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Jews losing our way? It's not the first time. And it's not just Jews.

Opinion by Rabbi Michael Lerner
Network of Spiritual Progressives/Tikkun
July 22, 2007 (email message)

Tisha B'av, which starts this Monday evening at 9 p.m. with reading and discussing the Book of Lamentations, is all about the way the Jewish people has lost its way and then suffered karmic consequences.

According to the rabbis, the reason the First Temple was destroyed is the reason that the Prophets predicted? Jews had power but used it without sensitivity and ignoring the Torah commands to care for the powerless, the poor, the homeless, the stranger, the "other." Nothing is repeated more frequently in Torah than variations on this command: When you come into your land, do NOT oppress the stranger (the other), remember that you were strangers (the other) in the land of Egypt.

The Torah says over and over again, counter the "God gave it to us so we have a RIGHT to the Land of Israel" philosophy, that our claim to the land is totally dependent on our ability to live according to God's commands, including the command to "LOVE THE STRANGER." But, according to the rabbis in the Talmud, the reason we lost the land the 2nd time and the 2nd Temple was destroyed is that we still couldn't take seriously the injunctions about love. Not just to love the stranger, but even to love our neighbor as ourselves. Instead, the rabbis say, we 2nd Temple was destroyed because of free-floating hatred among Jews toward each other.

Do you imagine that 2 thousand years of suffering in the Diaspora taught Jews to not make these mistakes again? Not at all. The Zionist movement rejected Torah teachings and instead in effect embraced the strategy of domination and the Right Hand of God, as if to say: "it is with power and might that we will secure the Land of Israel and it is with power and might that we will deal with our non-Jewish neighbors and the stranger who dwells within our midst (in this case, the Palestinian people)."

The terrible truth is that the Jewish people once again risk being expelled from our land by even more cataclysmic violence than the last time, just as predicted by the prophets of old, unless we can substitute a strategy of generosity for the strategy of domination. There is no reason to disbelieve the Prophets’ (please read Isaiah, chapter one) vision is any less true today than when first uttered. Whether you think of that as God's will, or the inevitable karmic consequences of choosing violence instead of a path of generosity and reconciliation (such as that outlined in my book The Geneva Accord and Other Strategies for Middle East Peace published in 2004 by North Atlantic Books), the outcome will be the same, the destruction of the Jewish state in Palestine (a fate which we fear and oppose, which is why we at Tikkun are doing everything we can to raise consciousness of the Jewish people about the need for a Strategy of Generosity and a path of love, kindness, reconciliation, justice for the Palestinian people and also for those Jewish refugees who fled Arab lands, and peace).

The message of Tisha B'Av, when we focus on this karmic relationship, is not just for Jews or for Israel. Wouldn't it be great if every religion and every nation had a day like this to explore the ways it had itself lost its way? For the truth is that today it is the collective folly of the human race which allows its current misleaders, and those who control the global economy and shape the media, who are leading us to destruction. The arrogance of power by the U.S., its commitment to a strategy of domination instead of a strategy of generosity (such as that proposed by the Network of Spiritual Progressives' Global Marshall Plan? see.www.spiritualprogressives.org) will lead to the destruction of America as well, and perhaps even of human life on the planet. And of course, as the Book of Lamentations makes clear, the disaster will fall not only the arrogant, but on the innocent as well.

Of course, the "realists" from the time of Isaiah and Jeremiah to the current moment will denounce the prophetic vision as "unrealistic" and tell us that everything is fine, a few minor changes are needed, perhaps the strategy of domination will eventually work if we stay the course. But it won't.

Which is why those who love the Jewish people, and those who love America, are really those who are sounding the alarm. But it's not enough to say what's wrong and what we are against? That's why Isaiah quickly puts forth his vision of non-violence: nations making war no more, beating their swords into ploughshares. And that's what's missing today from the Democrats, the anti-war movement, the progressive forces: a vision of what a world based on generosity would look like, and how to get there. That's the other part of doing the fast day of Tisha B'av, moving from focus on mourning the destruction on Monday night, July 23rd, to visioning the rebuilding on Tuesday afternoon, July 24th.

We invite you to join that process wherever you live, and to join our interfaith Network of Spiritual Progressives, which draws wisdom from all the different spiritual traditions of the planet.

And if by chance you happen to live in the Bay Area, you are invited to the reading and discussion of the Book of Lanetations on Monday night, July 23rd, at 8:30 p.m. at 951 Cragmont Ave, Berkeley.

Rabbi Michael Lerner may be reached at RabbiLerner@tikkun.org

More information on interfaith Network of Spiritual Progressives, visit www.spiritualprogressives.org or 510.644.1200.

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