Interreligious Relations

Dear fellow-seekers of justice, peace, and healing for the earth,

I've received from many of you strong support and excitement about my exchange of  letters with Howard Zinn on what turned out to be the last day before he died,**[see P.S.] in which I suggested and he strongly encouraged a campaign for  "the independence of the American people from corporate control," cresting in nationwide multilocal demonstrations/ vigils/ "walks" on July 4, Independence Day. 

(The red-white-and blue is deliberate. We the People own the Flag -- especially the 13-starred flag of the Revolutionary War -- not the right-wing make-believe "populist" tea-partiers sponsored by the very elites  they pretend to denounce.)

 I'm now talking with several leaders of national progressive organizations about going forward on this effort.

Some of you-all have suggested broadening the July 4 focus in two directions: Passover/ Palm Sunday/Holy Week season, which this year is unusually synchronous, and Labor Day.  All these festivals, religious and "secular," address questions of justice, freedom, power, transformation, and healing.   All would be authentic frameworks for protesting and resisting the take-over of American politics and society by huge corporations.   Read more »

From 8 pm to 9:30 pm Eastern Time on Thursday evening January 21, Rabbi Arthur Waskow will be leading/ weaving a telephone seminar on the mystical, political, and ecological aspects of Tu B’Shvat, the Trees’ Rebirthday. The seminar will draw on some traditional texts (in English) and will include open discussion.

The Tu B’Shvat festival of the Rebirthing of Trees comes this year the evening of Friday January 29 and into Saturday Jan 30. It celebrates both the biology of the renewal of tree life in midwinter and the mystical sense that God’s Own Self is also every winter reborn as a Tree of Life with its roots in heaven and its fruit here — on earth — not only in trees but in all our lives.

The origins, practice, and purpose of the festival are so open, God’s abundance and the vitality of forests are so intertwined, the biology and the Mystery so intertwined, that in a planet choking in carbon dioxide and starving for more oxygen, this festival can welcome people of all religious communities and spiritual impulses to take part in it.

The fee for taking part in the teleconference seminar is $18, but if you also sign up for similar seminars with Rabbi Waskow on February 11 about the spring-fever carnival festival of Purim and on March 11 about the Freedom Festival of Passover, the total cost will be only $36 — a savings of 33%. Only $12 for each session. To sign up for the Tu B’Shvat seminar or for the whole series of seminars, please click here.

Background Information:

Rabbi Waskow co-edited the Jewish Publication Society’s festival volume called Trees, Earth, & Torah: A Tu B’Shvat Anthology, which is the most comprehensive gathering of biblical, rabbinic, mystical, modern, and eco-spiritual approaches to trees, The Tree, and their festival.

The anthology is useful, but not required, for participation in the seminar. You can order the anthology from the Jewish Publication Society by clicking here, or by calling 1.800.234.3151

Click here for background on Tu B’Shvat, with many articles on the festival, or for background on the Green Menorah Covenant and the climate crisis.   Read more »

As the Muslim world celebrates Eid al-Idha, the Feast of the Sacrifice, we can all join in remembering the moment when our common Father Abraham heard the ultimate teaching of the Infinite: “Do not kill your son!”

As Abraham substituted the ram for his child, as Muslims today in memory of that moment share their food with the poor, so may we all join in acting on God’s command: “Do not kill your children in war; feed the poor!”   Read more »