On Tue, 22 Oct 2002 03:04:35 +1000, “Rowland Croucher” wrote:

And I’m interested in Jewish, Muslim and other religion’s prayers in a situation like this. Want to contribute something from your religious tradition?

A Jew’s (Les Brown’s) response:

According to the Jewish tradition?

The Jewish response is introspective; “What did we do to deserve this?”

We look at our behaviour to see where we may have gone wrong in our relationships with our fellow man and G-d, that we should be worthy of His punishment. Since I believe all punishment comes from G-d in response to our poor behaviour, we look to ourselves for ways of improving those negative aspects of ours.

We Jews are deep in the midst of this self-inspection because of the events happening in Israel and elsewhere aimed specifically at us. Perhaps now is a good time for all Australians to also take a good hard look at ouselves to see where we are failing in our relationship with G-d and, maybe more importantly, in our relationships with our fellow man.

Les Brown