Spiritual Wisdom of the Week
by: Guest on September 9th, 2010 | 10 Comments »
Nablus, Palestine, 2003. Courtesy of Rusty Stewart.
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?
Who weeps amidst the rubble of her house and who destroys the family home?
Who uproots a neighbor’s tree and who replants them in the ground?
Who must choose between washing her body and a cup of tea and who waters her lawn?
Who is crushed by bulldozer and who drives the tank?
Whose is left to bleed to death and who is rushed to the hospital?
Who sits in prison and who locks the prison door.
Who is detained at checkpoints and who travels freely throughout the land?
Who is blind folded and who ties the knot?
Whose skin burns and who drops the bomb?
Who is shot dead harvesting wheat and who fires the gun?
Only acts of courageous love will annul injustice
And spread peace throughout the land.
In light of the massive violation of Palestinian human rights, Shomer Shalom Network for Jewish Nonviolence and Ta’anit Tzedek invite concerned individuals to participate in a seven day public fast to end the violation of Palestinian human rights.
Fasting gives witness to public calamities. The ongoing violation of Palestinian human rights is a public calamity. We are fasting to lament the disastrous closure of Gaza, the constant seizure of Palestinian lands, the lack of freedom of movement that endangers Palestinian health and welfare and the ongoing use of combat weapons against innocent civilians.
Fasting is a form of lament. We mourn the death and injury of tens of thousands of people caused by Israeli enforcement of the infrastructure of occupation. We call on an end to the systematic violence described in The Goldstone Report and many other first hand accounts of occupation.
Fasting is an act of remorse. How can we observe The Ten Days of Repentance without a detailed acknowledgment of the misdeeds committed against the Palestinian people in our name? Al chet sheh chatanu. For these misdeeds we ask forgiveness. We regret and ask forgiveness for home demolitions, uprooting olive trees, destruction of wells and cisterns, denial of access to health care, deportation, internal transfer, forced closure, curfew, military checkpoints, separation barriers, verbal abuse, beatings, destruction of personal property, torture, targeted killings, administrative detention; bulldozing of entire villages, use of human shields, refugee camps, firing live ammunition at children, stripping people naked in the street, dropping phosphorus bombs and the systematic targeting of water treatment centers, sewage plants, hospitals, mosques, schools, universities, businesses and fields for destruction. These things and more we regret.
Fasting is a call to action. We are fasting to promote a call for meaningful nonviolent action dedicated to ending occupation. We are inspired by the Palestinian community along with their Israeli solidarity partners to recommend the following actions:
a) Undertake a public fast to give witness to the violation of Palestinian human rights
b) Send boats with humanitarian aid to break the siege of Gaza
c) Use the media and public forums to advocate for Palestinian human rights. Write letters to the editor, use Facebook, create You Tube videos, organize a speaking tour for Palestinian activists.
d) Take part in direct nonviolent protest in the streets of your city or in the streets of Israel and Palestine. Use puppets and theatre to make a point.
e) Participate in and support boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns
f) Lobby Congress, local politicians and opinion makers to cut military spending to Israel until it abides by human rights
g) Strengthen the solidarity movement by networking with others. Create a multifaith, multicultural and intergenerational solidarity circle in your community.
h) Support women and youth as leaders in the movement.
i) Challenge Islamophobia, anti-Arab and anti-Semitic racism.
j) Plant a peace garden, draw a public mural, organize your campus, go on a delegation, sell Palestinian products in your local co-op.
Fasting is an act of solidarity. People of all faith and cultural traditions are invited to join a morning to evening public fast from the third of Tishri through the fast of Yom Kippur in order to demand a new era of respect for Palestinian human rights. You are welcome to fast for all or any part of this period of time. We hope to attract a minyan of ten individuals around the country who will fast during the entire period.
Ta’anit Teshuvah: Fasting is an act of reconciliation
Fasting is regarded as an act of reconciliation if it is undertaken as part of a series of meaningful actions that remedy an unjust situation. As it is written,
“ It is not sackcloth and fasting that enables teshuvah~reconciliation, but acts of goodness and meaningful transformation.” (BT Tan’anit 16a)
Reconciliation is the primary religious obligation associated with the High Holy Days. In order to fulfill the obligation to reconcile after a relationship has sustained injury we are called upon to undertake four sets of actions:
1) Haratah: Cultivate empathy for the injured party. In order to feel empathy we have to overcome layers of denial that include blaming the victim, minimizing the extent of the damage, feeling helpless to change the situation, and moving beyond symbolic action in behalf of change. This requires an personal commitment to facing the problem with the full force of our spiritual capacity.
It involves healing our own wounds and empowering ourselves to become agents of change instead of victims of circumstance.
2) Vidui: Acknowledge the source and extent of the injury. This is the truth telling stage. Once we have accepted the dimensions of our role in the conflict, we can begin to educate ourselves and others about the dimensions of the confict. Education comes through acts of solidarity and relationship building with those directly targeted by the system of injustice.
“Those who benefit from the structures of oppression are dependent on the people they oppress and are equally in need of liberation. The will and strength to end the oppression and violence comes from those who bear the oppression and violence in their own lives and very rarely from privileged and powerful persons and nations…In facing nonviolence, should we ‘submit, become bitter, collaborate, do nothing about the forces that control our lives? Do we accommodate, comply or manipulate?
The alternative is to resist. Resistance challenges the system’s values and categories. Resistance speaks its own truth to power, and shifts the ground of struggle to its own terrain. Resistance is often thought of as negative. However, resistance is the refusal to be neglected and disregarded. To resist is to be human.
None of us can resist all the time, in every area of life. We must choose our battles, meaning we must choose the priorities of struggle.”
Jean Zaru, Palestinian Quaker
Vidui or truth telling can be a painful process. We have to prepare ourselves for push back, silencing and hate speech in response to the public fast. Work in support of Palestinian human rights will inevitably draw us into a broader anti-oppression framework. We will most likely experience Islamophobia, anti-Arab racism and, in some cases, anti-Semitism. The need for clarity and compassion is an important antidote.
3) Engage in acts of reparative justice in order to heal the injury.
“The process of searching for common ground and learning to respect each other as individuals are important and often result in comforting personal feels. However, in order to build and sustain alliances, inequalities in power and privilege rooted in the broader sociopolitical context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must be addressed. Experiences of oppression cannot be reconciled simply through interpersonal processes that focus on how we treat each other as individuals in an artificially controlled environment of a dialogue group.”
This is not the time for dialogue without action. The degree of injury is so severe, that we must first and foremost recognize the need to engage in acts of non-cooperation that relieve suffering and promote constructive peace building.
This requires waging a liberation campaign that disturbs the status quo. That is why the vast majority of Palestinians along with Israeli resisters support some form of boycott, divestment or sanctions. The use of BDS moves us beyond symbolic acts to efforts that confront state and institutional power with the power of the grassroots. Although not widely accepted, boycott, divestment and sanctions is the next step in creating a movement for change. There are of course other options. However, humanitarian aid does not alter an unjust situation. If fact, it preserves the status quo. That is why Palestinian civil society prefers the nonviolent option of exerting economic pressure: to make institutional and policy changes in the status quo.
4) When confronted with the same set of circumstances, do not repeat the misdeed. Rather, acts in ways that build peace instead of causing public harm.
Fourteen peace plans including the Oslo Accords, the Camp David Accords, the Saudi Plan, the Road Map and other initiatives have not alleviated occupation or produced a peace treaty. Greater Israel is an on-the-ground reality. The West Bank and Gaza are isolated from each other. Refugees remain invisible and the settlement process continues unabated. The two-state solution is in serious trouble and the majority of Israelis and Palestinians no longer believe it will happen. Therefore, our actions from this point onward need to be conducted in a new way. We have to think outside the box. We cannot think outside the box without forming enduring relationships with Palestinians and Israelis who are working together to create meaningful change.
May this public fast encourage us to form new partnerships and take new steps. The future we shape is one where people live together as good neighbors, no matter what political solution finally emerges that establishes the parameters of peace. Peace on the ground will be shaped by civil society. How are we preparing the way?
Suggested Calendar of Events for Seven Days of Public Fasting
from Saturday evening September 11th through Yom Hakippurim
Jewish days begin at sundown and lasts until the appearance of three starts on the evening of the following day. Each day of the fast includes a public fast site along designated for fasting and conversation as well as at least one public action.
Saturday Evening September 11th: The initiatory multifaith meal and declaration of intention
Sunday September 12th: Taschlich: Launching of a symbolic flotilla
Monday September 13th: A public action in front of a Jewish Federation, Israeli consulate or US government building
Tuesday September 14th: lobby local government officials
Wednesday September 15th: a conversation or action in support of a local BDS initiative, or other Palestinian initiative for change
Thursday September 16th: a public action on a local campus
Friday September 17th
Day time: Workshop on the Palestinian nonviolent movement and Israeli conscientious objection: sumud, intifada and breaking the silence
Kol Nidre: taking of the Shomer Shalom vow of Jewish nonviolence
Saturday September 18th The Day of Atonement
Textual readings
Afternoon workshop on Jewish Nonviolence
Public breaking of the fast at sundown. Next steps
Saturday evening September 11th
The initiatory meal and ceremony:
Organizers and participants in the public fast are invited to begin with a meal in honor of the vision of peace and reconciliation we are trying to establish. If you are scheduled for a multifaith gathering in honor of September 11th, you can include your declaration of the public fast as part of your witness.
Declaration of the Ta’anit Teshuvah: A Fast of Reconciliation
I, ______________, take upon myself a public fast from the third of Tishri through Yom Hakippurim in order to fulfill the obligation of Ta’anit Teshuvah. May this fast purify my heart so I can serve the cause of reparative justice with compassion and truth. I undertake this fast to call for an end to the closure of Gaza, an end to the seizure of Palestinian land in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and throughout Israel, an end to the use of combat weapons against innocent civilians and an end to occupation. When the period of fasting is over, I will continue to fulfill my obligation to engage in acts of reparative justice. May this fast be for a blessing. Amen.
Guide to Fasting from morning to evening:
All eating and drinking is prohibited from sun up to sundown. Sick and very weak people whose health requires eating or drinking are exempt. One is required to eat if there are health reasons to do so, especially in the case of serious illness. A person who may become sick by fasting is also exempt. All necessary medicine must be taken. Pregnant women are exempt as are those who gave birth within twenty four months before the fast or are nursing children. Children are discouraged from fasting. B’nai mitzvah age children can fast. If one mistakenly eats, regardless of how much, continue the fast from the moment you remember. Bathing, washing and other regular behavior is permitted.
On Yom Kippur we also refrain from eating for 24 hours and do not wear leather, anoint with perfume or oil, engage in sexual activity.
Wearing white: For those who want to publicize the fast, you are invited to wear white, which is a custom of this time of year. You can also create a wearable sign with a name tag that says: Ta’anit Teshuvah: Fast for Palestinian Human Rights
A public fast each day
During part of each day, find a public park or meeting place to set up
an information table or tent as part of your fast. You can use this opportunity
to create informal conversations related to your local organizing work.
Invite individuals from all the groups in your local area you think would like to participate in supporting the fast to join you in your chosen site.
Jewish texts on fasting
“You fast and yet you complain, I cannot see!”
You piously afflict yourselves, bow your heads, wear sackcloth,
rub yourself in ashes, yet you know nothing.
You fast and then you fight with each other.
You afflict your soul and then beat each other with a violent fist!
You do not fast to bring Me into your life.
Is this the fast I have chosen?
You call (what you do) a fast acceptable to Adonai?
This is the fast Adonai has chosen.
Shatter the hold of oppression
Unbind the yoke of unethical action from around your neck.
Let the oppressed go free
Break the hold of greed
And give your bread to the hungry.
Bring the poor cast out in the street into your house.
Cover those who are naked and do not withhold a helping hand
from your kin, from all of humanity.
Then shall your inner light break forth as the light of dawn.”
from the book of Isaiah 58
Mishneh Taanit 2:1
What was the ritual performed during fast days?
They would bring out the ark into the town square
and put dust and ashes upon it, and on the head of the mayor
and the head of the religious authority
and on each and every person present
covered their heads in dust and ashes.
The elder would speak words of rebuke:
It does not say about the people of Nineveh that Adonai
saw their sackcloth and their fasting
bur rather that God saw their deeds
for they turned away from their misdeeds.
As it is written, “Rend your hearts, not your clothes.” (Joel 2)
How shall we observe the fast days?
Abaye said: From morning until midday, we deal with local matters.
(Masekhet Ta’anit 12b) Rashi comments: a thorough examination of witnesses, to look into the dealings of the people of the city, if they have stolen, if there is theft or violence between them, and then we create reconciliation between them.
SUPPORTERS OF THE FAST
Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, author of the Handbook, is one of the first eight women to serve as rabbi. She currently lives at the Community of Living Traditions in Stonypoint, NY. CLT is a multifaith residential community dedicated to nonviolence and peace advocacy.Lynn is co-founder of the Muslim Jewish Peacewalk, on the advisory board of Jewish Voice for Peace, a contributing editor of Fellowship Magazine and co-founder of Shomer Shalom Network for Jewish Nonviolence. Lynn is a storyteller, percussionist and peace activist.
Shomer Shalom Network for Jewish Nonviolence celebrates a compassion centered, eco-kosher, wildly creative, human rights honoring, inter-generational, multi-cultural and mulitfaith welcoming, lgbtq embracing, text studying, story telling, ceremonial making and nonviolent Jewish way of life.
Shomer Shalom supports individuals who are part of the Palestine Solidarity Movement including Israeli conscientious objects, practitioners of BDS, and all those struggling to end all forms of oppression and occupation. The Shomer Shalom House at Stonypoint Center is open to residential fellows.
The Jewish Fast for Gaza is an ad hoc group of rabbis, Jews, and people of conscience who have committed to undertake a monthly daytime fast in support of lifting of the blockade that prevents the entry of civilian goods and services into Gaza.
Fellowship of Reconciliation is the oldest interfaith organization committed to active nonviolence and peace and justice advocacy. They publish Fellowship Magazine.
Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb’s letter in support of the Olympia Food Boycott
JVP TIAA CREF campaign
What do we get in return from Palestinian leadership? Will the people of Sderot receive an apology for years of terror? Will Hamas apologize for murdering a family, including a pregnant woman? Placing the onus 100% on Israel is not the path to peace.
What “we” have been getting in return for decades is more or less a reflection of what “we” have been dishing out. The blame is not 100% on anyone, but unless each of us accepts 100% of our own blame, not much will improve.
Abraham Joshua Heschel taught (referring to the VietNam war), although only some of us are guilty, all of us are responsible. It seems to me crucial for people to be able to distinuish between these two concepts. Yes, more is expected of the powerful than of the powerless. In the face of inqeualty of parties, insisting on equal treatment only perpetuates injustice.
Phil,
With the backing of Syria,Iran and Hezbollah, how is Hamas powerless?
Without wanting at all to argue, David, one has to realize that Israel has the fourth largest army in the world. We need to end our shtetl mentality of weakness. And the PA is not backed by either of those countries–and certainly not by Hezbollah.
The great themes of this period in our liturgical year are not tit-for-tat but nobility in making the first gestures to restore the wholeness of shalom.
Phil, i don’t knkow where yo get you statistics from but you are placing the IDF in size on the = scale of China, Russia, the US and N Korea.
That said, I do not fear a land army pouring over the borders of Israel, It’s the rockets that are of concern. These are rockets that can hit all puopulation centers in Israekl from both Gaza and Lebanon. Short of invasion, which wiuld once again label Israel a a criminal state, there is little Israel can do to eliminate that threat.
I support negotiations with the PA and pray for succcess, but Israel will always have to lok over its shoulders to see what is happening in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Iran. I dare anyone to suggest that they support peaceful coexistance with Israel and that they are not a major threat to Israel and the peace process.
Peace is also seriously undermined by uprooting people’s trees, poisoning people’s water supply, killing people’s animals, taking over people’s land, stoning children, building confining walls, building illegal settlements, detaining people, at the cost of dignity, time, money, and even life at checkpoints, putting people out of their homes, and dumping garbage upon their businesses. If we give tacit support (or more) to these practices, then we are responsible for them and for the continued elusiveness of peace. Our support for these practices also fuels both legitimate sentiment against Israel and illegitimate and ever-present anti-Semitism which endangers Jews everywhere.
Donna
What you just acts you listed are all crimes committed by fringe groups. I don’t hear any support coming for mainstream israelis or the Israeli govt. You might want to hiod that up against the organization and support by Hamas and the Al Aksa Brigade of suicide bombing in Israel prior to the construction of the wall. Please note the difference. That wall, BTW, went up becasue of the rash of suicide bombing. It’s a symptom, not a cause.
But built on Palestinian land, David, so also a symbol of israeli power. the US isn’t building our drug-inderdiction fence on Mexican land but on our own side of the border. Anyway, it’s time to stop quibbling and whining. If the french and the germans can live together in peace and prosperity, etc after disastrous death and destruction, the palestinians and israelis can also. We have to focus on peace, not on all these hurts.
The so called “Green Line’ is not an international border, it is a 1949 cease fire line. The West Bank was never under Palestinian control, it was annexed by Jordan in 1952. We are seeing what we hope is the beginning of a successful peace process. Isreal is willing to make more consessions to allow for a Palestinian state, but there have to be assurances that is a real final status peace is established.