CiviMail

Militarism, Part 2: Making "Home" a War Zone

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

[Dear friends, In The Shalom Center’s #FreedomSeder50 on April 7, aside from my commitment to draw the broad intention and outlines of the Seder, my chief assignment inside the event itself was to speak on the deadly danger of “Militarism.”  

{In my talk I pointed out that the Trump regime had brought about a brutal resurgence of Militarism at every level from nuclear weaponry to gun murders in our schools, houses of worship, and neighborhoods.

Militarism Amok Part 1: Iran, the Border, the Bomb, & More

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

[Dear friends, In The Shalom Center’s #FreedomSeder50 on April 7, aside from my commitment to draw the broad intention and outlines of the Seder, my chief assignment inside the event itself was to speak on the deadly danger of “Militarism.” 

{In my talk I pointed out that the Trump regime had brought about a brutal resurgence of Militarism at every level from nuclear weaponry to gun murders in our schools, houses of worship, and neighborhoods.

#JeremiahJusticeJune12 at the White House: Uphold our Covenants

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

The American people are bound by, and have committed ourselves to live by, two covenants. The “king” who sits in the White House is violating them both. On June 12 we will challenge him to renew his active commitment to abide by these sacred covenants.

One Covenant is the Constitution, the basic framework and the process by which we – the American People -- have Covenantally agreed to govern ourselves.

In it, both houses of Congress bespeak the will of the people as well as the President. In it, all the people are enumerated without fear of reprisal, to guarantee just representation. In it, no money may be disbursed from the Treasury except by laws passed by Congress. In it, the Congress has the necessary and proper power to oversee and investigate all the executive offices, including the Presidency, to ascertain whether the laws be just and effective. In it, the press is free and its freedom is upheld. In it, all of us have the equal protection of the law.  

This President has violated the Covenant of the Constitution and has tried to erect himself into a tyrant.

The other Covenant is one we individually and communally make with God, the Holy One Whom we know by many Names, and Who speaks through us by the Holy Spirit about the love, the compassion, and the justice that we owe each other.  

This Covenant speaks to the content of our laws and regulations, as well as the process by which we adopt them. In this Covenant, it is forbidden to tear children from their families and imprison them in cages; it is forbidden to force desperate asylum-seekers back into the hands of oppressors and murderers; it is forbidden to poison the air, the water, and the food so that they sicken and kill us instead of nurturing us; it is forbidden to poison the atmosphere and oceans of Earth so as to bring terrible fires and floods, famines and diseases upon us and to endanger the entire web of life, including the danger of extinction for the human race;  it is forbidden to deny health care to the sick; it is forbidden to subjugate women and  deny them the moral agency of conscience; it is forbidden to denigrate and damage people because of their race, their ethnic group, their class, their sexuality and gender.

This President has violated our Covenant with God and has tried to erect himself into a Pharaoh.

 What all these sinful acts against both Covenants have in common is that instead of covenantal leadership for justice, compassion, the empowerment of all, and healing, they pursue subjugation: subjugation of racial, religious, ethnic, and gender minorities; of women; of children; of the suffocating middle class, workers, family farmers, the poor, and people who fall sick; of immigrants and refugees; of the free press; of the Congress and the Constitution; even of Earth, our common home. This hate-filled subjugation violates God’s Covenant. It must not stand.

So we turn to an ancient Prophet, Jeremiah, who faced a king similarly possessed by cruelty and corruption:

 “Go to the royal palace and deliver this Message. Say, ‘Listen to what God says, O King of Judah, you who sit on David’s throne—you and your officials and all the people who go in and out of these palace gates.'

"This is God’s Message: Attend to matters of justice. Set things right between people. Rescue victims from their exploiters. Don’t take advantage of the homeless, the foreigners, the orphans, the widows. Stop the murdering!

 "If you obey these commands, then kings who follow in the line of David will continue to go in and out of these palace gates mounted on horses and riding in chariots—they and their officials and the citizens of Judah. But if you don’t obey these commands, then I swear—God’s Decree!—this palace will end up a heap of rubble." (Jeremiah 22:1-5 )

 We are asking you to join us outside the White House on June 12th.
 

We will be gathering just after Ramadan, Eid, Shavuot, and Pentecost.  We will draw upon their wisdom. And we welcome the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Interbreathing Spirit that gives life to ALL traditions, all communities, all life-forms, to speak through us. To make clear our spiritual commitments and the infinitude of forms and teachings through which the Spirit comes to us, we will walk in the vestments of our varied communities of Spirit.

Hundreds of faith leaders will journey to DC. Of those hundreds, some may hear the call upon their spirits to engage in nonviolent moral action. Some may be called there as witnesses. But all are needed to bear witness together in this moment.

To receive information and updates on the specific time and place where we will gather to begin our solemn March to the White House, please click to  https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=25  and then register by clicking where indicated. Your confirmation OK will have the full information.  

We must not be divided.

We must not be complacent.

We must act so that people are called to a moral awakening. 

We are asking you to come to Washington, D.C., on June 12th. Share this invitation with your faith-leader friends and colleagues.  

 This preceding letter is a summary of the Call previously signed by the Planning Committee:

Bishop William J. Barber II, Moral Monday Architect; President and Senior Lecturer, Repairers of the Breach; Pastor, Greenleaf Christian Church; Co-chair, Poor People's Campaign; National NAACP Board Member

Rev. Traci D. Blackmon, Associate General Minister, United Church of Christ

Rabbi Mordechai Liebling, Director of Social Justice Organizing Program, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College

Imam Al-Hajj Talib 'Abdur-Rashid, Ameer/President, The Muslim Alliance in North America

Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, Director, Kairos Center

Rabbi Dr. Arthur Ocean Waskow, Director, The Shalom Center

Minister Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Director, School for Conversion

  This preceding letter is a summary of the Call previously signed by the Planning Committee. To see and sign on to the fuller Call, please click to  https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=25  and then register by clicking where indicated. Your confirmation OK will have the full information.

Please share this invitation with your faith-leader friends and colleagues.

#JeremiahJusticeJune12 at the White House

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

[Dear Movement Family, At our #FreedomSeder50, Bishop William J. Barber was deeply moved by the multireligious, multiracial, muiticultural, multigendered gathering of 400 people committed to ecological sanity and social justice. So deeply moved that he felt called by the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit, to cry out for  #JeremiahJusticeJune12 at the White House:

[A gathering to confront –in Jeremiah’s words --- -"a corrupt king at his royal palace" -- the White House -- on June 12th.

[A pilgrimage by hundreds of faith leaders,  spiritual leaders, of every Spirit-led community.

Please join us by clicking here: https://tinyurl.com/propheticpilgrimage

[Some may choose to begin their pilgrimage where they live and walk in relays to Washington. Others may gather and journey from places of pain like the synagogues in Pittsburgh, the church in South Carolina, mosques under attack, places destroyed and disappeared like Paradise, California. Like "Paradise, Everywhere."

[There follows the Call to #PropheticPilgrimage that grew out of that moment, signed by the initial Planning Committee.
Please join us by clicking here: https://tinyurl.com/propheticpilgrimage  (Others are signing as I send this.)

[We will send the signers specific details on precisely where and at what time we will gather on June 12 in Washington for the last stage of our #PropheticPilgrimage to the White House].

Shalom, salaam, paz, peace, namaste! --  Arthur]
### ### ###
 
We know God hears the cries of God’s people who are suffering increasingly under the vengeful leadership and harmful policies of our current Administration. Policies that ignore the cries of the poor, the sick, the widowed, the women, the children, the land, and the stranger among us. We, as a nation, have lost our way.
 
In such moments, God’s call to action is made known through the voice of the Prophets:

"Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a shofar [ram’s horn], and show My people their transgression."  [Isaiah 58:1]
 
As President Trump and his administration let the nation suffer, we must lead with a unified proactive and creative response that is not embedded in right left, Democrat or Republican, but is rooted in the clear vision of right and wrong. It is time to warn the nation and call this administration to repent of their sins.

We call  you to a #PropheticPilgrimage!

In the wake of the Mueller Report, this Administration is defiantly refusing to submit to Congressional oversight or to acknowledge the venality confirmed by an investigation of its inner-workings. The Constitution, which remains as the common basis for our shared life, our covenant is being attacked in broad daylight. 
 
Extremist leaders driven by the idols of racism, greed, and power have broken the Covenant.
 
With each slash at the 14th Amendment and denial of people’s very existence, this administration breaks the Covenant. With each border agent commanded by our rulers to rip families apart; with each attempt to deny health care to millions of people; with each pipeline leaking death to communities across this country; with each ballot denied and voice defiled, this administration breaks the covenant.

The prophet Jeremiah proclaims God’s orders when the leaders in a land abandon the Covenant:


“Go to the royal palace and deliver this Message. Say, ‘Listen to what God says, O King of Judah, you who sit on David’s throne—you and your officials and all the people who go in and out of these palace gates.'


"This is God’s Message: Attend to matters of justice. Set things right between people. Rescue victims from their exploiters. Don’t take advantage of the homeless, the foreigners, the orphans, the widows. Stop the murdering!


 "If you obey these commands, then kings who follow in the line of David will continue to go in and out of these palace gates mounted on horses and riding in chariots—they and their officials and the citizens of Judah. But if you don’t obey these commands, then I swear—God’s Decree!—this palace will end up a heap of rubble." (Jeremiah 22:1-5 )

Friends, it  is time for us to go together to the palace gates with a clarion call:
 
Stop the weaponization of judicial appointments!
Attend to the 14th Amendment, the bedrock of equal protection under the law, not attack it.
 
Stop mandating a census question designed to ensure millions are uncounted!
Attend to the 14th Amendment: Heal and empower the millions poor and of low wealth, not undermine their representation.
 
Stop the abuse of executive power to pollute our communities with pipelines, our planet by burning Carbon!
Attend to our water and air, not privatize it while deserting human rights.
 
Stop the assault on the Affordable Care Act and on health care for women and children in poverty!
Attend to the health of your people, not policies of violence.
 
Stop the brutal treatment of the stranger at the southern border!
Attend to compassionate and humane immigration policies that affirm the divinity within all human beings.
 
What all these sinful acts have in common is that instead of covenantal leadership for justice, compassion, the empowerment of all, and healing, they pursue subjugation: subjugation of racial, religious, ethnic, and gender minorities; of women; of children; of the suffocating middle class, workers, family farmers, the poor, and people who fall sick; of immigrants and refugees; of the free press; of the Constitution; even of Earth, our common home. This hate-filled subjugation violates the Covenant. It must not stand.
 
We are asking you to join us outside the White House on June 12th.
 
Just after Ramadan, Shavuot, and Pentecost, hundreds of faith leaders will journey to DC. Of those hundreds, some may hear the call upon their spirits to engage in nonviolent moral action. Some may be called there as witnesses. But all are needed to bear witness together in this moment.  
 
The Scriptures do not call us to ideological purity tests or to precisely worded positions on each aspect of sensitive topics. Instead, Jeremiah calls to us at the heart of our deepest religious convictions and the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution: love, justice and equal protection under the law.
 
We cannot be divided.
 
We cannot be complacent.
 
We must act so that people are called to a moral awakening. In the wake of the new post-Mueller report reality, we must deliver a moral report.
 
June 12th draws on the wisdom of the sacred festivals of the Abrahamic communities that come just before. The Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Interbreathing that gives life to ALL traditions, all communities, all life-forms, is speaking through us.  
 
We are asking you to come to Washington, D.C., on June 12th. Share this invitation with your colleagues. Let us know you can come by registering your contact information here.  Please join us by clicking here: https://tinyurl.com/propheticpilgrimage
 
We must journey toward freedom and awaken this country once more.  It is time. June 12th.
 
Join us!

Bishop William J. Barber II, Moral Monday Architect; President and Senior Lecturer, Repairers of the Breach; Pastor, Greenleaf Christian Church; Co-chair, Poor People's Campaign; National NAACP Board Member

Rev. Traci D. Blackmon, Associate General Minister, United Church of Christ

Rabbi Mordechai Liebling, Director of Social Justice Organizing Program, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College

Imam Al-Hajj Talib 'Abdur-Rashid, Ameer/President, The Muslim Alliance in North America

Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, Director, Kairos Center

Rabbi Dr. Arthur Ocean Waskow, Director, The Shalom Center

Minister Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Director, School for Conversion

From Ancient Bible to Green New Deal Today

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

What is the "Green New Deal"? To start with,  here is a graphic description:

[This visual summary was shaped by Alanna Kleinman, rabbinical student and an Ira Silverman Memorial Intern at The Shalom Center.]

There are at least two ways in which ancient biblical traditions point toward support for the Green New Deal and its youthful energizers, the Sunrise Movement.

Before I explain those two ways, let me first share two next steps forward:

1) All around the country, the Sunrise Movement is carrying out a “teaching tour” about the Green New Deal, with town halls in many cities. To access places where a Town Hall is scheduked, please click to https://www.sunrisemovement.org/tour

2) The Shalom Center is weaving a four-session Webinar on how to bring the best of spiritual wisdom into our own commitment to lift up life and justice. That is our way of turning the hearts of the Elders to the hearts of the Youngers. For details on how to join in doing that, please click to

https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/event/register?id=24&reset=1

Now – how can a 3000-year-old tradition speak to our climate crisis today?

First, the biblical moment of transformation — the one we have just remembered at Passover – is about the Resistance against Pharaoh. And Pharaoh is described as a tyrant who not only subjugates and murders human beings but also through his stubbornness, cruelty, and obsessive addiction to his own power brings many “plagues” upon his own country. These plagues are all ecological disasters. Because of them, people thirst, hunger, and die.

We learn that social injustice –- subjugating people -- and ecological insanity –- attempting to subjugate Earth, our common home --   are deeply intertwined. Today we face Corporate Carbon Pharaohs who despoil Earth, endanger the entire planetary web of life, and in the process bring flood, fire, drought, disease -- and Death – upon the peoples of the world.  And today we see a Rising Resistance.

Secondly: Whence comes this Resistance? The very last passage of the last of the Hebrew Prophets, Malachi 3: 23-24, speaks for God Who is the Interbreathing Spirit of all life: “I will send you Elijah the Prophet to turn the hearts of the parents to the children and the hearts of the children to the parents, lest I come and smite the Earth with utter destruction.”  

It is the Youth and the Elders working together, with love for each other, that must prevent the utter destruction of Earth.

And according to Malachi, what is the destruction that endangers us all? “The day is coming that will burn like a furnace. But those who revere My Interbreathing Name [YHWH] will find a remedy in the wings, the rays, of a sun of justice.”  (Malachi 3:  19-21)

Dare we say that the day is hard upon us of global scorching, the burning of our planet like a furnace? And that the remedy is solar energy and the wind created by those flapping solar wings?

Dare we say that the young people who by the hundreds sat-in on Speaker Pelosi’s office when she pooh-poohed the Green New Deal are the “children” to whom the “parents” must turn our hearts?

Dare we say that the ancient biblical message teaches that social justice and ecological sanity -- compassion and sharing among human beings and among humankind and all the other life-forms of our planet – is necessary for our lives to flourish in our own generation?

The policy positions that join social justice and eco-justice are encoded in the Green New Deal.  

Sunrise explains:

The town hall will feature a number of political, movement, and community leaders as speakers. This community forum in Philly will enhance the network of local leaders for the GND and set the vision for a GND in Philadelphia. The far right has been waging an all out attack on the GND at the federal level, but through events like town halls we can show that we have the grassroots support on our side, and vision for what the GND would mean for Philadelphia.

Participants will reflect on the pain of living through the climate crisis, the fury at the fossil fuel billionaires and political elites who have failed us, the hope of finally having an opportunity to solve the crisis, and the resolve to see that opportunity all the way through to governing power.

Speakers will include political leaders who are championing the effort for the Green New Deal in City Hall and local community leaders who are leading the way to the transition to a society that works for all of us and protects the air we breathe, water we drink, and places we call home.

And to put you in a hope-filled mood for the Green New Deal town meeting, you can enjoy a light-hearted yet instructive glimpse into the future of “how we faced down our modern pharaohs to save ourselves and Planet Earth.” Watch this video in which Congresswoman AOC sketches – literally sketches! -- that possible future history:

https://www.facebook.com/sunrisemvmt/videos/2444764575568498/?__xts__[0]=68.ARB_FJzSrSMbCIL9FlcB86atwsjvckWDUzvg3_BRPUVsmc890aQzPSRgQQD6ZCDpWHOyfiOo92i96hW43pPvIhccXHGHxGmXpqT2mNhQNgZ0LMY1-D5dLOb7ta4MRxKWp9kzBACEbAKmTeAsEIa21Uw3jhWmwKWYiZzAH2SsIpmkluJHrQUj7P0s3trVWWyV35ZJbL8sxYNPf99_49f3Z7OU7z0iTOhz2qvpMGk1_RRwhjPSXV3TU14DGDIxi7osorSQ_XdNSn_q94pCx4N_gD93N6aRcYAXk4ENcDfUSs4oGLPh0lC4pAtYzIDmU6Yujb3WJUuhDICKLG-3vwBMLqRy6kQ-ZvPh9hx-XBt-&__tn__=-R

Remember: The Shalom Center is weaving a four-session Webinar on how to bring the best of spiritual wisdom into our own commitment to lift up life and justice. That is our way of turning the hearts of the Elders to the hearts of the Youngers. For details on how to join in doing that, please click to

https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/event/register?id=24&reset=1

Webinar: Climate, Torah, Activism

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

Healing Earth in 4 Worlds --

Prayer, Wisdom, Activism, Hands-on

 I will be leading and weaving a Webinar on four aspects of healing the deeply wounded climate that is already flooding, burning, droughting, and diseasing many patches of our planet, and threatens far worse to human civilization in every region. 

The Webinar will run on four Tuesday evenings – May 7, 14, 21, and 28, from 7 to 9 pm, Eastern Time. It will especially address how to draw on religious and spiritual traditions, practices, and symbols to awaken into vigorous action the “sleepy giant” of our religious communities. The sessions will be recorded; so they will be available for watching if you cannot make those dates.

Why am I doing this? There is the out-there reason and the in-here reason.

“Out there,” the human race is faced with the most momentous crisis in our history as a species –- the climate crisis, brought on us by the behavior we have allowed from a group of Corporate Carbon  Pharaohs and their governmental enablers. In the Hebrew Bible is encoded a treasury of the spiritual experience long ago of an indigenous people, whose shepherds and farmers lived close to the Earth and cared for it. 

“In here”: I have been working on healing our climate, our Earth, and ourendangred humanity for almost 20 years. Many people have led or taken part in activist sit-ins, marches, lobbies; a number of people have explored the spiritual religious wisdom about Earth. Very few have done both. I am one of the few people who has both explored the deep meanings of Torah as it addresses food kashrut and energy eco-kashrut, the earthiness of festivals, and the sacred Earth-protecting covenant between the generations; and has also been an activist for change in the streets, our pocketbooks, and the halls of Congress. 

Today we can draw on the ancient sacred treasury of Earthy wisdom and of course transform it to meet the needs of our own generation –--  the most urgent and creative midrash we have ever needed – in prayer, theology, activism, and hands-on change.


The Jewish mystics taught that the Creation of the world unfolded in four stages: God’s sheer Intention to create; Intellectual and Artistic creativity; emotional Interconnection; and actual Physicality.

This Webinar will in four sessions explore how these Four Worlds can provide a pattern for human beings to undertake fiercely urgent transformational work to heal our common home.  

1) Direct prayerful experience of the Earth (e.g. going outside to hear the Trees’ prayer as part of our own prayer service);

(2) Biblical theology of Earth (e.g. the meanings of Eden, manna, Pharaoh’s plagues, Shabbat, the Sabbatical Year);

3) Public ceremonies and other forms of activism that unite spirituality, eco-sanity, and social justice;

(4) Hands-on healing action (e.g. organizing solar co-ops. 

Please click  to https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/event/register?id=24&reset=1

in order to register for the Webinar --including for access to the recordings.

Shalom, Arthur

Campus Freedom Seders, BDS, & Israel: Freedom For Whom, Exactly?

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

I am sharing with you an article from an on-line campus Jewish magazine. The article used the original Freedom Seder of 50 years ago as the springboard for a discussion of how to treat debate over Israeli-Palestinian relations. Naturally, as the author of said original Freedom Seder, I was intrigued. And I responded.  Here are the original article and my response to it.

#FreedomSeder50: Treasury of Films, Live-Streams, Articles, etc

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

The Shalom Center invites you to celebrate the Interfaith #FreedomSeder50 with us, during Passover or whatever time you set aside for reflection, commitment, and action.

  1. Browse or download the program booklet. 
  2. Gather some friends of any faith tradition. 
  3. Watch and share the videeo vignettes or the whole live-stream in your gatherings. 
  4. Consider contributing to the Shalom Center.
  5. Co-create freedom, justice, and healing of the Earth in your own way.
[ Above: Rev. Dr. William Barber and the wonderfully multiracial, multireligious, multigendered line-up of speakers and singers]

LIVESTREAM FULL VIDEO OF INTERFAITH FREEDOM SEDER + 50 with thanks to Bonfire Media Collective - Maddie Taterka and Helyx Chase Scearce Horwitz

To watch full video, click triangle in the middle of the photo below.


PROGRAM BOOKLET PDF with thanks to Jim Gerhard, design & layout

PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER ARTICLES with thanks to Ron Goldwyn, media coordinator

PHOTOS FROM APRIL 7, 2019 SHALOM CENTER FREEDOM SEDER + 50 with thanks to Ellie Seiff, photographer

[Below: Ana Maria Archila, Rev Rhetta Morgan, Rev.Greg Holston]


NOTES WITH TIME MARKERS FOR LIVESTREAM VIDEO with thanks to Arlene Goldbard, Shalom Center board president

CONTRIBUTE TO THE SHALOM CENTER 

Elijah at Your Seder & New "Go Down Moses"

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

Dear friends, I have already written you how transformed and transformative was the #FreedomSeder50 just over a week ago, including Reverend William Barber's prophetic outcry for a protest by hundreds of clergy at the White House on June 6. I also shared how the Bible’s story of ancient resistance by women echoes in the painful and hope-filled stories of the subjugation and resistance of women today, told by Ana Maria Archila.  

Today I want to bring you two more aspects of the #FreedomSeder50  that you can bring into your own Seder, or into Holy Thursday tonight, or into evening iftar break-fasts during Ramadan soon to come.

We began the Seder evening by lifting up one of the most basic aspects of the Seder: the dialogue between elders and the younger generation. (For an exploration of this aspect of the Seder, see my paragraph just after the "Read more" in red at the "end"of this essay.)This time the dialogue was for the sake of the survival of the human race and much of life on earth.

On the Shabbat just before Pesach begins, we hear this same intergenerational motif by reading the last passage of the last of the Prophets, Malachi 3:23-24: “Before the coming of the great and awesome day of YHWH, the Interbreathing Spirit of the world, I will send you Elijah the Prophet to turn the hearts of the parents to the children and the hearts of the children to the parents, lest I [God] come and smite the Earth with utter destruction.”

So we did what the words say. We made ourselves Elijah. We brought the hearts of elders and youngers to meet each other by facing the most dangerous of all the tyrannical oppressions of our modern Pharaohs: their obsession with burning the world for the sake of Hyper-Profits. In the dinner just before the Seder, we brought me as Elder and a young man, Xavier Thomas, together to respond to the danger that our planet, our only home, is on the verge of burning.

On Seder night, just before you open the door for Elijah, you can overhear what it must mean for us all to become Elijah, by clicking here and sharing these seven minutes with the table:

Rabbi Waskow & Xavier Thomas: Elijah’s Covenant between the Generations, the Sunrise Movement, and the Green New Deal: <https://vimeo.com/330534521/34dfc639ea>

Three hours later, we ended the Seder by singing an old song created by Black America to recall the ancient Jewish liberation, Go Down Moses. We took its stretch across the centuries and different cultures to another level, with two new verses for the present and the future. . We invite you to join with #FreedomSeder50 by clicking to hear Reverend Rhetta Morgan lead us:

Rev Rhetta Morgan: "Go Down Moses"  or <https://youtu.be/DMm-pdVCNdo>

When Israel was in Egypt’s land, Let My people go;
Oppressed so hard they could not stand, Let My people go;
Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt’s land,
Tell old Pharaoh: Let My people go!
 
As Israel stood by the water-side, Let My people go;
At God’s command it did divide, Let My people go.
Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt’s land,
Tell old Pharaoh: Let My people go!
 
When they had reached the other shore, Let My people go;
They sang the song of freedom o’er, Let My people go.
Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt’s land,
Tell old Pharaoh: Let My people go!
 
Oh, set all Earth from bondage free, Let all My peoples go;
And let all life be free to Be, Let air and water flow.
Rise up, Yes Rise up -- No longer down in every land  --
Tell ALL Pharaohs: Let My Creation grow!
 
As we live here in America, Set our people free!
In all our colors we Resist, from Sea to shining Sea!
Rise up, O People, Rise up all across our Land--
Tell new Pharaohs, your oppressions will not stand!

And as I did yesterday, once more I invite you to bring into your own Seder the moment when  400 of us were deeply moved by the prophetic fervor with which  Reverend William Barber called for a: gathering of 1,000 clergy of all faiths at the White House on June 6. He quoted -- and more than quoted, he channeled -- Jeremiah's call to challenge a corrupt and murderous king at his own royal palace.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g64-r2NUn8k&feature=youtu.be

At a Seder, you could connect it with the Haggadah passage that says, ““In every generation, all human beings must look upon ourselves as if we ourselves, not our forebears only, go forth from slavery to freedom.”

We offer these videos as a gift for your own Seder, or Holy Thursday tonight, or an evening Iftar break-fast early in Ramadan (which begins in the Western calendar on the evening of May 5).  Once you have watched these videos yourself, please send this letter to all your friends and post it to social media with the hashtag #FreedomSeder50.

And then please feel free to play these brief video moments for everyone around your table to see, to hear, to discuss.

We at The Shalom Center will work to make these prophetic seeds grow into reality.  Please join us in growing them by making a contribution to The Shalom Center, and by spreading this message.

Please  share this letter with your friends by clicking to https://theshalomcenter.org

and please click on the maroon “Contribute” button just below.

Blessings that we sow the seeds of fuller freedom now and grow them to flower in our future! --  Arthur

Your Seder: "What Is This Matzah?" "Who are these Troublesome Women?"

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

Dear friends, I have already written you how transformed and transformative was the #FreedomSeder50 just over a week ago. My letter yesterday lifted up for you Reverend William Barber's prophetic outcry for a protest by hundreds of clergy at the White House on  June 6.

Today I want to bring you some other aspects of the #FreedomSeder50  that you can bring into your own Seder, or into your own observance of the other holy festivals that Christians are observing now and Muslims will be observing very soon.

The traditional Seder does not  lift up the early resistance to Pharaoh that was initiated by women. First there were the midwives Shifra and Puah, who refused to obey Pharaoh's orders to kill newborn boys of the Hebrew-speaking community. Then there were Miriam and Pharaoh's own daughter, who joined in an "international feminist conspiracy" to save Moses' life from the same murderous decree.

Both the order itself and the women's resistance are echoed in our own lives today, as children are ripped fom their parents' arms and forced to live in cages, traumatized, and as  women march outside the official political system and as new office-holders within it speak unwelcome truths.

At the #FreedomSeder50  Ana Maria Archila, who confronted a US Senator with  Truth in a US Capitol elevator, spoke her own truth in a profoundly moving story of her life. it was quite different in tone from Reverend Barber's outcry -- and just as deep.  We suggest that at your  Seder, read the passage about Shifra and Puah from Exodus I: 15-21, and then introduce into your Seder this moment of a woman's truth today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFhbB-PVc-8&feature=youtu.be

And there is a moment in the Seder when we lift up the Matzah to explain how this bread of affliction, the bread of the desperately poor and powerless, became the bread of freedom. At that moment we invite you to bring into the Seder the brief video of my own lifting of the Matzah at the #FreedomSeder50 -- in which I connected the Matzah with a teaching of Dr. Martin Luther King. You can watch it now at --

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLou4WpS0yA&feature=youtu.be

And as I did yesterday, I invite you once more to bring into your own Seder the moment when  400 of us were deeply moved by the prophetic fervor with which  Reverend William Barber called for a: gathering of 1,000 clergy of all faiths at the White House on June 6. He quoted -- and more than quoted, he channeled -- Jeremiah's call to challenge a corrupt and murderous king at his own royal palace.

To have just a taste of that moment, click this link to watch and hear four minutes of Reverend Barber’s prophetic eloquence:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g64-r2NUn8k&feature=youtu.be

At a Seder, you could connect it with the Haggadah passage that says, ““In every generation, all human beings must look upon ourselves as if we ourselves, not our forebears only, go forth from slavery to freedom.”

We offer these videos as a gift for your own Seder, or Holy Thursday, or an evening Iftar break-fast early in Ramadan. Please feel free to play these brief video moments for everyone around your table to see, to hear, to discuss. Once you have watched these videos yourself, please send this letter to all your friends and post it to social media with the hashtag #FreedomSeder50.

We need your help to move forward with all that was catalyzed at the Seder, especially Reverend Barber's impassioned call for clergy to come to the White House on June 6. I have been invited by Reverend Barber to join the planning committee and the Council of Prophetic Voices for that action.

Our work is certainly cut out for us – it will take time and money --  to reach out to Jewish and other clergy, encourage support by all communities of Spirit, and engage the media so everyone is aware of this historic action. Please join us in making this Call a reality by making a contribution to The Shalom Center, and by spreading this message.

Please  share this letter with your friends by clicking to https://theshalomcenter.org/your-seder-what-matzah-who-are-these-troublesome-women

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