FAITH HOUSE Manhattan

A Mother's Day in Darfur

~ Rabbi Or N. Rose is an associate dean at the Rabbinical School at Hebrew College and the co-editor of Righteous Indignation: A Jewish Call for Justice (Jewish Lights Publishing). I (Samir) have met Rabbi Or after he gave a lecture at the General Theological Seminary in Manhattan. Since then, he has become a precious source of wisdom and encouragement to us. Many of us can join hands with Rabbi Or and all who are working towards the end of crisis in Darfur.

An ongoing genocide rages in Darfur, Sudan. The violence has already claimed as many as 450,000 lives and displaced more than 2.4 million people. Mothers, in particular, are at substantial risk in Darfur. After five years of conflict, most women who survived the destruction of their villages now live in displaced persons or refugee camps, where it is difficult to find firewood to cook with.

With no other way to feed their families, thousands of courageous women make the choice every day to leave the camps and expose themselves to attack from roving militiamen so that their husbands (who are at an even greater risk of being murdered) and children may live. The strength and resilience of these women reminds me of Shifrah and Puah, the two midwives in the first chapter of Exodus, who courageously defied Pharaoh and intervened to save the lives of the Israelite male children.

This past Mother’s Day weekend, in synagogues and churches across the country religious leaders shared the story of the brave mothers of Darfur with their communities, and congregants responded by donating generously to help protect these heroic women. This initiative was organized by the Genocide Intervention Network, one of the leading anti-genocide organizations in the United States. Over the next six months, GI-Net will work to build propane-powered kitchens in the camps, thus eliminating the need for firewood collection.

Of course, the crisis in Darfur will not be solved by humanitarian efforts alone.  In addition to helping alleviate the pain and suffering of the millions of people languishing in camps along the Sudan-Chad border, we must also agitate for a just political solution. 

With the Beijing Summer Olympics on the horizon, Darfur activists are calling on the Chinese government, Sudan's largest oil customer, valued arms supplier and chief ally on the U.N. Security Council, to stop President Omar al-Bashir and his ruthless administration from continuing its genocidal campaign against the people of Darfur.

The American Jewish World Service, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), and several other social justice organizations (including GI-Net and the Save Darfur Coalition) are calling on President Bush to boycott the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games unless China takes several key steps to help end the crisis in western Sudan. The list of actions includes China ending all arms transfers to Sudan, strongly and publicly condemning the atrocities in Darfur, and demanding that the government of Sudan comply with existing U.N. Security Council resolutions and rapidly facilitate the deployment of the United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force. 

President Bush could use this opportunity to recommit himself to the Darfur cause, as his record on this issue is inconsistent at best.  What better way for an outgoing president to spend his final months in office than to dedicate himself to ending the first genocide of the 21st century.

As we reflect on the meaning of Mother’s Day and on our love for our families, let us also remember the mothers, fathers, and children of Darfur who desperately need us to take action both as humanitarians and as political advocates.  Let us act with the courage of the ancient midwives of Exodus by joining GI-Net, AJWS, JCPA, and others in helping to birth a new era of justice and peace in western Sudan. 

For New Yorkers: 92nd St. Y Event

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Live Words: Work of Human Beings

In the beginning, the Creator of the Universe, deciding to make a world, drew in the divine breath in order to make room for the creation coming into being. In this enlarged space, the Creator then set vessels, and into the vessels poured the brilliance of divine light. The light was too brilliant for the vessels, however, and unable to contain it, they shattered all over the universe. Since that time, the work of human beings has been to go about the universe, picking up the shards of creation and trying to mend and transform the vessels by refashioning them in a work called 'the repair of the world.'

                                    ~ Isaac Luria, 17th Century mystical Jewish theologian

Four Stories of God

~ by Samir Selmanovic

For more than 20 years since my baptism (a ritual by which one signals publicly that one has become a follower), people have often given me the opportunity to “tell my story”—to “give a testimony,” as we Christians like to call it. Despite the fact that my life with God was not only passionate but also conflicted and complicated, the story itself was easy to tell. It was all one story. One life. One song. 

But it is not that easy anymore. Today, as early Hasidic Rav Kook did long ago, I find myself wondering which song I should sing. Should I look into my own soul and sing the song of the struggles and joys I encounter within? Or should I move beyond myself and sing the song of my people, my religion? Or maybe I should rise above my Christian story and sing a song of all songs of humanity? Or should I spread my heart still wider and sing a song with all creation?

Is the story of God a story of my own soul, a story of my religion, a story of humanity or a story of all that is? To accept all these stories as the stories of God is to imply that my religion then becomes only a part of the ultimate story of the world, not the ultimate story itself.

Orthodox rabbi David Hartman, concerned with the perennial conflict in Jerusalem, insists that different melodies of one God must be cherished: “Each group feels that its way is the only way: there is one God, therefore there has to be one truth. Christians build their story on the Jewish story and therefore feel they are inheritors of Judaism. Muslims built their story on the Bible, and therefore they feel that they are the perfect expression of monotheism. Now, we’ve got to get out of each other’s story. We can’t feel that in order for me to tell my story, your story has to end. . . . In other words, affirmation [of my story] does not require that I demonise those who are different from me. I don’t have to build conviction out of hate and fear.” If my identity depends on annihilation of other stories, I cannot really sing all four songs of God.

What if God measures our religion by the way it contributes to stories other than one’s own? What if our religions will be judged by the good they bring to their non-adherents? Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel says this succinctly: “When in the afterglow of religious insight I can see a way that is good for all humans as it is for me—I will know it is His way.”

In the same vein, The Quran reads, “Had God willed He would have made you into one religious community; but it was his will to test you in what He gave you. So compete with each other in doing good works” (Quran 5:48). Seyyed Hossein Nasr of George Washington University contends that “there’s no more crucial problem for our day than to be able to cross religious frontiers while preserving our own integrity. In fact, I think this the only exciting intellectual adventure of our times.”

So I find it hard to “give a testimony” today without offending people of my own religion whose identity depends on a divided and conflicted world. As a follower of Christ, I have grown to believe in a world that is larger than Christianity. Jesus called this larger world the kingdom of God. It is the symphony made of all stories, individual and communal, our magnanimous God is involved with in this world.

Only God is God. And Christianity is not. Nor Judaism. Nor Islam. Paradoxically, this realization about the greatness of God is a deeply Christian, Jewish and Muslim teaching.

When I pray the Lord’s Prayer, I begin with the first word, “Our . . .” (see Matthew 6:9) and I stop and ask myself, “Who do I include in this Our?” I remind myself that the story of God is bigger than my personal story, bigger than the story of my religion, bigger than the story of all humanity, and bigger than the story of all creation. In the kingdom of God, these four stories are all really my stories—all at the same time—woven together, giving meaning and life to each other.

(from Signs of the Times, Australia, September 2007, adapted by the author)

Faith House Writing Awarded

~ by Nathan Brown

An article written for the Faith House website has been awarded by a Christian publication in Australia. "A Letter to the Three Friends I Wish I Had" by Roy Naden was awarded the Hindson Award for "Best devotional article" in Record in 2007. The article was originally posted on the Faith House web site on March 6, 2007, and was reprinted in Record with permission of Dr Naden and Faith House.

The Record editors' comments with the award read as follows:

"As one of our editorial team commented after reading this article at the time of its publication, 'That article made me want to become a better person.' Now retired, Dr Naden reflected on his working years, both professionally and personally, and expressed regrets for some of the opportunities and friendships missed, before committing to using his remaining years to make the world a better place and support younger people who are now trying to live in a different way."

Dr Naden is originally from Australia, but in retirement lives in Seattle area, Washington. Record is the weekly news magazine of Adventist Church for the South Pacific region, based in Melbourne, Australia.

NOTE: To read "A Letter to the Three Friends I Wish I Had" click HERE.

What Is Jewish Renewal Movement (Part 2)

~ by Marcia Prager

NOTE: to read Part 1 of this article click HERE

In a deep way, Jewish Renewal is built on the idea that we live in a transformative moment in time, in which a new paradigm for spiritual life is being developed. Jewish Renewal draws heavily on the thought of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, which is a loving critique of the limitations of traditional Rabbinic  Judaism and a call to continue the ongoing renewal of Jewish life in our time, as the Talmudic rabbis did in theirs.

Jewish Renewal actively seeks a relationship with God as the immanent reality that sources and suffuses all creation, and can call to us from beyond creation as well. This changes how we view the earth, the human race, the Jewish people, the relationship of human beings to the rest of creation – everything.

Jewish Renewal is neither "halakhic" (a word usually translated as Jewish Law, but which more literally means "walking the walk") nor anti-halakhic but "neo-halakhic." Just as Rabbinic Judaism involved transcending the halakhah of Temple sacrifice, so Jewish Renewal seeks to go beyond the limitations of traditional Rabbinic Judaism to forge a new halakhah in which Judaism is conscious of its place in an interconnected world. This new halakhah, for instance, includes expansion of the practice of kashrut to include ecological and ethical  criteria, a new exploration of the concept of work as it applies to both the personal and societal Shabbat, and re-examination of intimacy and intimate relationships.

Jewish Renewal has long been committed to a fully egalitarian approach to Jewish life and welcomes the public and creative input of those who were  traditionally excluded from the process of forming the Jewish tradition.

In Jewish Renewal:

- women and men are fully equal and participatory in shaping the future of Judaism;

- those who have often been marginalized in Jewish life are welcomed and honored;

- we are committed to evolving a Jewish path accessible to all who seek to explore and learn;  we welcome all who awakened to spirituality within Jewish tradition and all who experienced that awakening while traveling other paths;

- there is respect for and often learning from other spiritual paths (e.g., Buddhism, Sufi, etc.);

- music, movement, chant, meditation, dance, and drama are encouraged as ways of connecting with God & Torah;

- our gatherings for prayer and celebration are lively,  participatory and engaging of mind and heart; we approach God most often in a circle, because we find we can amplify our prayers through each other's supportive presence;

- we desire to embody wisdom rather than etherealize or intellectualize it;

- we strive to personally sense God as suffusing the world with Divinity;

- we seek to heal the earth and society through seeking peace, justice, and ecological wholeness; we engage in Tikkun Olam, the healing of brokenness in the world through mitzvot and acts of caring.

- we are committed to a deep love of Israel, striving to realize our vision of peace between the children of Isaac and the children of Ishmael in the promised land of our ancestors.

Jewish Renewal is "maximalist" about Judaism – that is, Jewish spiritual practice is undertaken joyously and Jewish values are applied in many down-to-earth life dimensions (food, money, sex, health, politics, etc.) rather than restricted to prayer, holidays, or Torah study.

ALEPH Alliance for Jewish Renewal is a national organization that came into existence to develop,  encourage and promote outreach focused on Jewish renewal. ALEPH is the umbrella for many exciting Jewish renewal projects.

Here are some important Jewish Renewal websites to keep handy:

ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal
www.aleph.org

Elat Chayyim Jewish Spiritual Retreat Center
www.elatchayyim.org

OHaLaH: Agudat HaRabbanim L'Hithadshut HaYahadut - Association of Rabbis for
Jewish Renewal
www.ohalah.org

Rabbi Marcia Prager is Director and Dean of the ALEPH Ordination Programs and rabbi of the P'nai Or Jewish Renewal communities of Philadelphia PA, and and Princeton NJ. She is the author of The Path of Blessing and the P'nai Or Siddurim for Shabbat. Her work as a teacher of Jewish spiritual practice includes developing and co-directing the Davvenen Leadership Training Institute at Elat Chayyim, and teaching widely in Jewish and interfaith settings.

What Is Jewish Renewal Movement? (Part 1)

~ by Rabbi Marcia Prager who is Director and Dean of the ALEPH Ordination Programs and rabbi of the P'nai Or Jewish Renewal communities of Philadelphia PA, and and Princeton NJ. She is the author of The Path of Blessing and the P'nai Or Siddurim for Shabbat. Her work as a teacher of Jewish spiritual practice includes developing and co-directing the Davvenen Leadership Training Institute at Elat Chayyim, and teaching widely in Jewish and interfaith settings.

I learned about Faith House recently at the Innovation Conference in Ohio. After I introduced the Jewish Renewal movement to a largely Christian audience and led them in experiencing the dynamics of Jewish spirituality, Samir closed our meeting with a prayer and a sweet poem from a Palestinian poet, Naomi Shihab Nye. For those few moments, the whole family of Abraham became one. Later, during a conversation with Samir, I felt a clear resonance with the Faith House project in Manhattan. I believe it will give fresh hope to our largely polarized Abrahamic family as it slowly unfolds along with other renewal movements. This is my report on what is happening on the Jewish side of these developments. I invite you who are Christians and Muslims that are seeking renewal in your own faiths to teach the rest of us about God’s renewing presence in your midst.

Jewish Renewal is the ongoing creative project of a generation of Jews who are seeking to renew Judaism and bring its spiritual and ethical vitality into our lives and communities, and at the same time embrace a global vision of the role of all human beings and spiritual paths in the transformation of life on this precious planet. 

Jewish Renewal is dedicated to revealing Judaism's inner spirit and nurturing our spiritual lives. In Jewish renewal we draw significant inspiration from the legacy of Jewish mystical and Hassidic traditions, which is expressed in the cultivation of traditional practices such as meditation, chanting, and davvenen' [the uniquely Jewish prayer practice that blends light body- movement, modal chant and sacred text] and the study of traditional Kabbalistic and Hasidic sources to enhance both individual and communal practice.

Jewish Renewal as a movement seeks to transform and renew the kavvanah (spiritual intention) with which we practice a revitalized and joyous Judaism.

Jewish Renewal is a phenomenon, not a denomination. It resembles Reform Judaism in some ways, Reconstructionism in other ways, and even Orthodoxy – especially Hasidism – in some important ways. But it is not a formal denomination with an organized hierarchy or structure. Jewish Renewal is a "movement" in the sense of a wave in motion, a grassroots effort to discover and re-discover the modern meaning of Judaism as a profound, self and world-transformative spiritual practice.

Jewish-renewalists see "renewal" as a process reaching beyond denominational boundaries and institutional structures, more similar to the multi-centered civil-rights or women's movements than to contemporary denominations. This renewal process is happening in Jewish music, liturgy, midrash, education, politics . . . and in all kinds of synagogues as well as havurot (smaller, less formal constellations of Jewish community), and even in secular settings.

Jewish Renewal sees itself as transdenominational, a movement that transcends the boundaries of the various Jewish denominations. Its membership includes people who are active in the Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, and Orthodox worlds as well as many others whose only religious/spiritual affiliation is Renewal.

In a deep way, Jewish Renewal is built on the idea that we live in a
transformative moment in time, in which a new paradigm for spiritual life is being
developed.

. . .

Exciting?  Learn much more about Jewish Renewal next week in (Part 2)