Tikkun (https://www.tikkun.org/category/uncategorized/page/17/)
The Grail Quest of Ralph White
by Craig Chalquist, PhD
The Jeweled Highway: On the Quest for a Life of Meaning
Divine Arts, 2015 (Purchase it on: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013V0P7LM/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?ie=UTF8&btkr=1)
Visit his website at: www.ralphwhite.net
Every now and then arrives a man who contains within his life the momentum of an entire movement. Hermann Hesse comes to mind for the spirit- and soul-starved generations of the late 1800s and early to mid-1900s.
No matter how difficult it may be in a world filled with pain and cruelty, in a world just partially recovering from the latest terrorist attacks (and mourning also all those killed not only by those the media defines as terrorists but also those who have been killed by the drones and the bombings from the militarism of many many national armies and air forces, and all those tortured by “intelligence” operatives, and all those unjustly imprisoned in the US and around the world) there are moments when it is important to stop looking only at all the problems and to dedicate some serious time to focus on all the good. And that’s part of what Thanksgiving could be about for you this year. Life is so amazing, and our universe so awesome, filled with realities that transcend our capacity to comprehend, and inviting us to awe and wonder and radical amazement! Give yourself and your friends a day dedicated to truly feeling those kinds of feelings! I don’t mean only a moment of sharing “something we all appreciate” during the traditional meal.
After all these years and at a point in our shared, isolated experience when the 1960s seem only marginally more substantial than Middle Earth, what a pleasure it is to find the Eeyore and imp of critical legal studies—Peter Gabel and John Schlegel—still dancing a tango. This meta-dance of struggle and of tears—a dance that in a Feiffer cartoon might be entitled, “a dance to The Dance”—proceeds, I think, from a source they share: the belief that how things turn out has some bearing, should have some bearing, on what we do. Gabel’s commitment to this belief is expressed most directly in his coda:
To fully realize a spiritual alignment of law and justice will eventually require a post-liberal transformation of our entire legal culture, in which the fostering of empathy, compassion, and mutual understanding among human beings becomes central to what our Constitution and laws and legal processes are meant to help bring into being. But it took 400 years of gradually transforming consciousness to bring about the liberal revolutions of the eighteenth century, and there is no reason we cannot begin the next evolutionary transformation of legal consciousness in our lifetime. Schlegel’s is captured in his powerfully evocative central image:
And so for me the truth of the myth of Sisyphus implies that the best that we humans can expect is that, when tired from endlessly rolling the rock back up the hill, we may gather together at the River Jordan and weep.
A Short Story
Elena was saying something about how exploited the TA’s were. Maureen, who was also a TA, leaned her head closer, trying to hear her above the din of the students’ chatter in the cavernous auditorium. Then Elena suddenly sat up and pointed toward the front. A short man with long, wavy white hair was rapping a ruler against the podium, attempting to get the students’ attention. He began clearing his throat authoritatively.
Editor’s note: We deeply appreciate the way that Yehuda Amichai was available to Tikkun magazine. He not only allowed many of his poems to be printed in Tikkun, but also participated in the Tikkun Conference in Jerusalem, where we brought together all the various factions of the Israeli peace movement to reflect on why they had been less successful than they could have been. Amichai’s presence there, and his reading of his poetry as part of the conference program, was a powerful statement of his commitment to peace and reconciliation with the Palestinian people.
A widely acclaimed poet of the 20th century, Yehuda Amichai was a voice of sanity in a world that often denies it. Born in Germany, Amichai immigrated to Palestine in the mid-1930s and spent the rest of his life trying to make sense of the calamitous events that his generation endured. He won numerous awards, both in Israel and abroad, and was a frequent contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
A NOTE ON LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
We welcome your responses to our articles. Send your letters to the editor to letters@tikkun.org. Please remember, however, not to attribute to Tikkun views other than those expressed in our editorials. We email, post, and print many articles with which we have strong disagreements, because that is what makes Tikkun a location for a true diversity of ideas. Tikkun reserves the right to edit your letters to fit available space in the magazine.
Non-subscribers: This forum is available as featured open-access content on our publisher’s website. What’s Next for Israel/Palestine? An Introduction
MICHAEL LERNER
Until Two States Exist, Palestinians Deserve Voting Rights in Israel
DAVID BIALE
The Logic of Abandoning the Two-States Campaign
REBECCA SUBAR
Nonviolence, BDS, and the Dream of Beloved Community in Palestine/Israel
LYNN GOTTLIEB
We Need to Make Peace More Lucrative Than Occupation
RAJA SHEHADEH
Israel Can’t Have It Both Ways: Recognize Palestine or Grant Equal Rights
SAM BAHOUR AND TONY KLUG
The Only Road to Sustainable Peace: Pluralistic Democracy
MAZIN QUMSIYEH
If You Want Justice, Support All Forms of Nonviolent Pressure on Israel
REBECCA VILKOMERSON
Escaping the Two-State Snare
IAN S. LUSTICK
Moving Beyond the One-State/Two-State Debate
ANDREW ARATO
Israel’s Human Shields Defense: Shielding Israeli War Crimes
OVADIA EZRA
A New Horizon for Peace: An Israel-Palestine Union
OREN YIFTACHEL
State-Building Can Pave the Way to Statehood: Lessons from Kurdistan
REUVEN KIMELMAN
Israeli Elections Won’t End Oppression in Palestine/Israel
AMER SHURRAB
Closing Thoughts on “What’s Next for Israel/Palestine?”
MICHAEL LERNER
Online Exclusives
These online exclusives are freely accessible articles that are part of an ongoing special series associated with Tikkun’s Fall 2015 print issue, What’s Next For Israel/Palestine. A Two-State Solution is the Only Option
ALON BEN-MEIR
The Legacy of Jewish Trauma
TIRZAH FIRESTONE
“The Ploughshare Without Fear”: Remembering Martin Buber (1878-1965)
CAROL ASCHER
Communities of Faith Must Join to Demand an Arms Embargo
TIMOTHY R. PRISK
Moving Beyond Despair
DOV WAXMAN
The Problem with Solutions
NOAH HABEEB
On the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Back to Democratic Basics
SAM SUSSMAN
If you appreciated these free web-only articles, please help enable us to keep up this important work by becoming a print subscriber or offering a donation.
It has never been clearer that the status quo in Israel/Palestine is unacceptable. In the wake of the 2014 assault on Gaza, the election of the most right-wing government in Israeli history, the collapse of peace talks, and a clear rejection of a potential Palestinian state by Prime Minister Netanyahu, little hope is left that Israel will change on its own. Words of criticism are not enough—concrete consequences are necessary to end the continuing human rights violations, systemic oppression, and inequality that Israel imposes on Palestinians. As American Jews whose values demand our support for justice, even when it means confronting our own community, we implore those who stand on the side of freedom and equality to join us in embracing and encouraging all forms of nonviolent pressure on Israel. It is way past time.
Tikkun is the winner of the prestigious 2014 “Magazine of the Year: Overall Excellence in Religion Coverage” award from the Religion Newswriters Association! Managing Editor Alana Yu-lan Price accepts the RNA award on behalf of Tikkun. Credit: Dawn Cherie Araujo. Tikkun caught the eye of the Religion Newswriters Association (RNA) with our special issue on immigration, which took discussions of spiritual religious principles and values beyond the confines of temples, churches, mosques, and synagogues, and instead debated their application in political and social realms. Reading Puck Lo’s report on a Sikh temple that mobilized to protect a worshiper from deportation, a diverse array of articles on why scripture should energize faith communities to fight for more caring policies on immigration, Ross Hyman’s impassioned article about why it’s a Jewish obligation to stand up for collective bargaining rights, and the many other wonderful contributions to that issue, the judges at the RNA decided to offer this special honor to Tikkun. The immigration issue lauded by the RNA was just one example of the deep convergence of religious and political thought that makes Tikkun powerful and unique.
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet C.K. Williams reads “Tar” and “The Day Continues Lovely.”
Click here to download our 2015/5776 High Holidays Repentance Workbook and click here to download a PDF of the Al Cheyt Prayer. For the Ways We Have Missed the Mark and Gone Astray—Al Cheyt Prayer, Meditation, and Spur to Transformation
A Supplement to the High Holiday Prayer Book (not a replacement)
On Yom Kippur, we invite you to use the following supplement along with the traditional confessional prayer, Al Cheyt. Bring this supplement along with your own list to Yom Kippur services. Don’t just go through the rote reading the traditional “sins,” many of which actually reach to the ways we “miss the mark” in our contemporary reality. If you are not Jewish or aren’t attending any High Holiday service, use this supplement at your home or with your friends at any time during these ten days of repentance!
By the time Simchat Torah rolls around each year, I usually find it refreshing. Back to the beginning: creation and all of the lovely and (comparatively) simplistic themes following the weight of Devarim. Last year, however, I had been teaching Bereishit to ninth and tenth graders at a Jewish high school in Chicago for the eight weeks leading up to the holiday, and by that point, I could barely look at the Torah’s introductory story. It’s not that the beauty of the beginning had been lost. But the perceived simplicity had certainly been ripped out from under my previous romanticism of it all.
Next Monday is Rosh Hashanah, and from Brooklyn to Boca Raton, Jewish families will come together to mark the New Year with lavish feasts and stilted conversations. No Jewish holiday ever goes by without a family argument and no Jewish grandchild is in any doubt about this year’s topic: the Iran nuclear deal. With a nationwide run on Prilosec and other excuses to skip this year’s holiday, anxiety in Jewish communities across the country is palpable. But there’s no need to worry—with a little preparation, you can survive the conversation with bubbe and leave her kvelling about her genius progeny. Although it isn’t Passover, if you want to convince her, you’ll need to have good answers to these four obvious questions about the agreement.
The Jewish High Holy Days are meant to be days for reflection on where we may have missed the mark, both as individuals, as part of the Jewish people, as Americans, and as members of the human race. It is a practice that every human being on the planet should take on as their own, shaping it to their own realities. This practice takes some real time and energy, which is why the Jewish tradition gives in ten days, from the beginning of Rosh Hashanah (this year: Sunday eve, Sept. 13 2015) to the end of Yom Kippur (at dark the night ofWednesday Sept. 23).