The Weight of Witnessing: Why Your Heart Feels Heavy for Others

Looking at the 10 plagues at the beginning of the Exodus narrative, I think they not only strike Egypt but also pass through the Israelite houses as sound, fear, and memory. The Israelites may be spared some of the blows, but they still live with the cries in the night and the knowledge of what is happening next door. Their identity is shaped not only by their own suffering, but by what they have witnessed in others.