Violence, Morality and Religion

In an attempt to prevent violence, we have created institutions, namely, morality and religion––but, paradoxically enough, the most deadly violence has always been done in the name of these institutions. In this article, James Gilligan and James Vrettos ask why this is and what we can do about it.

CAMP HAPPINESS

They were going to separate—she wanted to and he was done fighting her—but before that there was Dylan’s bar mitzvah, and before that was now: this weekend in the rolling hills beyond Oakland with similarly bereaved Jewish strangers.

Coywolf

Hebrew, Lizavetta claimed, was the holiest and most beautiful language in the world. Alexey trusted her in most things, but he knew for a fact this couldn’t be so, because Lermontov had written his poems in Russian.

THE SCHOLAR AS POET: Remembering Geoffrey Hartman (1929-2016)

YOMA   a previously unpublished poem by Geoffrey Hartman

Rain in the autumn, rain in the spring let it rain poetry, dear God, midrashic parables, rabbinic cliches, or, better still, the comfort of Psalms.

I kmow those traps, those enemies, Lord, ·help me in my old age, my distress: this day I stand contrite before you, eyes, broken images, ears, dimmed by unceasing sighs. Where is comfort to be found? No longer in the lai-lai-lai of prayersong. In all your holy mountain what survives not stained by cries for blood? Where now the numinous Jordan, the pure Helicon?

Eduardo Galeano: A Visit to Heaven and Hell

Tikkun is proud to share with our community excepts from Eduardo Galeano’s last book (Hunter of Stories). Galeano was widely recognized as one of Latin America’s most distinguished writers. A Visit to Heaven and Hell 
Mapping Planet Earth 
By Eduardo Galeano

[The following passages are excerpted from Hunter of Stories, the last book by Eduardo Galeano, who died in 2015.  Thanks for its use go to his literary agent, Susan Bergholz, and Nation Books, which is publishing it next week.]

Free

By day, the sun guides them. By night, the stars. Paying no fare, they travel without passports and without forms for customs or immigration.