A Call for Love in the Face of Hatred: Rabbi Lerner’s talk at Muhammad Ali’s Memorial

By Tikkun Staff | June 24, 2016

A transcript of Rabbi Lerner’s speech is below. To see him speak and to hear about his experiences, please see our post here. Master of compassion, God of compassion, send your blessings to Muhammad Ali, send your blessings to all who mourn for him, and send your blessings for all the millions and millions of people who mourn for him all over this planet. I come here speaking as a representative of American Jews — and to say that American Jews played an important role in solidarity with African-American struggles in this country and that we today stand in solidarity with the Islamic community in country and all around the world. [applause]

We will not tolerate politicians or anyone else putting down Muslims and blaming Muslims for a few people [applause].We know what it’s like to be demeaned.

Not Another Dark Holocaust Poem: Chava, Miriam, Auschwitz

By Tikkun Staff | May 9, 2016

Not Another Dark Holocaust Poem: Chava, Miriam, Auschwitz

It is tempting to dredge up ashy metaphors for your last days on earth

To remain riveted, horrified, impaled by thoughts of what it must have been like

Torn away from the comfort of a beautiful room, in your beautiful clothes, your ordinary Jewish lives

Turning away from the gathering gray clouds; the rumors, the stricken faces, the sinking fears pulling you into a reality too dreadful to be faced

And then, too late;

for Chava, for Miriam, too late

But wait, here is where I stop being able to go with you, onto that train, towards the sorting desk: live or die,

The barracks, the showers, the endings. Instead I carry you in my arms into the present

Into my music, quilting, cooking, tikkuning, praying and I feel you here in the invisible connections

Great-aunts with large breasts, recipes, laughter, wisdom, sewing machines, struggles: loving life, loving me. I hold you here, in the only life I have, living it in memory of you.  

Renna Ulvang is a long time member of Beyt Tikkun Synagogue; a psychotherapist and certified spiritual director, companioning people in their search for connection to the Divine. (rennaulvang.com)

By Tikkun Staff | January 8, 2016

For three decades, Tikkun has advanced the possibility of a world based on love, kindness, generosity, individual and collective freedom, social justice, peace, mutual forgiveness, and caring for each other. Support our unique voice and donate now. Click here to donate. Tikkun is more than a magazine it’s a movement! Become a member of our Network of Spiritual Progressives, join today!

Against Racism and For Democracy: Reflections on Ayman Odeh at the HaaretzQ Conference by Aaron Steinberg-Madow

By Tikkun Staff | December 31, 2015

Note: This post originally appeared on All That’s Left on December 30, 2015. As an Israeli politician gets up to speak, a crowd of Jewish Americans leaps to its feet. But the speaker isn’t Jewish. His name is Ayman Odeh and he is a Palestinian citizen of Israel and the leader of the Joint List, the third largest party in the Knesset. MK Odeh has come to New York to address the HaaretzQ Conference with the New Israel Fund.

Fighting Terrorism with Love

By Tikkun Staff | December 28, 2015

Love requires us to think of terrorists as people. We need to look beyond terrorist acts to the exploitation of powerless countries by the West. In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Paris last month, amid all the talk of war and destruction, some people could be heard calling for love. But what would a loving response to terrorism be? I understand love as a concern for all people, which has well-being as its first focus.

Empathizing with ISIS: An Unthinkable Necessity Explained by John McFadden

By Tikkun Staff | December 15, 2015

ISIS hardly seems to deserve empathy. But that depends on what’s meant by “empathy.” In the sophisticated realms of international relations, psychotherapy, and other social science disciplines, “empathy” doesn’t carry the ordinary meaning most people think of when they hear that word. To most people, “empathy” means sympathy, or feeling for. Whereas in the academic and professional worlds, empathize means something like “stand in the shoes of,” or crawl inside the other person’s position, their life experiences, their beliefs, attitudes and feelings. It’s a totally impersonal process at times, much like understanding how a machine works so as to become better able to fix it.

Overcoming ISIS: An Ongoing Tikkun Forum

By Tikkun Staff | December 15, 2015

Articles:
Introduction to Tikkun’s Approach, by Rabbi Michael Lerner

Humiliation is the Root of All Terrorism, by Peter Gabel

The U.S and the Rise of ISIS, by Stephen Zunes

Empathizing with ISIS: An Unthinkable Necessity Explained, by John McFadden

Fighting Terrorism with Love, Philip McKibbin
Introduction to Tikkun’s Approach
by Rabbi Michael Lerner
This site will be continually updated with new articles, so check it whenever you are wishing to hear what people in the spiritual progressive world are thinking. Tikkun does not necessarily agree with all the articles we select to publish below, any more than do we necessarily agree with articles we publish in the print magazine (which is available by subscription, or free to people who join the Network of Spiritual Progressives at the $50 level—and on line only to our subscribes or NSP members or donors). But what makes an article Tikkunish? It approaches this topic and any other social phenomenon with a supposition that people who are acting in ways that are hateful, hurtful, violent in speech or action, anti-Semitic, racist, sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic, religiophobic or otherwise acting in irrational or self-destructive ways are often responding to internal psychological or spiritual needs that are legitimate needs that have been systematically frustrated and which have much in common with needs of many others who do not respond to them in the same irrational or hurtful or violent ways.  Those who respond by being attracted to extremist ideas–whether they take the form of “America is always right and we have the absolute right to impose our way of thinking or being on those who disagree with us because they are wrong,” or substitute here in place of “America” any other nationality, religious community, ethnic or racial group, gender, sexual preference, or other grouping—are often seeking a way to deal with inner pain or the absence of a loving environment that all human beings need to flourish, and have adopted a strategy for having their needs met that is destructive to themselves or others.