These past few weeks, an ancient and a modern tale of bitter, poisonous waters suddenly rang together as an alarm and an awakening. Right now: We have been learning about the horrifying and disgusting behavior of the government of Michigan, turning off the pipes bringing pure water from Lake Huron to the mostly Black citizens of the city of Flint and instead sending poisonous waters to Flint. (The Governor, Rick Snyder, is no Tea Party type, but a fairly typical "establishment" Republican businessman  -- anti-labor, anti-choice for women, anti-Syrian-refugees, and contemptuous of pleas from the Black folks of Flint to end the poisoning of their children.) So the bitter waters came:  Waters that stank and were colored brown and green, waters that caused rashes and boils to spring up on the skins of those who had to drink it.  Waters infused with lead, which is well-known to permanently and irreversibly damage the brains of young children.  Long long ago: The age-old Torah telling that we read this past Shabbat was the story of how ancient Israel crossed the Red Sea while Pharaoh’s power dissolved and his army drowned there.  Just a few days later, according to the story, they protested because they had no water fit to drink.  What connects these two events?  On February 25, 1964, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, soon to become a friend and political comrade

When Gloria Steinem and I celebrated turning 80 together, at the gathering The Shalom Center sponsored she said something that has stuck with me these two years and more: “Our whole society right now is living at the moment when an abused wife walks out the door. It is the moment of greatest danger, because an abusive husband may respond with extreme violence – even murder. It is also the moment of greatest possibility: In a battered women’s shelter or other forms of community, she can create both safety and her own freedom.” Today , many abused communities have walked out the door: --

• The Black Lives Matter movement has broken “the rules” of apathy toward police violence, and on many campuses the students have also broken “the rules” of silence toward softer forms of racism.
• Women and GLBTQ people are refusing to stay “in their place”: they are breaking the silence about rape, and trans-gender reality has surfaced.
• Young undocumented immigrants defy the law by creating the Dream movement.
• Muslims who had lived invisibly in America are challenging Islamophobic arsons against mosques

Ancient Torah: “You shall not turn over to his master a slave who seeks refuge with you from his master. He shall live with you in any place he may choose, among the settlements in your midst, wherever he chooses. You must not oppress him.”  (Deut. 23:16-17.) Modern Torah: "New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" As our Festivals of Light approach in this season of darkness,  we can light every light from this Lamp of Liberty. 1.  Jewish congregations can this Hanukkah (from the night of December 6 through the night of December 13) invite Christians and Muslims to share in kindling the Light of Liberty.  2. We can all make our Lady Liberty the symbol of a new commitment to welcome the persecuted. Copy the photograph above with these words that accompany it; share them with your friends, pin them on your doors, send them through the Internet.  3. We can commit one morning of Hanukkah to call the US Capitol at 202/244-3121, ask for each of our own two  Senators, and urge them to reject these odious attacks that pretend to be attacking refugees, or immigrants, or Muslims – but are really attacking America the Beautiful -- “O beautiful for patriots’ dream that sees beyond the years/ Thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears!” Hanukkah reminds us: We can free ourselves from tyrannies today, making ourselves nonviolent Maccabees. Hanukkah reminds us: We can make one day's oil fulfill the needs of eight days' worth of living, instead of so recklessly burning oil that its fumes burn up the Earth, our common home.  Hanukkah reminds us: there is a connection between trampling on "outsiders" and choking off the air that breathes all life. Hanukkah reminds us: there is a connection between nurturing the tender shoots of freedom and nurturing the endangered seeds of Earth. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ For me this is a deeply personal issue, as well as a profoundly public one. On Sunday afternoon December 6, just before the first night of Hanukkah, my beloved life-partner, co-author, co-teacher, co-learner Rabbi Phyllis Berman will be celebrating her retirement from 36 years as founder-director of a unique school for refugees and immigrants. (If you want to join in that celebration and/ or support the school, click to-- http://riversidelanguageprogram.org/changing-of-the-guard.html ) All those years, I have heard and seen her work to teach the English that makes it possible

[This  is a paper I gave for a gathering of about 36 eco-Jewish activists from the USA, Europe, and Israel. The meeting focused on planning toward the next Sabbatical/ Shmita Year seven years from now, when the Earth is entitled to a time of restfulness from human exploitation. The meeting, sponsored by Siach, Hazon, and the Heschel Institute, was held in Jerusalem  from November 3-5, 2015, in the Mishkenot Sha-ananim cultural center, in the shadow of the Windmill that Moses Montefiore paid for in 1857, to provide energy for the first modern settlement of Jews outside the Old City of Jerusalem. [For me, this Windmill as an energy source spoke as a reality and symbol of past Jewish creativity. It points toward the future of Jewish and multireligious creativity in working with the Ruach Ha'Olam -- the Breath, Wind, Spirit of the world -- to support the emplacement of many myriads of wind turbines to heal our planet fom the climate crisis of global scorching. To see the attached graphic of those turbines suffused by the Rainbow, click on the title of gthos article.  The Raiinbow is our symbol of determination that the Earth will not be consumed by a Flood of Fire,  will not be scorched by the burning of fossil fuels. The paper notes seven assertions about the present -- we  hold these truths to be affirmed by powerful evidence  -- and seven proposals for action to move us closer to a Sabbatical/ Shmita that can actually heal the Earth.--  AW] Seven Thoughts: Where We Are Now

1. The climate crisis is the greatest danger to face the human species since our emergence, and the greatest danger to the whole present web of life on the planet. 

2. Because Torah is rooted in an indigenous people of shepherds and farmers in close and sacred relationship with the Earth, the Jewish peopl has an extraordinary treasury of wisdom and tools to deal with that danger (e.g., Earth-related  festivals;

How does the American Jewish community make a decision on an issue that is crucial to our own future and the fate of the world around us -- like the decision that faces us now about making sure that Iran adheres to its own claim that it does not intend to produce nuclear weapons?

 To bring a specifically Jewish wisdom to this process, we could draw on the deep, ancient, and evolving wisdom of Torah, reading it anew in the light of the circumstances in which we find ourselves today.

 The passage of Torah that leaps out as most relevant is Deuteronomy  20:10-11. It teaches that if and when we besiege a city (which is what the sanctions against Iran have been), we must proclaim SHALOM to it, and if it then agrees to decent terms that meet our conditions and fulfill our crucial needs, we must make sure it adheres to them and we must end the siege.

That is what the proposed agreement with Iran does.

It does this by requiring Iran to abandon all the physical objects and scientific processes that could lead to nuclear weapons, and to subject itself to unprecedented intrusive inspections to make sure it is adhering to that regimen. It makes sure that if Iran’s government were to change its mind, decide to go nuclear, and expel inspectors, the world would have at least a year to take action before Iran could make a nuclear weapon.

[See the point-by-point analysis of the agreement by clicking to   <https://theshalomcenter.org/content/iran-agreement-facts-point-point>]

Yet we must test the Torah teaching against our present situation. In this case, what is an alternative approach that would make sure Iran cannot develop nuclear weapons?

The same Torah passage that counsels proclaiming Shalom to a besieged city and bending it to our own will sees that the alternative to agreement would be an utterly destructive war.

And in our present situation, that expectation seems correct.  If the Congress were to torpedo this agreement, the world-wide regimen of sanctions against Iran would almost certainly