Empathy...

They lack empathy by having no feelings. They can't really have empathy for an another  if they don't have feelings. Because usually empathy is feelings and feeling and understanding what other people have gone through. Jonas can empathize with others because his job is a receiver so he gets to have feelings  and feel pain and happiness. And before he was a receiver he had no feelings. So he knows how the rest of the community feels because every one else has no feelings. Like in the book Jonas asks if his parents love him and they said they enjoy him but don't love him because they don't feel love or don't know what it is. And when Jonas's dad released the baby he was being happy about i because he didn't really understand what he was doing. And Jonas was sad and wondering why his dad didn't feel bad about it because Jonas has feelings and his dad didn't.