Why the US and Israel should Support Palestinian Upgrade of Status at the UN

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Editor’s note: Rabbi Michael Lerner is editor of Tikkun: A Quarterly Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, chair of the interfaith Network of Spiritual Progressives and rabbi of Beyt Tikkun synagogue in Berkeley, California. He welcomes feedback: rabbilerner.tikkun@gmail.com  This article appeared first on CNN.com on Nov. 28th and was featured. (CNN) — Israel’s security can only be assured when its neighbors believe that it is no longer oppressing the Palestinian people but instead living in peace and harmony with them. The de facto strategy of past and present Israeli governments of seeking security through domination and by pushing Palestinians out of their homes, or allowing right-wing religious fanatics to create settlements throughout the West Bank to ensure that no Palestinian state could have contiguous parts, has not and cannot work to provide safety for Israel.

Beyond Interfaith Marriages to Multifaith Marriages

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Self-definition is that glorious arrangement of you being you. “Interfaith” is not something a marriage or a person can be. We are still in the twenty-first century and we have parochial homes. A cradle Christian doesn’t stop being a Christian because she marries a Jew nor vice versa. Self-definition is normal, possible, obvious—and intimately necessary.

Ersatz Security vs. Genuine Security

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World culture has embraced war and violence. But to glorify war is to destroy ourselves, others, and the planet on which we live. We need to try every path that will lead to greater listening to the needs of other groups. We need to always be searching for agreement.

Making Thanksgiving Meaningful

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MAKING THANKSGIVING MEANINGFUL  by Rabbi Michael Lerner

 

Many families take a moment to go around the Thanksgiving table to ask each person to say what they are grateful for. That is a wonderful practice to build upon. But too often there are some hidden injunctions that weaken the meaning of this practice, such as “don’t talk for more than a sentence” or “be sure to say that you are grateful for something your parent, partner, child, etc. has done or been” or “don’t go beyond the strictly personal or in any way make your ideas sound like they have an ethical/political demand connected to them.” Spiritual Progressives have a more expansive practice, and we encourage you to consider engaging in it, either at the Thanksgiving table, or if that is taboo or would cause too much heart-ache or feelings of disapproval or rejection, then you can try these by yourself as you take a walk outside or seek a quiet space inside before or after the Thanksgiving meal.

Israel and Gaza: Enough Is Enough

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Israel and Gaza: Enough is Enough

By Rabbi Michael Lerner
All the usual suspects are cheering on their respective sides in the latest struggle between Israel and Palestine being fought out at the expense of some Israeli and more Palestinian civilian lives. I’ve been overwhelmed with sadness at the tragic loss of lives and harm to the bodies of Israelis and Palestinians, and outraged at all those who continue to justify their side and demean the other, implicitly cheering on the violence even as they officially deplore it! Enough is enough. Stop the violence immediately!  

First step: the international community, led by the U.S., should impose an immediate cease-fire on all sides of the struggle, and should introduce an international peace force to restrain and if necessary arrest anyone involved in any side of this struggle who is acting to continue the violence.

Restorative Justice: The Long Struggle

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Large, organized, collective interests are at odds with the future of restorative justice: unions of prison guards, economic benefits to communities from prisons, and then—perhaps the most difficult injustice of all—historical crimes whose legacies subject whole groups of people to continuing injustice.

Beyond Frankl: Towards a Meaningful Life

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While Frankl left us with a theory about meaning, it is hard to piece together any practice to help establish a sense of meaning in life. Is meaning given to us from God, or do we pretend to have some real purpose in life in order to make it through the day?

Life Is A Master Class

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We live as artists of Torah in a place that contemporary culture has no room for. In the self-identified Torah-world, Torah living is no longer an art; it’s a sublimation. The question to ask ourselves is “How are we living our lives?”

In Praise of the American People

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In Praise of the American People  by Rabbi Michael Lerner

Every time right-wing forces in ascendency manage to grab hold of Congress or the presidency, liberal and progressive commentators, editorialists and blogs are filled with analyses blaming the outcome on the racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, or stupidity of “ordinary Americans.” They are usually wrong, and these analyses usually provide grist for the right-wing media mill’s insistence that the Left is irredeemably elitist. Indeed, in my own research on the psychodynamics of American politics, I found that it was these kinds of put-down statements, which are widely noticed across all segments of the society, play an important role in convincing many Americans that the liberal and progressive world may want their vote, but nevertheless have contempt for them. Those feelings are intensified when people encounter the strong left-wing religio-phobia that takes for granted that people who believe in God are intellectually stunted, morally distorted, or psychologically seeking a substitute father-figure or otherwise drowned in some form of pathology that hopefully will be cured when they spend more time hanging out with the supposedly more enlightened and intellectually sophisticated liberals and progressives. It’s amazing when a majority of Americans can overcome the resentements generated by this kind of elitism and unite with these same lefties to vote for policies and politicians who are implicitly challenging the current distribution of wealth and power.

Liberals and Progressives Happy but Not Elated About Obama’s Re-Election

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Liberals and Progressives Happy but Not Elated About Obama’s Re-Election
Sunday, 11 November 2012 07:17By Rabbi Michael Lerner,

President Barack Obama amidst confetti after giving his victory speech during his election night event at the McCormick Place Lakeside Center in Chicago, following Election Day, early Wednesday morning, November 7. (Photo: Doug Mills / The New York Times)The moderate beat the reactionary. Two cheers! Americans stood up for their values. Three cheers!