May 31, 2025

“When you listen to a witness, you become a witness.” ~ Elie Wiesel

This morning, my words, like my thoughts, are running away from me faster than I can catch them.

Yesterday morning’s visit to the Museum of Jewish Heritage with my 8th-grade students remains with me, anchored in a new understanding of the brutality, horror, and unimaginable inhumanities suffered by millions.

Witnessing, in some small way, the perishing of so many has shattered the peace I strive to cultivate daily.

I left the museum with heartbreak, tears, and corrosion in my throat and chest caused by the experience of suffering, as well as a revisiting of the brutalities endured by other groups throughout history and today, and flashbacks to personal trials.

A brief walk in nearby Battery Park led to the sighting of this Big-Leaf Magnolia tree and the discovery of the large blossoms atop her rounded green crown. Her late spring to early summer creamy white blossoms and large leaves represent strength and resilience.

I believe Nature guided me to this young tree as a therapeutic countermeasure to the painful wounds I witnessed — wounds that Wiesel said he could not bear to tell and was afraid that if he did, “we would all break out in tears, and we would not stop.”

Peace is still mine, but it requires a new reconstruction.

“To whom much is given, much is required” continually comes back to me. We have survived to bear witness. We have suffered so that we can comfort others. We have been shown mercy to become gracious. We have been forgiven to forgive. We have been taught to teach.

Being grounded in the pain we witness, both historically and in the present, is where we need to be. Experiencing the humiliation, debilitation, and eradication efforts of humans against one another helps us set aside pretense, erase false notions of superiority, develop compassion, and take humane action in our daily lives.

Today, I remain deeply affected by the pain I witnessed. I am not trying to erase it or distract myself from it. I am living it, knowing it, and being changed by it.

How do you process your experiences of pain and suffering, and how have those experiences changed you?