In an era of political civil wars, an example of possible civility

An old friend of mine, an academic who typically infuses his scholarly papers about such topics as economics and social trends with the perspective of Torah stories, Torah-based ethics and Torah scholars, challenged me the other day to write an essay about a subject that has increasingly bothered him in recent years — the growing uncivility in our culture. In politics. In religion. In journalism. In …. You get the idea.

This increase in public hostility and decrease in mutual respect is evident in many venues:

The standards of comedy roasts, where the benign “you only roast those you love” rib...