CiviMail

Trump: Tyranny, Cruelty, Strategy

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

Yesterday Donald Trump used the power of the presidency to protect himself from the ongoing FBI investigation:  

 Did he or his supporters collude with the government of Russia to corrupt American democracy and win his own election?

 His firing of FBI director Comey was a travesty on justice and the Constitution, and his trumped-up “explanation” of it was a deliberate middle-finger  “F--- you!” to the American people. (Long ago my teen-age kids taught me that ”Forget you!” was an even worse attack on someone’s dignity. Trump’s assault on our memory and dignity combines the two.)

He assaulted democracy "within" the law, like the takeovers of other tyrants in not-too-distant memory.

People protest is the only worthy response. The Shalom Center has already written our members and friends in and near Washington DC, encouraging them to take part in the White House protest at NOON TODAY, called by MoveOn. 

We urge that all around the country, we help organize such protests at Federal buildings. We urge that clergy of all faiths, lawyers of all political persuasions,  teachers of all disciplines  --  our neighbors  of all regions and origins --  name this putsch exactly that – a tyrannical act to annul democracy. We urge that protesters fly the American flag – this way:

 

We have also written several key independent-minded organizers suggesting that if there is no serious motion by — say — next Monday to create an official independent investigation of Trump & Russia, that they create a high-profile People’s Commission of Investigation made up of people like this —  

  • Sally Yates, the deans of a couple of law schools, if possible Judge Merrick Garland;
  •  
  •  a few clergy —  e..g Jim Wallis at Sojourners, Rabbi David Saperstein, Sister Simone Campbell of “Nuns on the Bus,” Joseph Cardinal Tobin (the new Archbishop of Newark, appointed by Pope Francis);  
  •  
  • Reps. John Lewis and/or Elijah Cummings and/or Barbara Lee —   
  •  
  • former Republican NJ Governor "Christie" Todd Whitman; 
  •  
  • Senator Elizabeth Warren.

 Such a Commission would not have formal subpoena power but would have great public clout to invite/ force witnesses to appear and could put them under oath through affidavits. 

 Don’t wait! --  Demand a formal independent Commission. Crowd your way into your Congressmembers’ home offices, or on the doorstep. Don’t leave till they commit to supporting it.  That has been one of the most successful tactics so far, in mounting the Resistance.

And tell the truth about how tyranny turns into cruelty.

 Most tyrants resort to cruelty when resistance to their tyranny endangers them. Some tyrants make cruelty a plank in the platform of their ascent to power.

 Beginning in the days when Trump used humiliation in his reality TV program, giving viewers shivers of delight as he snarled, "You’re fired!" he has used cruelty as part of  his toolbox to gain power.

 Then his cruelty was psychological. As candidate and as president, he has made it physical.

  • It is physically cruel to repeal regulations that keep our water pure, protecting our children from mercury and lead.
  • It is physically cruel to deprive 24 million Americans of their health insurance, as he is trying to do.
  • It is physically cruel to deprive sick people of access to carefully controlled medical marijuana, even where states have concluded it is life-supporting. 
  • It is physically cruel to reopen and re-escalate the US war in Afghanistan, sentencing American soldiers and Afghan civilians to death and maiming.
  • It is physically cruel to order immigrant families who are living calmly in the United States to be shattered by deportations.
  • It is physically cruel to incite arson attacks on mosques.
  • It is physically cruel to deprive low-income women of the only health clinics they can afford.
  • It is physically cruel to worsen the climate chaos that has brought on droughts, famines, floods, storms of refugees, thousands of deaths.

When Trump fired Comey, the point was not to humiliate him but to humble us  -- We the People.  Not a TV show but naked top-down anti-democratic power. This tyrannical act is intended to  disempower us, to male it possible to impose cruelty on myriads of people,.

Why? Maybe egomania, narcissism, even sadistic pleasure in subjugating others. (Remember his delight in physically assaulting women.) AND -- this tyranny, thse cruelties now has a strategy -- for the sake of enriching himself, a few thousand hyper-wealthy Americans , and a few hundred global corporations.

What do we do? First we tell each other the truth, as I have tried to do in this letter to you –- and I welcome your thoughts and responses, which I will be glad to share with our readers and members.

Then we plan how to renew democracy from the bottom up. In the next few days,  I and others here at The Shalom Center  will share with you our sense of strategy, of how to do this. 

Our strategy must be rooted in our spiritusl commitment.  To draw on a old poem by Robbie Burns for new purposes --


Now’s the day and now’s the hour;

See encroach cruel Donald’s power

Watch his minions sneer and glower—

Hoping that we’ll flee.

 

Americans whom Lincoln led,

Americans whose Roosevelt said,

"Fear alone will leave us dead!"   --

Will you retreat to sleepy bed

Or struggle to be free?

 

We who Constitution follow

Know his threats will be but hollow

If we together Justice hallow -- 

Sow seeds of change on earth that’s fallow--  

On to victory!

And if we help each other –- financially as well as emotionally.   WE need your help. Please click on the maroon button omn the lef-hand margin to send us contributions that we urgently need if we are to continue working against tyranny,  against cruelty, against a strategy of subjugation. Every gift helps; if you can begin with $180 and give more if you can, that would be wonderful.

Many thanks. Blessings to you of grit, commitment,  creativity. --   Arthur

McKibben: From Sunday School to Sit-Down & Jail

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

 

Sunday evening, May 21 --

Please join us to meet Bill McKibben, 

“Sow Seeds of Transformative Leadership”

To register, click here:

<https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/event/register?id=17&reset=1>

 

If  possible, please come in person -- you'll learn more and sing more heartfully.

Or even if you cannot make it to Philadelphia. to contribute your personal message of hope and honor to the Tribute Book being assembled for this event. -- The Tribute Book goes to press Monday, May 8 -- so register NOW and submit the text of your  tribute TODAY. (It can honor our three honorees, or the work of The Shalom Center, or your own kid who is graduating into a world we need to heal, or ---- as you like).

However you help, you make it possible to advance The Shalom Center’s work in taking on our own new transformative direction.

AND – you get to honor and to learn fom Bill McKibben, Bishop Dwayne Royster, and Sophia Wilansky. We have written about two of them already; here is what drew us in the first place to honor Bill:

Bill McKibben -- world-renowned leader of  350.org and of campaigns against the Keystone XL Tar Sands dirty-oil Pipeline  -- is now exploring the next steps to resist the Trumpian feverish insistence on wrecking Mother Earth and subjecting our kids to lead and mercury poisoning.

His road to eco-activism began by teaching Sunday school.  “In my Sunday school class,” he said, “We tended to do a lot of hiking. We always celebrated St. Francis Day. We’d bring in everybody’s pets to get blessed, but also I would make sure that the children brought in representative fauna from the forest—mosquitoes and snakes too—just to make the point that it’s all creation and it’s all blessed.

From there, his life-path led to his creative work first in shaping the world-wide 350.org events, and then in leading the opposition to the XL Tar Sands Dirty-Oil Pipeline.



One of the crucial moments in his work was the demonstration in 2011 at the White House against President Obama’s support for the Tar Sands dirtiest-oil Pipeline. As  McKibben wrote, 

“The police, surprised by how many people turned out on the first day of two weeks of protests at the White House, decided to teach us a lesson. As they told our legal team, they wanted to deter anyone else from coming -- and so with our first crew they were… kind of harsh. We spent three days in D.C.’s Central Cell Block…. You lie on a metal rack with no mattress or bedding and sweat in the high heat; the din is incessant; there’s one baloney sandwich with a cup of water every 12 hours.

“ It’s only now, out 12 hours and with a good night’s sleep under my belt, that I’m able to think straight.”

And he wrote poignantly of how his deep respect for Martin Luther King had grown even greater as he realized under what conditions King was able to write the “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”

The police miscalculated. The three-day jailing, far from deterring protest,  brought more attention, more energy, and more resistance.  The Tar Sands Pipeline became a national issue. And after years of growing protest, President Obama finally vetoed the Pipeline. But like a hydra with a dozen poisonous heads  --  even though most had been cut off, a few still survived long enough to be revived by President Trump.

Meanwhile, McKibben went forward. He mobilized what became widespread movements, especially on campuses,  to divest from the Carbon Pharaohs. In 2016, he wrote writing transformative planet-defending commitments into the Democratic Party platform as one of  Bernie Sanders’ nominees to the Platform Committee.  He threw his pen and his presence into the People’s Climate March just past.

 Now, after the Climate March, comes the even harder part: Facing the Trump presidency, is “resistance” enough? Is there any way forward? How can we connect the Climate issue to all the others now on the chopping block?  Here is Bill with Aaron Mair, head of the Sierra Club.


So we welcome you to hear Bill’s thoughts about these questions, along with those of Bishop Royster and Sophia Wilansky, at The Shalom Center ‘s “Sowing Seeds of Transformative Leadership” gathering on Sunday evening, May 21. Please register now by clicking here:

<https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/event/register?id=17&reset=1>  --

 I look forward to seeing you then – to honor, to learn, to sing, to renew our selves and our commitment to Mother Earth and our grandchildren.

 Shalom, salaam, peace, Earth!  --  Arthur

Heal Earth & America: Honor Transformative McKibben, Royster, Wilansky -- May 21

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

 Sow the Seeds of Transformative Leadership;

Stand Today with Seed-Sowers for Spirit, Justice, Beauty

Even as fear and danger rise, something new is emerging in our world. At Standing Rock, we saw activism braiding culture, spirituality, and politics so seamlessly that no one could pull them apart, and so powerfully that its force reverberated around the globe.

The Water Protectors inspired our work going forward to achieve planetary and social justice. They expressed the life-giving unity that echoes in Jews’ daily repetition of the Sh’ma, the exhortation to listen deeply to the truth that the Source of Life is One.

To catalyze future action, to mark the moment, to rise in the face of terrible forces and persist, we are gathering in Philadelphia on May 21st to honor three towering figures who understand this new, indivisible power to move hearts, minds, and miracles. This moment is calling you in:

Please join us to attend “Sowing Seeds of Transformative Leadership”

<https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/event/register?id=17&reset=1>  --

whether in person,  or  to contribute your personal message of hope and honor to the Tribute Book being assembled for this event. -- even if you cannot make it to Philadelphia.

Please be aware that after May 7, the contribution level rises – so act NOW!

However you help, you make it possible to advance The Shalom Center’s work in taking on our own new transformative direction. See below for what we mean!

 At the same time, you will be honoring these transformative leaders:

  • Bill McKibben, world-renowned leader of  350.org and of campaigns against the Keystone XL Tar Sands dirty-oil Pipeline  -- now exploring the next step to resist the Trumpian feverish insistence on wrecking Mother Earth and subjecting our kids to lead and mercury poisoning.
  • Bishop Dwayne Royster, former director of POWER in Philadelphia, instigator of POWER’s jobs-and-climate alliance with EQAT (Earth Quaker Action Team); now the political director of PICO, the national umbrella for religious congregation-based community organizing, with a special involvement with African-American and Latino communities; and

  • Sophia Wilansky, the young anti-pipeline organizer who, after stints working against oil-delivery pipelines in New England and New York, came to Standing Rock as a Water Protector and was cruelly wounded by the militarized police. Sophia will be introduced by Chief Dwaine Perry of the Ramapough Lenape, recently featured by the NY Times for his Nation’s resistance to yet another water-poisoning pipeline.

What is more, even if you think you already know what and who The Shalom Center  is, “Seeds of Transformative Leadership“ is a restart-place for us as well. We will sow our own seeds of transformation. Here’s how:

Passionate Compassion on May 21: Who is Sophia Wilansky? Sign up now!

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

Join Chief Perry of the Ramapough Lenape in Honoring Ms. Wilansky: Register Now

On Sunday evening, May 21, The Shalom Center will honor Sophia Wilansky, an extraordinarily heroic young activist who was acting on the best of Jewish tradition and values as a Water Protector at Standing Rock when she was cruelly wounded by the militarized police. 

We ask you to join in honoring her that evening.

NOW is when to make your contribution and reserve your seat or place your tribute for Sunday evening, May 21. Click here to make sure you have a place: 

<https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/event/register?id=17&reset=1> 

 On May 7 the contribution cost for the celebration goes up, so NOW is the time to reserve your seat or place your Tribute, or both. 

That same evening, we will honor Bill McKibben, world-renowned leader of the climate-activist movement, and Bishop Dwayne Royster, eloquent speaker and adept leader of POWER in Philadelphia and PICO nationally.

They will share their courage and their wisdom at Congregation Mishkan Shalom in Philadelphia, in support of The Shalom Center’s work for eco-social justice, peace, and healing of our wounded Mother Earth.

For a deeper sense of what Sophia Wilansky faced and faces, I suggest you take a moment to watch her father be interviewed shortly after the police attack at Standing Rock. Click here:

<http://forward.com/news/355245/watch-tearful-father-of-injured-jewish-standing-rock-protester/?attribution=articles-article-related-1-img>

 And for a sense of Ms. Wilansky’s own values, even while she was under enormous stress and pain --  still in the Minnesota hospital after the attack on her --  she wrote:  “If anyone else is hurt on the frontlines and needs to pay up front and out-of-pocket for time-sensitive emergency medical care, I would be happy to either lend or give the money out of my medical fund. I think that I received a disproportionate amount of money because I’m white, so I want to make sure that all the Sioux and other native people are taken care of as well.”

Ms. Wilansky will be introduced by Chief Dwaine Perry of the Ramapough Lenape, recently featured by the NY Times for his Nation’s resistance to yet another water-poisoning pipeline. Here they are together, after she was honored by the Ramapough.

 

Why is The Shalom Center honoring Ms. Wilansky?

 Since our founding in 1983, we have thought, taught, and acted on a Prophetic sense of Jewish life: The deepest root of eco-social justice is the spiritual sense of passionate compassion of human beings toward each other, and in the relationships of adam and adamah, human “earthlings” and the Earth.

For me personally, that has meant that alongside the 24 books of religious and ethical thought that I have written are 23 arrests in nonviolent action to heal our country and our world from racism, religious bigotry, aggressive and self-destructive wars, and the wounds we have violently inflicted on our Mother Earth.

So for us it has been a blessing to watch and support the Native Lakota Nation and its allies who gathered at Standing Rock, and the Ramapough Lenape,  and other First Nations who are struggling against the Corporate Carbon Pharaohs of our day.  Their bravery has reawakened that deep spiritual sense of Earth-connection among other Americans.

Ms. Wilansky represents in her own mind, soul, and body that blessing , that reawakening, that reconnection with our own ancient earth-based spirituality of shepherds and farmers in the Hebrew Bible.

We need your help to carry forward that spiritually rooted activism in the Age of Trumpery.

So we ask your presence to honor her, and Bill McKibben, and Bishop Royster --  and to make it possible to carry the Prophetic vision forward.·        

·       NOW is the time to reserve your seat or place your tribute for this amazing conversation and celebration:  Click to  <https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/event/register?id=17&reset=1>

·       Remember! --  On May 7 the contribution cost for the celebration goes up, so NOW is the time to register. 

 I repeat: We need your help. I do not use the word lightly.

Why We Honor Bishop Royster –

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

And Welcome You To Honor & to Learn

On Sunday, May 21, at Mishkan Shalom in Philadelphia, The Shalom Center is honoring Bishop Dwayne D. Royster along with Bill McKibben and Sophia Wilansky.  The celebration of these three is also a crucial fund-raising event to support The Shalom Center’s work, and we are inviting our members and friends to take part in order to learn, to celebrate, and to help make The Shalom Center’s work possible.

Who is Bishop Royster, and what is The Shalom Center’s connection with him?



Bishop Royster’s work is rooted in the Spirit. He founded and served as pastor of the Living Water United Church of Christ in Philadelphia. The UCC is perhaps the most vigorously progressive of the large Protestant churches in the United States. At the same time, Bishop Royster serves as the Assistant Presiding Bishop of Higher Ground Christian Fellowship International.

He stands and walks with one foot in the best of mainstream Protestantism, one foot in a more fluid network of Christian seekers – and his whole body in the great tradition of  eloquent Black ministers committed to grow an America of justice and Beloved Community.

Out of this commitment, Bishop Royster founded POWER  -- Philadelphians Organized to Witness, Empower and Rebuild.  POWER brought together churches, synagogues, and mosques to support community organizing efforts toward justice and a living wage for Philadelphia workers; an effectively budgeted and democratically controlled public school system; and deep reforms of the criminal-justice system to end its racism in police behavior and in mass incarceration.



You might say these issues are the obvious ones for any urban justice movement. Then Bishop Royster took the un-obvious step of connecting jobs for the disemployed with  creating transformative solutions for the climate crisis.  He encouraged POWER to work with the Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT) to demand that Philadelphia’s electric company train Black disemployed workers as solar-collector installers and begin a major program to solarize the most poverty-stricken neighborhoods in the city.

As he moved from the Philadelphia scene to the national one, and from Philadelphia to Washington DC, Bishop Royster said,

 “ My faith has been equally important to me --  longer than politics. It has been a hard decision to leave POWER and head to DC. Yet, I am feeling called to our nation’s capital for such a time as this.

“As the Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman asked in his book Jesus and the Disinherited, ‘What does our faith have to say to people with their backs up against the wall?’ For far too long the church has been a sleeping giant. It is time to ‘Wake Up!’

 “We must work to challenge the narratives and stories that have anesthetized our faith traditions into a dreamless slumber that does not even produce rest. We do not need a sleeping giant, but instead a massive army of faith people that calls this nation to its better self. A massive army that draws our faith communities out of the walls of their institutions and to care for the greater community that surrounds them, a call to care for all of God’s creation.’

 “So I head to Washington to be a faith warrior, to fight for a moral economy, to fight for racial justice, to fight for an end to mass incarceration, to fight for a pathway to citizenship, to fight for climate and environmental justice and to fight for issues yet to be named.”

Does this sound like a “prophetic voice,” like the one we at The Shalom Center strive to be?

On May 21, Bishop Royster will bring his insight, his eloquence, and his skills as organizer into a conversation with Bill McKibben and Sophia Wilansky. We urge you to come and learn, come and grow, come and help The Shalom Center keep growing into an ever deeper, fuller  prophetic voice.

And if you are too far away to come, please contribute through the Tribute Book. (See below.)  

REGISTRATION

Three aspects of the event are:

DINNER:  where registrants will be able to meet each other and our three honorees, 5-7pm.  

Click here to Register Now for the Dinner!

<https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/event/register?id=17&reset=1>

 HONOR EVENT:  A shared conversation in which the three honorees will talk with each other and other attendees, in Mishkan Shalom’s sanctuary, 7-9 pm. Click here to Register Now for the Honor Event!

<https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/event/register?id=17&reset=1>

TRIBUTE BOOK

Space is available in the nation-wide tribute book to publicize your community and/ or offer tribute to the honorees. 

To publish in the tribute book, click here:

<https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/event/register?id=16&reset=1>


Many thanks!  We look forward to welcoming you on May 21.

To Hear the Breathing Spirit of the Earth, a Gathering this July

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

As we face a deep crisis in the future of American democracy and in the future of our wounded Mother Earth, there are three levels of work we need to do.

We will need to intertwine the three levels; there can be no "before" and "after," because the new Trumpist government is throwing explosive hand grenades at us so quickly.

  • AGAINST the Trumpist hand-grenades: Resistance, in the streets and social media and voting booths.  (See more on this at the end of this essay.)
  • FOR new alternatives: MLK+ 50: A Jubilee Year of Truth and Transformation. (See more on this at the end of this essay.)
  • New ideas and new activists: We need to train, educate, and empower the active change-makers who can with skill of hands and wamth of heart and sharp of mind and depth of soul help us do this work.  Here is one place of the Indwelling Spirit where we will do this:

I hope to see you at the Ruach Ha'Aretz [Breathing-Spirit of the Earth] gathering this summer where that kind of unleashing of the creative power within each of us and all of us together will be the goal and the process of our learning.





Join us for a week-long retreat featuring classes with some remarkable teachers, musicians, and artists  -- some from Jewish renewal,  and extraordinary teachers from other faith traditions offering opportunities to learn about, experience, practice and question the path of healing ourselves and our world.

This year the theme of Ruach HaAretz  will be L’takken Olam: Healing All the Worlds…no exceptions! People can register at

<https://aleph.org/ruach-ha-aretz-2017>

I will be weaving a course on "Prayer as if the Earth Really Matters." It will address how  to act on two teachings of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, z'l. On the one hand, he taught that "prayer is meaningless unless it is subversive." We will explore how congregational prayer can become meaningfully subversive by fully awakening our concern to heal the Earth. On the other hand, he said that marching for voting rights alongside Martin Luther King in Selma felt like praying with his legs.  We will exploe how activist public challenges to change bad governmental or corporate  policy toward Mother Earth can become prayerful.  The course will include hands-on practical planning.
The list of classes:

Hazzan Steve Klaper, Brother Al Mascia, Mary Gilhuli, Becoming Whole / Becoming Healers

Rabbi Shefa Gold, The Exile From The Garden and Recovery From the Impact

Rabbi Jeff Roth, A Jewish Contemplative Practice Workshop

Rabbi Shulamit Thiede, Immigrants, Exiles, and Strangers: The Book of Ruth and Torah for Our Times

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Prayer as if the Earth Really Matters
Reb Bahira Sugarman & Rabbi Shaya Isenberg, Sage-ing: Wisdom of the Heart – A Vision for Inner and Outer Healing 
Cantor Linda Hirschhorn, Creating Midrash, Writing Songs           
Rabbi Diane Elliot, Dance of Healing

Rabbi Jill Hammer, Taya Shere, Shoshana Jedwab, Hand of Miriam: Jewish Elemental Technologies for Catalyzing Healing

Dr. Rachael Wooten, Healing Practices from the Path of Deep Ecumenism: Transform Your Suffering and Repair the Worlds.

Rabbi Laura Duhan Kaplan, I Asked for Wonder: Philosophy and the Spiritual Journey

Rabbi Lori Shaller & Rabbi Rain Zohav, Teaching Torah with Spirit

Rabbi Phyllis Berman, resident Spiritual Director


Join us for a week-long retreat with amazing teachers, activists, musicians, and artists -- some from within Judaism and some from other faith traditions --  offering opportunities to learn about, experience, practice and question the path of healing ourselves and our world.

As Ruach Ha’Aretz gathers in 2017, we hear the Spirit of the Earth calling us, in the words of the Aleynu prayer, “L’takken olam b’malkhut Shaddai – To heal the world through the majesty of Nurture.”

As we seek to heal and transform the world, we will find ourselves transformed; as we work to transform ourselves, we find our Earth transforming.

Embodying the Spirit of the Earth / Ruach Ha’Aretz, we meet this challenge to heal by exploring ways, old and new, to express wonder, celebration, joy and awe; to understand, to sing and to dance Torah anew; to connect deeply with other cultures; and to actively give birth to social transformation.

We hope that you will be able to join us!

Now let me return to the first two approaches that we must intertwine:

  • Against the hand-grenades:  We will need to deal with them as we have already begun to do: Millions in the Women's March; then between half a million and a million in the Airport Actions; millions calling and writing their Senators demanding they oppose Trump's anti-democratic nominees for Cabinet; planning for a People's Climate March on April 29  to challenge the Carbon Pharaohs who are cheerfully ready to scorch and burn the Earth in order to multiply their billions of dollars in profits; blocking confirmation of any nominee for the Supreme Court who will overturn Roe v Wade and allow states to strip voting rights from the Black, Latino, low-income. youth, and senior communities.
  • For new alternatives: We need to quicken our birthing of the new grass-roots communities and activist groups that can replace the top-down deadly grip of Robber Barons and Carbon Pharaohs on our economic and cultural and political lives.  Neighborhood solar co-ops. credit unions, city-owned public banks, universal health-care, urban farms, local festivals of local culture -- -- we will have to create all these and more. As we appoach the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's death, see especially <MLK50.org>  and submit your own ideas and plans for MLK+ 50: A Jubilee Year of Truth and Transformation.


With blessings of shalom, salaam, peace -- for all of us and for our Mother Earth!  --  Arthur

 

Cleaning out the Climate Chumetz

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

 Torah teaches us that as Passover begins we must clean from our houses all traces of "chumetz” -- leavening, yeast, whatever makes our bread rise and our cucumbers turn sour.

The Hasidic communities interpreted this to mean whatever makes our selves, our egos,  swell up and turn sour. So Passover, they said, is the time to get rid of the Pharaoh inside us, what turns us from "grown-ups" to "blown-ups," whatever tugs us toward domination rather than community.

In our generation, this certainly means moving away from the habits that dominate, subjugate, and endanger Mother Earth. In our generation, energy is food. And the most dangerous, most ego-swelling chumetz that we "eat" are fossil fuels. Burning them is the most dangerous thing we do because the C02 and methane this emits are burning up our planet.

So let us make a commitment this Passover that we will take the steps to clear our common home, our Earth, from this destructive chumetz.

 At the Seder, let us make three pledges to each other:

1. During or very soon after Passover, we will invite ten of our neighbors to gather in our living room to discuss what it would mean to create a neighborhood solar-energy co-op.

 2.  During the next two weeks, our senators and congressmembers are at home. We will invite the same ten neighbors to make an appointment to meet with one of these officials to urge that they support national policies to heal our Earth from the climate crisis, and that they will oppose all efforts to impose upon us the chumetz of burning fossil fuels.

3. During Passover, we will send serious contributions of money to organizations that are bringing deep spiritual values into working for eco-social justice and against the Corporate Carbon Pharaohs at three levels -– to heal our neighborhoods from asthma caused by coal dust and oil-refinery fumes; to heal whole regions from the poisoned air and water caused by oil-bearing pipelines; and to heal the Earth and prevent climate chaos by moving quickly to the use of wind and solar energy.

Bringing Elijah truly into the Passover Seder

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

"Elijah Turning  the Hearts of Parents and Children to Each Other Lest the Earth be Devastated"

 On the Shabbat just before Passover, traditionally we read a passage from the last of the classical Hebrew Prophets –-- Malachi.  It cries out:

"Here! The day is coming that will flame like a furnace, says the Infinite YHWH / Breath of Life, when all the arrogant and all evil-doers, root and branch, will like straw be burnt to ashes.

Yet for those of you who revere My Name, YyyyHhhhWwwwHhhh, the Breath that breathes all life, a sun of justice will arise with healing in its wings.

“Here! Before the coming of the great and awesome day of YHWH/ the Breath of Life, I will send you the Prophet Elijah to turn the hearts of parents to children and the hearts of children to parents, lest I come and smite the earth with utter destruction." (Malachi 3: 20-21, 23-24.)

This teaching can make a powerful difference in our Passover Seder, where there is a tradition to open the door to welcome the Prophet Elijah.  Out of Jewish suffering in the Middle Ages came the outcry at that moment of opening the door: “Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not respond to Your Unity, Your Call to love each other!"

But far better in our generation would be to open the door for Elijah and say:

“Holy One, We open this door to open ourselves to all of Earth and all Humanity. We take upon ourselves the mission of Elijah. We will act now before the Breath of Life becomes a searing hurricane. We will turn our own hearts to the lives of our grandchildren; we will work to create for them a world as fruitful and as beautiful as the world of our grandparents. We invite their hearts to learning from the deepest teachings of the Wisdom we inherited -- that together we can yet avert the utter devastation of Your Earth."

Breaking News: M L King condemns the Trump federal budget

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

Today is the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's most profound and most prophetic teaching: "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence," on April 4, 1967

First, a suggested action for us to take 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. Big increases for “Homeland Security,” and to build a Wall Against Mexico.

There are enormous cuts for all climate-healing work and for protection of pure water, pure air, and pure food.

Enormous cuts to research on cures and prevention of disease.

Enormous cuts in money to treat poor kids suffering from asthma caused by coal dust and oil fumes.

Enormous cuts in free lunches for poor kids and poor elders.

Enormous cuts in money to feed starving children in Africa, caught in famines caused by unprecedented droughts caused by global scorching.

Enormous cuts in taxes on the Hyper-wealthy.

Today, reading Dr.King's prophetic sermon, you might easily think he was writing a column this very morning, commenting on the Trump budget for America.

This is what he said:

“True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.

“A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. 

“A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: “This way of settling differences is not just.” 

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."

Is it enough to wistfully remember Dr. King?

Or should we be hearing him calling on us to act?

Songs for Passover & for the Earth

Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on

 

 Songs for Earth & Freedom, Any Day or Night

We have collected here some songs that may enrich your Seder. Some of them track the ancient story; some sing out the struggles of our own generation for freedom, eco-social justice,  peace, and healing.

And they can sing out truth for us beyond the Seder.

For in every generation, the Haggadah tells us, some new version of "pharaoh" arises to attack our dignity, our lives, our hopes  — even to bring plagues upon the Earth, as the ancient Pharaoh did.

And in every generation, the Haggadah tells us, every human being must renew the struggle to be free. Even the struggle to sing a new song.

And that struggle is not limited to the night, or the week, of Pesach.

“Circle Round for Freedom” (by Linda Hirschhorn)

(Maybe to begin the Seder)

For melody, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL0lW3QEQrw>

Circle round for freedom,
circle round for peace.
For all of us imprisoned,
circle for release.

Circle for the planet,
circle for each soul.
For the children of our children,
keep the circle whole.

"Go Down Moses" (traditional, with additional verse by Rabbi Arthur Waskow)

[A song in th mdst of the Seder, as part of th Maggid/ Telling;

Melody: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf6jBP4YXwo>]

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!

The pillar of cloud shall clear the way, Let My people go;
A fire by night, a shade by day, 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!

 Act now so Earth be bondage free, Let ALL My peoples go;
And let all life be free to Be, Let air and water flow.
Rise UP, People --Rise up 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, y oppressions will not stand!


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