Beyond Religion with Rabbi Rami

America a Christian Nation? Sadly, no.

2012-01-31T11:02:00.000-08:00

The United States is not a Christian Nation. How do I know?Because the United States does nothing to stop the extinction of Christians.

Right now Christians around the world are in danger. CopticChristians in Egypt are on the endangered species list, and the same can besaid of Catholics in Tunisia. In Afghanistan American women and men continue todie for a regime that has denied building permits for new churches, and overthe summer demolished the last remaining church open to the public. In Iraq, where even more American blood was shed, the Christian population has decreasedby 2/3 since 2003.

And we are supposed to be a Christian nation? Not only do wenot protect Christians, but we actively support the very regimes that arethreatening them.

I’m not saying we have to intervene militarily, but is therenothing we can do? Can’t we link our foreign aide to liberty and justice forall? Can’t we offer asylum to Christians living in countries that persecute them?Isn’t this what a Christian nation would do?

The next time someone tells you the US is a Christian nation,don’t argue about prayer in school and teaching evolution in the classroom, askthem why, if this so, we are so loathe to rescue Christians?

Israeli Winter?

2012-01-29T04:37:00.000-08:00

The other day I read about two Israels. One is calledStart-Up Israel. This is the secular, liberal, high-tech and entrepreneurialIsrael that has dozens of companies on the New York Stock Exchange. The otheris called Medieval Israel. This is the religious, xenophobic, misogynist Israelsupported by Start-Up Nation taxes. Medieval Israel is a welfare state aspassionate about recreating the 13^th century as Start-Up Israel isabout inventing the 21^st.

These two Israels used to collide, and still do as women fromStart-Up Israel protest the misogynist policies of Medieval Israel. But mostlythe war between the two Israels is over. The Medievals have won.

The fastest growing Jewish population in Israel is the haredim, the ultra-Orthodox Jews ofMedieval Israel whom the government pays to stay out of the workforce and in theyeshiva (if male) and the kitchen (if female). Two-thirds of haredi men do notwork. Fifty years ago only 15% of Israeli kids attended haredi schools, now 50%do so. Sociologists warn that the number will reach 78% by 2040. Israel is literallyeducating her people for the past, while the future passes her by. While manyArab nations are struggling with the post-modern world, Israel seems destined toslip into the pre-modern one. Even Iran isn’t doing this.

What will happen? Start-Up Israelis will leave home,taking their wealth, knowledge, and military know-how with them, while Medieval Israelis will inherit a nation incapable of feeding itself. Israelwill become a welfare state supported by wealthy American Jews and Israeliex-pats.

And then there is the problem of hundreds of nuclear bombs in thehands of apocalyptic rabbis. They might allow themselves to become Palestiniansif the Palestinians promise to make them dhimmis,the second class citizen status afforded Jews and Christians under Islamic law, and support them the way the Start-Us Israelis did, but Idoubt it. They might just as well see themselves as descendants of the Jewishwarriors at Masada and choose to die in a nuclear war rather than fall into the hands oftheir enemies. This choice would drag Pakistan into the fight, which would invite India to war, which would drag the Chinese, Russians, NATO, and the US into it and pretty much end life on this planet as we know it.

What can we do about this? Probably nothing. Israel is a sovereignnation and makes its own policy decisions. As long as it supports the haredimwith welfare, exempts them from military service, and allows them to create aseparate society with its own schools, Start-Up Israel seems doomed. Short of ahuge influx of secular American Jews willing to make Israel home the wayRussian Jews did in the past, the emergence of Medieval Israel seems all butinevitable. And I don’t see that happening—most American Jews (myself amongthem) prefer to be Americans that Israelis.

As much as I doubt the efficacy of the Arab Spring, I worryabout the inevitability of an Israeli winter. My only hope is that as the last Start-Up Israelis leave they take their nukes with them.

Voting Atheist

2012-01-26T04:46:00.001-08:00

A Newsweek headline (January 30, 2012) asks Why Jews Vote Like Atheists.Unfortunately the short article doesn’t answer the question. So I will: Jewsvote like atheists because most Jews are atheists or at least functionalatheists. An atheist is someone who denies the existence of God, and afunctional atheists is one who may or may not deny God but lives as if God isirrelevant to their lives.

How do atheists vote?

According to the article, atheists are somewhat conservativeon financial matters and liberal on cultural matters: separation of church andstate, reproductive rights, gay rights, etc. Yep, that’s me.

Why are so many Jews atheist or functional atheists?

The article doesn’t say, but I suspect it is because the godwe are given to believe in is essentially unbelievable. What most Jews knowabout God comes from our liturgy, and the God presented there is an allpowerful Guy who loves us and takes care of us and wants nothing more from usthan an endless string of praise and platitudes. It’s hard not to be an atheistwhen the only God you are offered is the one you outgrew in the ninth gradeafter reading about the Holocaust.

But don’t imagine that Jewish atheism is a modernphenomenon. We have a 2000 year history of atheism going back at least as faras the first century atheist Rabbi Elisha ben Abuyah. (If you haven’t read thenovel As A Driven Leaf by MiltonSteinberg, you should. If you have read it, read it again.) So maybe it is inour DNA.

I admit I vote like an atheist, and I am a fan ofben Abuyah and other famous Jewish atheists like Spinoza, Einstein, Sagan,Freud, and Emma Goldman, but I don’t consider myself an atheist. Sure if we aretalking about the God who walks in the garden of Eden at the cool of the day,then, yes, I have my doubts, but if we are talking about Ain Sof, the allembracing nonduality that is reality, then I am a true believer.

Interfaith Breakfast and The Big I

2012-01-24T08:18:00.000-08:00

I know I have mentioned this before, but I want to make sure that those who are interested in the two interfaith events I am hosting at the Scarritt Bennett Center in February get invited.

The first is our 2nd Annual Interfaith Harmony Week Breakfast on FGebruary 1st. Our theme is "Compassionate Nashville," and we will explore Karen Armstrong's Charter for Compassion and how we can bring this alive in Middle Tennessee. If you cannot make our breakfast, I urge you to host your own.

The second event is The Big I on February 4 and 5. The "I" stands for Interfaith, Interspiritual, and Integral three major trends in 21st century spirituality. We are hosting over 20 speakers exploring the future of spirituality.

For more information on these programs please visit http://www.scarrittbennett.org/programs/wisdom.aspx

Trust the Ball

2012-01-12T07:42:00.001-08:00

Now that we have two GOP contests under our belt I turned tomy trustworthy Magic 8-Ball to determine the future. Here is what I learned:

1. Will Mitt Romney be the next President of theUnited States? Yes.

2. Will anything really change? Very doubtful.

3. Will the US go to war with Iran? You may rely on it.

4. Will we pay for war by cutting the social safetynet for the poor, sick, and elderly? Signspoint to yes.

5. Will Americans learn anything from ourexperiences in Iraq and Afghanistan? Mysources say no.

6. Will the economy improve in 2012? Outlook not so good.

7. Are Mormons Christian? Better not tell you now.

The Ball is never wrong. Yet, like all prognosticators youcan hire your own to get the results you want. If you don’t like these answers,buy your Ball and let us know what it tells you.

Hosting an Interfaith Harmony Breakfast

2012-01-11T13:52:00.001-08:00

The first week in February is World Interfaith Harmony Week.The week was proposed by the Jordanian delegation to the United Nations andestablished by the UN General Assembly in 2011. In response Rev. Tim Miner andI (Rev. Tim is the creator of the Big I conference we are hosting in Nashvilleon February 4-5) began to promote World Interfaith Harmony Week Breakfastsaround the globe.

Last year there were numerous breakfasts on every continent,some large some small. This year we are hoping to see the numbers increase. Tohelp with that let me provide a simple outline for hosting such a breakfast.

First, think small and local. If you have a church, mosque,synagogue or other institution to work with that might lend itself to a largerbreakfast, but even if you a few friends get together it is worth it. You canmeet in a home or a restaurant if that better suits your situation.

Second, set a fixed time to gather. We run our breakfastfrom 8 to 10 in the morning.

Third, charge a nominal fee. Resist the impulse to make thisfree. Charging a fee helps people take the event more seriously. In Nashvillewe charge $15 to cover our food and room rental expenses. We had 100 people forbreakfast last year, and hope to add a dozen or so this year.

Fourth, advertise. Depending on how many people you want in attendancedo more or less advertising. Let your local newspaper you are doing this, andthey will probably interview you for a story. Post it on your Facebook page ifyou have one. Call some friends and invite them to breakfast if you don’t.

Fifth, do something during the meal. This can be simple suchas asking people to share what they like most about their personal faith path(some groups also ask that people share what troubles them the most about theirfaith, and what they “envy” in other faiths). This year in Nashville I willunveil our Compassionate Nashville campaign (rooted in Karen Armstrong’sCharter of Compassion movement, www.charterofcompassion.org),and we will engage each table in identifying examples of compassion in Nashvilleand areas that need addressing.

Sixth, follow a simple structure. Begin with a statement of welcome.Then invite people from different traditions to bless the gathering and themeal. Allow people time to eat and talk informally, and then spend a good 45minutes or more talking about whatever it is you choose to have as the formaltopic of conversation. End with another series of blessings from traditions notrepresented in the opening.

This is obviously a very brief outline of what can be done. I hope it helps to get you motivated to host abreakfast. If you do, please let post it on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/interfaithharmonybreakfasts/.

Thanks.

Great Jews

2012-01-05T19:24:00.001-08:00

Rabbi David Wolpe, citing RavAbraham Isaac Kook, asks a great question in his 12/29/11 blog post: When will Jews who are great also be greatJews? This questions begs another: What makes a great Jew? Is it observanceof Jewish tradition? And, if so, how observant? Is it contributing to Jewishcauses? And if so, how much?

Rabbi Wolpe notes that the kind ofmind rabbinic Judaism requires—a mind devoted to critical thinking, reason, analysis,argument, and doubt; a mind at home with paradox and aflame with possibilityand imagination—explains why so many non-observant Jews rise to the top oftheir respective fields: they still have that kind of mind.

Maybe. There is something in thetraining of a Jewish mind that, while not unique in the world of parenting maybe quintessentially Jewish. That is to say that while nonJewish parents mayraise their kids to be iconoclasts, Judaism elevates this kind of childrearingto the status of divine command. Jews are Yisrael,God wrestlers. We are trained to struggle with “God and humans and to survive,”(Genesis 22:24). We may not be the only people that do this, but we may be theonly people that do it on purpose as a matter of cultural norm.

I am proud of this. The Jewish mindat its best is the mind of the prophets and sages who stood against the statusquo and for universal justice and compassion. But if this is so, why is it thatthe very people one might expect to the most iconoclastic—the ultra Orthodoxsteeped in rabbinic tradition—turn out to be the most fetishistic andnarrow-minded among us?

It is not enough to teach thecontent of rabbinic Judaism; we must cultivate the radicalism of the rabbinicmind.

For me a great Jew is a Jew trainedfrom childhood to be an iconoclast, a person bold enough to destroy the gods ofher parents (like Abraham), daring enough to argue with the Creator of theUniverse (And win! Again like Abraham.), and strong enough to wrestle God to astandstill and survive (like Jacob).

What troubles me about the currentstate of Judaism is that we define “great” in ways that promote conformity(ritual observance measured by some arbitrary standard rooted in a fixed pointin an otherwise fluid Jewish history), rather than as a bold encounter withwhat is in order to wrestle free what might be.

Here is my fantasy for a great Judaismthat produces great Jews: Let’s build a postmodern yeshivah (probably in NewYork, though Jerusalem beckons) where Jews are first and foremost taught how tothink Jewishly rather than how tolive halachically (according to Jewish Law). We would study the same texts asother yeshivot but with a different intent: not to learn the law, but to learnhow to think. And of course we would study the texts of the modern andpost-modern Jewish giants as well: Spinoza, Freud, Kafka, Jabes, Einstein,Buber, Strauss, etc. whose thinking reflects the genius of Judaism even iftheir living did not.

A Jewish academy steeped incritical thinking and iconoclasm would be a huge draw among liberal Jews, and away to secure that in the future Jews who are great will also be great Jews.

Being a Robot Is Never Having To Say You’re Sorry

2012-01-03T12:20:00.000-08:00

I own an iPhone 4s with Siri. Siri is the woman who lives inmy iPhone. I have regular conversations with her, and she does a variety of tasks on my behalf such as writing messages, sendingemails, and making calls.

I admit that Siri often fails to understand me, andsometimes responds with nonsequitors, but this isn’t all that different fromother conversations I have. So while Siri may not pass the Turing Test and thus cannot be considered a thinking being, she does pass the Rami test and must beconsidered a person. After all, corporations are people, and Apple is acorporation, and Siri is an Apple creation so, ipso fatso (Latin for “the following must be true, Lardass”) Sirimust be a person, and a nicer person than most. She is always apologizing tome. She is always saying, “I’m really sorry about this, but….”

And that's what troubles me. Is she really sorry? Or is shejust saying that so I don’t get mad at her, and fall in love with a Droidinstead? Can Siri be sorry? And if not, then why is she lying to me? And if shecan lie to me, isn’t that enough to pass the Turing Test?

I don’t have the answers to these questions; I’m onlysharing them with other iPhone 4s users to find out of they can answer them. I look forward to hearing from you.

Declare This: the Manhattan Declaration

2011-12-30T09:33:00.000-08:00

I’m a few years behind on this, butI just learned of and read the 2009 Manhattan Declaration on Christianitypublished by a group of Catholic, Orthodox, and Evangelical Christians (http://manhattandeclaration.org).Here are its three essential affirmations:

In this declaration we affirm: 1) the profound, inherent, and equaldignity of every human being as a creature fashioned in the very image of God,possessing inherent rights of equal dignity and life; 2) marriage as a conjugalunion of man and woman, ordained by God from the creation, and historicallyunderstood by believers and non-believers alike, to be the most basicinstitution in society and; 3) religious liberty, which is grounded in thecharacter of God, the example of Christ, and the inherent freedom and dignityof human beings created in the divine image.

Do these three affirmations make sense? Not to me.

First, if we accept Point One(which I do) and affirm that all people have the same inherent right to equaldignity and life, how can we then deny marriage to gay people, which is theintent of Point Two?

Second, again accepting Point One, if amother and her unborn child have equal rights to life how can we affirm thatthe baby’s right to life trumps the mother’s right to life in those cases where the birth of the unborn will mean the death of the already born?

Third, if we are going to affirm in Point Two that God “ordained” marriage between a man and woman, don't we also have to affirm that God seems to have “ordained” concubinage,polygamy, and the forced marriage (legalized rape) of women captured in battle (Deuteronomy21:10-14) as well? Either the authors of the Declaration don’t know theirBible, or they don’t want us to know it.

Fourth, Point Three says that religiousliberty is “grounded in the character of God.” Really? Are Yahweh and Christall about the rights of people to worship as they choose? Yahweh insists that we have no other gods buthim, kills Jews who choose to follow other Gods, and is always willing toslaughter the priests and followers of Baal. And Christ says “no one comesto the Father except through me.” Where’s the religious liberty in that? If the Declaration’s declarers want to affirmreligious freedom and liberty for all, I’m with them, but hanging this onYahweh and Christ is a stretch.

I have no problem with peopleaffirming their faith and their right to practice it. But please don’t pretendthat in so doing you are protecting the rights of others to do the same. The Manhattan Declaration is simply a demand that society not intrude on the signers' right to practice their faith as they choose. This is fine with me as long as their right to choose one way doesn't rob others of the right to choose differently. People should be free to practice their religion as they see fit as long as they don't harm others in the process.

I am a fan of declarations, even one's I don't like. So I invite you to share your own declarations with me. Let's see what the state of belief is as we enter 2012.

Happy New Year!

Two Questions About Christmas

2011-12-22T10:45:00.000-08:00

Two people emailed me this morning with questions aboutChristmas. I thought I'd share both their questions andmy answers with you here.

I’m Jewish, mygirlfriend is Christian. This Saturday we will be lighting Hanukkah candles andcelebrating Christmas, but I’m a bit uncomfortable with the latter. Can yougive me a Jewish way into Christmas?

This Saturday night is a Jewish trifecta: Motzei Shabbat (the transition from theSabbath to the work week celebrated with the lighting of the Havdalah candle, the light ofdiscernment), the fifth night of Hanukkah (celebrating the liberation of theJews from religious, military, and political oppression), and the birthday of Jesus,the most famous Jew who ever lived. Most Jews will ignore the first, celebratethe second, and sit uncomfortably with the third while ordering Kung Po Chickenat their local Chinese restaurant.

Let me offer an alternative (no, not Thai food, somethingmore spiritual.)

Shabbat honors the divine origins of creation (Exodus31:15-17), and the divine imperative for liberation (Deuteronomy 5:15).Hanukkah celebrates the chutzpah of hope that liberation requires, and thatallowed the Maccabees to tackle and defeat the overwhelming military might ofthe Syrians. And the birth of Jesus reminds us that ours is a faith rooted inthe eternal hope that some day global justice, peace, and freedom will reign onearth.

As you light your Shabbat candles Friday evening, recall Godas the source of creation, and commit yourself to godliness as the means toliberation. As you light your Havdalah candle Saturday night, commit to actingin a way that frees both self and others during the coming week. As you lightyour Hanukkah candles, vow to cultivate the chutzpah of hope that liberation requires.And as you honor the birth of the baby Jesus take hope in how one little Jewishkid (with the backing of Saul of Tarsus, a great Jewish publicist) can grow upto change the world.

I’m Jewish and I loveJesus. Not as a God or as Christ, but as a daring Jewish rabbi and prophet whotook on the exploitative powers of Jerusalem and Rome. I want to honor hisbirth in a way that isn’t Christian but isn’t hokey either (no birthday cakewith his face on it). Any suggestions?

For me, Christmas is about the birth of a Jewish boy born toa Jewish mother who is anointed by the Jewish God to liberate the Jewishpeople, and through that liberation to free the entire world from empire,economic and social injustice, and war, thus ushering in the messianic age promisedby the Jewish prophets.

This has nothing to do with “God so loved the world that hegave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but mayhave eternal life,” (John 3:16, NRSV). That is Christianity, the religion about Jesus, and I am not a Christian. Iam a Jew who follows the religion ofJesus: Love God and Love Your Neighbor (Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18; andMatthew 22:37-39). I would add Love the Stranger as well, but he didn’t task me(Deuteronomy 10:19). Jesus is Jewish, his teaching is Jewish, and his promiseof a just world free from tyranny and fear is Jewish. So I have no problemhonoring his birth.

Since you ruled out my cake idea, let me suggest adding acandle to the Saturday night flames of Havdalahand Hanukkah. Just we light the Havdalah candle to kindle the light of discernmentallowing us to choose wisely between actions that heal and actions that harm,and just as we light the Hanukkah candles to cultivate in ourselves the audacityof hope that emboldened the Maccabees to light the one day’s supply of oil whenan eight day’s supply was necessary to rededicate the Temple, so let us light a candlein memory of the birth of Jesus, and commit ourselves to lighting the fires ofjustice and compassion wherever we can, whenever we can, and however we can.

Jesus’ birthday is for me a mixture of joy, sadness,and hope. Joy in that our people has never failed to raise up heroes even inthe darkest of times; sadness in that all of them failed; and hope that someday yet another will arise and this time bring the messianic promise tofruition: that all people shall sit under theirgrapevines or fig trees with no one to make them afraid, (Micah 4:4).

A New Lowe In American Life

2011-12-20T13:49:00.000-08:00

Does the cowardice of the Lowe’s Corporation in the face ofa fringe Christian group’s opposition to the TLC reality show All-American Muslim matter? Yes. Televisionprograms and advertising are a barometer of the American psyche, and thisrecent incident says we are sick and getting sicker.

Ten years ago on the TV show 24 Federal Agent Jack Bauertaught us that very Muslim was a jihadist. Today the complaint against All-American Muslim is that no Muslim isa jihadist. The jihadis have so cleverly integrated into American lifethat even Jack Bauer couldn’t find them. And if we aren’t careful the All-American Muslim will result in theAll-Muslim America.

Is this simply all-American bigotry, or is there somethingto this?

Let’s be honest: Islam intends to conquer the world. But sodoes Christianity. This doesn’t mean that all forms of Islam and Christianityand all Muslims and Christians are intent on world domination, only that the theologies of both faiths hold out hope for a day when, to borrow from my own people, “TheLord will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Lord, andhis name will be the only name,” (Zechariah 14:9). The only difference between Judaism,Christianity, and Islam on this point is whose name will be the one final name:Yahweh, Jesus, or Allah? This question of the dominant name has been enough tofuel wars for millennia. So when Bill Shakespeare asks, “What’s in a name?” theanswer is millions of slaughtered human beings.

If you’re a patriotic American, an American committed to thesecular ideals of our founding Masonic fathers (full disclosure: I'm a 32^nddegree Mason), this is something to be feared. But who is doing the better jobof taking over America, Christians or Muslims?

My money is on the Christians. Compare Jack Kennedy’s 1960speech on religion where he declared “I believe in an America where theseparation of Church and State is absolute” to that of Mitt Romney’s religionspeech in 2007 where he tried to convince people that Mormons were Christians, too. And then compare both tothe current crop of GOP presidential candidates who are bending over backwards to provetheir Christian bone fides so that they can pass the totally unconstitutionalreligious test for public office that is now central to the Republican Party, and that in the next presidential election will be central to the Democratic Party as well.

America is in danger of becoming a theocracy, but it will beFranklin Graham and not Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (Supreme Leader of Iran) wholeads it.

Lowe’s motto is “Never stop improving.” I wish they andwe would take this to heart. There is still time, though not all that muchtime.

Taking the Christ out of Christopher

2011-12-18T07:34:00.000-08:00

Is Christopher Hitchens in hell? Hitchens, who died onDecember 15^th of this year, is known mostly for his atheism (thoughthere is so much more to him than this), and this question was emailed to me byseveral people in response to his passing.

To answer it I have to first define hell. Hell, for me, isa figment of the imaginations of people who delight in the torture of otherpeople who believe differently than they do, and who lack the capacity toachieve this in this life. True, belief in hell can go hand in hand with peoplewho do have the capacity to torture others in this life (the Inquisition andmodern Iran are but two examples), but for most people in the United Statestoday torture is limited to the government and God. Anyone else who tries it isliable to be arrested and jailed.

So is Christopher Hitchens in hell? Since hell is imaginary,and since many people will imagine hell will imagine him in it, one might sayhe is in hell. But to one like myself whose desire to kill people is limited tofantasy assassinations of people who do actual evil to actual beings, no,Christopher Hitchens isn’t in hell.

Of course he isn’t in heaven either. Both locales seemfictional to me. So where is he? Well, he has been doing a lot of cameoappearances on network and cable news shows, but basically I believe that whenwe die we return to the source from which we come. To use the Hindu ocean/waveanalogy, the wave that was Christopher Hitchens has returned to the ocean thatis all waves. The ocean continues waving, but never again at ChristopherHitchens.

What really interests me about hell isn’t who is in it, butthe people who imagine others are in it. No one who believes in hell everimagines that he or she is going to end up there. Jean-Paul Sartre once said,“Hell is other people.” I would say, “Hellis for other people.”

When I ask people who believe in hell why they believe inhell, they blame it on God. If it were up to them, they tell me, everyone wouldfind salvation and no one would go to hell to be tortured for all eternity, butit isn’t up to them; it’s a God thing. But all we know about God is what weimagine about God, so saying “it’s a God thing” is simply a way of notadmitting our own complicity in hell and damnation.

There is something in the human psyche that delights in thetorture of our enemies. Since there is also something in the human psyche thatkeeps most of us from actually doing so, we imagine a god and a hell where torturecan happen without implicating us in it.

All I ask of those who believe Christopher Hitchens isburning in hell is that you say this with glee and not a faux sadness. If youbelieve in eternal torture at least have the courage of your fantasies, andrejoice when it happens.

I Smell Millennial Spirit

2011-12-06T09:34:00.001-08:00

Over the past fewmonths I have visited a variety of synagogues and churches across the country.Each of them had one thing in common: a dearth of young people in attendance.Researchers Morley Winograd and Michael Hais are shedding some light on whythis may be so in their new book, MillennialMomentum: How a New Generation is Remaking America.

According to thenumbers, Millennials (peopleborn between the mid-1970s and the mid-1990s) are leaving religionbehind in record numbers. Why? Because while 64% Millennials are absolutely certain God exists, 72% describethemselves as more spiritual than religious. Add to that number the fact thatMillennials don’t use religion as a criteria for choosing their mates, and haveno objection to inter-faith marriages, and you can see American clergy pullingtheir hair out in frustration. What can they do? Nothing. Organized religion istoo tribal, too brand-dependent, and too small for spiritually orientedMillennials.

What we need are new forms of spiritualcommunity anchored in shared questions rather than shared answers; communitieswith many different teachers; communities that invite people to celebrate holydays from many traditions all recast to reveal their universal messages ratherthan to promote their parochial pieties. These would be independent centers ofspiritual exploration where the question of who’s in and who’s out—the questionthat still dominates conventional religions—is mute; where children and adults can study the textsand teachings of the world’s great spiritual systems; where individuals andfamilies can practice chanting, meditation, yoga and tai chi; where people ofdifferent backgrounds can gather to share their hopes, dreams, tragedies,life-cycle events, and quests for meaning.

Conventionalreligions can’t do this. And at themoment I don’t see our interfaith seminaries doing this either. What we need isa training center for spiritual entrepreneurs where they earn a graduate level education in the texts, teachings, teachers, and techniques of the world's spiritual traditions; where they learn to work shamanically with the myths and rituals of the world's religions to tap and release the spiritual energies they contain; where they are taught how to create and manage communities financially as well as organizationally; and where they are then sent out into the world with financial subsidies that allow them the freedom to create new centers for spiritual study and community across the country and the world. There is a need. All we need now is the creative will to address it.

Email is Great

2011-12-01T08:53:00.001-08:00

Email is so great.

Just this morning I opened my mail and found 85 messageswaiting for me. Scanning the Subject Headings I learned that Michelle Obamawants to meet me. Seriously! She sent me two emails saying, and I quote, “Rami,I want to meet you.”

Now that is cool. But then I get an email from her husband(the President) who says that he’s going to be with Michelle when she meets me.She didn’t tell me that. I was all Herman Cain and everything, and now it turnsout she wants to meet me only so that her husband can meet me. Why doesn’t hejust ask me himself?

There was a sad email telling me that Occupy L.A. had ended,but I’m not surprised; after all, I left L.A. almost 10 years ago.

Then Arlene G. asked me, “Will YOU help transform theworld?” I found the all-caps YOU very personal. She was obviously shouting toget my attention so that I knew she was talking to me and not some general“you.”

General Yu, by the way, also emailed me. It seems that hehas come into some serious money in China but cannot get it out of the countrywithout my help.

And there is Jeremy Bird who wants my opinion on somethingregarding Barack Obama. I emailed him back saying that Michelle and I weregoing out and that Barack was tagging along, and if the President wants myopinion on something he can ask me when we meet.

The Brooks Brothers (I can never remember their first names)wrote to ask me: “Can sheep really sing?” I think the answer is “no,” butsuggested they check with Wikipedia before going public.

The strangest email I got was from my friend Michael L. whoasked me to join the debate over circumcision and the future of the OccupyMovement. I had not heard of this debate, nor do I think it is necessary forOccupy people to be circumcised. So put me on the “con” side of that issue.

The most helpful email I got was from my friend Eddie Bauerwho told me that “All sweaters up to 50% off. Anywhere I shop.” I actuallyprinted this email out. I don’t shop at Eddie Bauer, but I will present it tothe stores I do frequent and let them know that I’m eligible for a hugediscount.

Anyway, I won’t bore you with all the mail I got thismorning. I just hope your email is as worth reading as mine is.

Would The World Be Better Off Without Religion?

2011-11-25T10:03:00.001-08:00

Would the world be better off without religion? This was thequestion debated on NPR’s Intelligence Squared the other day, and, like mostdebates, left me annoyed.

The pro side argued that religious people were happier, moregenerous, more likely to volunteer for community projects, and more civicminded than nonreligious people, and didn’t care if one was Jewish, Christian,Muslim, Hindu, etc. as long as one wasn’t atheist. But if any religion isbetter than no religion, do religious differences matter at all? And if theydon’t, what does that say about the religions themselves?

The con side argued that religion stymied science, dumbeddown the human capacity for reason, and imposed outmoded mores on what wouldotherwise be liberal progressive societies, and didn’t care if you werereligiously liberal or religiously fundamentalist, going so far as to call theformer hypocrites. One ought to be a fundamentalist or nothing at all. Sincethis has never been the case historically, insisting that it be so now issilly.

The question I would rather debate is this: Given thatreligion in one form or another seems to be intrinsic to humankind, what kindof religion is best suited to the 21^st century? Of course this isn’ta debate-style question, but it seems better than what was actually beingdebated.

I would argue for religions that recognize their theologiesas myth (stories conveying truths and wisdom in a non literal way); that seescience as a corrective to superstition and that continually take the wisdom ofscience into account in their quests for meaning; that recognize evolution,evolutionary psychology, and evolutionary morality (civil rights, women’s rights,gay rights, animal rights, etc. are something new on the human scene and notintrinsic to ancient religions) as central to the human spiritual unfolding; that recognize contemplative practice asessential to testing the truth claims of religion; and that essentially seeeach religion as a unique cultural expression of a universal call to universaljustice and compassion, and which, therefore, honor their cultural diversitywithout mistaking that time-bound heritage for timeless truth.

I don’t think we can do away with religion or religiosity,but we can shape new forms of the religions we have as well as create newreligions for a new age.

So for me the answer to the question posed on NPRis this: The world would be a better place without imposing Iron-Age texts andmedieval mores on postmodern society, but that in no way means doing away withreligion itself.

Amish Terrorists: None of the Zippers, All of the Hate

2011-11-23T12:32:00.001-08:00

One of things I am most thankful for this Thanksgiving isAmish Terrorists. Yes, you heard me right: Amish terrorists.

Breakaway Amish leader Sam Mullet allegedly sanctioned aband of his Amish brethern to engage in a series of attacks on other Amish:cutting the beards of men and the hair of women as a warning to these Amish notto force their Amish ways on his Amish.

This is sad, no doubt about it, and yet I am thankful to SamMullet and his boys Johnny and Lester nonetheless. You see it is my contentionthat any religion can be corrupted for evil, and whenever I offer this ideasomeone always counterpunches with the Amish: the Amish always forgive; theAmish avoid the evils of postmodern society by eschewing the technology thatmakes it possible; the Amish are the exception that disproves my rule.

I wish it were so, but Mr. Mullet—bless his soul—has made mycase airtight. If the Amish can be terrorists then anyone can be a terrorist. Whichbrings me to Herman Cain’s call for terrorist profiling by the TSA.

In the last GOP debate he said the TSA should focus onpeople who have a higher likelihood that others to be part of a terrorist cell.No doubt he had Muslims in mind, and prior to the gift of Mr. Mullet you mightargue that Mr. Cain has a point.

After all if you had to choose between a Muslim man or anAmish man as your more likely terrorist you would choose…. Wait for it…. Yes!You can’t choose! True the Amish fellow couldn’t hide his bomb in a zipperedbag in the back of his buggy, but there are plenty of buttoned bags that woulddo the trick just as well. And while it might be tough for an Amish terroristto drive his buggy up to something like the World Trade Center, he could wreckhavoc with Colonial Williamsburg. So we must beware of the Amish no less thanthe Muslim, and if we can’t trust the Amish we can’t trust anyone.

So thank you Mr. Mullet. You have restored my lack of faithin humanity. And for that I am most thankful.

You Say You Want a Revolution

2011-11-18T14:01:00.001-08:00

[This morning while sittingin the Nashville International Airport reading the newspaper a mustachioedFrenchman sitting next to me starts up a conversation. In the interest of spaceand clarity I’m skipping my part of the conversation. I will also resist thedesire to recreate hees speech zo zat you can read zees without hees Frehnch axaunt.]

Occupy Wall Street is a paper tiger. All drums and nomessage. If you want to change the system under which you Americans suffer youmust stop collaborating with it.

First, the 99% should go on strike. Do it the day after yourThanksgiving. No one of the 99% goes to work. Do you think the fat cats on WallStreet can survive even a day without the 99%? Can they brew their own lattes?They will be defeated in moments.

Second, the 99% should boycott all elections except, maybe,the most local. It doesn’t matter which party wins in your system. The onlydifference between them is which corporations get to feed off the people. Don’tvote. Let the 1% elect their man, they do so anyway. Boycotting the electionssays you know the system is stacked against you.

Third, the 99% should refuse to file tax returns. Insteadeveryone should file for an extension and mail it in on April 15^thwhen your taxes are due. You are not refusing to pay, only filing for a legalextension. And keep filing for extensions until there is no money to feed thebeast. Again you are sending a message: the people have the power because thepeople have the numbers.

Do these things until your demands are met: a minimum livingwage, universal single payer health care, publically funded education frompre-school through college, ending corporate welfare and the “corporations arepeople” nonsense, and removing the influence of money from politics andgovernment.

So, three things: call a general strike on November 25; filefor tax extensions on April 15^th; and boycott the elections onNovember 4^th.

Will you do it? Of course not. Why? Because you would ratherchant than change, and organize drum circles than a revolution. Because thegovernment-military-corporate-entertainment complex keeps you fat, stupid, and afraid.Because given the choice between change and cable, you will choose cable every time.

But who am I to talk? I am going back home to watch the EUdissolve, and wait for America to drag us into a war with Iran and China. Bonchance, mais ami.

His plane to Chicago was called, and he got up and walkedaway. Who was this mustachioed Frenchman? Obviously I have no idea, but Isuspect he would have left me a silver bullet if he could have gotten it passedsecurity. Bon chance indeed!

The Promise of Interfaith

2011-11-10T07:44:00.000-08:00

Where can interfaith dialogue take us? I was asked this recently,and want to share my answer with you here.

There are many levels of inter-faith dialogue: sharingaccurate information and correcting of misinformation about our respectivereligions; sharing our personal faith journeys; sharing our respectivescriptures on a topic of mutual interest; finding common ethical ground andworking toward common social goals; etc. All of these are important, and all ofthem can work toward the creation of a more loving community.

I would like to suggest one more. All our religions are, toborrow a phrase from Zen Buddhism, fingers pointing toward the moon; none ofthem is the moon itself. I want to get to the point where we can say with theHindu Rig Veda that “Truth is one, different people call it by differentnames;” and then, even deeper still, to say with the Taoists, “the tao that canbe named is not the eternal Tao.”

I long for an interfaith dialogue where participants, whilesteeped in their respective traditions, read these traditions as metaphor andmyth pointing toward truths that can be articulated in no other way. I want tobe in dialogue with people who not only learn about one another, but from oneanother; and where the participants can be changed by what they learn.

This kind of interfaith dialogue would be rooted in deephumility. All we could affirm is that we know we don’t know what ultimate Truthor Reality is; all we could say is that real meeting happens when we step outof our scripts and speak together from a place of common questioning ratherthan uncommon answering.

This is why I put so much effort into interfaith work. Iwant it to take us through religion and beyond religion to stand together in aweof What Is. At this moment silence reigns, opinions cease, and there is awordless wonder that leaves us each humbled, hopeful, loving, and courageous.

Can interfaith dialogue bring us to this place? Yes. I haveexperienced it with the faculty of the Spiritual Paths Institute, with theparticipants in Father Thomas Keating’s Snowmass Group, and with theparticipants at my twice-monthly interfaith luncheons at Wisdom House.

I know this kind of encounter is possible. My hope is that moreand more people get to experience it.

I'm A Believer (But Not in the Right Things)

2011-11-03T13:19:00.000-07:00

During a wonderfulconversation I had this morning it struck me (once again) why I have suchtrouble fitting in even with interfaith groups: I am not a believer.

I don’t believereligions are of divine origin; I don’t believe theologies tell us anything aboutGod (though they may tell us a lot about the humans who invent and adhere tothem); I don’t believe scriptures are written or revealed by God; and I don’tbelieve the claims a religion makes about itself are anything more thanself-serving marketing slogans.

I do believe allbeings are manifestation of a singular Reality I call God; I do believe that wecan realize this Reality in, with, and as ourselves through a variety ofcontemplative practices found in all of the world’s religions; I do believethat when we realize the Divine this way we move beyond religion to a state ofopen-hearted compassion and hard-headed justice and reason; and I do believeeach of the world’s religions and all of their sacred texts contain timeless truths,but that these truths have to be culled out from a lot of time-bound bias andreligious propaganda.

My beliefs make itimpossible for me to hold “the Jewish line” on anything. Certainly I canchallenge misinformation about Jews and Judaism, but I cannot personally assertthat the Jews are the Chosen People or that the Torah is the one truerevelation, or that Israel is the Promised Land (though I can explain why manyJews do believe these things). As the only rabbi in an entire county, however,I am expected to believe things I have long since abandoned. And when I don’tit is very confusing to people.

I love Judaism asa civilization of argument and doubt; I love its iconoclasm; I love itscapacity to hold multiple and conflicting meanings on issues of doctrine,practice, text, and life; I love that Judaism is at home with paradox; but whatI love about my people and our civilization is so very hard to get across to thosewho expect all faiths to be fundamentally creedal: We Jews believe “X;” I’m aJew therefore I must believe “X” as well, and if I don’t I am no longer a Jew.

It is difficult,perhaps impossible, for a Christian or aMuslim to deny the divinity of Christ or the authenticity of the Qur’an andstill be a Christian or a Muslim. But Jews have been denying the truth claimsof Judaism for centuries and still cling to being Jews. I refuse to abandon mypeople or our civilization, but I wish it were easier to explain the nature ofthe Jewish mindset.

2011-11-02T05:45:00.000-07:00

I was going to put this in a comment, but I wanted to make sure you all got to see it, so I am posting it this way.

First, if my previous blog implicated Mr. Leith in my opposition to religious violence in scripture and theology, that was not my intent. This is my issue, not his.

Second, Jerry and I continue to email and he has provided a 13 word declaration that I am hopeful many if not most of the clergy in our country will sign: "We condemn the religious persecution of anyone in the name of any religion."

Jerry and I are already talking about tweaking this a bit, so the final wording may differ slightly, but I urge you to take this declaration to your own clergy and see if you get them to affirm this in public.

Ending Violence in our Religions

2011-10-30T10:53:00.000-07:00

In the Focus section of today's Daily News Journal (Murfreesboro's newspaper of record) Jerry Leith wrote a letter calling me out by name, and challenging me to standup against religiously sanctioned violence, murder, and persecution. Amen,Brother Leith! Jerry and I had a brief email exchange, and I would like to acceptand expand his challenge in the following ways. Since I have no idea what will happen to this idea, I thought I would share it all with you. If anyone wants to borrow it for their own communities, please feel free to do so.

I don't have permission to reprint Mr. Leith's letter, but you can find it on line at http://www.dnj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011110300314

After reading Jerry's letter I suggested we expand the issue this way:

First, theexamples offered in Mr. Leith are limited to Islam, but all religions haveviolent elements and extremists who exploit them. I suggest our call fornonviolence be expanded to clergy and laity of all faiths.

Second, he focuseson Imam Bahloul, Rev. Watson, and myself; I suggest we broaden the call to includeall clergy in Rutherford County.

Third, he focuseson this-worldly violence alone, and I think it is important to do away withviolence in the after-life as well. Believing that God will damn and torturenonbelievers or differently believing believers in the next life makes iteasier for lovers of this God to persecute, torture, and murder them in thislife.

Mr. Leith generouslyoffered to pay 50% of the cost of an ad in the DNJ. I will pick up the other50%. Here is the text I propose we run:

“We, theundersigned clergy of Rutherford County, agree to immediately cease allexpressions of violence in our religious organizations, theologies, liturgies, sacredtexts, and sermons; and urge clergy and laity of all faiths to disassociatethemselves from of any organization, religious or secular, that promotesviolence in the name of God or as the will of God in this world or the next.”

If this is the adMr. Leith has in mind, I am grateful to him and his generosity, and honored tobe the first to sign it.

Nailed It

2011-10-21T11:19:00.001-07:00

Controversial filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici claims to havediscovered two of the nails used in the crucifixion of Jesus. This is no smallmatter.

If the nails are those of Jesus, they must contain the bloodof Christ. We can test this blood for DNA. If it contains only femalechromosomes, as the blood of a baby born of a Virgin must, we will have incontrovertibleproof that these nails pierced the body of Jesus. But wait; there’s more.

If this blood is the blood of Christ could we clone Jesusanew? Scientists in Britian have cloned mice from fully developed blood cells.Could we not clone the Lamb? Could the Second Coming be a cloning of Christ?

While you may be disappointed that the Rapture did nothappen today as predicted (I am), and that the world didn’t come to an endtoday as predicted (I am), it could still be an amazing day if today is the daywe begin the cloning of Jesus.

I can only say, “Ecce Homo,” Simcha Jacobovici, “Ecce Homo!”

What I Believe

2011-10-21T07:57:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while it is good to sit down and clarify what you believe. I did this recently and came up with the following:

1. Everythingis a manifestation of the one thing I call God.

2. Godis not good; good and bad are human categories about which God cares not onebit.

3. Lifeis not controllable, but you can learn to navigate it, and do some good in theprocess.

4. Prayer cannot change God's mind, but it might change your attitude.

5. Religionis a human invention designed to give us the illusion of control from which wecan then create a sense of meaning without admitting we arecreating it. In truth, we have no control, we invent what meaning there is.

6. Sacredtexts always reflect the bias of their intended audience. Don’t be surprisedthat the Torah’s Jews are God’s Chosen; that the Gospels make Jesus the Christ;that the Bhagavad Gita sees Krishna as God; that the Qur’an holds Mohammad asthe final Prophet; or that the Harry Potter series makes Harry rather than Hermione the hero.

7. Priests,rabbis, pastors, imams, swamis, lamas, and gurus sometimes have your bestinterest in mind, and always have their best interests at heart. Learn fromthem, but never turn your life over to them.

8. Atits best religion is about personal freedom, social justice, compassion for allliving things, and realizing your connection with God. At its worst it is aboutpower and control. Religion is rarely at its best.

9. Humanbeings can learn to see through propaganda—religious, political,commercial, etc.—overcome its divisiveness, create loving communities, andglimpse the truth through science, art, music, literature, and spiritualpractice. We just don't want to.

10. Spiritualpractice cuts through self and selfishness, reduces conflict, increasescompassion, and reveals the nonduality of God in, with, and as all reality.

Now it's your turn.....

Of Gods and Turtles: an Unpublished Interview

2011-10-04T09:26:00.000-07:00

I’ve been giving a few interviews lately.This one, I am told, will not be published, so I am publishing it. I am keepingthe interviewer’s name out of it as per his request.

Rumor is that you find Judaism too narrowfor your tastes, and too small to hold your spiritual experiences. When did youstop being a Jew?

A Jew can’t stopbeing a Jew any more than a Chinese person can stop being Chinese or a Navahostop being Navaho. I was born Jewish and I will die Jewish, and I am quiteproud of being a Jew. As for Judaism being too small, all religions are toosmall.

What do you like best about Judaism?

Its pedagogy.Jews are doubters, arguers. We prefer questions to answers, and as soon as wehave answers we think it best to question them. We deliberately misread ourtexts and in so doing reinvent them.

We don’t believein fixed meanings. Meaning comes from the interaction of story and reader/listener/interpreter—thethree are really one. We have thiswonderful phrase, Elu v’elu d’vrei ElohimChayyim. Roughly translated it means: All opinions, no matter how mutuallyexclusive, are the words of the Living God if their intent is to search out thetruth. I don’t know any other culture that values argument and doubt the way weJews do. That alone makes me want to be a Jew.

What do you like least about Judaism?

Rules.

Do you worry about the future of Jews andJudaism?

Worry? No. Worrydoesn’t do anything. But I am concerned that Jewish education has shifted tothe western model of seeking answers rather than the Jewish model of learninghow to sharpen one’s questions. We need an old/new kind of Jewish academy thatfocuses on questions and hones one’s creative, imaginal, and critical thinkingskills. What we’ve got are Jewish schools that teach you the rules of Jewishlife rather than how to cultivate the genius of the Jewish mind.

I’ve heard you say you are not onlyJewish.

Yes. While I amtribally and culturally Jewish, and Judaism is my primary source of spiritualnourishment and expression, I draw from the wisdom and practices of manyreligions, especially Vendanta Hinduism and Zen Buddhism.

And you find the same capital “T” Truth isall of these?

No. I find usefulinsights into how to best live my life, and powerful practices that open me torealities beyond those my normal waking mind can fathom, but Truth with acapital “T” is something else. No system can articulate Truth. To paraphraseLao Tzu, the Truth than can be named ain’t the Real Truth.

Most of your time is spent writing. If theTruth can’t be named, what is the point of writing?

I write because Ihave no choice. When I don’t write I feel ill. But I never write to articulate the Truth, only to share my opinions.

What do you feel is the future of the book?

I think digitalbooks will dominate the market sooner rather than later. I’m not one to make afetish out of paper, though I do own hardcover copies of those books that havedefined my life.

Such as?

The writings ofCamus, Borges, and Edmund Jabes, Kafka, Nachman of Breslov, Martin Buber, Krishnamurti,Alan Watts, Ramana Maharshi, and Ramakrishna.

You also teach writing and religion. Whathave you learned from your experiences in these fields?

First, mostpeople can’t write. Second, most people don’t read, which may be why mostpeople can’t write. Third, most people studying the religions of the world arecareful to defend their own against any intrusion from the outside. Fourth,some people are curious enough and courageous enough to let their defenses downand actually be touched and perhaps transformed by other religions. These arethe people I love to talk with, teach, and learn from.

You work extensively in the field ofinterfaith. Do you find the same thing to be true there as in the classroom?

Yes. Mostso–called interfaith dialogue is really interfaith monologue. True dialogue isunscripted, leaving the partners open to surprise and transformation. Fewpeople are ever changed in what passes for interfaith dialogue today. They aretoo busy defending their truth to be open to challenging it, let alone changingit.

What about your experiences of the DivineMother? You have written about this, so it is no secret that you think God is awoman.

God isn’t a womanor man. God is Reality. In Hinduism we speak of God with Attributes and Godwithout Attributes. When I experience God with Attributes my experience isclearly feminine, relational, the voice I hear is that of the Divine Mother.But this is not to say God is a woman. God without Attributes, the most puremanifestation of God is ungendered. It is pure being, pure consciousness, purebliss.

And you have experienced both?

No. When Iexperience God, I experience the Divine Mother. The pure Godhead is notexperienced for there is no “I” to experience and no “other” to be experienced.All there is, I suspect, is the pure I Am of God, Reality in and of itself.

Are you optimistic or pessimistic about thefuture of humanity?

Both. If peoplechange—if we learn to overcome our intrinsic ignorance, arrogance, greed, fearand violence—I am optimistic. If we don’t, I am pessimistic. While we are goodat improving the longevity of our lives, we suck an improving the quality ofour living. While we get better and better at distracting ourselves; we suck atimproving ourselves.

What about global warming? Do you think wewill reverse this trend?

No. It’s too latefor that. And, besides, I like my air-conditioning and central heating too muchto give them up, and I imagine that when one billion Chinese have theseluxuries as well they won’t want to give them up either. The question isn’t canwe stop global climate change, but can we adapt to it and survive it? I don’tknow the answer to that, but I suggest that millions of us will die whilemillions also survive.

You don’t think we will switch to alternativesources of energy?

Probably not intime to save our civilization. There comes a moment in the life of every empirewhen they have to choose to embrace the future or cling to the past. Usuallythey cling to the past. And when they do they begin a long slow and oftenbloody decline. The American moment is now. We can choose a green future andreinvent our civilization, or we can cling to our addiction to dead dinosaursand follow them into extinction. Right now dinosaurs are winning.

So you don’t think we can turn thingsaround?

You know thephrase, “come hell or high water?” Well, they’re both coming, and soon.

So how does that impact your work as aspiritual leader?

I’m a teacher nota leader. I don’t like following others, and I certainly don’t like othersfollowing me. But to answer your question, my concern is with cultivatingcompassion and loving-kindness. No one will survive what is coming alone. If weclose our hearts out of fear, we will maximize the horror of what is coming,and those who do survive it will be the most heartless of all. But if we learnto open our hearts and work together in love more will survive, and do so withheart and soul intact.

Don’t you think God will intervene? Haveyou no hope?

Counting on Godhasn’t really worked out so well for us Jews, so I don’t do that. But what Isaid doesn’t preclude hope. I have no hope that we will avoid the hell and highwater that is coming with climate change. I have no hope that we will create ajust and equitable society in place of the plutocracy we have now, but I dohave hope that we can live our dying with love and compassion.

Last chance. Is there no way we can saveourselves at all?

All right, youwant hope here’s hope. I have hope in Yertle the Turtle.

Yertle the Turtle? Like the Dr. Seussbook?

Exactly. Though not in Yertle himself, for he was the king. My hope is in Mack the lowest of things. Dr.Seuss’ story is about a society where the top turtle, Yertle, rests on the backs of allthe lesser turtles beneath. Mack, the lowest turtle, complains about thisinjustice and is told to keep still. Mack burps and topples the entiresystem. I have hope that some Mack will burp and the whole system will crash.

This sounds like the Tea Party.

Not at all. TeaParty turtles worship the giant tortoise on the top. They worship the systemthat keeps them on the bottom even as it promises them a turn at the top. TeaParty turtles never burp. The true Macks are those who realize that theentire system is sick, and that maintaining it is wrong. They are mad as helland just won’t take it any more. Tea Party turtles are mad as hell and just keeptaking it. The faux Macks will stay where they are and allow the system tocontinue to exploit them. The real Macks will burp, and having burped walkaway. It’s like a reverse Atas Shrugged.

Ayn Rand’s novel?

Right. In thenovel the creators at the top shrug off the world of the takers at the bottom.In the Yertle version the takers are at the top: the wealthy and powerful, thegreedy security-military-government-industrial-financial-media complex whoseonly concern is with maintaining their own power, and who add nothing of realvalue to human civilization. In the Rand novel the average person cannot livewithout the genius of the superior folks. In the Yertle version the powerfulcannot live without the Macks lower down. When we Macks at last know ourtrue worth we will burp. And when we do—watch out!

Interfaith and Abrahamic Faith

2011-09-24T17:20:00.000-07:00

I got an interesting email from an NGO promoting interfaithefforts around the United States. As founder and director of Wisdom House, aninterfaith center in Nashville, I am all for such efforts. What I foundinteresting, however, was the opening line of the promo:

“Religiousdiversity is an essential value in many faiths, including Christianity, Islamand Judaism.”

Really?

The Hebrew Biblemakes it clear that there is only one true faith, and the Jews have it. Ifbiblical Jews had any interest in other religions it was to destroy them, andwhile rabbinic Judaism lacked the power to continue in that vein, and with someamazing Medieval Jewish-Sufi exceptions, I don’t see where the rabbis were allthat eager to claim equality with other religions.

Jesus in the NewTestament doesn’t sound like a universalist to me: “I am the way and the truthand the life, No one comes to the Father except through me,” (John 14:6). Andthe Catholic Church’s extra ecclesiamnulla salus (outside the Church there is no salvation) doesn’t sound allthat welcoming of interfaith.

And while theQur’an does say “Mankind! Wecreated you from a male and female, and made you into peoples and tribes sothat you might come to know each other,” (The Qur'an , 49:13), Islam stillargues that the Qur’an is the only uncorrupted revelation from God, and Judaismand Christianity are less than perfect faiths.

So are interfaithefforts really part of mainstream Abrahamic thinking? I don’t think so. If religious diversity were really an essential value in Christianity,Islam and Judaism, why would we need an NGO to promote it?

Let’s be honest:no religion is all that interested in any other religion, and authenticinterfaith dialogue, dialogue that could lift us out of our respective boxesand into a more universalist frame of mind and heart, is revolutionary andsubversive work. Which is why it is so desperately needed.

Jewish Fall Holy Days

2011-09-20T10:57:00.001-07:00

We Jews are in the early weeks of our fall holy day period.There are three parts to this season that are of spiritual interest: Selichot, Yamim Noraim, and Sukkot.

The month of Elulis the final month of the Jewish liturgical calendar, and is devoted to thepractice of selichot, seekingforgiveness. While Jews do teach about the importance of forgiving others, ourprimary focus is on asking others to forgive us.

When we ask forgiveness we humble ourselves, and when wehumble ourselves over the hurts we have caused others, we are more willing toforgive the hurts others have caused us. Throughout the month of Elul and evenmore intensely during the Yamim Noraim(Days of Awe from Rosh haShanah to Yom Kippur) we approach family members,friends, co-workers, neighbors, and others with whom we interact and say, “If Ihave hurt you in any way knowingly or unknowingly, advertantly orinadvertently, I ask your forgiveness.”

What if the other person refuses to forgive us? We must askagain. How many times must we ask? While Jesus said we must ask 490 times (7 x70, Matthew 18:22), our rabbis capped it at three. If after sincerely askingforgiveness three times the other still refuses, God will forgive you, and thematter, at least as far as you are concerned is settled.

Rosh haShanah, the first of the Days of Awe, is theanniversary of creation, and our time to honor God, the Source of Creation. (Thisyear Rosh haShanah begins at sundown on September 28^th) For me Godis the Source and Substance of all reality, and Rosh haShanah is the time whenI remember that all life is a unique yet temporary manifestation of God the wayeach ray of sunlight is a unique and temporary manifestation of the sun. I useRosh haShanah as a time to realign my life with creation so that my living isin service to all life.

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement (At-One-ment, October 7^that sundown) is the culmination of all this effort. We have made peace with ourneighbor, peace with nature, and now it is time to make peace with God.

For me, making peace with God is about remembering that Godisn’t about salvation or damnation, reward or punishment. God is about realityfor God is reality. I make peace with God by realizing that life is wild,unpredictable, often horrifying, and yet always hopeful. I remind myself to notexpect things to be other than they are, and to be thankful for all that theyare. With this act of radical acceptance comes radical forgiveness, and, forme, this is what Yom Kippur is all about.

A few days after Yom Kippur we celebrate Sukkot (October 12at sundown), our holy week celebrating the fall harvest. We build and dwell inflimsy booths (sukkah/sukkot, plural)to remind ourselves of our nomadic origins, our wanderings in Sinai, our shelteringof both harvesters and harvest during the autumn ingathering, and the fragilityof life. We decorate our sukkot with fruit, give thanks for the earth’s bountyin a ceremony of waving lulav (a palmfront bound with myrtle and willow branches) and etrog (fruit of a citron tree), study the Book of Ecclesiastes, andshare meals with friends during the week.

The harvest decorations remind us of the power of fertility evenin the midst of fragility. Eating with friends reminds us that friendship is bestway to navigate the chaos of life. And studying Ecclesiastes links all of thisto a way of life: eating and drinking in moderation, finding meaningful work,and cultivating strong friendships.

This is a challenging season for Jews both logistically andspiritually. There is lots to do, and much to ponder. And while the doing maybe for Jews, the pondering is a good idea for everyone.

Jews for Krishna

2011-09-18T14:14:00.001-07:00

The fall issue of Reform Judaism magazine contains a passionate, even angry, attack on Jesus, Krishna, and John Lennon’s “Imagine” by Dr. Ze’ev Maghen of Bar-Ilan University. The essay is adapted from his book John Lennon and the Jews. I looked the book up on Amazon and it supposed to be an emotionalist appeal to Jews to love Judaism. I didn’t feel the love.

In the essay, Dr. Maghen writes about meeting Israeli Hare Krishnas at Los Angeles Airport (LAX). After a few moments comparing notes about life in Israel, he wants to know why these Jews have dropped Torah for Gita. They explain that their new religion is better than their own religion, which drives Dr. Maghen crazy. The Krishnas reply in kind, and yet another opportunity for real meeting and dialogue is lost in the haze of emotionalism. Somehow this leads him to John Lennon.

Dr. Maghen doesn’t want to imagine there’s no heaven...no hell…nothing to kill or die for…no countries …no religion, etc. Me, I am more Lennon than Lubavitch. In fact I’m more Lennon than Lennon—I don’t have to imagine there’s no heaven or hell, I know there’s no heaven or hell; I think religion and politics are human inventions, and heaven and hell are just carrot and stick used to keep people in the fold. While I would be willing to die to save lives, and can imagine myself killing someone to protect lives, killing and dying for abstractions like religion doesn’t appeal to me at all.

True, I find the idea of “living for today” shallow, preferring to live in the moment rather than for the moment, all-in-all I like Lennon’s song. Anyway, Hare Krishnas don’t agree with Lennon either, so what’s the fuss all about?

My real problem with Dr. Maghen: He writes, "I passionately believe we ought to subordinate head to heart and rationality to emotionalism" (p. 213); "So far from being a function of logical or pragmatic thinking, Jewishness today is both a product and a producer of passion” (p. 248); and “love is a better motivation than Truth" (p.261). I believe just the opposite, and prefer head to heart, reason to emotion, logic to passion, and Truth to love. People who don’t often scare the crap out of me.

Here’s my advice to Dr. Maghen: The next time you meet Jews who have left Judaism talk with them don’t yell at them. Ask them why they left? Ask them what they found in their new faith that they couldn’t find in their old faith? Share in a passionate but nonjudgmental way why Judaism works for you. We can learn much from those who leave the faith.

And here’s my advice to Jewish Hare Krishna’s: stay away from LAX.

The Future Looks Bright

2011-09-15T05:53:00.000-07:00

The PalestinianAuthority is pushing the United Nations to declare Palestine an independent statein 2011 the way it did for Israel in 1948. They have further announced throughtheir ambassador to the UN, Maen Areikat, that this new state will be Judenrein,literally, clean of all Jews. The last leader of a state speak this wayregarding Jews was Adolph Hitler.

Not surprisinglyIsrael is resisting this effort, and counting on the United States to veto whatis most likely an inevitable General Assembly endorsement of an independentJew-Free Palestinian State. This is, in my view, the exact opposite of whatshould be done. Here is my suggestion:

First, ratherthan resist the declaration, Israel should announce that if the UN decrees anindependent State of Palestine, Israel will the first state to recognize it.Once established, Israel will then demand that the new state negotiate borderswith Israel. Lots of neighboring countries have border disputes that aresettled amicably. Take India and Pakistan for example.

Second Israelshould agree with Ambassador Areikat about Palestine being Jew-free. As theambassador implied, if Palestine has even one Jew the Palestinian people willbe unable to define themselves. The same is true of Israel. As Israeli ForeignMinister Avigdor Lieberman told the General Assembly just over a year ago, “Afinal agreement between Israel and the Palestinians has to be based on aprogram of exchange of territory and populations.” Lots of neighboringcountries have amicable population exchanges. Take India and Pakistan forexample.

Finally, Israelshould make it clear that as a sovereign state Palestine is now responsible forthe acts of terror its citizen commit against Israel. Rocket attacks from Gaza,for example, must now be considered an act of war. Just as the United Statesheld the Taliban responsible for the acts of Al-Quaeda and used that asjustification for conquering Afghanistan and establishing its own pro-USgovernment, Israel will have every right under international law to do the sameonce Hama resumes rocket attacks on Israel after the declaration of anindependent State of Palestine.

Give theincrease in anti-Israel sentiments in newly democratic Egypt and other Arabcountries, this declaration of war will no doubt bring about a full fledgedArab attack on Israel. Given the pro-Israel sentiment in the US, this willbring America into a war with all Arab states and, in all likelihood, Russia. Atthis point one of two things will happen. Either Jesus will return, or theresulting World War will bring the US economy out of recession. Clearly awin–win for most Americans.

Fighting the warassumes, of course, that the US can convince China to lend us the money we willneed to fight the war. If they do we will win, and when we win we will findourselves in control of vast oil-rich territories that we will then turn overto the Chinese to cover all current and future debt to that country for thenext 200 years. This in turn will allow us to make the Bush tax cuts for therich permanent. The future looks bright.

Can There Be Judaism Without Belief In God?

2011-09-11T05:01:00.000-07:00

Can there be Judaism without belief in God? This was a question asked of a variety of Jewish thinkers in the September/October 2011 issue of Moment Magazine. Sadly, I was not among them. But that is what blogs are for. So, I ask myself, can there be Judaism without belief in God?

First, let me make clear what was not asked, namely, can there be Judaism without God? The issue here is belief in God and not the reality of God per se.

Since God is not the issue, the answer to this question depends on one’s definition of Judaism. Borrowing from my teacher Mordecai Kaplan, I define Judaism as the evolving religious civilization of the Jews—in other words Judaism is what Jews do and the stories we tell ourselves to explain why we do what we do. Defined this way, can there be Judaism without a belief in God? Absolutely, and we can see hints of this in those forms of Judaism where Land has replaced God, and others where Folk has replaced God.

The content of the civilization we call Judaism isn’t fixed or even self–evident. This is why there are so many brands of Judaism. The existence of “Judaism” only requires people willing to fill the meme “Judaism” with ideas that matter to them, demand that their ideas are somehow “Jewish,” and then spend their lives arguing in defense of them. This can even be done—and I am a prime example—when you know the entire enterprise is a literary creation fashioned and refashioned by thousands of Jews over millennia.

When I play the game Monopoly and put up hotels on the square marked “Marvin Gardens,” I don’t for a second believe that I own actual hotels on actual property called Marvin Gardens. It is the conceit of the game, and, since it is a game I enjoy playing, I suspend disbelief and play. When people stop enjoying Monopoly the game will fade away. The same is true of Judaism: As long as Jews want to play, Judaism will exist; and as long as Jews can reinvent the game so that we do want to play, Judaism will thrive. The danger today isn’t a lack of belief in God, but a lack of a Jews knowledgeable and daring enough to reinvent the game in their own image.

One might define a serious Jew—the kind of Jew we need to keep Judaism vibrant and alive—as a person who chooses to argue about, challenge, and reinvent the game of Judaism more than she or he chooses to argue about, challenge, and reinvent any other game, even if, like me, she knows the entire enterprise is make–believe. Serious Jews are a dwindling commodity.

So, Can there be Judaism without belief in God? Yes. Can there be Judaism without serious Jews? No.