Oiloholic Uncle Sam & Global Scorching
Burning and Yearning: Hiroshima & the Ancient Holy Temples
Addressing global militarism & world empire | Oiloholic Uncle Sam & Global Scorching | Tisha B'AvEach hot mid-summer, we see again how Jewish theology and practice is one (not the only) microcosm for universal experience.
In this case, it is our sorrow for our burning earth, for our own hearts burning with acts of personal and social self-destruction -- and our yearning for new hope and transformation. (See two litanies of sorrow and yearning, below.)
In mid-summer, when scorching winds heated by the Arabian desert sweep across what today are Jordan, Palestine, and Israel, Jewish tradition observes a day of sorrow for the Destruction –- the burning -- of both ancient Holy Temples in Jerusalem, first by the Babylonian and then by the Roman Empire.
Blessing the Sun: Looking Forward: April 8, 2009
GREEN MENORAH COVENANT (on climate crisis) | Oiloholic Uncle Sam & Global Scorching | Festival SpiralBy 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.
Blessing the sun: looking backward: April 8, 1981
GREEN MENORAH COVENANT (on climate crisis) | Oiloholic Uncle Sam & Global Scorching | Festival SpiralBy 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.)
The Green Menorah Covenant
GREEN MENORAH COVENANT (on climate crisis) | What You Can Do | Hanukkah | Oiloholic Uncle Sam & Global ScorchingWhat 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.
American Energy Policy, Asleep at the Spigot
Globalization and Economic Justice | Oiloholic Uncle Sam & Global ScorchingBy NELSON D. SCHWARTZ
New York Times: July 6, 2008
JUST three years ago, with oil trading at a seemingly frothy $66 a barrel, David J. O’Reilly made what many experts considered a risky bet. Outmaneuvering Chinese bidders and ignoring critics who said he overpaid, Mr. O’Reilly, the chief executive of Chevron, forked over $18 billion to buy Unocal, a giant whose riches date back to oil fields made famous in the film “There Will Be Blood.”
For Chevron, the deal proved to be a movie-worthy gusher, helping its profits to soar. And while he has warned about tightening energy supplies for years and looks prescient for buying Unocal, even Mr. O’Reilly says that he still can’t get his head around current oil prices, which closed above $145 a barrel on Thursday, a record.
Oil, War & the Military
Addressing global militarism & world empire | Oiloholic Uncle Sam & Global ScorchingGarrisoning the Global Gas Station Challenging the
Militarization of U.S. Energy Policy
By Michael T. Klare
American policymakers have long viewed the protection
of overseas oil supplies as an essential matter of
"national security," requiring the threat of -- and
sometimes the use of -- military force. This is now an
unquestioned part of American foreign policy.
On this basis, the first Bush administration fought a
war against Iraq in 1990-1991 and the second Bush
administration invaded Iraq in 2003. With global oil
prices soaring and oil reserves expected to dwindle in
the years ahead, military force is sure to be seen by
JEWS CHALLENGE ENVIRONMENTAL "PROTECTION" AGENCY WITH TREES FOR LIFE
GREEN MENORAH COVENANT (on climate crisis) | Oiloholic Uncle Sam & Global Scorching | Tu B'ShvatReport by: Rabbi Jeff Sultar, director
Green Menorah Campaign of The Shalom Center
215/438-2983
In response to The Shalom Center's call for the Environmental Protection Agency to live up to its middle name, Jewish groups brought living trees to regional EPA offices in New York City and Philadelphia on January 21, the trees' Rebirthing Day in Jewish tradition.
(You can use and modify the model letters at the end of this post to join in the protest.)
The protest was well covered by the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent. For article and photoi, see --
http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/15130/
Al Gore, the Presidency, & Grass-roots Change
GREEN MENORAH COVENANT (on climate crisis) | Oiloholic Uncle Sam & Global ScorchingGore's moral obligation
Why Al Gore isn't running for president
This guest essay comes from Mark Hertsgaard, a fellow of The Nation Institute and author of five books that have been translated into 16 languages. His next book is called Living Through the Storm: Surviving Our Future Under Global Warming.
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As Hillary, Obama, and Edwards continue to slug it out in the early primary states, one name is conspicuously absent among the Democratic candidates to become the next president of the United States. Where is Al Gore? The man who received more votes than George W. Bush did in 2000, who served eight years as Bill Clinton's vice president, and whose climate change evangelism has been rewarded with an Oscar and Nobel Peace Prize has resolutely refused to enter the race, even though he might well have won it.
EPA blocks California bid to limit greenhouse gases from cars
GREEN MENORAH COVENANT (on climate crisis) | Oiloholic Uncle Sam & Global ScorchingSan Francisco Chronicle
By Zachary Coile, Bob Egelko,Matthew Yi
The Bush administration blocked efforts by California and 16 other states Wednesday to limit greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks, setting up a political and legal fight over whether states can take a lead role in combatting global warming.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson rejected California's request for a waiver from the federal government to impose its tough tailpipe emissions standards. The other states were poised to adopt similar rules if California's request was granted.
The states represent nearly half the U.S. population, and their laws would effectively require automakers to cut greenhouse gas emissions nationwide, despite President Bush's rejection of mandatory national standards.
The Prophetic Green Menorah
GREEN MENORAH COVENANT (on climate crisis) | 19. TERUMA | 22. VA'YYAK'HEYL | 36. BEHA'ALOTEKHA | Hanukkah | Oiloholic Uncle Sam & Global ScorchingBy Rabbi Arthur Waskow *
On Shabbat Hanukkah, we read the passage from the Prophet Zechariah that envisions the future Great Menorah, taking its sacred place in a rebuilt Holy Temple after the Babylonian Captivity. (We read the same Haftarah for Shabbat Behaalotekha.)
Zechariah, in visionary, prophetic style, goes beyond the Torah's description of the original Menorah (literally, a Light-bearer). That Menorah was planned as part of the portable Shrine, the Mishkan, in the Wilderness.
First Zechariah describes the Menorah of the future that he sees: "All of gold, with a bowl on its top, seven lamps, and seven pipes leading to the seven lamps." It sounds like the original bearer of the sacred Light. But then he adds a new detail: "By it are two olive trees, one on the right of the bowl and one on the left." (4: 2-3)
