The Shalom Center - Lifetime Spiral

YOM HASHOAH: MOURNERS' KADDISH IN TIME OF WAR AND VIOLENCE

Thu, 01 May 2008 23:19:33 -0400

May 1, 2008 is Yom HaShoah (the Day of Remembrance of the Nazi Holocaust), observed one day earlier in the Jewish calendar than usual, because of not wanting to observe it on Friday as Shabbat is coming into the world.

It seems especially fitting to use as the Mourners Kaddish for today a rendition in Aramaic, Hebrew, and English of the MOURNERS' KADDISH IN TIME OF WAR AND VIOLENCE that we at The Shalom Center have developed.(See three paragraphs below). Though it is of course a Jewish prayer, we offer the interpretive English translation below, in the hope it may be spiritually helpful for many people of many other traditions as well.

Responding in Prayer & Practice to Same-Sex Marriages

Sat, 18 Aug 2007 07:13:54 -0400

Rabbi Phyllis Berman & Rabbi Arthur Waskow, 8/5/2003

The two of us, sometimes separately and sometimes together, officiate at a very few marriages each year — some of them same-sex marriages. We have worked out a number of practices we recommend or to or require of the couples, and for same-sex marriages these need some special emendations. The three most important are below:

A. For all marriages, we require tennai kedushin ["conditions" or addenda to the ketubah, the wedding contract] that contractually commit the couple to giving & receiving gittin (Jewish divorce agreements] if the marriage ends. (We have these signed on the wedding day just before the other part of the ketubah they have worked out.) For hetero couples, the tennaiim specify this be done within 30 days of a civil divorce. But for gay couples, this is so far mostly unworkable. So —

This is the text of the addendum [tennaim] to the Ketubah that we have worked out to act as nearly as possible in analogy to the language we use for tennaim providing for a gett after a civil divorce.

New Curriculum & Ceremony for Teens on Climate Crisis : ELIJAH'S COVENANT BETWEEN THE GENERATIONS

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:49:53 -0400

The Shalom Center has published a curriculum and ceremony for Bar/ Bat Mitzvah and confirmation-age youth and families, on how the younger and older generations can work together to heal the earth from the dangers of global climate crisis. Below you will find testimonials about it from leaders of Jewish education and action. Below that you will find a coupon for ordering copies of the 60-page "Elijah's Covenant Between The Generations," and below that the Introduction by Rabbis Arthur Waskow and Jeff Sultar.

"Elijah's Covenant" [Brit Eliyahu] looks like an exciting and creative educational venture. Congratulations to the Shalom Center for this positive contribution toward raising environmental awareness among Jewish young people."

THE SONG OF SONGS AS A SACRED RECIPE: LOVE, "CHAROSET" & THE LIBERATION OF THE WORLD

Sat, 18 Aug 2007 07:14:51 -0400

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow *

We are going to approach this subject –- sacred food –- the way you approach a sacred temple: first the outskirts, where you may know the structure already, from afar; then some unexpected beauties in an anteroom; finally, an inner Mystery revealed not to your eyes but to your lips and tongue.

The inner mystery is the dish called charoset. Keep seeking till you find her!

In Jewish tradition, eating food is a sacred act – and there are a series of concentric circles in which the intensity of the attention paid to food and the sacredness felt in food increases.

ELIJAH'S COVENANT TO HEAL THE EARTH: BETWEEN THE GENERATIONS AT BAR/BAT MITZVAH TIME

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 12:31:59 -0400

ELIJAH'S COVENANT:
BETWEEN THE GENERATIONS
AT BAR/BAT MITZVAH/ CONFIRMATION TIME

[This practice was developed by the "Beyond Oil" project of The Shalom Center.)

Immediately after the completion of the Bat/Bar Mitzvah aliyah and the return of the new bat/bar mitzvah to her/his seat in the congregation, the rabbi, chazan, or other congregational leader asks everyone under 13 to walk up to the front of the congregation and to turn and face those who are 13 or older.

Then the leader says: "At the very end of the books of the prophets, Malachi (3: 23-24) says on behalf of God: "Here! -- I will send you Elijah the Prophet before the coming of that great and awesome [fearful] day of YHWH [the Lord, the Eternal, the Breath of Life, Yahh], so that he will turn the hearts of the parents to the children and the hearts of the children to the parents, lest I come and strike the earth with utter destruction." -- "Hinei! -- Anokhi sholayakh lachem et-Eliyah haNavi lifnei bo yom YHWH hagadol v'ha'nora. V'heyshiv lev avot al banim v'lev banim al avotam pen avo v'hikeiti et-haaretz cherem."

MOURNERS' KADDISH IN TIME OF WAR & VIOLENCE

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 06:07:34 -0400

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MOURNERS' KADDISH IN TIME OF WAR

[Jews use the Kaddish to mourn the dead, though it has in it only one word -- "nechamata, consolations" – which hints at mourning. (And this word itself is used in a puzzling way, once we look at it with care. As we will see below, it may be especially appropriate in time of war.)

[The interpretive English translation below may also be appropriate for prayers of mourning and hope in wartime by other spiritual and religious communities.

[In this version, changes in the traditional last line of the Hebrew text specifically include not only peace for the people Israel (as in the traditional version) but also for the children of Abraham and Hagar through Ishmael (Arabs and Muslims) and for all who dwell on this planet.

Reb Zalman's Tennai Kiddushin (Conditions before Marriage)

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 07:27:22 -0400

By Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

T'nai Kiddushin.
Conditions of Kiddushin and Nissu'in

[This document, intended to be adopted in both Hebrew and English at an impending wedding before acceptance of the ketubah, is an attempt in the context of traditional rabbinic halacha to prevent the danger that even though a marriage has in fact and ethics ended, one of the couple might remain unable under traditional Jewish law to be freed from the marriage so as to be able to remarry. It does this by providing that under certain conditions, the marriage will be deemed null and void from the start. (This has no effect on the status of children. -- AW]

A NEW "COVENANT OF THE HEART" (NAMING) CEREMONY FOR JEWISH WOMEN

Sat, 05 Nov 2005 14:55:44 -0500

Hope (Hadassah) Pracht, 6/29/2005

Jewish women - come now and gather under a new banner, a Naming Ceremony that will no longer "play second fiddle" to the entrance rite of Jewish men. This ceremony which I will elaborate on further by Scriptural bases, midrash and liturgy, is called "The Covenant of the Heart for Jewish Women". We women can realize that we were not home doing dishes and laundry at Sinai, we were there with the men at the foot of the mountain, and we still are , as Jewish feminine writers have said. From this realization, we women can create new liturgy and revivify old practices - as I show below.

"The Light of the Moon and the Sun": A Wedding Poem

Fri, 24 Jun 2005 01:00:00 -0400

Joel Rosenberg, 6/24/2005

This wedding poem was written by Joel Rosenberg for the wedding of Arthur Waskow and Phyllis Berman in 1986. They were married on a day that was both the summer solstice (June 22) and a full moon (15 Sivan) and so in a mome

Exploring "Shalom" with Teachers from The Shalom Center

Wed, 25 Aug 2004 01:00:00 -0400

Rabbis Berman & Waskow; National Organizer Lenchner, 8/25/2004

Rabbi Phyllis Berman and Rabbi Arthur Waskow have been leading prayer services and teaching in both mulltireligious gatherings (e.g. conferences called by Jobs with Justice, the Religiou

Bitzvah Time, Green Ribbons, and Elijah

Wed, 14 Apr 2004 01:00:00 -0400

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, 4/14/2004

On the Shabbat immediately before Passover, we traditionally read the last passage of the last of the Prophets, Malachi, that ends:

"Before the coming of the great and awesome day of YHWH [Yahh, the Breathing Spirit o

Broken Glass

Wed, 14 Apr 2004 01:00:00 -0400

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, 4/14/2004

Dear Chevra,

I've got a "practice report" and then a question.

When Phyllis and/or I act as m'sadrim kiddushin for any couple, hetero or same-sex, we take the opportunity of the traditional breaking-of-the-glass at t

Light Old & New on Same-Sex Marriage

Mon, 17 Oct 2005 23:18:42 -0400

Rabbi Arthur Waskow 2/12/2004

Dear friends,

As the issue of same-sex marriage heats up, you may find you can bring more light into the discussion by drawing on old and new Jewish approaches to the theology and practice of sexual ethics.

Blessed Is She Who Comes: A Birth-Covenant Ceremony for Girls

Sat, 05 Nov 2005 10:41:15 -0500

David F. Waskow and Ketura Persellin, 2/4/2004

Please download "Blessed is She Who Comes: A Birth-Covenant Ceremony for Girls" in PDF form via the link below.

Pre-marital Counseling for Same-sex Couples: Highlights for Rabbis and Cantors

Sat, 08 Sep 2001 21:46:40 -0400

Rabbi Nancy H. Wiener

Pre-marital Counseling for Same-sex Couples:
Highlights for Rabbis and Cantors

By Rabbi Nancy H. Wiener, D Min.

In 1991, my life partner and I asked our dear friend, a rabbi, to help us prepare fo