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Haftarah for the Rainbow Covenant

Submitted by Linda Carranza on

You, My people, burnt in fire,
still staring blinded
by the flame and smoke
that rose from Auschwitz and from Hiroshima; 

You, My people,
Battered by the earthquakes of a planet in convulsion; 

You, My people,
Drowning in the flood of words and images That beckon you to eat and eat,
to drink and drink,
to fill and overfill
your bellies
at the tables of
the gods of wealth and power; 

You, My people,
Drowning in the flood of words and images That—poured unceasing on your eyes and ears— drown out My words of Torah,
My visions of the earth made whole; 

Be comforted:
I have for you a mission full of joy. I call you to a task of celebration

I call you to make from fire not an all-consuming blaze But the light in which all beings see each other fully. All different,
All bearing One Spark. 

I call you to light a flame to see more clearly That the earth and all who live as part of it Are not for burning:
A flame to see The rainbow
in the many-colored faces of all life. 

I call you:
I, the Breath of Life,
Within you and beyond,
Among you and beyond,
That One Who breathes from redwood into grizzly,
That One Who breathes from human into swamp-grass,
That One Who breathes the great pulsations of the galaxies. In every breath you breathe Me,
In every breath I breathe you. 

I call you—
In every croak of every frog I call you, In every rustle of each leaf, 

each life,

I call you,
In the wailings of the wounded earth I call you. 

I call you to a peoplehood renewed:
I call you to reweave the fabric of your folk and so to join in healing
the weave of life upon your planet.
I call you to a journey of seven generations. 

For seven generations past,
the earth has not been able to make Shabbos. 

And so in your own generation
You tremble on the verge of Flood.
Your air is filled with poison.
The rain, the seas, with poison.
The earth hides arsenals of poisonous fire, Seeds of light surcharged with fatal darkness. The ice is melting,
The seas are rising,
The air is dark with smoke and rising heat. 

And so—I call you to carry to all peoples
the teaching that for seven generations
the earth and all her earthlings learn to rest. 

I call you once again
To speak for Me,
To speak for Me because I have no voice,
To speak the Name of the One who has no Name, To speak for all the Voiceless of the planet.

Who speaks for the redwood and the rock, the lion and the beetle?

My Breath I blow through you into a voicing: Speak for the redwood and the rock,
the lion and the beetle. 

I call you to a task of joy:
For seven generations,
this is what I call for you to do: 

To make once more the seasons of your joy
into celebrations of the seasons of the earth;
To welcome with your candles the dark of moon and sun, To bless with careful chewing

the fruits of every tree For when you meet to bless

the rising juice of life

in every tree trunk— I am the Tree of Life.

To live seven days in the open, windy huts, And call out truth to all who live beside you— You are part of the weave and breath of life, You cannot make walls to wall it out.

I call you to a covenant between the generations: That when you gather for a blessing of your children

as they take on the tasks of new tomorrows, You say to them, they say to you,
That you are all My prophet
Come to turn the hearts of elders 

and of children toward each other,
Lest my earth be smashed in utter desolation. 

I call you
To eat what
I
call
kosher:
Food that springs from an Earth you do not poison, Air that comes from an Earth you do not choke. Energy that comes from an Earth you do not burn.

I call you to speak to all the peoples, all the rulers.

I call you to walk forth before all nations,
to pour out water that is free of poison
and call them all to clean and clarify the rains of winter. 

I call you to beat your willows on the earth and shout its healing to all peoples.

I call on you to call on all the peoples to cleanse My Breath, My air,
from all the gases
that turn My earth into a furnace. 

I call you to light the colors of the Rainbow,
To raise once more before all eyes
That banner of the covenant between Me,
and all the children of Noah and Naamah,
and all that lives and breathes upon the Earth— So that 

Never again,
all the days of the Earth, shall 

sowing and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night

ever cease!

I call you to love the Breath of Life— For love is the fire
That blazes in the Rainbow. 

I call you so to live for seven generations
As in the days when you went forth from slavery; 

So in these seven generations
Earth will bring forth bounty as it did with manna,
The bread of joy and freedom—
and all Earth can sing together --

Songs of Shabbos!

(Channeled through Rabbi Arthur Waskow)


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Share Sukkot: Green & Grow the Vote, 2021

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

Spread over ALL of us the sukkah of Shalom!

 “ALL of us” means all the interbreathing life-forms of Planet Earth. The sukkah -- the leafy, leaky hut, open to Earth -- comes to us on the full moon of the lunar “moonth” of Tishri, two weeks after Rosh Hashanah (evening of  Monday, September 20 to the evening of September 27).

It is the earthiest of all the Jewish festivals. That means a lot – since all the festivals are the offspring of a love affair between Earth and the subculture of Humanity called the Jewish People.

 (Photo shows Rabbis Berman & Wasow at "Occupy Sukkot" at Philadelphia City Hall in 2010.)

This year Sukkot comes as part of the Sabbatical Year when we are called to release all Earth from overwork and all human beings from economic oppression. In Hebrew the year is called Shmita (“Release”) and Shabbat Shabbaton (“Sabbath to the exponential power of Sabbath”).

 The Shalom Center has embarked on a journey we call “Share Sukkot: Green and Grow the Vote.”  Though synagogues, churches, mosques and religious organizations of all kinds (including The Shalom Center) are prevented from endorsing or opposing specific  electoral candidates or political parties, we are encourages to discuss and educate on major issues and to help eligible Americans register to vote, and then help them actually vote. To “Green and Grow the Vote” unites those two visions of what a tax-exempt organ of the body politick should do.

In the Washington DC area, an ad hoc multireligious group initiated by The Shalom Center and the Am Kolel Congregation  with co-sponsors of Greater Washington Interfaith Power and Light and Jews for Clean Energy are with Rabbi David Shneyer, Mirele Greenberg, and others organizing a Sukkot Climate Caravan aimed at the US Senate in the midst of Sukkot on September 23, with a portable sukkah and people waving the traditional Four Species of palm, myrtle, willow, and lemony etrog in the seven directions of the world.

We urge other communities to take on similar actions. We recommend either aiming at local district offices of US Senators, or a local branch of Chase Bank, the #1 investor in businesses that are burning, boiling, and flooding Earth, or at your local Jewish Federation to urge them to lend or grant money to solarize Jewish buildings. .

What are the ancient values  embodied in Sukkot that speak to our generation?

  1. It is the fall harvest festival. To us that means pursuing a regenerative agriculture that can feed people while replenishing Earth, not wounding it.
  2. When the ancient Temple stood, there were offerings of seventy rams. The rabbis discerned that this meant we were invoking and celebrating a prosperous harvest for all the “70 nations” of the world.
  3. It is no accident that Sukkot in every other year in America comes just before an election. For when American election dates were  timed to follow the harvest, so that millions of farmers could turn their attention to voting. It is appropriate to use the festival now to turn the attention of the disenfranchised to the election.
  4. The sukkah was the simplest home that the earliest human beings could make to live in. According to Torah, it became the simplest home for the band of runaway slaves who fled Mitzrayyim – the  Tight aNarrow Land of Egypt. So it points toward housing the poor, the homeless, and refugees.
  5.  Each evening, a traditional prayer seeks peace in the shelter of a sukkah.  Why not in a fortress, a castle, a tower? Because recognizing the fragility, the vulnerability, of each other is a surer way to shalom than rigidity and walls.
  6.  Further exploration of all these can be found at--

                https://theshalomcenter.org/ShareSukkotResources

What do these values mean in terms of the issues today? Our suggestions:

1. Support for the $3.5 Trillion advanced “social infrastructure” bill, especially including provisions of the 30 Million Solar Homes Act and the Environmental Justice for All Act, with a special concern for eco/ social justice through those two new Congressional bills.

Even more especially, solar co-ops in rural, small-town, and low-income urban neighborhoods. Encouraging such co-ops can make them not only ways to save  money as in “get  it for you wholesale” but also to protect marginalized neighborhoods from asthma and cancer epidemics brought by oil/ gas fumes and coal dust, and insist on climate justice; to sponsor CSA urban and rural farms; to become sparks of resilience if a neighborhood is struck with a climate emergency; and to work for change in public and corporate policy, to heal the planet. To grow an “Earth of Neighborhoods.”

       Websites to consult: https://www.30millionsolarhomes.org  and https://www.cbf.org/news-media/newsroom/2021/federal/environmental-justice-for-all-act-is-a-crucial-step-to-empowering-vulnerable-communities.html

 2. “Move Our Money, Protect Our Planet” ---  the MOM-POP demand at all levels of spending and investing. All banks should move their investment money out of fossil-0fuel businesses, into renewable energy businesses; the US should move billions of subsidies (“our” tax money) out of fossil-fuel company into renewable energy; synagogues and Jewish Federation should shift their money the same way; Federations should offer loans or grants to solarize and conserve energy to all Jewish institutions that own buildings in their communities; synagogues should switch where their checking, saving, and credit-card accounts are held to community banks and credit unions; individuals should do the same thing.

 3. For the “Grow the Vote” part of this effort, support for the “For the People Act”; for the John Lewis Act to restore and improve the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for which John Lewis as a young nonviolent demonstrator suffered a skull broken by a violent policeman; the bill to make the District of Columbia into a new state, “Douglass Commonwealth”; and for abolition or basic reform of the filibuster so that the right to vote can be protected.

 

Please write us what you decide to do in your own community. May the Breath of Life, the Wind of change, the ruach ha’olam, bring you new vigor and new wisdom to the healing of our Earth and human earthlings --   Arthur

Prophetic Song for These Times: Leonard Cohen, "Democracy is Coming to the USA"

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

The darkest, most honest, most prophetic patriotic song I know is Leonard Cohen’s  “Democracy is Coming to the USA.”

It’s a song for tonight and the morning after Election Day and the weeks that follow.  

First look at these words below in case you might miss a few in the hearing/ watching. Then check the link 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU-RuR-qO4Y&feature=youtu.be . I recommend watching/ hearing the first go-round with wonderful graphics, and stay to watch and hear the Prophet Leonard himself sing it a second time.  

Whatever attacks we face against democracy in the next few months, I hope this song will give us joy and inner strength through our tears.   “Oz v’zimrat YAHHHH: Strength and Song:  The Breath of Life.” --- 

Feel free to share this with your friends  --- Arthur

 

 “Democracy is Coming to the USA”

  Leonard Cohen 

 It's coming through a hole in the air, 

from those nights in Tiananmen Square. 
It's coming from the feel 
that this ain't exactly real, 
or it's real, but it ain't exactly there. 
From the wars against disorder, 
from the sirens night and day, 
from the fires of the homeless, 
from the ashes of the gay: 
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A. 

It's coming through a crack in the wall; 
on a visionary flood of alcohol; 
from the staggering account 
of the Sermon on the Mount 
which I don't pretend to understand at all. 
It's coming from the silence 
on the dock of the bay, 
from the brave, the bold, the battered 
heart of Chevrolet: 
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A. 

It's coming from the sorrow in the street, 
the holy places where the races meet; 
from the homicidal bitchin' 
that goes down in every kitchen 
to determine who will serve and who will eat. 
From the wells of disappointment 
where the women kneel to pray 
for the grace of God in the desert here 
and the desert far away: 
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A. 

Sail on, sail on 
O mighty Ship of State! 
To the Shores of Need 
Past the Reefs of Greed 
Through the Squalls of Hate 
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on. 

It's coming to America first, 
the cradle of the best and of the worst. 
It's here they got the range 
and the machinery for change 
and it's here they got the spiritual thirst. 
It's here the family's broken 
and it's here the lonely say 
that the heart has got to open 
in a fundamental way: 
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A. 

It's coming from the women and the men. 
O baby, we'll be making love again. 
We'll be going down so deep 
the river's going to weep, 
and the mountain's going to shout Amen! 
It's coming like the tidal flood 
beneath the lunar sway, 
imperial, mysterious, 
in amorous array: 
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A. 

Sail on, sail on ... 

I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean 
I love the country but I can't stand the scene. 
And I'm neither left or right 
I'm just staying home tonight, 
getting lost in that hopeless little screen. 
But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags 
that Time cannot decay, 
I'm junk but I'm still holding up 
this little wild bouquet: 
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

 ### ### ### ### 

P,S My newest book, Dancing in God's Earthquake: The Coming Transformation of Religion is my sketch of the do-able future. Gloria Steinem, Ruth Messinger, Rev. William Barber; Rabbis Art Green, Jonah Pesner, and Jill Hammer; Bill McKibben, Marge Piercy, and Jim Wallis have all read and praised it. Join them! Order it from The Shalom Center or from Orbis Books. See --- https://theshalomcenter.org/content/ordering-dancing-gods-earthquake-rabbi-arthur  This book is the harvest of my whole life-experience – and like a harvest, intended not only to draw on the past but to feed the future.--  AW

Hanukkah & Climate: Day One, The Torah for Our Energy Crisis

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

#Hanukkah8Days4Climate -- Day 1, Torah Study

A Prefatory Note by Rabbi Arthur Waskow, 

director of The Shalom Center and 

Followed by a Torah Resource Page woven by 

Rabbinical Student (RRC) Faryn Borella,

The Ira Silverman Memorial Intern of The Shalom Center 

 

Last week we sent you a proposed trajectory for a climate-concerned celebration of Hanukkah, keyed to the phases of the Moon. (See the story on the Home Page of our website, at <https://theshalomcenter.org/hanukkah8days4climate>. We suggested beginning the first night (Sunday evening, December 22) with a communal gathering to light the first candle and study Torah that deals with the meanings of Hanukkah in relation to Earth, especially energy conservation.

We begin below with the Talmud, which tells us that Hanukkah is a holiday created to commemorate the miracle of conservation of energy when one day’s oil to relight the sacred light-bearing Menorah, necessary in order to rededicate the Temple after its time under occupation by the imperial army of Hellenistic Syria, was enough to keep the Menorah lit for eight days.

In historical factuality, the Book of Maccabees (which was written much closer to the events) says the reason was to celebrate the eight days of Sukkot, which they had not been able to celebrate while the Hellenistic army had control of the Temple.  In all anthropological likelihood, the eight-day celebration of light when the Moon and Sun are darkest goes back even further into the religious history of communities in the eastern Mediterranean. 

Many modern scholars believe that the ancient Rabbis deliberately directed future attention away from the Maccabees because they did not want to encourage violent uprisings against imperial powers. For in their consciousness, the Maccabee-like revolt of Bar Kochba in 135 CE ended in utter disaster for the Jewish people, as Rome smashed the Jewish population of the Land of Israel.

The ancient Rabbis decided to use words from the Prophet Zechariah as the Haftarah (prophetic passage) to be read in synagogues on the Shabbat during Hanukkah. Like the legend of the eight-day bottle of one-day oil, it directed attention away from the Maccabeean guerrilla-band revolt, cresting with “Not by might and not by power…”

So after the Hanukkah-defining passage from the Talmud, we focus on Zechariah’s prophetic vision. He wrote or proclaimed it after the destruction of the first Temple by the Babylonian Empire, and is envisioning a new Temple with some important differences from the one that had been destroyed  -- especially a radical vision of olive trees next to the Menorah.

Zechariah’s focus on the Temple Menorah reinforces the Rabbis’ focus on its connection with the reason for Hanukkah. We include Rashi’s interpretation of the strangest part of Zechariah’s ecstatic vision.  Then – to deepen our understanding of the Menorah that has become so central -- we go back to the Torah’s earliest definition of the Menorah in the portable Shrine in the Wilderness, and therefore ultimately in the Temple in Jerusalem.

### ### ###

[A special note on translating “YHWH.”  Like the great Bible translator Everett Fox, rather than substituting the false translation as “LORD” I transliterate the Name.  I also “translate” it as “Breath of Life, Interbreathing Spirit of the world” because I think “pronouncing” it with no vowels brings forth the sound of a breath  -- ruach. And I think in our era that is a far better, more truthful metaphor for God than “King, Lord.” It betokens an ecological rather than hierarchical understanding of the world.  AW]

 

*** *** 

Resources for Torah Study, 

1st night or day of Hanukkah

Woven by Faryn Borella

 

Shabbat 21b, Talmud Bavli

מאי חנוכה דתנו רבנן בכה בכסליו יומי דחנוכה תמניא אינון דלא למספד בהון ודלא להתענות בהון שכשנכנסו יוונים להיכל טמאו כל השמנים שבהיכל וכשגברה מלכות בית חשמונאי ונצחום בדקו ולא מצאו אלא פך אחד של שמן שהיה מונח בחותמו של כהן גדול ולא היה בו אלא להדליק יום אחד נעשה בו נס והדליקו ממנו שמונה ימים לשנה אחרת קבעום ועשאום ימים טובים בהלל והודאה

The Gemara asks: What is Hanukkah, and why are lights kindled on Hanukkah? The Gemara answers: The Sages taught in Megillat Ta’anit: On the twenty-fifth of Kislev, the days of Hanukkah are eight. One may not eulogize on them and one may not fast on them. What is the reason? When the Greeks  [Syrian Hellenistic imperial army] entered the Sanctuary they defiled all the oils that were in the Sanctuary by touching them. And when the Hasmonean monarchy overcame them and emerged victorious over them, they searched and found only one jar of oil that was placed with the seal of the High Priest, undisturbed by the Greeks. And there was sufficient oil there to light the Light-bearing Menorah for only one day. A miracle occurred and they lit the Light-bearing Menorah from it eight days. The next year the Sages instituted those days and made them holidays with recitation of hallel and special thanksgiving in prayer and blessings.

Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Shabbat 67b

 

אמר רב זוטרא האי מאן דמיכסי שרגא דמשחא ומגלי נפטא קעבר משום בל תשחית

Rav Zutra said: He who covers an oil lamp or who uncovers a kerosene lamp for no purpose violates the prohibition: Do not destroy, since by doing so the fuel burns more quickly.

Zechariah 4:1-14 (an excerpt from the Haftarah read on the Shabbat of Hanukkah)

וַיָּ֕שָׁב הַמַּלְאָ֖ךְ הַדֹּבֵ֣ר בִּ֑י וַיְעִירֵ֕נִי כְּאִ֖ישׁ אֲשֶׁר־יֵע֥וֹר מִשְּׁנָתֽוֹ׃

The [angelic] messenger who talked with me came back and woke me as someone is wakened from sleep.

וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֵלַ֔י מָ֥ה אַתָּ֖ה רֹאֶ֑ה ויאמר [וָאֹמַ֡ר] רָאִ֣יתִי ׀ וְהִנֵּ֣ה מְנוֹרַת֩ זָהָ֨ב כֻּלָּ֜הּ וְגֻלָּ֣הּ עַל־רֹאשָׁ֗הּ וְשִׁבְעָ֤ה נֵרֹתֶ֙יהָ֙ עָלֶ֔יהָ שִׁבְעָ֤ה וְשִׁבְעָה֙ מֽוּצָק֔וֹת לַנֵּר֖וֹת אֲשֶׁ֥ר עַל־רֹאשָֽׁהּ׃

He said to me, “What do you see?” And I answered, “I see a light-bearing Menorah all of gold, with a bowl above it. The lamps on it are seven in number, and the lamps above it have seven pipes;

וּשְׁנַ֥יִם זֵיתִ֖ים עָלֶ֑יהָ אֶחָד֙ מִימִ֣ין הַגֻּלָּ֔ה וְאֶחָ֖ד עַל־שְׂמֹאלָֽהּ׃

and by it are two olive trees, one on the right of the bowl and one on its left.”

וָאַ֙עַן֙ וָֽאֹמַ֔ר אֶל־הַמַּלְאָ֛ךְ הַדֹּבֵ֥ר בִּ֖י לֵאמֹ֑ר מָה־אֵ֖לֶּה אֲדֹנִֽי׃

I, in turn, asked the messenger who talked with me, “What do those things mean, my lord?”

וַ֠יַּעַן הַמַּלְאָ֞ךְ הַדֹּבֵ֥ר בִּי֙ וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֵלַ֔י הֲל֥וֹא יָדַ֖עְתָּ מָה־הֵ֣מָּה אֵ֑לֶּה וָאֹמַ֖ר לֹ֥א אֲדֹנִֽי׃

“Do you not know what those things mean?” asked the messenger who talked with me; and I said, “No, my lord.”

וַיַּ֜עַן וַיֹּ֤אמֶר אֵלַי֙ לֵאמֹ֔ר זֶ֚ה דְּבַר־יְהוָ֔ה אֶל־זְרֻבָּבֶ֖ל לֵאמֹ֑ר לֹ֤א בְחַ֙יִל֙ וְלֹ֣א בְכֹ֔חַ כִּ֣י אִם־בְּרוּחִ֔י אָמַ֖ר יְהוָ֥ה צְבָאֽוֹת׃

Then he explained to me as follows: “This is the word of YHWH to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by My breath/wind/spirit—said the Infinite YHWH/ Breath of Life.

[Haftarah officially ends here but Zechariah continues with an important teaching about the Menorah and the two olve trees.]

Reb Arthur addresses police at Philadelphia ICE protest

Submitted by Viv Hawkins on

You can see and hear the video of my briefly speaking to the police officers who were about to arrest us for blocking the entrance to the ICE office in Philadelphia during 2018.

Breaking News: M L King condemns the Trump federal budget

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

First, a suggested action in the Spirit of Dr. King; then an explanation of why.

 Action:  On April 15, we lug sacks of pennies to the local Federal building to pay part of the Federal tax we owe -- pennies that are broken pieces of the Golden Calf that Trump’s proposed Death Budget would force us to worship.

 Why: Just as a household budget puts into action the real moral and ethical outlook of the family --  “How much for a new car? How much for solar collectors on the roof? How much for rent? For medicine? For a fancier TV? How much for a college education? How much for a charity that feeds the poor? How much to support a Congressional election campaign?” –

 Just so, the US Federal budget carries out the real moral and ethical choices of the American people, or at least of the US government.

The Trump Administration has released its proposed Federal budget.

There are major increases in money for the military, which already spends more money than the next 14 national military systems all added together.

Enormous cuts for all climate-healing work and for protection of pure water,

Race, Racism, & The Spirit

Submitted by Rabbi Mordechai... on

Our Lives in American Society

[This exploration of the nature of race and racism in American society, as seen in the context of personal experience, social science, and  spiritual tradition, was given as a talk to students and some faculty of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City, by Rabbi Mordechai Liebling. Rabbi Liebling is director of the Social Justice Organizing Program at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and a member of the Board of The Shalom Center. I especially recommend his essay as an extraordinary fusion of the approaches of historian, rabbi, and activist, drawing deeply as well on his own life-experience. --  AW, editor]

Shalom, thank you

It is an honor and privilege to address you Jewish leaders and Jewish leaders in formation.  I appreciate the opportunity and feel humbled by the responsibility.

 Responsibility because racism has been called variously the core wound of American society, the cancer at our core, our original sin, deepest shadow, fundamental contradiction --  choose your language -- they all convey the same message that the United States can not and will not be a spiritually healthy just society unless and until we put an end to all forms of racism.

 I will address today some of the different aspects of racism, the process of racialization, how racism and its corollary white privilege constrict the spiritual growth of each one of us and some suggestions of what we can do, in between you will have opportunity to speak with each other and at the end there will be time for some questions.

 Racism’s clearest manifestations are on the physical bodies of black people. African people were brought to these shores and treated as “bodies” -- not as human beings, and racism was burned into

Video: Reb Arthur speaks at Vigil on Iran 2015

Submitted by Viv Hawkins on

 In this video, Reb Arthur Waskow speaks to the people participating in an action asking Senator Casey (PA) to sign the Iran nuclear deal under consideration; the action took place Aug 26, 2015 in Philadelphia, PA at the offices of Senator Casey. Reb Arthur also spoke with Senatorial staff lobbying them to support the deal on behalf of world peace and of preventing Iran from achieving a nuclaear arsenal.  With the protesters, Reb Arthur wove midrash on midrash on Torah wth an understanding of world politics. Watch his talk by clicking on ""Read more." (8 minutes). Senator Casey did endorse the agreement with Iran, and it won enough votes in the Senate to prevent passage of a resolution opposing it.

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