The Fourth of July, the Torah, and the Presidency

This coming Shabbat is also a holy day in the liturgical calendar of the American people, and a time of memory and hope for many people in many nations - not for American national reasons, but because it recalls a great modern document and action on behalf of human rights and the calling to account of an unaccountable, irresponsible ruler.

In Jewish custom, special Torah readings and Prophetic passages are set aside to be read and discussed on the Jewish festivals. In the customs of the movement for Jewish renewal, beginning with havurah (fellowship) retreats in the mid-1970s and continuing in the Kallot (gatherings) sponsored every other summer by ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal, it has become a joyful custom to honor this festival in a special way:

Initiated by The Shalom Center; endorsed by Rabbis Steve Gutow, David Saperstein, & Nina Beth Cardin; by Nancy Ratzan, Nigel Savage, Richard Schwartz, Ellen Bernstein, Rabbi Peter Knobel, Jo Ellen Green Kaiser, Rabbi Michael Lerner, and many others. (See list below.)

Says an old Southern Black song: "God gave Noah the Rainbow Sign; No more water, the fire next time." In our generation, the Flood of Fire has come upon us in the climate crisis of global scorching and rising of the seas. We ourselves -- all of us -- must build the Ark to save humanity and all endangered life-forms. The Rainbow Sign calls us to this work of transformation.

If the US Insists on M. E. Peace --
Will There Be a Crisis over Values & Identity
Within American Jewish Life?

Is the American Jewish community headed for a deep internal split over our values and commitments if the US and Israeli governments collide over whether to be serious about a two-state peace settlement?

The Israeli-Palestinian collision, since Hamas rocket attacks on parts of Israel and the Israeli bombing and invasion of Gaza, has now reached a crisis point. It has become both a special case of the collision between some elements of Islam and some elements of the West -- – and a burning source of anger on both sides that makes harder any peaceful resolution of issues between the West (especially the US) and some Muslim states and organizations.

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

How are we to respond to a recent report by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life that the more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of alleged terrorists?

According to Pew, 54% of Americans who attend church services at least once a week said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is “often” or “sometimes” justified. Only 42% of people who “seldom or never” go to services agreed.

The study did not include synagogue-attending Jews or Muslims, Hispanic Catholics, or Black Protestants (all of whom might be expected, out of the historical life-experience of their groups with being tortured, to oppose it more vigorously).

Dear readers and members of The Shalom Center,

Many many of us agree that the threat of climate disaster is the most important danger facing the human race and the web of life upon our planet. Many of us have noticed that in the great and archetypal story of the Exodus, Pharaoh's arrogance does as much damage to the earth itself – "the Plagues" -- as to his own society.

But many of us feel blown away by other crises that seem more urgent: --

The world-wide economic collapse and our own loss of jobs and savings; worsening bloodshed between Israel and its neighbors; the danger of a bloody quagmire in Afghanistan; the AIDS epidemic in Africa and elsewhere; failures in health care and education in the US; crises over immigration; rising rates of gun violence; denial of full human rights to gays and lesbians ….

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

My life-partner Rabbi Phyllis Berman and I spent a week in Sweden at the Interfaith Summit on the Climate Crisis.

Watch the live 5-minute video of my "words of hope" for the thousand people who filled the Uppsala Cathedral, intertwining a vision of empowering ourselves and drawing on the Spirit. Then read the message just below about the FREEDOM SEDER FOR THE EARTH that the Shalom Center is organizing, and how you yourself can face the Pharaohs of today.

To save our planet, crops, water supply, & coastlines from the ravages of climate crisis & global scorching, The Shalom Center urges these seven directions of PERSONAL & POLICY change at all governmental levels, corporate and labor-union decisions, and household / congregational action. To work for these policy changes, write GreenMenorah@shalomctr.org or Shalom Center, 6711 Lincoln Drive, Philadelphia PA 19119.

1. Making carbon pay the real costs of its effect on climate:

Personal change: households set 5% of our annual coal, oil, & gasoline costs as tzedakah ("charitable" contributions) to support sustainable-energy activism.

What is a "Green Menorah"?

The Green Menorah is the symbol of a covenant among Jewish communities and congregations to renew the miracle of Hanukkah in our own generation: Using one day's oil to meet eight days' needs. By 2020, cutting US oil consumption by seven-eighths.

HEALING THE EARTH: THE GREEN MENORAH COVENANT

The Green Menorah is the symbol of a covenant among Jewish communities and congregations to renew the miracle of Hanukkah in our own generation: Using one day's oil to meet eight days' needs: doing our part so that by 2020, US oil consumption is cut by seven-eighths.

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

The stance from which I approach issues of peace in the Middle East — just like the stance from which I address issues of healing the earth, seeking social justice, encouraging a rhythm of Free Time against overwork — is the stance of a spiritually renewed and renewing Judaism, a tree fed by the universal Breath of Life.

That universal Breath teaches --

That life is interwoven, that all communities and life-forms can be valued organs within the body of life, each organ different from the others as the heart and liver and brain differ while all are parts of a sacred whole.

That self-restraint by each center of power -- not negating its own value but not domineering over others -- is crucial.