Tikkun Daily Blog Archive (https://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/category/religion-spirituality/judaism-religion-spirituality/page/17/)
Yesterday’s (August 4th) conference call with Sami Awad, a Palestinian non-violent peace activist, was illuminating, informative and exactly what we need during this time of horrific violence. If you didn’t have a chance to listen in on the call, we’ve uploaded the entire recording to Tikkun Daily.
If we act from a loving and generous place, seeking to overcome behaviors that were previously perceived as disrespectful and humiliating, that the icebergs of anger and hate (some of which our behavior helped to create) can melt away and people’s hearts can once again turn toward love and justice for all.
Disparaging comments about another group are unfortunately common in many communities. When these kinds of off-hand remarks emerge in our own homes or in the homes of our friends, how are we supposed to respond? Abe’s Babes, a group of six Jewish, Muslim, and Christian women in Sydney, Australia, may have found an answer.
Reflections on Rabbi Zalman, who, with depth, with love, with humor, and with songs, imparted a spiritual conscience of an old age that spoke to the generation of a new age.
Bat Adam calls herself the “heartist,” a label that she feels embodies the message behind her art. She hopes her work will inspire viewers to soul-search, to “go to their hearts and be present to what they see.”
For Wendy Somerson, every morning she wakes up she feels helpless in the face of such a large scale massacre being carried out in Gaza. So yesterday, instead of passively watching the news, her group of Jewish, Palestinian and allied activists made some news of their own.
How will you, Israel, manage to rise from the ashes, if there is no soul searching? How if, as Uri Avnery reports, most of your media have ignored the event– or have hidden the details on the back pages? Where is the public outcry? AYECHAH?!
As Gaza burned and as the Jewish world observed the fast day known as Shiv’ah Asar Be’Tammuz, (the 17th of Tammuz), hundreds of peaceful anti-war protesters in Tel Aviv were set upon by a violent mob whipped up by right-wing nationalists. Now more than ever, the central messages of the 17th of Tammuz rings true: for all of the concern about our external enemies, we ignore the dangers growing within our own community at our peril.
With still no end in sight to the latest round of violence in Israel-Palestine, UK blogger, Robert Cohen, reflects on why it’s more important than ever to ‘rescue the Hebrew Covenant’.
I offer a translation of a lesson that seems to capture what Reb Zalman gave to the world, along with a few observations as my parting words to him and, more importantly, as words to those of us who now have the responsibility to carry his message to the post-Zalman era of Jewish Renewal, may it live a long and healthy life.