PREPENT Day 20 // Rashanu: We Toxify

A reflection on "Rashanu: We Toxify" by Melissa Shaw

We don't see it in ourselves at first. Because we are right. We aren't to blame. 

We see it in others, in the workings of a World gone mad. "See, they are so angry." "See, they have so much unresolved trauma" "See, they hate us." "See, they are unreasonable." 

So, to protect our inner world, we just HAVE to respond. We have to defend.  We may say, I'm just responding to their toxicity.  And then they say the same. And around and around we go- into the wilderness of us against them over and over again.  The snake holds the toxin within itself. Full and ready to strike. It wants to survive. To protect with the only tool it has. But if you bite me and if I bite you? What becomes of both of us? 

Let's hope for a moment this season where we can pull in our vipers, pause and reflect that toxicity has the potential to live inside each and everyone of us. And so too, can an antidote.

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Melissa Shaw (she/they) is a facilitator and educator who offers a unique consultancy based in social justice, equity, diversity and inclusion, social emotional learning and the arts.  She has facilitated for school districts, school boards, universities, theaters, congregations, summer camps, detention centers, yeshivas, corporate offices, and long-term temporary housing centers. She has led workshops for Israelis and Palestinians, tech professionals, Rabbis, Imams, security guards, chaplains, non-profit managers, video game designers, Buddhist monks, school principals, NGO leaders, and the NYPD. Melissa facilitates a variety of anti-bias, anti-oppression, and anti-racist programs for the New Jersey State Bar Foundation, Building Cultures Group, the Anti-Defamation League, Powerful Communications, and Avodah. She has been a Teaching Artist and Creative Coach for various community-based organizations, including Community Word Project, Brooklyn Arts Council, Energize Your Voice, and the Lulu and Leo Fund. She is the Arts and Communication Advisor for the Muslim-Jewish Solidarity Committee and was part of the 2019 Nahum Goldmann Fellowship cohort and a member of the 2022 Leadership Seminar cohort. Melissa is an experiential Jewish educator and peacebuilder who has brought dialogue and listening practices through a 'Jewish lens' to Jewish organizations such as Hebrew Union College,  Lab/Shul, the Foundation for Jewish Camp, UJA, Temple Ner Tamid, and more. She is a certified Ethno-Religious mediator, Restorative Justice practitioner and Interfaith Minister. She was recently EDI coordinator for the Tony Award-winning Broadway production of The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window. Melissa holds an M.F.A. from Sarah Lawrence College.

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Welcome to PREPENT 2024/5785: A-Z Daily Reflections on Public Accountability into a Better New Jewish Year

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