" here but the dispossessed, the powerless, the segments of society that are trapped in poverty and despair? Substitute whatever groups you want in the 21st-century context--the equation holds.

Yes, we obligated to perform ritual; but one is hardly to be considered "religious" if one observes the holidays and says the prayers but does not "aid the wronged." Rather than being righteous, such a person is "stained with crime."

With the appropriate secular and contemporary twists, this is the point that Gail Straub is making in The Rhythm of Compassion. The essence of the book--which is unfortunately repeated far too many times--is that in order to be complete as human beings, we need to balance "inwardness" with "outwardness," the care of our own soul and psyche with the imperative of perfecting the world. We must make sure not to overemphasize either the personal or the political.

"For most of us--the busy doctor, harried executive, dedicated activist, or overextended parent--finding our rhythm is a creative juggling act where we gradually find the particular ingredients for balancing inner and outer," writes Straub, a social activist and spiritual trainer. Her task is to show her readers how to accomplish this balance by deploying a combination of focused thought, meditation, journal writing, and social action.

This is not on its face a Jewish book in any way. The author is not Jewish, and as far as I can tell, there are no references to Jewish tradition or uniquely Jewish ideas. The book is unmistakably an artifact of the contemporary movement that focuses on self-help and spiritual Development--and unfortunately, it draws on many clichés of that movement.

It is also about twice as long as it has to be, and Straub constantly introduces words like "stewardship" and "sustainable living" without really defining them or explaining her underlying premises about the role of humankind in nature. (And "journal" is not a verb, no matter how many times she uses it as one.)

Strictly viewed as a self-help book, The Rhythm of Compassion provides little that is new, and indeed seems a bit derivative from M. Scott Peck's The Road Less Traveled and from Joan Borysenko's work. But for me, the echoes of Isaiah are present.

Individual spirituality, whether expressed through conventional religious forms or not, is important, even indispensable, just as Temple worship was in the prophet's time. Yet it inevitably winds up in a self-absorbed loop unless it is complemented by the imperative of helping others.

"There's a natural time for the in-breath of caring for self and family, and a natural time for the out-breath of caring for the needs of the world," Straub writes. (Echoes of Ecclesiastes, anyone?)

Straub at her best, in a book that contains too few passages of this sort, criticizes the person who after ten years in therapy is still trying to forgive her parents; the friend of many years who continues to be self-absorbed with his own personal healing journey, seduced into the quagmire of narcissism; the person who knows too much about the psycho-babble of dysfunction and almost nothing about her local community and environmental programs; the colleague who believes he has to totally get himself together before he can contribute to society; the therapist who feels burned out on personal problems and needs to move out into the collective. In these shadowy archetypes, we see the in-breath imploding upon itself and leading to the dead end of spiritual emptiness.

Beneath the psycho-babble--and Straub is not immune to it herself--there is a lesson for all of us that dates back to prophetic times. Put your soul in order; seek spirituality on your own--but do not forget the demands of the world.

Jonathan Groner is an editor at Legal Times in Washington, D.C., and a frequent contributor to Socialaction.com, An On-line Jewish Magazine Dedicated to Pursuing Justice, Building Community, and Repairing the World, where this review originally ran.

.