Judaism

Healing Israel/Palestine

“Let the Palestinian people go”: What younger Jews will be asking of Israel at Passover Seder this year

By Rabbi Michael Lerner | March 27, 2015

What makes this year’s Passover Seders unlike any others is that a majority of American Jews have been forced to face the fact that Palestinians today are asking Jews what Moses asked Pharaoh: “Let my people go.” A disproportionately larger number of young Jews, will be asking a provocative question at their Seder tables: “If Israel won’t let the Palestinian people have their own state, then don’t we have to insist that the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza be given the vote?

Small Acts of Kindness for Purim

By Guest | February 26, 2015

This is why this little festival, that’s over almost before it begins, is one we don’t really take seriously, maybe can’t take seriously. Jewish communities often make it into a child-focused festival, concentrating on the fun and the fancy costumes. It’s made into a Jewish Mardi Gras, and adults have a bit too much to drink maybe, but not so much that we, like Rabbah in the Talmud, discover the depths of our own aggression.

Judaism

Kneading Challah as a Springboard to God

By Guest | January 26, 2015

The kneading is an action meditation, best understood as the performance of commandments and rituals. While meditatively kneading, you can clear the mind for a holy intention and open the channel as a springboard to reach God.

Judaism

Jewish Life Recharged Through Chai Mitzvah

By Guest | January 25, 2015

Chai Mitzvah is an international adult Jewish learning initiative which encourages participants to combine group study with a set curriculum and with individual exploration of study, spirituality and social action.

Judaism

HaTikvah Slate for the World Zionist Conference

By Rabbi Michael Lerner | January 22, 2015

In the context of Israeli politics, the HaTikvah group is as good for Israel as the left wing of the Democratic Party is good for the U.S.

Culture

'Selma' is True to the Story it Needs to Tell

By Tikkun | January 19, 2015

“Selma” is not essentially about MLK or LBJ. It is, of all things, about Selma.

Healing Israel/Palestine

The Choices of 1947 Return: A Review of Zionism and Its Discontents

By Tikkun | December 24, 2014

The Zionist project, what was meant at the beginning to be a communal agrarian renewal of Jewish people, has become an arms and “security” industry supplier worldwide. The siege mentality that Arendt warned would develop has created an Israeli, not Jewish, nationality, in its isolation what she foresaw as “an entirely new people.”

Judaism

Kavanah (Intention) for Candle Lighting: Eighth Night of Hanukkah

By Guest | December 23, 2014

The real power of Hanukkah is found in the story of the miracle itself.

Judaism

Kavanah (Intention) for Candle Lighting: Third Night of Hanukkah

By Guest | December 18, 2014

We are moved to the deeper meaning of the candlelight. Just as with each added candle there is more light, we must constantly add to the quantity of holiness in the world.

Judaism

Jews Across America are Standing Against Police Violence This Hanukkah

By David Harris-Gershon | December 16, 2014

As Jews throughout the world light candles this evening, many across America are simultaneously shining a light upon police violence and affirming that black lives matter in protests and social action efforts in over seventeen cities.