Tikkun Daily Blog Archive (https://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/2013/09/page/3/)
I believe that one of the best kept secrets about the rewards of choosing interdependence is the wisdom and the richer freedom that are often unleashed through entering dialogue with others as a path to making decisions: together, in complete autonomy, honoring everyone affected.
When the spirit of an activist becomes weighed down under the burden of their work, a center needs to be found again. Contemplative, liturgical prayer can be just the thing to maintain balance within a community and within oneself.
The rights of immigrants, LGBT communities, and women are intrinsically connected. And for all groups there has been a recent uprise in the amount of laws and resolutions being passed on a State level, with local communities taking the lead and making their own example of what they want to see happening in Washington.
As Bashar al-Assad proves, dictators who gas people to death still exist. So does a complacent international system. Why are some on the left, like Ian Lustick, more concerned with making sure a Jewish state doesn’t exist?
I dream of a world run on a gift economy basis. I see, vividly, the possibility of people self-governing, sharing resources locally and globally, attending to everyone’s needs in a collaborative way. The image of a flow of generosity replacing the world of exchange is a precious vision for me.
I had never told our young children about the terrorist attack that nearly took their mother’s life before they were born. Whenever they asked about her barely-visible scars, my answers were always vague, using the words accident and explosion to explain their existence.
They didn’t know this “accident” occurred in Israel. They didn’t know it was associated with a war, with a conflict.
However, with the publishing of my book – What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife? – I knew it was time to tell them. Better to hear from me, I thought, than from someone at school.
As Yom Kippur approaches, we invite you to reflect on two of Mark Kirschbaum’s pieces. One dealing with the relationship between time and teshuva and the other addressing why we read the Jonah story on this day.
Today, the twelfth anniversary of 9/11, monsters pretending to be my brothers in faith declared a holy war against my home and killed almost 3,000 innocent of my fellow countrymen and women in one terrifying swoop. Certainly their actions were taken by the entire country as a sign that Islam is a violent, bloodthirsty religion, wanting nothing more than to force the West to its knees through murder and mayhem. Ordinary Muslims such as I were aghast that such terrible actions could hold more weight than the statements of millions of Muslims in the United States and abroad who vehemently denounced them individually and collectively. But that’s human nature, isn’t it, that actions speak more clearly and resound louder than mere words do?
Is Syria simply ‘stage 2’ in a neoconservative plan to bring about regime change, with Iraq as stage one and Iran as stage three? William Beeman discusses how a war on Syria would exacerbate violence rather than bring the world closer to peaceful resolution of the tensions in the region.
Perhaps the biggest challenge for activists to overcome is to remain truly hopeful, but that is not to say it is impossible. Sam Daley-Harris shares the stories of those who have faced their fears and transformed their lives in order to better the world, and shows why a little grassroots empowerment can help create movements that will change the world.