GREEN MENORAH COVENANT (on climate crisis)

VOTING OUR VALUES
Judaism & American Life
“To be is to stand for.”
—Abraham Joshua Heschel
RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION:
A JEWISH CALL FOR JUSTICE

Judaism & American Life
Elections offer us the opportunity to reflect upon, and
to recommit ourselves to, our core values. This Jewish
non-partisan election guide is intended as catalyst for
thought and action during the 2008 election season.

The guide includes seven topics that the Righteous
Indignation staff has identified as key election issues
based on our research and in consultation with religious
and political leaders across the country. In addition, the

By Arlene Goldbard & Rabbi Arthur Waskow
[Goldbard is a writer and expert on cultural change and is chair of the Board of the Shalom Center; Waskow is its Executive Director.]

In every generation, Pharaoh;
In every generation, Freedom

INTRODUCTION

The Shalom Center will hold a Fortieth Anniversary Interfaith Freedom Seder on March 29, 2009, ten days before Passover, two weeks before Easter, and less than a week before the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's death, infusing each of these events with new energy and depth.

A flagship Seder in Washington, DC, will draw national attention to the project, highlighting the many local Fortieth Anniversary Freedom Seders held simultaneously in communities around the U.S., uniting people of all faiths and races who love justice in a common dedication to equality, to a fair and humane economy and to peace.

On Sunday, November 23, at Central Synagogue in New York City, The Shalom Center, Jewish Currents, and Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring invite YOU to take part in a one-day action gathering: Jews Uniting to End the War & Heal America: Organizing for Action.

And please send this invitation to your friends.

Speakers and workshop leaders will include Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, Rabbi David Saperstein of the Religious Action Center in Washington, Rabbi Peter Knobel, president of the Reform rabbinical association, former Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman, Sammie Moshenberg of the National Council of Jewish Women, Leslie Cagan of United for Peace and Justice, Jeremy Ben-Ami of J Street --- - and many other luminaries of the newest and oldest generations of activist Jews. (See the day's schedule, below.)

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Early in the morning of April 8, 2009, Jewish communities will have a teaching opportunity that comes only once every 28 years: the festival of Birchat HaChamah, the Blessing of the Sun.

In ancient rabbinic tradition, it commemorates the moment when God created the sun in the first place. In modern practice, it fits well into today's crisis of global "scorching" and the search for sun-based sources of sustainable and renewable energy. So spiritual communities other than Judaism might well join in blessing the sun on that day -- and during the months before and after.

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow *

Early in the morning of April 8, 1981, I gathered with several hundred other people at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC, to watch the sun rise and to bless it in what is surely the rarest and perhaps the oddest of all Jewish ceremonies -- Birchat HaChamah, the Blessing of the Sun, that comes only once every 28 years. It commemorates, according to ancient tradition, the moment when God created the sun in the first place.

And the moment will come again less than a year from now, on April 8, 2009. (The morning of the day before the first night of Passover.)

(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)

The Exodus from Pharaoh's tyranny, the Passover Seder that recalls it, and the Haggadah ("Telling") that guides the Seder are at the heart of Judaism and Jewish peoplehood. So it is not surprising that efforts to renew Judaism have, beginning in 1969, created a number of new Passover Seder rituals that are deliberately focused on healing some aspect of the wounded world.

Some remain available for those who are seeking to shape their own Haggadot and want to draw on them. (This not only includes Jews with a creative outlook on their own tradition, but increasing numbers of people from other spiritual paths who find some wisdom and empowerment in the Seder.)

Dear Chevra,

It is the third day of the moonth of Nisan. We have just opened our eyes to the glimmer of the new moon, birthing the
moonth when -- in two weeks, at the full moon -- we not only remember and
reenact the ancient liberation from the top-down, unaccountable power of
Pharaoh, but take responsibility to free ourselves as well. All of us, all
earth and all humanity.

As the Passover Haggadah says, "In every generation, every human being must
go forth to freedom."

This year, Passover begins the night of April 19 and includes Earth Day on
April 22. And today, the greatest danger of destructive plagues comes from

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow *

[This essay includes some action steps you could choose to undertake as part of your Tu B'Shvat/ Birthday of the Trees celebration, or could undertake independently. Two sample letters on public policy are at the end of this essay.]

Wouldn't it seem strange if you heard that mystics had transformed April 15, Income Tax Day, into a festival for celebration of God's reemergence?

Yet that is what the Kabbalists of Safed did in the sixteenth century when they recreated Tu B’Shvat. Tu B’Shvat, the full moon of mid-winter, had been important only in Holy Temple days, in the calendar of tithing. It was the end of the “fiscal year” for trees. Fruit that appeared before that date was taxed for the previous year; fruit that appeared later, for the following year.

Last week I suggested that we plan actions on Tu B'Shvat, the Jewish midwinter festival of the rebirth of trees (and of the earth in general) , to address the recent destructive actions by the director of the Environmental Protection Agency.

He stopped efforts by the states to curb CO2 emissions from autos and thus reduce the danger we are facing from the global climate crisis.

A number of letters have come to us, supporting the idea. This letter suggests ways of carrying the message to EPA offices in eleven cities across America.

Religious Background: Monday, January 21, is the official day for celebration of Martin Luther King's birthday. At about 4:30 that afternoon begins the celebration of Tu B'Shvat. (The day before is exactly one year before the inauguration of the next President of the United States.)