My Chicago Synagogue Was Firebombed—But We’re Not Leaving
Being able to share community means accepting, and even embracing, vulnerability.
“There are four primary causes of injury: the ox and the pit and the crop-destroying beast and fire.” Those are the opening words of Bava Kamma, the tractate of the Mishnah—the first authoritative compendium of rabbinic Jewish law—that deals with the laws of damages. The deeper meaning of the Mishnah is that there is one primary cause of injury: people living in proximity to one another.
Human proximity puts our property at risk: A neighbor’s dog could wreck your garden, a construction project poses a public danger, a backyard
