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Beyond Election Day: Rebuilding our
World
Shalom, salaam, peace!
--
There are some Jewish teachings and practices -- not all - that
represent a universal archetypal truth. One is a tradition that at the end of
the 26-hour total fast and profound prayer of Yom Kippur, after we eat we hammer
the first nail into the timbers of our sukkah -- that open, leafy, leaky,
vulnerable hut we build to celebrate the harvest, five days after Yom Kippur, at
the full of the harvest moon.
We turn from inward self-assessment and
reflection, tshuvah ("turning" or repentance) and reconciliation, to rebuilding
the world. For NOW we can build with the tools of love.
So I write today -- just before Yom Kippur, pointing toward its end on
Thursday evening -- with two tasks in mind, two timbers to connect: the "sukkah"
Americans must build after the Awesome Day of our extraordinary election on
November 4. No matter how the election turns out.
The Shalom Center is
deeply involved in three events that will come during the months after the
election.
On Sunday November 23, we are co-sponsoring with
the Workmen's Circle/ Arbeterring an action-oriented gathering at Central
Synagogue in New York City: "Jews Uniting to End the War and Heal
America."
Among the speakers and workshop leaders will be Congressman Jerrold
Nadler, former Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman, Rabbis David Saperstein, Nina
Beth Cardin, Peter Knobel, David Shneyer, Rebecca Alpert, Or Rose, and Ellen
Lippmann; Amy Goodman, national journalist of "Democracy Now!" radio and TV; and
many others.
No matter who wins the Presidency and Congress, grass-roots
action will be necessary to move forward to meet the multiple crises we are in.
Start here!
To sign up and to help out the gathering even if you're too
far away to come, click to
http://www.circle.org/jewsuniting/
2. On January 19, in
Washington DC and around America, we are working closely with interfaith
networks celebrating Martin Luther King's Birthday the very day before the new
president takes office. We will spark national action to commit ourselves once
again to make real the vision of Dr. King as a new Administration
begins.
For information, see --
http://www.shalomctr.org/node/1432
3. And on March 29, The Shalom Center is sponsoring a 40th Anniversary
New Interfaith Freedom Seder for the Earth, connected to the Blessing of the Sun
that comes nine days later. A Seder will be held in
Washington, and we will share the text and liturgy ahead of time all across the
country so that many communities can create their own Interfaith Freedom Seders
for the Earth. For information, see --
http://www.shalomctr.org/node/1457
If you want to take part in the MLK/ Inauguration planning
and doing in your own community, and /or to take part in your own 40th
Anniversary Interfaith Freedom Seder for the Earth, please write to let me know.
Write at Office@shalomctr.org Thanks!
If you are fasting for Yom Kippur,
blessings for a profound and moving fast, followed by strong and compassionate
action to build the harvest sukkah of our lives.
If you are focusing on
the Days of Awe brought us by our daily news even more than Days of Awe in a
prayerbook, may you be blessed with calm as you live through this storm in our
vulnerable lives, with help from all your neighbors and from a government that
comes to seek our common good, and with deep compassion for all who are
suffering in this crisis -
Arthur
(Rabbi Arthur
Waskow)
To donate to the Shalom Center, click on our logo!
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