{Com}Passion – A Necessary Combination

My rabbi gave a beautiful sermon this past Saturday in synagogue.  He spoke of passion and compassion as being closely tied together; that just by adding ‘com’ to the word passion, you’ve created the greatest virtue of all.  Both words call upon us to feel deeply.

I never thought of these words as being connected.  Upon looking up the origin of passion, I found that it comes from the Latin word, suffer.  Makes perfect sense –since passion means to feel strongly about something, compassion is to feel strongly about the suffering of others.

“Without passion, nothing happens; without compassion, the wrong things happen.”  Jan Eliasson

 

Questions to ponder:

What do you care deeply about?

What moves you?

What excites you?

What saddens you?

If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be?

If you could turn a wrong into a right, what would it be?

What injustice would you fight for?

How do you respond to other people’s misfortunes/problems?

 

Watch this beautiful video of a passionately compassionate human being.

 

This makes me want to do so much more.  How about you?  Any answers to any of the above questions?  I’m glad you stopped by.