PDE 534 Moral Injury
In the Mi Sheberach we recognize the human need for wholeness and ask God for healing of both body and soul. While Jewish pastoral care has traditionally focused on the spiritual dimensions of physical healing, this course expands that focus to include recovery from moral injury - an ancient phenomenon recently identified in Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans to describe a sense of profound brokenness resulting from violation of one's core moral values. During this semester we will explore the concept of moral injury from Jewish, psychological, and philosophical perspectives. We will study traditional Jewish texts from the Bible through Codes as well as secular and contemporary literature, exploring the variety of ways that such injuries can be understood. We will also examine how the concept of moral injury has been extended to violations that occur in circumstances other than the military, such as racism, misogyny, gender discrimination, political malfeasance, and the corruption of leadership. An important goal of the course is to prepare future clergy to function as witnesses and healers for those suffering moral injury, however derived.