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If We Do (or Don't) Allow the Earth to Rest --

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

[Originally posted Jan 2, 2005; revised May 18, 2014]

If we do not follow the pattern of seventh-year and fiftieth-year rest for the land and suspension of social hierarchies that is commanded in Leviticus 25, the Earth will rest anyway — on our heads!  It will rest through famine, drought, exile.

The Torah follows up on the commands in Leviticus 25 with warnings in Lev 26: 33-35 and 43-44, in the Torah portion called "B'Chukkotai" : For as many restful Shabbat Shabbaton years that human exploitation denied the earth, so many years will the earth "rest" through disaster.

 And at the very end of the Tanakh (the Hebrew Scriptures ) II Chronicles 36: 20-21 claims that this is exactly what happened — that the people lived in the Babylonian Exile as many years as they had prevented the land from making Shabbat:

Rabbinic Call: Move Our Money to Protect Our Planet

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

There are now more than 100 signers --  a minyan of minyanim of Rabbis, Cantors, and other Jewish spiritual leaders -- to the Rabbinic Call to Move Our Money to Protect Our Planet.

The names of the 25 Initiating Signers are below. The growing list of Continuing Signers is in the full story that appears after you click the "jump" marked "Read More."

Now we appeal to all members of the Jewish community to join in this effort. To do so, please click to:  https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/petition/sign?sid=11&reset=1

For other essays on Jewish sources on these issues and for a How-to-Do-It Handbook on actually Moving Our Money, please see the Treasury link:

https://theshalomcenter.org/treasury/209


We -- Rabbis, Cantors, and other Jewish spiritual leaders --  

call upon Jewish households, congregations, seminaries,

communal and denominational bodies, and other institutions:  

Move Our Money to Protect Our Planet.

 In the ancient tradition from Sinai, naaseh v’nishma: Let us act, and as we do let us listen and learn.

 Let us act:

To Move Our Money and Protect Our Planet, we call on the Jewish community to:

  • Move Our Money (household and congregational) away from purchasing oil and coal-based energy and moving instead, wherever possible, to buy energy from wind and solar sources.
  • Move Our Money (household and congregational) away from savings and checking accounts in banks that are investing our money in Big Carbon, moving it instead to community banks and credit unions;
  • Move Our Money (household, congregational, communal, and denominational) away from actual investments in the stocks and bonds of death-dealing Big Oil, Big Coal, and Big Unnatural Gas, and move it instead to investments in stable, profitable solar and wind-energy companies and in community-based enterprises that help those who suffer from asthma and other diseases caused by Big Carbon;
  • Organize our congregants and members to insist that local and state governments similarly Move Our Money – often in large pension funds -- from investments in death to investments in life.
  • Insist that Congress Move Our Money -- money we pay in taxes -- away from subsidies to Big Oil, Big Coal, and Big Unnatural Gas, and instead to supporting research, development, and production of life-giving renewable energy.

Let us learn:

 We are a world people who still bear the wisdom of indigenous farmers and shepherds, meditators and sages, cooks and city planners:

  • Our festivals dance with the rhythms of Earth, Moon, and Sun;
  • Our Shabbat points the way toward a sustainable rhythm of work and rest;
  • Our kashrut points the way toward sacred limits and practices in consuming not only food but other gifts of Mother Earth;
  • Our long long history of resistance to the pharaohs that oppress human beings, lift up idols to worship, and bring plagues upon the Earth gives us a reservoir of commitment and clarity in political action.

And when as a world/indigenous people we join words and foods in the Pesach Seder, we find twin powerful passages of the Haggadah:
In every generation, some new versions of “pharaoh” arise to endanger us.
In every generation, we ourselves must act to win our freedom from destruction.

In our generation, these Pharaohs are global corporations of Big Carbon that are bringing the Plagues of climate crisis upon all life-forms on Planet Earth  -- a crisis of a breadth and depth unprecedented in the history of the human species.

And in our generation, we can resist these new pharaohs by moving our money to places where it will serve life and heal our wounded Earth.

 Moving from what is deadly to what is life-giving echoes the deepest transformation of our history: In the very process of freeing ourselves from Pharaoh, we learned to shape a new kind of society -- Beyond the Red Sea, we moved to Shabbat and Sinai.

Half a century ago, the American Jewish community joined with other religious communities to challenge racism, and together we were crucial in taking a great step toward healing America. Today the Holy One and the Earth need us again to join with other religious, spiritual, and ethical communities to make ourselves a crucial part of the movement to heal our planetary climate.

As Rabbi Akiba taught, facing the dangerous Caesars of his day: “Which is greater, study or action? Study, if it leads to action.” (Kiddushin 40b)

 So we --  Rabbis, Cantors, other Jewish spiritual leaders, and students in these sacred callings --  not only join in this Call but also undertake a campaign to bring this life-giving vision of Torah into the hills and rivers, streets and forests, newspapers and videos, homes and campuses, neighborhoods and synagogues, of our generation.

By April 30, 2014, more than 70 Rabbis and other Jewish spiritual leaders have signed this Call. Now we appeal to all members of the Jewish community to join in this effort. To do so, please click to:  https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/petition/sign?sid=11&reset=1

Initiating Signers:

 Rabbi Katy Allen

Rabbi Phyllis Berman

Spiritual Dir Barbara Breitman

Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin

Rabbi Howard Cohen

Rabbi Elliot Dorff

Rabbi Nancy Flam

Rabbi Everett Gendler

Rabbi Marc Gopin

Rabbi Arthur Green

Rabbi Lori Klein

Rabbi Michael Lerner

Rabbi Mordechai Liebling

Rabbi Jan Salzman

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

Kohenet Holly Taya Shere

Rabbi Sidney Schwarz

Rabbi Gerry Serotta

Rabbi David Shneyer

Rabbi Ariana Silverman

Rabbi Ed Stafman

Rabbi Margot Stein

Rabbi Susan Talve

Rabbi Lawrence Troster

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg

Cantor Greg Yaroslow

Rabbi Shawn Zevit

 ___  Please add my name as a signer of this Call:

Sign online at https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/petition/sign?sid=11&reset=1

OR write: The Shalom Center, 6711 Lincoln Dr., Philadelphia PA 19119  office@theshalomcenter.org

 (Title) & Name ________________________________________________________________________________

Address_________________________________________________________________________________________

Email ____________________________________________________________________

Phone ___________________________________________________________________

 ___ I’m enclosing a (tax-deductible) gift of __ $180; ___ $72 ; __ $36; :  __ other $ ___

to The Shalom Center to strengthen this work of healing our wounded Mother Earth.

 We’ve got trees and tigers in our hands,

We’ve got our sisters and our brothers in our hands,

We’ve got our children and their children in our hands,

WE’VE GOT THE WHOLE WORLD IN OUR HANDS!

LIST FOLLOWS OF CONTINUING SIGNERS AMONG RABBIS & OTHER SPIRITUAL LEADERS:

The Eco-Jewish Moment of Pete Seeger: Our Loving Admiration

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

In 1998, The Shalom Center and the Elat Chayyim spiritual retreat center co-sponsored a “liturgical/spiritual protest” against the poisoning of the Hudson River by the PCBs that the General Electric Corporation had poured into it.
 
 The protest was held at Beacon NY on the banks of the Hudson, and Pete Seeger, who lived in Beacon and was a lover of the river, joined in the protest/celebration. Pete Seeger, beloved folk-singer and political activist, died on January 27, 2014.
 

The occasion was the seventh day of Sukkot, the harvest festival – the day traditionally celebrated as Hoshana Rabbah, with seven dances of the Torah Scroll; many prayers for healing of the Earth from locusts, drought, famine; and beating willow branches on the ground at the banks of the river.

A new set of Hoshanot "Please save us!" prayers to heal the Earth were written by Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. You can read them at -- 

https://theshalomcenter.org/content/reb-zalmans-prayers-earth-hoshana-ra...


 We added prayers, petitions, and protests to save the Earth and the river from PCBs, and we brought seven great banners to honor the seven dances as the seven days of creation – bright yellow for the sun and moon, blue for the oceans, red for red-blooded mammals, white for Shabbat. One of those who gathered was an elder of the Iroquois, who had heard about the action and knew he belonged in any effort to heal the river of his people. We invited him to carry the Torah for the first processional dance. A dozen Catholic nuns from convents along the Hudson joined. Three hundred Jews came – hailing from a long stretch of the River --  Kingston to Manhattan, where rabbinical students of the Jewish Theological Seminary were especially drawn to this moment.
 
And Pete Seeger. He thanked us for blessing the Hudson and  confronting its poisoners. He told us about the sloop Clearwater he had created as an activist educational center about the Hudson. He said his voice was almost gone, but he could croak a version of  “Hinei Mah Tov u’Mah Nayyim”  if we would do the singing for him. We did. He did.

On that day, as we shook the traditional palm branches in the six

T'ruah honors Reb Arthur as “Life-long Human Rights Hero”

Submitted by Editor on

I’m writing on behalf of the Shalom Center Board to share exciting news: this coming March 25 in New York City, T’ruah: Rabbinic Voice for Human Rights will present Reb Arthur with its first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award as a “Hero of Human Rights.”

[From Arlene Goldbard, President, on behalf of the Board of The Shalom Center ]

It is a m’chayeh—a life-giving moment—for T’ruah to announce this just a week before the end of 2013, a year of great work and great impact for The Shalom Center. And you can make this moment into a m’chayeh for us all by right now making a donation to The Shalom Center which will count as a tax-deductible donation for 2013.
 
To do this, please click to <https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=1>
Your gift will make it possible for Reb Arthur and The Shalom Center to continue our “Life-time Achievements” into the future. He will thank and honor you with a personal inscription in the book, CD, or DVD that goes to you with our gratitude.

One of the most life-giving aspects of Reb Arthur’s work is

T'ruah honors Reb Arthur as “Life-long Human Rights Hero”

Submitted by Editor on

I’m writing on behalf of the Shalom Center Board to share exciting news: this coming March 25 in New York City, T’ruah: Rabbinic Voice for Human Rights will present Reb Arthur with its first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award as a “Hero of Human Rights.”

[From Arlene Goldbard, President, on behalf of the Board of The Shalom Center ]

It is a m’chayeh—a life-giving moment—for T’ruah to announce this just a week before the end of 2013, a year of great work and great impact for The Shalom Center. And you can make this moment into a m’chayeh for us all by right now making a donation to The Shalom Center which will count as a tax-deductible donation for 2013.
 
To do this, please click to <https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=1>
Your gift will make it possible for Reb Arthur and The Shalom Center to continue our “Life-time Achievements” into the future. He will thank and honor you with a personal inscription in the book, CD, or DVD that goes to you with our gratitude.

One of the most life-giving aspects of Reb Arthur’s work is

The Prophetic Green Menorah: A Tree of Light

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

On Shabbat Hanukkah (this year, Nov. 29-30), we read an extraordinary passage from the Prophet Zechariah. Speaking during the Babylonian Captivity, he envisions the future Great Menorah, taking its sacred place in a rebuilt Holy Temple. The Menorah he imagines is alive! -- a cybernetic organism, a living Tree that bears the sacred Light.

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)

And then –– in a passage the Rabbis did not include in the Haftarah reading for Shabbat Hanukkah – –- Zechariah explains that the two olive trees are feeding their oil directly into the Menorah (4: 11-13). No human being needs to press the olives, collect the oil, clarify and sanctify it. The trees alone can do it all.

Now wait! This is extraordinary. What is this Light-Bearer that is so intimately interwoven with two trees? Is the Menorah the work of human hands, or itself the fruit of a tree?

My turning 80, after almost dying

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

 What does my turning 80 actually feel like, after almost dying?

And what does Yom Kippur mean after that?

Exactly two years ago, just in time for Yom Kippur, I went through a body crisis -- and a spirit crisis. Now I'm getting ready to celebrate Gloria Steinem’s and my turning 80. That celebration will be extraordinary –-  music, artwork, a delicious dinner, an amazing dessert, and an interview of the two of us. Who is the "me" on the inside of our celebration?

Not  just "me" is who. "We" is who.

I not only look forward to actually seeing you, but need to. Need a community for the celebration to be real. And I know Gloria does too. Both of us need to talk with you about how to keep full of life and hope through eight full decades.

There are three options: come as an individual or family, to the full dinner or the honor event; arrange for your organization to be a co-sponsor; and/ or buy space in the Tribute Book to honor your own Elder hero. To register and take part, you can click here: –  https://theshalomcenter.org/80

So – what do I actually feel like, two years later, as the moment of turning 80 approaches?

Two things rise up for me.  One is what it means to keep doing the work of social change, at this age. Walking into getting arrested –- with the help of a cane! Bringing fifty years of crafting public outcries into working with a group of much younger, feisty rabbis, to shape a statement about the emotionally heart-rending question of Syria. Evoking hope and activism among young people who see their Earth being scorched, their careers stunted, their futures haunted.  

The other –- indeed, the strongest thing that arises for me right now -– is:–

Becoming 80 means I lived through a crisis – like many who get this far.
 
Two years ago, it wasn’t clear whether I’d make it to 80.

I was seriously sick from the effects of treatment for a throat cancer. Radiation wrecked my mouth -– made speaking, tasting, swallowing, drinking, eating impossible. I was “eating” what my life-partner Reb Phyllis estimated as 200 calories a day – what she called a starvation diet.

I was writing my “Shalom Reports” to you-all once or twice a week, and they were coherent and sometimes even smart -– but otherwise my friends say my eyes were glazed over, I literally lost my voice. I was able to spend an hour –- just an hour -– at Rosh Hashanah prayers before needing to rest.

So on the day after Rosh HaShanah I seriously considered just letting myself die. That, I thought, would be easy – I could just go on not doing what I was already not doing. I would nod off and peacefully die. Not scary.

And living was hard work. Why bother?
 
But I also thought how much I love

Uphold Free Press: Fire Attorney-General Holder Now

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

First: the intention and focus of this letter to you: Attorney-General Holder and the Department of Justice have carried out a far worse violation of the Constitution by attacking freedom of the press in the AP case than anything the IRS did in dealing with applicants for tax-exempt status.

Just as the President fired the top IRS official, he should now fire Attorney-General Holder and take related steps to protect honorable whistle-blowers and the free press.

Here is where you can sign a petition to the President to do just that:
https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/petition/sign?sid=2

(And please forward this letter to your friends and coworkers.)

Second: Before I pursue the thinking behind this, let me explain why I feel strongly about this issue:

One way I understand myself is that I am among a new and growing breed of on-line journalists in the way I edit this Shalom Report and our Website, often addressing public policy through eyes of Torah and my understanding of the Spirit. The notion that the US government would dare do to a venerable press institution what it did to the AP made me swallow twice, imagining some now or future FBI rummaging through my phone logs.

And this reaction is rooted not in fantasy but in history: Forty years ago, I was one of nine anti-war and anti-racism activists in Washington DC who sued the the FBI for in fact not only tapping our phones but stealing our mail, forging letters that purported to be from us, etc. We not only sued but won, and our victory was upheld by the Federal Court of Appeals.

So I feel a strong personal revulsion at this Justice Department action.

Attorney-General Holder falsely justified the sweeping scoop-up of AP phone records by saying that the leak to the Associated Press had “put the American people at risk.” Indeed, the AP had held the story up until the CIA had agreed there was no longer any danger to national security if it were published.

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