Editor’s note: these letters to the editor is in response to Rabbi Michael Lerner’s 2019 Liberation Passover Haggadah. You can read it here.
From Naomi T.
Dear Michael and Cat,
I just received from my brother and sister-in-law in Jerusalem an on-line copy of a bilingual Hagada, the Yovel Hagada, with which they celebrated Pesach this year at a friend’s house in Jerusalem.
I was filled with so much gratitude and so much pride to read your part, Michael, in page 4!!! I felt so much less in exile from my homeland (you know I’m here because of Bill, not out of choice, though by now I do love it here), because my neighbor-town, Berkeley, and my spiritual Rabbi Michael has contributed to this Hagada!!!
Dear Michael, you know that for many (mostly family/personal reasons) I don’t actually go to your congregation, and I often fail to read ALL of your messages, but when you are brief, like you were once in a (I think) Tu Bishvat ceremony in Berkeley, and in this Hagada, you are absolutely THE BEST, and you express EXACTLY what I feel in the most eloquent and wonderful words, so please accept my deepest gratitude and love, and may you continue to be healthy and active and amazing for many, many more years!!!!
Love,
Chag Same’ach,
Naomi
From Roxanne Fand
Thank you for that inspiring Haggadah! Here is my suggestion for transforming our top-down society to a bottom-up one: Promote a democratic Worker-Co-op economy to match a democratic government! (See economist Richard Wolff.)
P.S. Energized by the idea of a more democratic economy, II went to Israel in the early 1960’s to check out the kibbutz movement. I returned to the U.S. 4 years later, intending to return to Israel after getting a Masters degree in N.Y., but married and went to live in Hawaii, half-way around the globe from Israel, where I raised a family. Now we have reached a point of national and global crisis and need to learn how to democratize the economy to match the government. Worker co-ops are a path.
Roxanne Fand, PhD
From Shlomo Orr
Thank you Rabbi Lerner.
Another/similar 10 plagues (or rather systematic 10 steps towards destruction of the nation) are describes by Noam Chomsky in his film Requiem to the American Dream.
Happy Passover!
Shlomo.
PS: An Egyptian friend of mine told me they used to smear blood of a lamb on their doors when coming back from Mecca, as a measure of protection from evil spirits. They also warship Yahweh there!
As a Jesuit, who studied at JSTB, who is a sinner, forgiven and called to promote a faith-that-does-justice, I would like to add to the discussion of Racism in America. I was pastor of an inner-city parish, Christ the King, S.D., founded to serve African-American Catholics in San Diego. I discovered that the terms “racism” and “racist” do not mean the same thing to Blacks and Whites. Racism and Racist, to the Blacks, mean White-to-Black acts. When I confronted racially biased words from Blacks toward whites, they told me that the acts were “prejudiced” not racist. From that moment on, if I preached to the sins of our society, I used the universally accepted, “racial prejudice” and “racially prejudiced” actions.
I would also offer that the word “Justice” in America means “Fairness and Equality under the law,” not what the Bible calls Justice, which means “right-relationship with God, creation, you and me.” The word Justice also needs to be re-branded with another term that has not been politicized. I posit “Social mercy,” instead of “Social Justice.” Why? After working with Community Organizing during my 30 years as an Ordained priest, I noticed that hearts were never converted when the confrontation of the justice seeking group toward the “socially unjust” leaders, as they tried to “force” the issue of justice being served. The group could win the issue, but never effected a change in their hearts.