Rethinking Religion

Spiritual Wisdom of the Week

By |

Security and Peace
By Jonathan Granoff

May God’s grace and peace be with us In the name of God, the Most Merciful, Most Compassionate. We are all interested in peace and security. Inner peace, the source of peace, is an inside job. One important aspect of a healthy inner life is prayer. The evidence of real prayer is whether it opens the heart to love, regardless of whether we pray quietly, out loud, within a tradition, out of a tradition, facing the east, the west, up or down.

ESRA

10 Commandments to Revive Progressives After the November Defeat

By |

1. Don’t let the media frame this as a defeat of progressives. Had Obama embraced and fought for a progressive agenda, even if he had passed none of it, he would have entered the 2010 elections as the champion of the huge idealism of the American people that was elicited in 2008 and which would have led the Democrats to an electoral sweep in 2010. Being seen as fighting for the needs of ordinary people — never letting anyone forget for a moment that he had inherited the mess that Republican and pro-corporate Democrats had created, positioning himself as the champion of those who resented the Wall Street and corporate interests — his popularity would have grown; he could have won a much bigger victory for the Democrats in 2010, and that would have allowed him to actually legislate the policies of a progressive vision. Had Obama refused to give more money to the banks and Wall Street unless equal or greater amounts were allocated for a visionary New Deal-style program for jobs and a freeze on mortgage foreclosures; had the Democrats refused to fund the escalation of war in Afghanistan; had they advocated for “Medicare for Everyone” instead of passing a plan that forced 30 million people to buy health care, but puts no serious restraints on the costs that insurance companies or pharmaceutical can charge; had Obama fought courageously for a carbon tax and ended the bargain taxes for the wealthy; had the Democrats insisted on stopping the harassment of immigrants; had the Obama Administration called for a national effort to overturn Citizens United, such as the ESRA (the Environmental and Social Responsibility Amendment to the U.S. Constitution); had Obama set up public forums at which his supporters could give him public feedback and used the web creatively to allow his supporters to weigh in; and had Obama consistently spoken honestly to Americans about the constraints he was facing and who was putting pressure on him to do what…

Politics & Society

Vote!

By |

We never endorse candidates or parties. But the debate on the Left about how to deal with Obama’s betrayal of his base has political implications that go far beyond who to vote for or what political party to support. We present, without endorsing, these two quite different perspectives. Stephen Zunes is a contributing editor to Tikkun Magazine. Chris Hedges has written for Tikkun.

Culture

Short Takes: Tribute to Lennon, the 2010 Elections, and Israel/Palestine News

By |

A tribute to John Lennon, in the wake of these turbulent political times
I hope you like this little web short tribute from the BBC to one of my favorite musicians — John Lennon, z’l (“z’l” stands for zichrono livracha, which is Hebrew for “may his or her memory be a blessing.”) The video is cute and uplifting. Have you heard Lennon’s last few albums, when it was just him, or him and Yoko? They are really amazing. 2010 Elections

Get ready for a massive two-year indoctrination from mass media and the “realists” in both major political parties as they confidently proclaim that the Dems lost badly because Obama proved “too radical” for the American public. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Rethinking Religion

Spiritual Wisdom of the Week

By |

This week’s spiritual wisdom is a poem written by Jonathan Granoff about how seeking and knowing God leads to peace. Granoff serves as president of the Global Security Institute, which pursues peace by promoting arms control and nuclear disarmament. His poetry has been featured on Tikkun Daily in the past. For This Knowing
A hidden treasure longing to be known made us,
so that through us and in us and with us,
that treasure could be known. Through the wisdom that grows in beauty
it happens.

GMP

Why and What We Are Endorsing in the One Nation March on Saturday, October 2

By |

A large number of organizations are sponsoring a One Nation March on Washington tomorrow. We in the Network of Spiritual Progressives have been distressed at the absence of any understanding of how a spiritual transformation of values in America must be central to the struggles that the One Nation March articulates. We are unhappy at the lack of any coherent thinking that links the actual demands of this march to some larger coherent worldview. As a result it provides very little in the way of an alternative to the Right. The NSP has nevertheless joined in support of the March, with the hope that at some point its rather sketchy demands could be contextualized within a deeper understanding of what is needed to turn America from the center of globalized capitalism, with its ethos of selfishness and materialism, to the center of a global movement for The Caring Society (see, for example, our Global Marshall Plan and our Environmental and Social Responsibility Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, neither of which are likely to even get a mention at this March).

Judaism

Spiritual Wisdom of the Week

By |

This week’s spiritual wisdom is a poem for Yizkor written by Simcha Raphael, Ph.D. Yizkor is the set of memorial prayers said during religious services on Yom Kippur, Shmini Atzeret, Passover, and Shavuot. It is usually said for a parent, spouse, or child that has died. This introduction or intention (kavvanah) for Yizkor comes from the unpublished manuscript of “Kaddish Echoes – Poems of Night Time, Poems of Mourning.” This poem was also published in the High Holiday Machzor of the Reconstructionist Press Jewish Views of the Afterlife (second edition). YIZKOR VISION
In the crisp autumn air
I went to say
Yizkor prayers today
One of those holy days
Four times a year
We gather in community
Mourners threaded by
Memories of heart and mind
A direct line
To loved ones
In the world beyond.

Judaism

For Those Approaching High Holidays with a Heavy Heart

By |

The following was written by Mark Kirschbaum for many of us who are not having happy days now, who are not able to force themselves to pretend to be joyful simply because the calendar demands it. Is there a place for the heavy of heart in the Rosh Hashanah experience? Mark has a weekly column on www.tikkun.org called “Torah Commentary.” And yes, it’s always this deep. Study of Torah gets you into very significant issues in philosophy, social theory, theology, politics and human relations.

General News

Spiritual Wisdom of the Week

By |

Shanah Tovu um’tukah and Eid Mubarak. Here’s a guide I created for the Holy Days; perhaps you’ll find the section on Teshuvah useful. May this year bring transformation and renewal on the side of reparative justice. Blessings,
Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb

Guide to Conducting Ta’anit Teshuvah: A Public Fast During the Jewish High Holy Days For Palestinian Human Rights

An initiative of Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb and Shomer Shalom Network for Jewish Nonviolence, with Ta’anit Tzedek/Fast for Gaza and The Fellowship of Reconciliation
It is a tradition for the pious to fast from morning until evening during the Ten Days of Teshuvah, as it is written, “I am with them in distress.” (Psalm 91:15)
In order to prepare for these days of reflection, we ask:
Who is driven from the land and who is invited to settle?

GMP

America Needs Repentance: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Atonement Are Not Just for Jews

By |

Now that the Iraq war is supposedly winding down, America needs a period of reflection, repentance and atonement before rushing into more of the same mistakes we’ve been making globally and domestically. So I’d like to invite my non-Jewish neighbors and friends and allies in the struggle to heal and transform America to join with Jews to use the ten days of repentance from Rosh Hashanah (Sept. 9) through Yom Kippur (Sept. 18) for that purpose-to create an All-American version of the Jewish High Holidays! What makes the Jewish tradition useful in this regard is that it focuses not only on our own individual lives, but on taking collective responsibility for our larger world.