Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg on repair: "You have to be brave enough to become someone new."

"You have to be brave enough

to become someone new."

—Danya Ruttenberg

We all do harm. Even if we try very hard not to. And we’ve all had the experience of being harmed, in small and not-so-small ways. It can derail a career . In my journalism work, I’ve reported on a lot of it. About the time that I started writing regularly about the #MeToo movement, in which powerful men were held to account for egregious behaviors, I began to wonder: how do we make this better? Once a person—or an institution, or a company—is called to account for harming others, is repair even possible?

I don’t mean one of those mea culpa press releases that seem to be written by crisis communications specialists. I don’t even men genuine apologies. Apologizing doesn’t erase a harmful action.

Today, I want to devote an episode to how we make things right .

Because our office cultures get better, society improves—and our democracy grows stronger—when we get past our transgressions. When we can trust each other, and when we can figure how to act differently.?My guest is Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg . She is an outspoken feminist and a spiritual leader. Her new book is called On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World. And fun fact: she came along with me on my first visit to a gay bar back in college. I've known Danya for a long time. This is a powerful episode, and I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as Sarah Storm and I enjoyed making it. You can find it at the top of this article, or listen here . Then I hope you'll join us in the comments to talk about the framework Danya brings up, and how it might apply to our lives today.

???Office Hours: Repentance and repair

This week, let’s talk about how these themes relate to your own life. What’s a repair we need to make? What's some repair we've seen in the world? Where do we believe in possibility? Join us this Wednesday at 3pm EST for Office Hours. We’ll give each other courage to begin. You can find us on the LinkedIn News Page , or email us for a link at [email protected].

?? Coming (out) soon: The Family Outing

As regular listeners know, I spent the past couple years working on a book, and it comes out in just a few weeks! I hope you'll consider pre-ordering it. You can find it here .