The Shalom Center - Earth

From UnKosher Postville to a Decent Society

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:23:26 -0400

Kosher, Eco-Kosher, & Beyond:
From UnKosher Postville to a Decent Society

By Arthur Waskoiw

Dear friends,

My letter two weeks ago, called "Unkosher meat, unkosher politics" addressed the oppression of humans and animals at the allegedly kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, by both the plant owners (Rubashkin family) and the Federal government, which jailed hundreds of its undocumented workers while ignoring the crimes of the owners.. (If you missed it, see –
http://www.shalomctr.org/node/1412 )

We urged our readers to write public letters to editors pressing the US government to stop charging undocumented workers with crimes, and start dealing with the far worse crimes of the plant owners. Our mailing has drawn a great many responses, a few of which we will share –- see below.

Toward a Jubilee Economy & Ecology in the Modern World

Mon, 12 May 2008 12:38:58 -0400

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

[This essay is a chapter in Rabbi Waskow's book Godwrestling -- Round 2 (Jewish Lights, 1996). The book is available as a free gift from The Shalom Center, personally inscribed by Rabbi Waskow as you choose, if you use the Donate Now button on the right to make a tax-deductible contribution of $180 or more.

[At the end of this essay you will find citations on teachings from the Hebrew Bible & related materials toward a Jubilee Economics and Ecologics.]::

One lesson that we have discerned from studying the story of the Flood [see a previous chapter from Godwrestling -- Round 2] is that it is profoundly necessary for us to affirm and celebrate the cycles of life if we wish to preserve the cycles of life. Are those cycles now in danger? And if so, how can we affirm them?

The Spirituality of the Future by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

Fri, 09 May 2008 04:34:34 -0400

Toward a New and Kerygmatic Credo
Zalman M. Schachter Shalomi

Chair of World Wisdom;
The Naropa Institute
Boulder CO.

This essay is a plea for research into the spirituality of the future and invitation for collaboration to bring this about.

Much of my perspective is based on my devotion to the Ribbono shel Olam, the divine Life-Spirit of Gaia. I come from a deeply spiritual Jewish formation in which the values of Tikkun Olam (Healing the planet) and the biblical command of Bal Tash’hit (not to destroy any natural resources) are an essential and constant feature.

In some ways I am on one foot, one of the last Mohicans of pre-holocaust Jewish mysticism and on the other foot I stand on concern with our future. Not only the future of our Jewish people and the continuity of its tradition and lineage but with the global future, our survival as humans on their way to the Great and divinizing metamorphosis.

TORAH OF THE EARTH FOR ADDRESSING PUBLIC POLICY

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 11:45:33 -0400

(Notes by Rabbi Arthur Waskow, The Shalom Center)

These passages, with telegraphic divrei Torah, can help you root earth-healing policy talks and writing in Torah:

1. Creation: Humans are "adam," coming forth from earth, "adamah." The two are forever intertwined. (Gen 2:7)

2. Garden of Eden: God (Reality) provides extraordinary abundance ("Of every tree of the garden you may eat"); but we must show some self-restraint in using it ("Of the one tree in the midst of the garden, do not eat"). Gobbling up all that abundance brings disaster: The earth gives forth only thorns and thistles, humans have to toil with the sweat pouring down their faces to survive. (Gen. 2: 8-17)

MLK, LBJ, & GRASS-ROOTS CHANGE: PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS THROUGH SPIRITUAL EYES

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 08:48:58 -0400

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

In the present Presidential campaign, suddenly the question has arisen whether Martin Luther King or Lyndon Baines Johnson was more responsible for passage of the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960s.

I was there, folks: working on Capitol Hill and then in the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive research/action center. And the answer is – both MLK and LBJ were responsible – AND one might add with some exaggeration, NEITHER. .

The "NEITHER" part -- even though I'm overstating it -- is the most important. The people MOST responsible were, in the beginning, dozens, then hundreds, finally thousands and hundreds of thousands – of grass-roots activists.

Declaring Interdependence:Renewing the 4th of July

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:15:34 -0400

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, 7/28/2004

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for the peoples of the earth —
to declare our interdependence with each other and with all the life-forms of the planet,
and our independence from efforts by the most powerful and most reckless among the national governments to create a new and global Empire;

Then a decent respect to the opinions of Humanity requires that we declare the causes that impel us to rise beyond the present Powers of the earth and to embody our planetary community in new social, political, and economic forms.

We hold these truths to be self-evident:

Communal Sukkot Celebration: Reconnecting with the Earth

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:27:43 -0400

Rose Kowel, Nicole Luna, Lauren Pack
Course on Eco-Judaism, Hebrew Union College, NYC
(Rabbi Arthur Waskow)
Festival Project: June 17, 2008

1. Decorating the sukkah/area with quotes, sustainable decorating alternatives for the children

Decorating options/resources to have available for kids : squash stamps, water soluable paints, recycled paper for paper chains.

For Sukkot quotes: See Appendix 1

2. Topic intro and local vegetarian buffet

The leader will lead the Hamotzi and introduce it by explaining that this prayer thanks God for not only the product (bread) but also the origins and the process that goes into our food.

SHAVUOT: RECONNECTING TO THE LAND AND ITS PRODUCE: A CONFIRMATION CURRICULUM

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:12:53 -0400

Heather Borshof, Emma Gottlieb & Ariana Silverman
Project for course on Eco-Judaism
Hebrew Union College, NYC, June 2008
(Rabbi Arthur Waskow)

SHAVUOT: RECONNECTING TO THE LAND AND ITS PRODUCE:
A CONFIRMATION CURRICULUM

DESCRIPTION OF OVERALL CURRICULUM:
This is a Confirmation/Shavuot curriculum consisting of five parts:

1) A text study on the Book of Ruth (see Appendix A)
2) Planning a dish to prepare for Erev Shavuot following Confirmation/Shavuot services
3) A site visit to trace one ingredient of that dish to its source (See Appendix B)
4) Further research and a 10 minute presentation to the class (See Appendix C)

Earth & Torah: Rabbi Waskow's books on Eco-Judaism

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:10:56 -0500

Many of Rabbi Arthur Waskow's books deal with the teachings of Judaism about healing and celebrating the earth.

All are available from The Shalom Center:

Down-to-Earth Judaism: Food, Money, Sex, and the Rest of Life. How Judaism has dealt with these everyday issues and their relationship to the earth through all the changing eras of Jewish history. $11.00

Seasons of Our Joy. The festivals seen as a spiritual journey through the year, drawing on the dance of sun, moon, and earth that is encoded in them. $18.00

Trees, Earth, & Torah: A Tu B'Shvat Anthology. Anthology of what Judaism has said about trees and the celebration of their rebirth, from the Garden of Eden through rabbinic teachings through the Kabbalah through Zionism through modern eco-Jewish teachings. $22.00

When Abraham Sees God in Oak Trees

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 07:30:40 -0400

When Abraham Sees God in Oak Trees

Dear Friends,

The Torah portion Vayeira (Gen. 18:1 through 22: 24) itakes its name" from its first word. This word is usually translated "appeared," but it comes from the root for "see," and the same root appears in a different form right afterwards.

The second word is "YHWH." That is usually translated "the Lord," but since this sacred unpronounceable Name with no vowels can only be "pronounced" by breathing --- "Yyyyhhhhwwwwhhhh" - I translate it as "the Breath of Life" or "the Wind/ Breath/ Spirit of the world."

The first sentence says "YHWH brought-about-being-SEEN to [Abraham] in [b'] the oaks of Mamre."

The Eclipse of Wonder: Abraham Joshua Heschel and Our Ecological Crisis

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:45:03 -0400

A sermon for Kol Nidre 5768
By Rabbi Burt Jacobson

My fiancé Diane and I set aside the last Sunday in July as a day to spend together. Our plan was to drive to Marin County, and to hike on Mt. Tamalpais. It was a lovely sun-drenched morning. After I woke up, meditated and prayed, and had eaten my breakfast, I turned my cell phone on. There was a message from my brother Stuart who, with his wife Jean, were vacationing in Colorado, staying in a cabin in the mountains.

"Hi! Just calling to say I love you. This morning I was sitting on the porch looking out over the valley a few hundred feet below, and a butterfly came up and landed on my hand. I watched as the butterfly scoped out my hand with his tongue -- for about two to three minutes. Then, it flew away. Within seconds a bee flew up to me, about two feet away and, hanging in the air, wings flapping in a blur, directly facing me, looked at me for a minute or longer, turned maybe 150 degrees and looked into the window of our cabin for another minute or so, turned back to me for another minute or two and then flew off. Well, I love you. Take care . . ."

Eco-Kashrut Has Everything to Do With the Healing of the Earth

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 06:56:26 -0400

Philadelphia Jewish EXPONENT
September 13, 2007

- Bryan Schwartzman, Staff Writer

Pushing for reductions in fossil-fuel emissions and trying to reverse the global-warming trend nationally and throughout the world may make perfect sense, but what on earth do energy-policy goals have to do with Judaism?

That question was posed to Rabbi Arthur Waskow -- who's written several books that examine how Judaism and the environment intersect -- after he'd delivered a recent talk on the subject at Congregation Kol Ami in Elkins Park.

His answer? Everything!

The founder of the Philadelphia-based Shalom Center replied that, first of all, a concern for stewardship over the earth is rooted in Judaism's biblical tradition, and is, in fact, a central component of it.

What Is Eco-Kosher?

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 10:51:59 -0400

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow, from his book DOWN-TO-EARTH JUDAISM: FOOD, MONEY, SEX, & THE REST OF LIFE (Morrow).

By looking at Jewish approaches to food from the Biblical era to the modern age, we have brought ourselves to the edges of the present. If now we want to get a glimpse of possible futures for Jewish attitudes toward food, let us begin with four unconventional questions:
1. Are tomatoes grown by drenching the earth in pesticides "kosher" to eat, at home or at the synagogue's next wedding reception?
2. Is newsprint made by chopping down an ancient and irreplaceable forest "kosher" to use for a Jewish newspaper?

THE KOSHER PATHWAY: FOOD AS GOD-CONNECTION IN THE LIFE OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE

Sun, 27 May 2007 23:23:34 -0400

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow *

The adventure of the Jewish people with the sacredness of food began when the People of Israel -- as an indigenous community in its own land -- defined the most important way of connecting with God as the offering to God of the foods of that land in sacred shrines.

The Hebrew usually translated as "sacrifice" or "offering" is korban, which literally means "what is brought near." A word from the same root means "innards," and the korban was what brought God near to the most inward part of the human body.

The foods that thus brought God as near as physically/ spiritually possible included not only beef and mutton but also barley, wheat, leavened and unleavened bread, pancakes, olive oil, various fruits, wine, and water.

RAINBOW SIGN: Learning from the Story of the Flood

Fri, 04 May 2007 07:36:48 -0400

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

[This essay is Chapter XVII of the book GODWRESTLING -- ROUND 2 (Jewish Lights). For copies of the whole book at a discounted price, write Office@shalomctr.org ]

‘ What is the relationship between the Jewish family and the two broader families within which it is nestled: the human race and our web of living earth? How should the Jewish people address questions that do not uniquely affect Jews, but arise within the broader planetary life?

One such issue arose late in the 1970s. It was, you might say, the most universal question imaginable: the possible death of the entire human race. Yet for many Jews it seemed to echo their own most terrible, unique experience.