Tikkun (https://www.tikkun.org/blog/author/a_waskowa/)
Arthur Waskow's strategy to melt the hearts of people who have become hostile to each other – “blue” and “red” Americans – by massively supporting neighborhood solar and wind co-op programs they both need.
Would-be Pharaoh Trump has reached the crucial point of his reign: Shall he mobilize the chariots and drown in the Reed Sea, or grumpily relinquish power?
Arthur Waskow shares his wisdom with Tikkun.
Rabbi Arthur Waskow argues that whether to impeach Trump is not only a political question but also a moral and spiritual question.
Join Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Rev. William Barber, and others for the Interfaith Freedom Seder + 50 on April 7 in Philadelphia.
Arthur Waskow argues that, when facing antisemitism from marginalized groups in our society, we must respond not with rage but compassionate challenge and listening.
Rabbi Arthur Waskow urges us not to abandon our commitment to compassion in the wake of the Pittsburgh shooting. Instead, we must "respond by putting every effort for one week into Growing the Vote to renew and strengthen American democracy."
My Qualms and Self-Correction
“Tshuvah: Till by Turning, Turning, We Come Round Right”
I have been having qualms about some aspects of what I wrote a few days ago in response to Rabbis Marc Angel’s and Uri Regev’s open letter called “Vision Statement: Israel As A Jewish Democratic State." (See the link at the end of this message, for their text.)
I have no qualms about the basic religio-political stance I set forth, but I do have qualms about the way I said it, So I want to do some self-correction – what especially at this time of year we call “tshuvah,” turning in a more ethical direction. As I wrote, I started reading Rabbis Regev’s and Angel’s “Vision” statement with hope, based on its title. But I finished reading with deep disappointment. I share the anger and sense of betrayal that many of my colleagues feel about the Israeli government’s refusal to recognize marriages or conversion ceremonies at which we officiate, or to honor the spiritual presence of Women of the Wall.
FOR ISRAEL, this summer marks the 50th anniversary (June 10, 2017) of the end of the Six-Day War and the beginning of the Israeli Occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza. And that historical marker quickly follows another one: the 69th anniversary of Israel’s statehood, commemorated by Israelis as Yom Ha’Atzma’ut (May 1 and 2). Yom Ha’Atzma’ut is usually translated as “Israeli Independence Day.” That English word means “not hanging on.” But the Hebrew would be more accurately translated as “Day for Standing on One’s Own Feet, Day of Affirming One’s Own Essence” (Etzem, the linguistic root of “atzma’ut,” means “bone, skeleton, internal essential structure.”)
From that deeper perspective, the 50th anniversary of the Occupation casts a deep pall of doubt upon the 69th birthday of the State. Has Israel really been independently “standing on its own feet” or has it for five- sevenths of its history been simultaneously standing in military boots on a subjugated people and depending (not “independing”) on the military and money support of the United States government to do so? The present Israeli government, elected just two years ago, is by far the most right- wing—politically, economically, and religiously—in Israel’s history.
In May 2016, The Shalom Center began exploring a proposal to make the year from April 4, 2017, to April 4, 2018, an American Jubilee Year of Truth and Transformation — through action as well as emotional and spiritual reflection and repentance.
Climate prayer is powerful. Here’s how synagogues can breathe earth awareness into services and activists can make their actions prayerful.
It's time to join in a campaign to Move Our Money/Protect Our Planet—a spiritually rooted, strategically focused plan of action on the climate crisis!
Are Jews in existential free-fall? According to the latest Pew Research Center report, 22 percent of Jews have abandoned Judaism and only 15 percent identify Judaism as essential to being Jewish. Rabbi Arthur Waskow offers an insightful response.
Eisen's book is written as a series of dialogues between two voices: one that believes Judaism accepts and affirms the use of violence, and one that believes Judaism much more strongly seeks and urges peace. This pattern is useful but could be a lot more useful, were it not for two baffling failings in this review of the multimillennial literature.
The human race -- not for the first time in our history -- has lost the sacred sense of self-restraint. We don't restrain ourselves. And what's the result? The earth will give forth thorns and thistles, not abundance, and you will have to work with the sweat pouring down your faces to get just barely enough to eat.