"It’s a matter of sharing the burdens of a free society and a good society. That’s, morally speaking, what taxes are about," according to political philosopher and Harvard government professor Michael Sandel.

Violence in Jerusalem is no surprise, according to writer James Carroll, “because that’s the human story. The great thing about Jerusalem is it’s a place where the human story gets transcended.”

An acclaimed new movie shows that a monastery is "at once a refuge and a very integral part of the world," says Jesuit priest James Martin, and that "the life of faith is not without doubt."

"The individual soldier often feels not that he or she is broken, but that the world itself is broken, and there is no easy fix for a broken world," writes US Navy Commander Greg Parker.

"It's like you don't really know your spirit until it's been damaged. We don't really have a consciousness of our own spirit until it's wounded, and then it needs help," says Michael Abbatello, who served in Afghanistan as a rifleman in a Marine Corps infantry line unit.

"It's our job as civilians to tend to the returning warriors by bringing them into the center of the community," says this psychotherapist and author of "War and the Soul."

"It’s a religious obligation for us to give to other people," says Dawud Walid. Near the completion of the hajj, meat is slaughtered according to Islamic requirements and shared with family, friends, and the poor.

"The issue here is not BP's behavior, it's not the Obama administration's behavior. It's our behavior. That is where the deepest change has to happen."

When the hajj comes to an end, Muslims will distribute meat to the poor and recall Abraham's willingness to offer his son to God.