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Category Archives: Rosh Hashanah
The World to Come: Sermon for Rosh Hashanah 5781
photo: Thahitun Mariam/Bronx Mutual Aid Network
On Rosh Hashanah, Jewish tradition comes to tell us every new year that everything we've ever known is on the line. The zodiac sign for Tishrei, the first Jewish month of the year, is the scale, and for good reason. Over and over again our liturgy tells us that the world is hanging in the balance. The Books of Life and Death have yet to be sealed and we pray the rawest of prayers, literally pleading for another year of life. In ancient times, so we're told, the Jewish people would gather outside the Temple in Jerusalem, hoping against hope that the High Priest would emerge from the Holy of Holies to let them know the world would indeed be sustained for one more year.
I don't think we've ever experienced a Rosh Hashanah in which it felt more viscerally that the world was indeed actually hanging in the balance. In our communities, throughout our country, around the world, the new year is arriving in time that feels completely and utterly uncertain. For me – and I suspect for you as well – our Rosh Hashanah prayers this year have a powerful, even unnerving resonance.
It's difficult to know where to even start, and it's almost unbearable to contemplate all at once: a global pandemic has taken over 200,000 lives in the US and almost one million worldwide. It has permanently changed our world in ways we've barely begun to understand. Our health system is overwhelmed and overtaxed. The leaders of our country have been criminally negligent in their response to the pandemic. As a result, in a moment when we desperately need to come together, they are politicizing community health measures like mask-wearing and social distancing, further tearing our national community apart.
And of course, none of this is occurring in a vacuum. It's astonishing to witness how quickly COVID has unleashed this terrifying domino effect of economic chaos in our country and around the world, leaving increasing numbers of people unemployed, homeless and uninsured. And contrary to the cliche, the pandemic is not a great equalizer: its impact has been particularly devastating for communities of color, the poor and too many other disenfranchised communities in our midst.
There is no getting around it: this Rosh Hashanah, we're greeting this new year in a state of genuine grief over the sheer enormity over what we have already lost and fear over what is yet to come. That's why, I believe, the first order of business this new year is to give ourselves the space and permission to grieve our collective loss and name these fears out loud. To acknowledge what is no more and affirm openly and honestly that the world has been forever changed in ways we cannot yet fully grasp. Frankly, I don't know how we can pray these prayers unless we find a way to acknowledge this together.
I think grief is an apt metaphor for this moment. As anyone who has experienced grief knows all too well, there is a period of deep shock and disbelief that occurs immediately after the loss of someone we love. In many ways, this feels like what we're going through now: the disbelief, the magical thinking, the inability to fully grasp our new reality, the uncertainty of everything except the hard truth that nothing in our lives will ever be the same.
When we grieve, however, we do know some things for sure. We know that isolation is our enemy. We know that we have to depend upon each other to move forward. We know that we need community more than ever before. Though this new world is a painful and uncertain place, we must resist the temptation to withdraw from it. This will be a particular challenge in this new age of social distancing: when our survival literally depends upon our being physically apart, we know instinctively that we must find new ways to connect with one another if we are to survive.
Over the last few months, people have found ways to connect with each other with resilient creativity. Yes, life in the COVID era is surreal, frustrating, and often downright bizarre. Yes, I never, ever dreamed I would one day find myself leading a High Holiday Zoom service, and yes, I'm very sure you never expected you would ever attend one. But over the last few months, as we've negotiated this brave new world in our congregation, we've discovered that these challenges have come hand in hand with new opportunities we never could have anticipated.
Here at Tzedek Chicago, since the pandemic began, we're busier than ever before. We now have four weekly programs and our attendance has grown exponentially. We've inaugurated a communal care Hesed Committee to check in on the immediate needs of our members. We now have new members participating regularly in our services and programs from across the country and around the world, from as far away as New Zealand and the UK. In the end, however, this isn't just a matter of greater access. On a deeper level, I think, this new growth is a testament to the deep desire folks have to connect with others, to overcome their isolation, to find new ways to create community in this moment of profound loss.
At the same time, amidst all of this massive change, even as we adjust to this new world, there's that nagging question lurking in the background: how long will we actually have to do this? When will we get our lives and our world back? When will things get back to "normal?" Again, as with the experience of grief, I personally think it's important to challenge this kind of magical thinking; to resist the temptation to assume that this is only a temporary moment; a period we just have to muscle through before things get back to the way they were. As with the experience of grief, I think it's important for us to accept that the world we once knew is gone. Something will indeed come in its place, but whatever it is, we need to accept that things will never be the same.
It occurs to me that Rosh Hashanah might actually be coming at just the right time to help us with this acceptance. After all, when we pray the words "t'chadeish aleynu shanah tovah u'metukah" – "renew us for a good and sweet new year" – we're not asking for the world the way it used to be. On Rosh Hashanah, we center renewal. Over and over again we proclaim throughout our liturgy that every new year, the world can be recreated and reborn.
This idea is actually the exact opposite of that famous line from the book of Lamentations,"chadeish yameninu ke'kedem;– "renew our days as days of old." Whatever else it may be, Rosh Hashanah was never meant to be an exercise in nostalgia, a yearning for an idealized, mythic time that never really was. On the contrary, it is an occasion for dreaming of the world that might yet be.
No, we will not go back to "normal." But amidst the grief, it's worth asking, do we really want to? Should we want to? The great activist poet Sonya Renee Taylor has written powerfully to this point:
We will not go back to normal. Normal never was. Our pre-corona existence was not normal other than we normalized greed, inequity, exhaustion, depletion, extraction, disconnection, confusion, rage, hoarding, hate and lack. We should not long to return my friends. We are being given the opportunity to stitch a new garment. One that fits all of humanity and nature.
That's right. For far too long, too many in this country have assumed it's somehow normal to live in a world with a deep and deepening economic divide separating rich from poor, to tolerate a toxic environmental crisis, to treat endemic state violence and systemic racism as just a given. But none of this has been in any way "normal."
In truth, we've been living unsustainably for far too long. Deep down, we must have known that one day this bubble would burst. And now it has. The world as we knew it has broken wide open. So yes, if there is a spiritual imperative to this particular moment, it's not "renew our days as in days of old" – it must be "recreate this word anew."
Judaism actually gives us a powerful paradigm for this – a framework for living when the only world we've ever known has fallen away from beneath us. It is, in fact, one of the central mythic moments at the heart of Jewish tradition itself: namely the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 ACE. Jewish spiritual memory views this as the formative moment in our history: the cataclysmic moment when Jewish life was cracked wide open. As we have come to understand it, this was the moment when everything in our world changed forever.
Yes, the destruction of the Temple constituted a massive collective crisis for the Jewish people – but it's also important to note that it represented an opportunity to stitch a new garment as well. After all, this was the moment that Judaism as we know it came into being. The diaspora might have been a place of exile, but it was also the fertile ground upon which the Jewish people staged their spiritual rebirth. In short, when the only world we ever knew was shattered, we responded in the spirit of hope, resilience and creativity.
A line from a famous midrash teaches, "when the people of Israel were exiled, God went into exile with them." Among other things, this means that God wasn't destroyed along with the Temple. God accompanied us into this new and unknown world. And while this spiritual truth may speak directly to the Jewish experience, it's certainly not unique to it. It's a universal truth: at the moments of our deepest loss, we become more spiritually attuned. We can see God more clearly: in the hearts that have been broken and in the wells of strength we never knew we had. In the memory of those we've lost, the faces of those we love and who have suffered loss as well. And I would suggest it is this very Presence that is accompanying us right now as we face this uncertain new world.
So, if we are ready to fully enter this changed and changing new kingdom, what do we do now? I think it goes without saying that the order of the moment is care for each other. Too many lives have been devastated already and we know that this devastation will continue in the coming year. For now – and forever more – we must view mutual aid as a mitzvah – a sacred imperative. I know many of you are involved in these kinds of projects, which are founded on the ethics of solidarity and not mere charity. At Tzedek Chicago, we've been compiling an ongoing list of efforts in which we can participate locally – mutual aid that supports those who were already economically vulnerable before the onset of the pandemic, in particular low-income workers, day laborers, domestic workers, those who work in the gig economy. If you know of initiatives that are not on our list, please let us know about them so we can make them available to our membership.
It's also important for us to bear in mind that radical empathy is not only a means to an end. Yes, we empathize with each other because we are social animals that depend on each other for our survival – and this must certainly never be underestimated. But at the same time, it's worth considering that our empathic support for another actually creates the world we want to see in real time. When we support and find comfort in one another, we need not yearn for the world to come because in a sense, it's here right now. Beyond the pain, beyond the loss, we would do well to realize that the world we've been struggling for all along is being built by our love and support for one another.
And how do we find hope when that pain and loss feels like it is too much to bear? For me, I've always been taken with the definition of hope offered by folks like Vaclav Havel and Cornell West. Optimism, they say, is the shallow expectation that things will naturally get better. Hope, however, is the conviction that some things are worth fighting for no matter what may happen. Hope is the courage to act, even in – especially in – those times when doubt might be warranted.
So let this be my blessing for us all this Rosh Hashanah-like-no other, when so much in our world is hanging in the balance as never before: let us grieve for the world that we've lost, show up for those who need it most, and fight like hell for the world we know is possible.
Shanah Tovah to you all.
This entry was posted in COVID 19, Economic Justice, Environmentalism, Fear, God, Health Care, High Holidays, Homelessness, Judaism, Poverty, Prayer, Religion, Rosh Hashanah, Sermons, Spirituality, Tzedek Chicago on September 20, 2020 by Rabbi Brant Rosen.
"Birthday of a World on Fire" – A Sermon for Rosh Hashanah 5780
photo credit: Reuters
One of the signature moments on Rosh Hashanah is the sentence traditionally proclaimed after the shofar is sounded: "Hayom Harat Olam" ("Today is the birthday of the world.") On Rosh Hashanah, tradition tells us, we celebrate a world reborn, joyfully acknowledging the order and balance of God's creation and the awesome power embedded deep within it. What better way to celebrate the potential for our own renewal in the year ahead than by looking to a world that renews itself every year according to the sacred rhythms of birth and rebirth?
While I personally find this idea to be among the most profound of this season, I'll confess, I've been struggling with it in recent years. With the hard reality of the global climate crisis hitting home deeper and deeper every year, I find myself asking, what does it mean to gather every Rosh Hashanah to reaffirm creation even as we are literally undoing it? How can we honestly celebrate the power embedded in God's world, even as human power is steadily destroying it? Even as the world is literally on fire? To be completely honest, in this era of global climate crisis, I'm not sure the traditional understanding of Rosh Hashanah really makes much sense any more.
And it is indeed a crisis. Many are suggesting, in fact, that we've moved beyond crisis and have entered the category of emergency. And we can't say we haven't been warned. As far back as 1992, 1700 scientists around the world issued a famous statement called a "warning to humanity," declaring that we were on a "collision course" with the natural world if we did not "fundamentally change" the way we lived upon it.
More than 25 year later, almost all of their chilling predictions are now in full swing. Last year, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued the first in a series of three reports that describe in vivid detail the effects of greenhouse gas emissions throughout the world. The first of three reports, which came out last October, warned that we have only a dozen years to keep global warming to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius beyond pre-industrial levels. If we go up even half a degree beyond this, we will significantly worsen the risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people.
However, this was not merely a prediction: the report made it clear that this crisis was already well underway. The world is currently 1.1 degrees warmer than pre-industrial levels. The average global temperature for 2015–2019 is already the hottest of any five-year period on record. The Amazon rainforest, even as I speak now, is still burning. It's been estimated that we've already lost 50% of the planet's biodiversity in the past four decades. 20% of the earth's coral reefs have died. The Antarctic ice sheet has lost three trillion tons of ice in the last 25 years. In roughly that same amount of time, the rate of global ocean warming has doubled. Many, if not most, of these losses are irreversible.
And these losses are increasing exponentially. Every new half degree will cause rapidly increasing and irreversible chain reactions: growing species extinction, greater food insecurity, the disappearance of coastal cities and island nations, increased migration and social conflict, more wildfires and hurricanes, the destruction of polar ice, the loss of entire ecosystems.
It's important to note however, that the IPCC report did not conclude that all is lost. The scientists repeatedly stressed that it was still possible to limit warming to 1.5 degrees. But they also made it clear it will take a radical global effort to achieve this goal. Jim Skea, Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group put it this way: "Limiting warming to 1.5°C is possible within the laws of chemistry and physics, but doing so would require unprecedented changes."
Unprecedented indeed. Given our voracious dependance upon fossil fuels – and the economic interests in the companies that produce them – the hard truth is that we have only twelve years to reverse the growth of global capitalism itself. This is not a radical statement – I'd argue it's actually quite reasonable under the circumstances. Those who dismiss advocate structural proposals such as the Green New Deal as naive, "pie in the sky" ideas routinely miss this one essential point: we need radical solutions if we are to take on the unfettered economic greed that has brought us to this terrifying moment in human history.
Now I know that many, if not most of you have heard these facts and figures before. But even so, as I pondered what to talk about this Rosh Hashanah, it felt enormously important to me that the findings of the IPCC report be spoken out loud. We need to say them out loud. Otherwise, I'm really not sure if the rest of our prayers really make much sense.
I realize how depressing, how enormous – how terrifying – it is to contemplate all of this. But as we gather for Rosh Hashanah, I really can't think of a more important issue for us to talk about. And so this morning, I'd like to push a brief pause on our celebration of creation's power and face the ways we are willfully degrading that power. I'd like to offer a few thoughts on how we might reframe our understanding of this crisis so that we might avoid the inevitable overwhelm, paralysis and despair that comes with it. Ultimately, I suppose, what I'd really like to do is offer a measure of hope in the face of an increasingly hopeless reality. To take our cue from the new year and imagine a world reborn – so that we might feel that much more ready to go forth and actually make it so.
When most of us confront the overwhelming reality of the global climate crisis, I think we tend to do what comes naturally: we compartmentalize it. We silo it into its own separate category the way we do with so many other complex social issues. We view it as one issue among many in the desperate hope that if we isolate it, we might be able to find a way to somehow address it.
But in truth, the climate crisis isn't one issue. In fact, I would say it is in many ways the issue. It's the one universal issue that connects all others. The changes we are causing to the earth's temperatures have direct causal relationships to immigration, to human rights, to poverty, to housing, to war, to so many examples of social and political upheaval worldwide.
So yes, addressing this crisis means we must advocate for policies that will keep global temperatures from reaching the 1.5 mark. But it cannot only mean that. It must also mean that we must stand with the scores of people around the world who are already suffering from the effects of the climate crisis. In the end, there is really no contradiction between working for justice and climate activism. They are, in fact, intimately intertwined.
We know full well that the primary brunt of the global climate crisis is being borne by the poor and communities of color. It has been estimated that the global climate crisis could push more than 120 million more people into poverty by 2030. Even if we do manage to increase to only 1.5 degrees by 2100, extreme temperatures in the global south will leave disadvantaged populations increasingly food insecure, with less incomes and worsening health. Increasing numbers of people will have to make the agonizing choice between starvation or migration.
Here in the US, we can see the connection between the climate crisis and structural racism all too well. Polluting facilities are routinely built in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, which means that people with marginalized identities experience more asthma, a greater likelihood of heart attacks and premature death. The disadvantages that come with those health issues create a cycle of poverty and lack of access to opportunity for people of color and the poor in the United States.
It's a sad irony that the ones least responsible for the climate crisis are bearing the brunt of it – and have the least capacity to protect themselves. This phenomenon has been referred to as "environmental racism" or "climate apartheid" – in which the wealthy have the means to escape overheating, hunger and conflict while the rest of the world is left to fend for itself.
We witnessed climate apartheid in full swing when the devastating Hurricane Dorian slammed into the Bahamas earlier this month. In advance of the hurricane, the ultra-wealthy homeowners on Abaco Island hired local workers to board up their vacation houses, while they escaped to their primary homes in the US or Europe. The Baker's Bay Golf & Ocean Club hired a private security team, equipped with helicopters and assault rifles, to protect their property. The rest of the island's residents, made up mostly of undocumented Haitians, had nowhere to go and had to ride out the storm in shanty towns and church shelters. Within hours, the community was almost completely flattened. Dozens of poor residents were killed and thousands more are still missing.
As Jews, we need to acknowledge that climate apartheid is deeply enmeshed throughout Israel/Palestine as well. Since the Middle East is among the hardest hit by global warming, the issue of justice in Israel/Palestine is directly related to the control of water resources – and Israel has almost complete control over water sources in the region. The so-called Mountain Aquifer, the most critical water source in Israel/Palestine, is situated almost completely east of the Green Line. This goes a long way to explain why Israel has not and likely will never give up the West Bank – as doing so would mean surrendering its most valuable water source.
The environmental situation in Gaza is even more dire, due largely to Israel's crushing blockade. At present, 97% of Gaza's freshwater is unsuitable for human consumption, and only 10% of Gaza's two million people have access to safe drinking water. As a result of Israel's regular military assaults, 110 million liters of raw and untreated sewage are pouring directly into the Mediterranean every day, creating a massive sanitation crisis.
But, as is invariably the case in all forms of climate apartheid, what goes around comes around. This past June, Ha'aretz reported on the effects of Gaza's toxic pollution on Israel. The headline read: "Collapsing Environmental State of Gaza Poses Threat to Israel's National Security, Report Warns." Tellingly, even as it maintains total control over natural resources, Israel cannot escape the devastating impact of the growing climate crisis.
My friend and colleague, Robert Cohen, a writer and blogger from the UK, recently wrote a post in which he argued that "the climate emergency makes Zionism obsolete." In it, he made this very compelling argument:
How can Israel present itself as a Jewish safe haven from a hostile world when its water security is at high risk, crop yields will soon be falling and fires will be raging all year round. In a region already fraught with conflict, climate analysts expect temperature rise to have a multiplier effect that exacerbates and accelerates wars and mass migrations. Promoting Zionism starts to look like an invitation to Jews to jump from the metaphorical frying pan into the literal fire.
When it comes to climate change, national borders will offer no protection from antisemitism. Climate has no interest in faith or ethnicity or in historical or religious claims to a particular piece of land. Climate change is staunchly apolitical, ahistorical and agnostic.
Of course, climate change won't make antisemitism go away. But like much else that's wrong and unfair about the world, the Climate Emergency compels us to look at things differently, consider the root causes, and understand the interconnectedness of injustice. As well as terrible threats, climate change forces upon us the possibility of a profound ethical revolution.
I believe Robert hits the nail on the head with this analysis. In a way, the Israel/Palestine issue is a microcosm of a much larger, universal issue. In the face of global climate crisis, nationalism will not save us. Stronger borders will not save us. Sooner or later this crisis will come for us all. In the meantime, however, we can be sure that those who have more power will do everything they can to protect themselves from its effects until the very bitter end – at the expense of everyone else.
This is where, as Robert Cohen puts it, the "profound ethical revolution" comes in. Yes, to address the climate crisis, we must be advocating for policies and practices that decrease our global carbon output – but it must mean standing in solidarity with those most affected by the crisis as well. There can be no separation between the two. And in this regard, we all have a part to play.
The first step, I believe, is to resist the temptation toward overwhelm and despair. This is, quite frankly, a luxury we cannot afford. While it can be tempting to adopt a fatalistic, "all is lost" attitude, we would do well to remind ourselves that some of the most committed, inspired climate activists are those who are most directly affected by it. If they have not succumbed to despair, than neither can we.
In fact, the movement for climate justice is being led by members of indigenous nations worldwide. This past April in Brazil, an estimated 4,000 indigenous peoples from various tribes gathered for three days in that nation's capital to protest for their rights, demonstrate their traditions and confront congressional leaders. This nonviolent mobilization, called Free Land Camp, has taken place every year since 2004 and is organized by the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil — an alliance of indigenous communities and organizations from several regions of the country.
Closer to home, the resistance by at Standing Rock has been at the vanguard of the fight for climate justice in this country. And as this movement is increasingly youth led, we need to be lifting up the work of indigenous youth activists – young people such as 15 year old Autumn Peltier, of the Wiik-wem-koong First Nation in Northern Ontario who recently spoke at the UN and 19 year old Naelyn Pike, of the San Carlos Apache tribe in Arizona, who had this to say in her speech at a youth leadership gathering in 2017:
I'm saying no! And many people, millions of people in this world, are saying no! We have so many sacred lands that are going to be desecrated, so many fights to protect Chaco Canyon, to protect Bears Ears, to protect Indigenous land, food, water, the right to live, our identity. We're fighting against so many pipelines. And the thing is that these generations behind us had told us this prophecy.
But there's another prophecy: That the youth is going to stand. And that's us today. That's us here and now.
In addition to Indigenous-led movements, there are any number of growing climate justice movements that deserve our attention and support – and I know many in this room have long been active in these efforts: the Sunrise Movement, the Climate Strike, +350 and Extinction Rebellion, to name a few. And as I mentioned earlier, given everything that is at stake, we need to wage an all-out political fight against the economic interests that make greater profit through increased greenhouse gas emissions. In this country, this fight is primarily being waged nationally via the Green New Deal, but it is also being fought on state and local levels as well. As I said before, there is a part we can all play. The main thing is to connect the dots, to understand that the climate crisis is at heart a justice issue – and that all struggles for justice are ultimately bound up with the movement to roll back the climate crisis.
So what can Rosh Hashanah mean at this moment in human history, in this unprecedented time when the very future of our world is literally hanging in the balance? I want to suggest that we can no longer celebrate the new year – the birthday of the world – without explicitly spelling out what is at stake. Yes, it is a day of hope, but this hope must be celebrated together with a hard and sober realism.
We know that the task ahead of us will be daunting. We know that some of the effects of climate change can yet be turned back. But we also know that some of the damage we've inflicted upon the earth is permanent. We do have a window of time in which we can stop or decrease global temperatures, but it will take a Herculean world-wide effort to achieve this. We've been told by scientists that we have 12 years before the social and economic fabric we take for granted starts to unravel beyond the point of no return. We need to admit this and say it out loud if these New Year's rituals are to retain any meaning for us whatsoever any more.
In the end, it may well be that the High Holidays will hold more meaning than ever before. After all, when the new year is through, when we move toward Yom Kippur, our prayers will literally evoke a world that hangs in the balance. We will ask "who shall live and who shall die?" We will plead to be written into the Book of Life. We will ask ourselves honestly, how can we change our ways to ensure it shall be so? It seems to me that these prayers have never had more universal, global meaning than right now.
One of the things I love most about Judaism and Jewish culture in general, is that it invites us to work toward the world to come, the world as it should be. Yes, this work can be a struggle, but it can also be filled with joy and celebration. And there are yet times during the struggle when we create a microcosm – when we get a glimpse of the world to come. These moments remind us we must continue to live with a spirit of joyous resistance, even if we know full well that world we seek may never be at hand.
How do we possibly do this? How do we find the strength to fight a fight we know we may not win? And to so joyfully? Let me share with you the words of indigenous activist and organizer, Kelly Hayes, who offers us as eloquent a manifesto for the new year as I can imagine:
I would prefer to win, but struggle is about much more than winning. It always has been. And there is nothing revolutionary about fatalism. I suppose the question is, are you antifascist? Are you a revolutionary? Are you a defender of decency and life on Earth? Because no one who is any of those things has ever had the odds on their side. But you know what we do have? A meaningful existence on the edge of oblivion. And if the end really is only a few decades away, and no human intervention can stop it, then who do you want to be at the end of the world? And what will you say to the people you love, when time runs out? If it comes to that, I plan on being able to tell them I did everything I could, but I'm not resigning myself to anything and neither should you. Adapt, prepare, and take the damage done seriously, but never stop fighting. Václav Havel once said that "Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something is worth doing no matter how it turns out." I live in that certainty every day. Because while these death-making systems exist both outside and inside of us, so do our dreams, so long as we are fighting for them. And my dreams are worth fighting for. I bet yours are too.
This new year, let us commit to fight like hell for the world of our dreams, for a world reborn anew. Let us fight with joy, commitment and solidarity, knowing full well that this is a fight for the survival of the world as we know it. And let us fight not with the certainty that we will ultimately be victorious, but with the faith that it is worth waging no matter what.
Ken Yehi Ratzon – May it be our will this new year – and every new year from this time forward.
Shanah Tovah.
This entry was posted in Energy Efficiency, Energy Policy, Environmentalism, Gaza, Global Activism, High Holidays, Human Rights, Immigration, Israel, Judaism, Palestine, Politics, Racism, Religion, Rosh Hashanah, Sermons, War, Water, Zionism on October 2, 2019 by Rabbi Brant Rosen.
Reckoning with the Arc of the Moral Universe in the Age of Trump: A Sermon for Rosh Hashanah 5779
Writing topical High Holiday sermons is a process fraught with peril. It's common knowledge among rabbis that if you sit down to write at the beginning of the summer, chances are pretty good that your chosen issue will be obsolete by the time the holidays roll around. In the current political moment however, where current events have accelerated to warp speed, it feels as if issues become obsolete every hour on the hour. Thus my challenge this year: how do I respond without contributing to the ever-increasing barrage that has become our current reality?
More to the point: how do I avoid contributing to the widespread despair that so many of us are feeling? I'm sure most of us are experiencing current events as an onslaught. They come at us faster and faster: every new policy strike-down, every new act of deregulation, every new appointment feels like yet another kick to the stomach.
To put it simply, the world that so many of us fought for seems to be unraveling before our eyes. So many of the socio-political gains we've struggled so hard for for so long are being rolled back on an almost daily basis.
So this Rosh Hashanah, I want to forgo the topical sermon in favor of some deeper questions. Namely, how can we maintain our equilibrium during the current political moment? How do we respond to the onslaught? How do we resist the despair that for so many of us, characterizes the nightmare age of Trump?
Since the election, we've been hearing from mental health experts that there's been a dramatic spike in anxiety and depression since the election – a kind of "political stress disorder" – but that's not what I'm talking about. Rather, I'd like to explore why so many of our previously held beliefs about our world seem to have come crashing down on top of us. In particular, I want to look closely at the assumptions that Americans – particularly liberal Americans – use to understand the history of progress in our country.
I'd like to ask, have they been harmful in ways we don't often stop to realize? And if they are, might there be different frames we can use to understand the world around us? Ones that will help us stand down the despair and give us the strength to fight for the world we want to see? And finally, on this new year, I'd like to explore how Torah and Jewish tradition address this question in ways that might help us find a way forward together.
Let's start with one very common assumption: the view that history is a march toward progress. This view is considered a central tenet of liberalism and it dates all the way back to the Enlightenment. In fact, this idea is so deeply embedded in the mindset of so many Americans that it is almost taken for granted.
Now certainly, when we look at the unfolding of American history, we could make a very strong case for this view. It certainly seems that the arc of history bends toward justice. Our march toward progress is well known: the abolition of slavery, the creation of labor laws, the right of women to vote, civil rights legislation, environmental regulation.
The idea in a nutshell: "We struggled, we won, progress was achieved." This linear view of socio-political progress is deeply ingrained in the mythos of liberal America. When these historical moments occur, they enter into our national consciousness and become part of a collective narrative of progress. We venerate them, we celebrate them – often on an annual basis – and then either consciously or unconsciously, we assume that history will continue to progress in a linear fashion from that point onward.
The only problem with this assumption is that it doesn't. And it never has.
Let's use the first example on the list I just mentioned: abolition. Most of us date the abolition of slavery back to 1865 with the adoption of the 13th amendment – but in truth, abolition resulted from over century of struggle on many different fronts. But it wasn't a linear struggle. And the struggle is far from over.
During Reconstruction, former slaves did make meaningful political, social and economic gains. Black men voted and even held public office across the South. Biracial experiments in governance flowered. Black literacy surged, surpassing those of whites in some cities. Black schools, churches and social institutions thrived.
But as W.E.B. Du Bois famously wrote "the slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery." After the formal fall of slavery in the South, there was sharecropping, in which black farmers became debt slaves to their white landlords; there was the convict lease system, in which black men were leased out to wealthy plantation owners and corporations; there were widespread lynchings in the South and yes, often in the North as well. There was Jim Crow – a legal caste system that literally divided black and white Americans.
And after the civil rights movement helped bring down segregation, we've seen the emergence of the "New Jim Crow" as a result of mass incarceration. As scholar Michelle Alexander and others have pointed out, more black men are currently behind bars or under the thumb of the criminal justice system than there were enslaved at the height of slavery.
Yes, the abolition of slavery was a significant victory and yes, we should celebrate our victories. But we cannot assume that injustice will simply end or evaporate with these victories. More often than not, it morphs into different forms in insidious ways.
It seems to me that liberal Americans – particularly white liberal Americans – chronically underestimate the tenacity and staying power of injustice. Why? Well for one thing, although we don't often acknowledge it, this country was founded on injustice – on the original sins of indigenous genocide, slavery and the economic supremacy of white property-holding men. Injustice is part of our national DNA. As long as we fail admit this, it's too easy to ignore the ways injustice is chronically manifest in the life of our country.
Our American political culture reinforces the notion that struggles for liberation invariably lead to the eradication of injustice. The way we memorialize the civil rights movement provides a good example. In her recent book, "A More Beautiful and Terrible History," Professor Jeanne Theoharis writes powerfully about the ways political elites – who historically fought the passage of civil rights – regularly use this history as proof of how great our country is. President Ronald Reagan for instance, repeatedly resisted efforts to turn Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday into a national holiday. He finally relented however, when he realized he could co-opt MLK and the civil rights movement.
When Reagan signed the bill into law, he said,
We've made historic strides since Rosa Parks refused to go to the back of the bus. As a democratic people, we can take pride in the knowledge that that we Americans recognized a grave injustice and took action to correct it. And we should remember that in many countries, people like Dr. King never have the opportunity to speak out at all.
But it's not only conservative politicians who promote this new mythic history. Theoharis also quotes Barack Obama from a 2007 speech in Selma, Alabama. Referring to the civil rights generation, he said, "They took us 90 percent of the way there, but we still got that 10 percent in order to cross over to the other side." The implication that we have eradicated 90% of the racial problems in our country is of course, serious political hyperbole. And it speaks to a very common trope in our national culture: that our great nation was founded on a struggle for freedom, that these struggles are what make this country great, and that these struggles somehow eradicate injustice from our midst.
In reality, however, these struggles don't succeed because of our country – they succeed in spite of our country. And they certainly do not end racism and injustice once and for all. Whether they stem from hyperbole, ideology or unconscious assumptions, I believe that these false tropes breed complacency. After all, why worry too much if we believe history proves our struggle will eradicate injustice in end? And when injustice metastasizes into new and different forms, it upsets our neat, linear assumptions about American progress. As a result, we're ill-equipped – emotionally and strategically – to respond properly to this new reality.
I'd like to turn now to Jewish tradition and explore whether or not the Torah has anything to offer us on this particular question. It's often been observed by liberal scholars in fact, that this linear view of historical progress can be traced back to Biblical tradition. According to this school of thought, the polytheistic traditions of the Ancient Near East viewed history as circular, embodied in the never ending, constantly repeating cycles of nature. Israelite monotheism however, upended these traditions, sublimating the gods of nature to the one God of history, who alone could control nature and events according to his will.
Here's a good representation of this view – I'm quoting from an essay by Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, the former Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary:
The consequences of this shift from nature to history reinforce the idea of ethical monotheism. Judaism develops a linear concept of time as opposed to a cyclical one and sanctifies events rather than places. The mountain of Sinai is not holy, or even known, but the moment of revelation is. The Torah intentionally conceals from us the place where Moses is buried. Time is a medium less susceptible to idolatry or polytheism, in which God's presence is made manifest audibly rather than visually. Time becomes for Judaism the realm in which humanity and God join to complete together the work of creation…The triumph of morality will eventually render nature perfect, bringing history to its messianic conclusion.
While this is a popular view of many Jewish scholars, I find it to be problematic on so many levels. Particularly this notion that "the triumph of morality will eventually render nature perfect, bringing history to its messianic conclusion." This kind of linear messianic thinking leads to a concrete end game, a victory that will solve all our problems. Messianic movements of course, have historically arisen during periods of acute crisis – times in which the vision of the ideal world becomes profoundly exciting and intoxicating to the growing numbers of people. But as we know all too well, messianic movements almost always end in upheaval, disillusionment and too often, tragedy.
You don't have to be fundamentalist or even particularly religious to engage in linear messianic thinking. We all have a tendency, particularly during difficult times, to focus our expectations on an idealized conclusion. While this is undeniably inspiring and motivating, we too often end up mistaking the victories we experience along the way as the end game itself. We fall into the trap of viewing progress as an entitlement rather than something that must be constantly, constantly struggled for in every generation. It sometimes feels to me that this fixation on the end game is itself a kind of idolatry. We might say that we create a false god whenever we objectify one idea or concept or movement as the ultimate panacea for the problems of the world.
This is not however, the only Jewish frame for understanding history. I'd like to suggest another – one that I personally find to be much more helpful and inspiring. It is embodied by the word,"Yisrael" which literally means "one who struggles with God." In the book of Genesis, Jacob's name is changed to Yisrael after he wrestles with a mysterious night visitor that turns out later to be God. Jacob is victorious – and this moment marks a critical turning point in his life. But at the same time, he is wounded by the encounter – he limps as he crosses the river the next morning.
It's also notable that Jacob's struggle does not end with this one episode. His life certainly does not follow a straight line from this point on. Nor does the journey of the people of Israel who bear his name. In fact, the Torah narrative always ends before the Israelites enter the Promised Land. Just when they arrive at the threshold, we literally rewind the Torah back to the beginning and we start the journey anew. The cycle begins once again.
In other words, redemption is not located in any particular place or point in time – it is experienced in the act of struggle itself. God cannot be found in a land or place, nor at some literal end time. God is in the struggle. We might even say, God is the struggle.
Now I know for some this might seem on the surface to be a bit on the bleak side. Some might of you might be thinking, "Is this all we have to look forward to? Life is just one long endless struggle? And we never even get to the Promised Land? How is this inspiring?
Please understand: I'm not saying we can ever give up on our vision of our the world we want to see. I am suggesting that at some point it is important to let go of the expectation that we must inevitably get there – because I really do believe that holding on too tightly to that expectation is a set up for despair and disillusionment.
Yes, this spiritual frame does involve an acknowledgement that we will not literally arrive in the Promised Land; that the Messiah will not actually come. But at the same time, its worth considering that we do indeed enter into messianic time in ways we never stop to consider: when we show up for our fellow strugglers, when we celebrate our victories along the way, when our efforts are infused with our highest values of justice and equity and sacrifice, at those moments we find ourselves dwelling in the world we've been fighting for all along. We experience the world we want to see because we create it for one another.
Struggle is hard work, but if we view it exclusively as a means to an end, it will be only that: hard work. However, if we view struggle as an inherently sacred act, we may yet see the face of God in our comrades and those who have gone before us. We may come to understand that the messianic age is not simply a far off dream. We may yet find we are dwelling in the Promised Land in ways we have never been able to realize before.
According to Jewish tradition, Rosh Hashanah is a kind of "spiritual reboot" for ourselves and our community. In the traditional liturgy we say "Hayom Harat Olam" – it is the birthday of the world! On one level I think this means we never forfeit the ability to view the world with different eyes, through new and different frames. And if we can do this, we may well be able to transform the world itself. Yes, we live in painful, difficult times, but this is nothing new. Yes, there have been significant setbacks to many hard won battles in our country, but the struggle is far from over. In fact, as our liturgy would have it, it may be just beginning.
To all of you in Am Yisrael – and by this I mean all who struggle side by side for the cause of justice in the world – I wish you a heartfelt chazak ve'ematz – strength and courage. May it be a sweet and victorious year for us all.
This entry was posted in Civil Rights, Current Events, High Holidays, Politics, Prison Justice, Racism, Religion, Rosh Hashanah, Sermons, Torah Commentary, Tzedek Chicago on September 12, 2018 by Rabbi Brant Rosen.
Gaza and the High Holidays
My weekly message to congregants at Tzedek Chicago:
Yesterday I read a devastating blog post by Abdalrahim Alfarra, a Palestinian Gazan activist who wrote about his cousin Ali Firwana, who was recently was shot and paralyzed at the Great March of Return.
One passage in particular continues to haunt me:
At the protest, we found the usual: tear gas canisters falling thickly, leaving us barely able to breathe or talk; ambulances and paramedics fanning out everywhere; and the sound of live bullets whizzing past.
The sound of a bullet elicits contradictory feelings. All of us know that it will hit someone. But if we hear it, we are safe, just like when we hear shelling it means it has exploded but not on us.
It's a powerful a description as we might find of what it must be like for unarmed demonstrators to experience an overwhelming military assault such as this. But it also made me think of something else.
We've just begun Elul – the month that precedes the Jewish New Year. Among other things, this the season in which we begin to contemplate the randomness and fragility of our world. We look ahead to a year to come and ask with uncertainty: "Who shall live and who shall die?" I can't think of a more gut-wrenching expression of this question than the testimony of this young Palestinian man. And I can't think of a more critical collective moral imperative for the Jewish people than the crimes Israel is committing against Palestinians in Gaza.
Alfarra concludes his post with these words:
Ali requires further surgery. He is still hoping to move his legs again. He is still hoping to defy the treacherous bullet fired by a heartless sniper, and a world that answers Israel's crimes with shocking silence.
When Jewish congregation gather next month for the High Holidays, it is safe to say many will "answer Israel's crimes with shocking silence." Others will actually attempt to justify Israel's criminal assaults on Palestinians in Gaza. I'm proud to be part of a congregation that will choose a different way:
For blockading 1.8 millon Gazans inside an open air prison; and for unleashing devastating firepower on a population trapped in a tiny strip of land.
For wedding sacred Jewish tradition to political nationalism and militarism; and for rationalizing away Israel's oppression of the Palestinian people.
For all these, source of forgiveness, forgive us, pardon us, receive our atonement.
May our prayers inspire us to hasten the day in which all Gazans and Palestinians are free.
This entry was posted in Gaza, High Holidays, Human Rights, Israel, Judaism, Palestine, Religion, Rosh Hashanah, Tzedek Chicago, War, Yom Kippur on August 19, 2018 by Rabbi Brant Rosen.
Sealing the Gates of Heaven
According to an order from the most high
the first day of the month shall be a sacred occasion
when the shofar is sounded the gates will be sealed
and all roads will be closed to you.
You shall not you leave your homes
nor work at your occupations.
lest you and your kin be put to death.
Like fires lit on ancient mountaintops
the announcement spread throughout the land;
when the new moon came the wall was locked tight
so the people could gather in their houses of prayer
to greet another new year.
And the Chazan sang:
As a shepherd numbering his flocks
passing his sheep under his staff
thus I count you off one by one,
marking your every move, noting your every thought
writing you down in my Book of Life
that I may decree
who shall live and who shall die.
Day after day they sent out
fearful prayers into the dark dread
of a year they did not yet know,
desperately hoping their lives would be spared
by the merciful judge on high.
For today it is written
and in ten days it will be sealed
who will be taken in the dead of night
and who shall sleep until morning
who will die and who will be born
into a cruel and merciless world
When the festival came to an end
the great shofar was sounded
how could they know that
the gates of heaven had never opened
to their prayers?
This entry was posted in High Holidays, Israel, Judaism, Palestine, Poetry, Prayer, Religion, Rosh Hashanah on February 1, 2018 by Rabbi Brant Rosen.


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text:
Albertans Must Respectfully but Firmly Oppose Ministry of Education Guidelines
05 Feb 2016 Albertans Must Respectfully but Firmly Oppose Ministry of Education Guidelines
Posted at 18:29h in Education, Gender and Sexuality 0 Comments
(For those outside Alberta, please don't ignore this action update. Manitoba is working on similar guidelines, and other provinces are likely to follow.)
In less than one year, Alberta has transitioned from a province with an outstanding reputation for upholding parental authority in education to becoming one of the most oppressive jurisdictions in North America. Christian schools are now being told to adopt policies and procedures by March 31st which directly violate their faith and promote radical ideologies. If the province does not change its approach, Christian parents and schools will have to either compromise their faith or make a principled stand against the province.
Basic Talking Points
The following four points encapsulate our basic concerns about the Alberta education minister's desire to make all schools celebrate his radical gender politics and his unchristian views of sexuality.
ludicrous overreach: the new policies and guidelines from the education minister are so beyond the pale that even public schools are pushing back. See below for many examples of the extreme nature of these guidelines.
parental rights undermined: the new policies and guidelines drive a wedge between parents and children and actively seek to undermine this very important relationship.
palpable harm to children: the evidence from medical experts is clear – encouraging or reinforcing gender dysphoria, particularly with pre-pubescent children, is harmful to the child and virtually guarantees a life of emotional and psychological suffering. The exact students the State pretends to help are the ones most harmed by these policies. These policies also gamble with child abuse by downplaying any risks associated with mixing boys and girls in the same change rooms, washrooms and sports teams.
religious and associational liberty attacked: the new policies and guidelines violate the Charter's guarantee of freedom of religion (including the right of religious institutions to remain true to their faith commitments without having to teach or celebrate as true and good something fundamentally at odds with their religious convictions). The policies and guidelines also violate the Charter's guarantee of freedom of association (including the right of parents to come together for a legitimate common cause and to carry out that cause according to their shared principles without State interference).
We urge our readers and supporters in Alberta to communicate these points to their elected representatives boldly, but also respectfully. Also, though many of you are parents who send your children to an independent school, speak as a concerned citizen and as parent but not on behalf of your school (leave that to your local school board).
In order to get the full story of what is going on, what is at stake, and what you can do, please read on.
On January 13, the province of Alberta made public its "Guidelines for Best Practices: Creating Learning Environments that Respect Diverse Sexual Orientations, Gender Identities and Gender Expressions". These guidelines are being forced on all Alberta schools, including independent Christian schools. By March 31st, these schools must finalize their own policies and procedures in keeping with Alberta's new "diverse gender identities" guidelines. These guidelines flow from Bill 10 which was passed by the provincial government just before the election in 2015, with support from the NDP, PC, and Wildrose parties. That bill required all schools to allow clubs and activities (including gay-straight alliance clubs in faith-based schools) as soon as just one student requests it. The aim of Bill 10 was purportedly to promote safe and caring learning environments. But the latest guidelines go far beyond Bill 10 (as detailed further below). The new Alberta government is now using these guidelines as the means to ensure that all Alberta schools promote a particularly non-Christian view of homosexuality and transgenderism while significantly diminishing parental authority.
Guidelines Binding on Private Schools
The guidelines specify that they are intended for "all school authorities" and a footnote explains that this includes "charter schools and private schools" (page 1). It later adds, "it is important that these policies, regulations and procedures explicitly address the authority's responsibility as it relates to students and staff who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, two-spirit, queer, questioning, and/or gender-diverse and reflect the best practices as outlined in these guidelines" (page 2). In other words, the Alberta government wants these guidelines to be the new standard for how all Alberta schools must approach matters relating to sexuality and gender.
Some argue that although the Minister of Education may want this, it is not required because the guidelines say at one point that school authorities are advised to use these best practices. It is also evident that the guidelines go far beyond what was passed into law last year. However, from private correspondence between the Education Minister and the Alberta private school principals, it is evident that the Minister is asking all schools to create new policies and have them to him by March 31st for his review. He expects independent Christian schools to comply. In the coming weeks we hope to better understand the implications should schools choose to not comply.
What does the Bible teach on these issues?
God created mankind as male and female, equal in dignity and worth, yet with distinct and complementary roles. Men and women are to dress and behave in accordance with their biological sex. (Genesis 1:27; 2:18, 21-24; Psalm 139:13-16; Deuteronomy 22:5; Isaiah 43:6-7; Matthew 19:4; Mark 10:6; Ephesians 5:22-33; 1 Timothy 2:12-14)
God's institution of marriage, a covenant relationship between one man and one woman, is the sole environment within which sexual activity is permitted, and is the context in which children are to be raised. (Genesis 2:24; Matthew 5:27-32; Romans 1:24-27; 1 Corinthians 5:1; 6:13, 18; 7:2; 10:8; 2 Corinthians 12:21; Galatians 5:19; Ephesians 5:3; Colossians 3:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:3; Hebrews 13:4; Jude 7)
Communication with or about those with whom we disagree should be loving and respectful, never in anger or hatred. This does not preclude honest, forthright communication about noncompliance with God's law. (Leviticus 19:17-18; Proverbs 15:1; Matthew 18:15-20; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:25-37; Romans 8:20; 2 Corinthians 5:18-20; 10:5; Galatians 5:14; Ephesians 4:15; 2 Timothy 3:16; Isaiah 5:20; Hebrews 10:24; 1 Peter 3:15-16)
All human authority is delegated from God, who graciously instituted various spheres of authority for the benefit of individuals and society. Delegated responsibilities are best dealt with at the appropriate level. Parents are primarily responsible for the education and upbringing of their children. (Genesis 18:19; Deuteronomy 4:10; Deuteronomy 6; Psalm 78:1-8; Proverbs 1:8-9; Proverbs 22:6; Ephesians 6:1-4; Colossians 3:20)
We ought to comply with the authority of civil government in matters that would not lead us into conflict with God's commands. Obedience to God's law supersedes subjection to human authority. (Matthew 22:21; Acts 5:29; Romans 13; 1 Timothy 2:1-4; Titus 3:1; 1 Peter 2:17)
Guidelines Violate Biblical Principles and Fundamental Freedoms
The guidelines from the education minister are rooted in a secular – even pagan – understanding of sexuality, gender, and parental authority and rely on the strong arm of the State to force parents and schools to promote this ideology. Not only do they violate Scriptural norms, they also violate Canada's constitution which protects freedom of association (e.g. parents who come together to form independent schools according to a shared value system) and freedom of religion. Provincial law must conform to constitutional law. This was explicitly upheld by the Supreme Court in its Loyola decision in early 2015.
Some of the many explicit violations include:
"Self-identification is the sole measure of an individual's sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression" (page 3). What God says about sexuality and gender must be dismissed, according to these guidelines. Human autonomy trumps. This clearly violates Genesis 1:27 "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." As Creator, God determines gender and sexuality. This is clearly confirmed in the laws of human biology – there are only two sexes (male and female) and it is impossible to change one's sexual identity as it is wired into every strand of DNA.
"All students and staff with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions…have the right to be open about who they are, including expressing their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression without fear of unwanted consequences" (page 3). This conflicts with numerous biblical principles, including the fifth commandment which requires children to honour their parents and the seventh commandment which forbids adultery (and by extension, all sexual immorality).
"All students and staff with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions…are actively included in the collaborative decision-making process that supports the implementation of these best practice guidelines" (page 3). This violates the constitutionally protected freedom of association. Parents associate to form schools and delegate authority to teacher and administrators to teach their children in a manner consistent with their faith or worldview. Children are not the authorities in this process, nor are "experts" from outside special interest groups. There are numerous places in these guidelines where children are raised up to be the authorities.
"No student or family should be referred to programs which purport to 'fix,' 'change' or 'repair' a student's sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression" (page 5). Scripture makes it clear that our human nature is depraved and must be re-oriented to line up with God's calling for us. That includes reflecting the binary sexes that he designed and that ultimately image God (Genesis 1:27). Scripture is emphatic that some sexual activities violate God's will for humanity (Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 6, etc.). Out of love for our neighbour, we should be helping individuals orient their full lives, including their sexuality, in a way that conforms with the way God designed. This principle is especially true within the context of a community of faith.
"All individuals have the right to be addressed by their chosen name and to choose pronouns that align with their gender identity and/or gender expression" (page 5). Allowing students to choose their own name and pronouns violates the Scriptural doctrine that it is God who creates humanity as male or female. God determines our gender. Gender dysphoria is one of many examples of the effects of the fall into sin and the brokenness that results. The answer is not to promote dysphoria but to help students live according to the gender given by God.
"In keeping with the principles of self-identification, it is important to: … [have] a student's explicit permission before disclosing information related to the student's sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression to peers, parents, guardians or other adults in their lives." (page 6) In other words, parents are only allowed to be informed about how their child decides to identify if the student gives permission to the school. The school (through the power of the State) now can interfere in the parent-child relationship, even without the parent's knowledge or consent. This is a direct violation of parental authority.
"A flexible and gender-inclusive dress code recognizes that all students and staff have the right to dress in a manner consistent with their gender identity or gender expression." (page 7) This violates the clear distinction that God gives to the roles of men and women. For example, Deuteronomy 22:5 says that "a woman must not wear men's clothing, nor a man wear women's clothing, for the LORD your God detests anyone who does this." It also violates freedom of religion, as parents have the authority to raise their children in a manner consistent with their faith, including as it relates to their dress code. When parents join together to educate their children (freedom of association), their freedom of religion is not forfeited.
"Reduce gender-segregated activities to the greatest extent possible. This increases opportunities to respect students' full expression of who they are and allows them to play, learn, dress, present and express themselves in flexible and diverse ways that are congruent with their gender identity or gender expression" (page 7). Not only does this violate the biblical distinctions between the roles of males and females, it also is a direction violation of what the sciences teach us about the differences between the two genders and the importance of reflecting this in how boys and girls are educated. Even secular social scientists should balk at this guideline.
"Students with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions have a right to accommodation when it comes to the use of washroom and changeroom facilities that are congruent with their gender identity" (page 9). The guidelines stipulate numerous requirements to enforce this, such as requiring a non-gender washroom in all schools and allowing students to determine for themselves which washroom to use. Among many other ways in which this violates Scripture, it undermines the second greatest commandment to love our neighbour as ourselves by making children vulnerable to exploitation. Victims of sexual abuse recognize this is a recipe for abuse and harm.
"School authorities develop and maintain mutually supportive relationships with a variety of sexual and gender minority groups who can share resources and expertise and contribute to the ongoing evolution of welcoming, caring, respectful and safe learning environments that foster diversity and nurture a sense of belonging and a positive sense of self." (page 11) In other words, a private Reformed Christian school should go to homosexual activist organizations like EGALE (listed on page 18 of the guidelines as one of the sources of authority) to direct their policies. This is another violation of freedom of association and religion.
"Students understand they have the right to establish a voluntary student organization or lead an activity to promote a welcoming, caring, respectful and safe learning environment that promotes diversity, including gay-straight or queer-straight alliances" (page 13). This comes directly from Bill 10 (introduced and passed by the PC government with support from the Wildrose and NDP). It requires every school to support gay-straight alliance clubs when even just one student requests it.
"School forms, websites, letters, and other communications use non-gendered and inclusive language (e.g., parents/guardians, caregivers, families, partners, "student" or "their" instead of Mr., Ms., Mrs., mother, father, him, her, etc.)." (page 14) The State now has authority to rewrite the basic meaning of words and language. This begs the question whether schools are also supposed to change the Bible to ensure that God is identified as both a father and a mother (or neither). Regardless of how far it goes, this guideline directly violates Scripture's clear distinction between the sexes.
"School and school authority leaders anticipate, support and value staff diversity, including diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions" (page 15). In other words, Christian schools are not only expected to allow teachers who promote non-biblical sexual lifestyles, they are mandated to do so.
If you read through the guidelines you will discover many more examples, but by now it should be clear that these guidelines intentionally undermine Christian principles and violate freedom of religion and freedom of association.
How can we proceed? TAKE ACTION!
The Minister of Education has notified all principals of private schools that they must have new and/or updated policies, procedures, and regulations completed and shared with him by March 31st for his review. These policies must be in keeping with these guidelines. Now is the time to take a stand! The Alberta Legislature needs to be inundated with firm but respectful calls to drop these guidelines and respect parental authority.
ARPA Canada urges the following action:
1) Send one of five EasyMail letters here. It will go to your MLA, the Education Minister, the Premier and the Leader of the Opposition.
Letter 1 Uphold parental authority
Letter 2 Uphold freedom of religion
Letter 3 Uphold freedom of association
Letter 4 Don't promote gender confusion
Blank EasyMail – draft your own message using talking points from this article
Phone your MLA and share your concerns, urging him or her to communicate these concerns to their caucus and to the Minister of Education. Their contact information is here.
Get a couple friends or family together and request a meeting with your MLA to share your concerns, being sure to ask what he or she will do to encourage the government to change the law and remove the guidelines.
Write letters to your local paper and encourage others to do the same. It's become clear that the vast majority of Albertans are pretty outraged by these radical steps. Even certain public school boards are taking a stand against these dangerous policies! We need to add our voices to the public conversation in order to make sure our message of concern continues to be projected.
We implore all Christians in Canada to pray for a softening of hearts within the Alberta government and all those in authority over us. Please also pray that schools and parents will maintain a principled stand and that our freedom to instruct our children in the fear of the LORD will continue.
We recognize that a legal challenge may have to be launched against the province should the Education Minister be unmoved by the concerns of thousands of parents across this province. However, legal action should only be undertaken if the province shows it is unwilling to listen to our concerns. Please take the opportunity to speak up while changes can still be made!
Please share this email or the article on our website (also via social media) and urge others to action.
Thank you for taking a principled stand for what is right.
ARPA Canada's factum to the Supreme Court of Canada in the Loyola case.
The Supreme Court's Loyola decision.
More analysis on Loyola and its implications for Christian education.
A bold op-ed by John Carpay on Alberta's new gender utopia.
Links to a truly compassionate, Biblical response to the gender identity issue.
An informative video on the public policy implications of enshrining so-called "transgender rights" into law.
A discussion between ARPA Canada's executive director and legal counsel about Bill 10 in Alberta.
For more on provincial bans on reparative therapy.
(note that ARPA Canada's next Respectfully Submitted policy report will be on the issue of gender identity. Once released, it will be linked here too.)
Alberta, Gender Identity, School Policies
Bill Hate? Bill Straight? Or Bill Dictate?
Toronto Catholic School Board includes 'Gender Identity' and 'Gender Expression' in its Code of Conduct
Parental Rights and Education in Alberta: A Timeline of Success
"Who gets to decide when a 14-year-old wants to change gender?" – a Letter to the Editor of the National Post

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
package org.jbpm.workbench.cm.backend.server;

import java.util.function.Function;

import org.jbpm.workbench.cm.model.CaseActionSummary;
import org.jbpm.workbench.cm.util.CaseActionStatus;
import org.kie.server.api.model.instance.NodeInstance;

public class CaseActionNodeInstanceMapper implements Function<NodeInstance, CaseActionSummary> {

    private String actualOwner;
    private CaseActionStatus actionStatus;

    public CaseActionNodeInstanceMapper(String actualOwner,
                                        CaseActionStatus actionStatus) {
        this.actualOwner = actualOwner;
        this.actionStatus = actionStatus;
    }

    @Override
    public CaseActionSummary apply(NodeInstance nodeInstance) {
        if (nodeInstance == null) {
            return null;
        }
        return CaseActionSummary.builder()
                .id(nodeInstance.getId())
                .name(nodeInstance.getName())
                .type(nodeInstance.getNodeType())
                .createdOn(nodeInstance.getDate())
                .actualOwner(actualOwner)
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


XWD 71452 Washer pdf manual download. H20 Error Code Hotpoint. error, code, h20, mean. and used on Hotpoint indesit ariston washing machine panel. · indesit fault code - H20. If your washing machine will not drain the cause will normally be that either your drain pump is blocked or faulty resulting in the. View and Download Indesit IWDE 7125 instructions for use manual online. Indesit Washer/ Dryer User Manual. IWDE 7125 Washer/ Dryer pdf. · Indesit Evolution W16s washing machine H20 error code I have an Indesit Evolution W16s washing machine and keep - Washing Machines question. Lesen Sie die praktischen Informationen zur Fehlerbehebung und beheben Sie kleine Mängel. Erhalten Sie die Funktionstüchtigkeit Ihres Indesit Gerätes. and used on Hotpoint indesit ariston washing machine panel error codes H20 – Not fillings.
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At the Dehner Blumen Hotel Sunday brunch, you and your family can expect a special feast of pleasures! Our buffet offers a plentiful, varied and large selection of regional delicacies, international specialities and rare delicacies.
We welcome you with a little glass of Frizzante and the delicious aroma of fresh coffee in our Buffeteria. The chef in the front cooking area will comply with your wishes, and prepare your egg dishes fresh and individually for you.
When preparing the dishes, Chef de Cuisine Pavlo Behnke and his kitchen team consistently pay attention to regional and seasonal ingredients.
Feast to your heart's content from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The next brunch dates are Christmas brunch on 25 December (fully booked) and 26 December 2016 (fully booked), 15.01., 29.01., 12.02., 19.02.


text:
Q: Deduplicate: Different File Contents Found Error for SBT and Scala I am trying to build a JAR file through SBT, with my driver script being in Scala. However, when I run 'sbt assembly' I receive a large slew of:
deduplicate: different file contents found in the following:

The entire list of directories displaying that message is too large to post here, so I attached a screenshot which you can view below. My build file contains the following:
libraryDependencies ++= Seq("org.apache.spark" %% "spark-core" % "2.0.0" % "provided", "org.apache.spark" %% "spark-mllib" % "2.0.0")

I attempted the solution offered by Onilton Maciel to this question, but to no avail. I am also confused as to how to implement the solution offered by Martin Senne, as the setup instructions on the 'Setup' section for the Assembly plugin are not clear on how to implement his code snippet. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

A:
as the setup instructions on the 'Setup' section for the Assembly plugin are not clear on how to implement his code snippet.

It means you should add merge strategy in build.sbt or in root directory sbt files.
There is an example from sbt-assembly official document and update it with your conflicts:
import sbtassembly.MergeStrategy
assemblyMergeStrategy in assembly := {
  case PathList("org", "apache", "hadoop", "yarn", "factories", "package-info.class")         => MergeStrategy.discard
  case PathList("org", "apache", "hadoop", "yarn", "provider", "package-info.class")         => MergeStrategy.discard
  case PathList("org", "apache", "hadoop", "util", "provider", "package-info.class")         => MergeStrategy.discard
  case PathList("org", "apache", "spark", "unused", "UnusedStubClass.class")         => MergeStrategy.first
}

Hopeful it's helpful for you.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: Publisher subscriber pattern communication between Angular 6 applications via iframe I'm working on a solution where an angular application is consumed inside an iframe of another angular application. The child app need some parameters to show the correct information into the app parent. I read a lot of solution around the web and a good solution is to apply the design pattern publisher/subscriber.
A lot of example are between component inside the same application and I'm wondering if the same solution with rxjs objects is the right way (as shown here).
My doubt is: how I subscribe the child application to the parent (an external publisher)?
I was thinking on a REST API exposed by the parent for registration and unregistration of subscriber, but I'm not sure.
Any experience with this situation? Thanks in advance

A: The only way that I've seen this done, is via CustomEvent objects.
The page that wants to send a notification does it using this:
<script>
    window.onload = function () {
        /* The parent window hosts the Angular application */
        const parent = window.parent;
        /* Send an event to the message handler */
        const event = new CustomEvent('example-unique-string', { field1: 'value', field2: 'value' });
        parent.dispatchEvent(event);
    };
</script>

You then handle this message using:
window.addEventListener('example-unique-string', () => { /* some function */ }, false);

And of course, you can do it in both directions.
I would of course avoid using the iframe at all if I can, but you'll know what's appropriate for your situation.

A: you can make a use of window.postmessage method to post the messsage across iframe and parent application. You can also post the data along with the event.
https://javascript.info/cross-window-communication
You can refer to above link to post the message to and from iframe.


A service aimed at keeping older and vulnerable people safe and well in their homes, will be out and about in Quarry Bank in April.
The living well, feeling safe service provides practical safety, security and wellbeing advice for older and vulnerable people; aiming to make sure they keep safe, secure and happy at home.
Living well, feeling safe is a partnership made up of Dudley Council, Age UK, West Midlands Police, Victim Support, West Midlands Fire Service and other agencies.
Staff from the service will be out and about visiting properties in Quarry Bank on 9, 10, 11 April. Free home assessments will be on offer where advice, tips and practical help will be provided on home safety and security, as well as on keeping comfortable, happy, independent and well.


text:
Michal Isteník (* 11. července 1983 Rakovník) je český divadelní herec a bývalý fotbalista.

Vystudoval brněnskou JAMU v letech 2003 až 2008, mezitím už od roku 2005 pravidelně hostoval v divadlech jako Divadlo U Stolu nebo v HaDivadle. Na přelomu let 2005 a 2006 se zároveň s Jaroslavem Matějkou stal novým členem divadelního souboru Buranteatr. Od 1. května 2008 je členem činoherního souboru Městského divadla Brno. Hrál také jednu z hlavních rolí v seriálu Most!.

Jeho starší bratr Marek Isteník je bývalým prvoligovým fotbalistou. Sám Michal Isteník hrával fotbal za SK Kladno. Fotbal hrál také jejich otec Miroslav Isteník. Později onemocněl a musel ukončit karieru.

Filmografie

Divadelní role (výběr)

Role v Městském divadle Brno
 Andrej Prozorov – Tři sestry
 D'Artagnan – Tři mušketýři
 Bienstock – Sugar!
 Tranio – Zkrocení zlé ženy
 Dante, recepční – Měsíční kámen
 Blázen – Mojžíš
 Klein – Jezinky a bezinky
 Otto Ulrichs – Mefisto
 Ethan Girard – Donaha!
 Čičikov – Mrtvé duše
 Valmont – Nebezpečné známosti
 Laník – Skleněný pokoj
 Čeněk Udavač – Osmyčky
 Stiva – Anna Karenina
 Kolóšek – Bítls
 Mistr Jakub – Lakomec
 Philip Henslowe – Zamilovaný Shakespeare

Role v jiných divadlech
 2007 Martin McDonagh: Pan Polštář, Katurian, Buranteatr, režie Jiří Š. Hájek
 2014 John Buchan, Alfred Hitchcock, Patrick Barlow: 39 stupňů, Richard Hannay, Buranteatr, režie Mikoláš Tyc
 2015 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Faust a Markétka, Faust, Buranteatr, režie Mikoláš Tyc
 2016 Ivan Alexandrovič Gončarov, Hana Burešová, Štěpán Otčenášek: Oblomov, Oblomov, Divadlo v Dlouhé, režie Hana Burešová
 2018 Stephen Adly Guirgis: Parchant v klobouku, Jackie, Buranteatr, režie Mikoláš Tyc
 2019 William Shakespeare: Zimní pohádka, král Leontes (v alternaci s Martinem Hofmannem), Letní shakespearovské slavnosti, režie Pavel Khek

Ocenění
 Cena Alfréda Radoka 2011 v kategorii talent roku
 Cena Thálie 2014 za roli Čičikova ve hře Mrtvé duše

Odkazy

Reference

Externí odkazy

 Středočeská vědecká knihovna v Kladně: Isteník, Michal, 1983
 Michal Isteník na oficiálních webových stránkách MdB

Čeští herci
Čeští divadelní herci
Čeští filmoví herci
Čeští fotbalisté
Herci Městského divadla Brno
Fotbalisté SK Kladno
Herci z Rakovníka
Absolventi Divadelní fakulty Janáčkovy akademie múzických umění
Držitelé Ceny Alfréda Radoka – osoby
Držitelé Ceny Thálie – činohra
Narození v roce 1983
Narození 11. července
Narození v Rakovníku
Žijící lidé
Muži

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Raise your glass to Exit 33 Brewing and a new pale ale that will support Sheffield young people's homeless charity Roundabout.
The brewers at Exit 33, based at the Harlequin Pub on Nursery Street in Kelham Island, have created a new ale, Charity Pale, which will be sold in support of Roundabout.
The hoppy pale ale will be a limited release, with a cash donation from every pint sold going to the charity.
Roundabout supports 150 homeless young people across Sheffield every day and has the only emergency hostel in the city for homeless people aged 16 to 21.
The charity's Homeless Prevention Service, based on Union Street in the city centre, also offers support and advice to young people who are at risk of becoming homeless.
To find out more about Roundabout and how you could help visit www.roundabouthomeless.org.


The 'Who am I?' question is both the beginning and the end of the spiritual quest. This intensive workshop is designed to enable participants to enter into and dwell within the experience of who they truly are, rather than remaining beholden to the often false and inauthentic template of who they were told they should be, as a result of their education, culture and upbringing. In so doing, the opportunity is given to inhabit and comprehend a state of Absolute Truth – known as enlightenment or gnosis – a rarefied state that represents the Holy Grail in the quest for a life lived in the fullest expansion and connection.
This challenging journey equips us to engage in empowered progress upon our spiritual path, within our relationships and with life itself; rising forth from a stabilised centre of truth and an axis of self-knowing, rather than the ever moving, unstable ship of fears, old patterns, destructive desires and pervasive ego characters.
Shamans throughout time have sought to resolve what are sometimes referred to as the Flowering Tree Questions, the first of which is 'Who Am I?' and this has typically been undertaken through the solitary vision quest in relationship with nature as the Visible Face of Spirit. The quest for self-knowing was carried on into the Mystery Traditions and is encapsulated most precisely by the injunction carved into the lintel at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi: Know Thyself, which carries the implication that man is the microcosm of the macrocosm and thus he who knows himself, knows all. And from the Mystery Traditions onwards towards the modern age, the question persisted in all systems of perennial philosophy with a great number of methods, techniques and procedures created to find the solution to this problem of just exactly who are you?
"Who in the world am I?
Within this intensive workshop we work with a similar approach but in a very different context. The Visible Face of Spirit is witnessed and experienced in each other as we work together in series of pairs and partnership work, one stepping into the ancient practice of the impeccable witness, an art form in and of itself, whilst the other seeks to address the Flowering Tree Questions. The architecture for this interchange is potent, and lays a clear and comprehensible structure towards shamanic gnosis which has the power to radically alter the trajectory of a person's life.
The goal of The Shaman's Gnosis is gnosis, enlightenment and the direct experience of ultimate truth, and this rigorously demanding course is designed for people who want to bring their unbending intent to meeting that goal and run without hesitation into the hidden depths of the self.
The Shaman's Gnosis has a set of rules which apply to all participants, that have been specifically created for this course.
No smoking, alcohol, coffee or other drugs.
No food other than that served, which is delicious vegan fare.
No phones, internet, radio, newspapers etc.
It is therefore important that if you normally smoke, or regularly ingest caffeine or alcohol, or imbibe recreational drugs, that you wean yourself off them prior to coming to the Shaman's Gnosis. Please seek to have at least two days clean beforehand as in doing this you will avoid the discomfort of sudden withdrawal. Coffee withdrawal, for instance, is now a recognised disorder and can cause symptoms including headaches, sleepiness and irritability.
The Shaman's Gnosis is very intense, demanding course and the above rules are present to facilitate constant engagement with the work and afford you the greatest likelihood of experience true gnosis.


text:
Announcing Our Community Trust Fund Steward Organizations
Last spring, we shared our plan to address racial wealth gaps caused by historic racial injustice. With $100 million in new funding, the Bush Foundation committed to seed two community trust funds, to be stewarded by organizations that have deep understanding of and connection to Black and Native communities across our region.
As co-leaders of this initiative, we are thrilled to announce that NDN Collective and Nexus Community Partners have been selected to serve as the steward organizations for the community trust funds.
The Indigenous-led NDN Collective, based in Rapid City, SD, builds power through organizing, activism, philanthropy, grantmaking and narrative change. Nexus Community Partners, based in St. Paul, MN, supports strong, equitable and just communities in which all residents have a voice, are recognized as leaders, and have pathways to opportunity.
Throughout the rigorous selection process, we were impressed by NDN Collective and Nexus's passion, clarity and commitment. They know how to engage and energize their communities. They have the trust and respect of the people they serve. And they are deeply committed to building wealth for Black and Native people.
In the coming months, NDN Collective and Nexus will begin designing programs that will eventually provide grants directly to individuals to help them with wealth-building opportunities such as furthering their education, buying a home or starting a business. Sometimes access to money – in the right spirit, in the right moment – can make all the difference.
While NDN Collective and Nexus are rolling up their sleeves to start planning, they need time to shape effective grant programs. The community trust funds will not open for applications from individuals until late 2022 or early 2023. We encourage you to stay informed by signing up for NDN Collective's newsletter and Nexus Community Partners' newsletter.
We believe the community trust funds are a powerful way to address the pervasive racial wealth gaps in our region. Those gaps are the result of generations of unjust policies targeting Native and Black communities. There are direct through lines from broken treaties to unemployment rates, slavery to incarceration rates, redlining to homeownership rates. NDN Collective and Nexus understand this reality, and they have the talent, creativity and commitment to use these community trust funds for reparative action.
We are grateful to the many people who helped us shape this initiative, from our early advisors who worked with us to test this community trust idea to the panel who guided selection of our steward organizations. This is a milestone moment for the Bush Foundation, and we are thankful to have had the wisdom and insights of many Black and Native leaders.
-Jackie & Eileen
Racial wealth gaps
Throughout our country's history, Black and Native American communities have experienced unique and profound injustices. Current racial wealth gaps are the product of centuries of race-based policies. Learn more about racial wealth gaps.
If your organization is working on addressing racial wealth gaps and building racial equity, consider applying for a Community Innovation grant.
For other questions about these investments in racial equity, check out our FAQs.


A new generation of NiceDrivers is ready for use in 64-bit environments.
If you\'re planning to switch to 64-bit OS soon you will find our new range of 64-bit NiceDrivers a must-have part of your NiceLabel installation.
The 32-bit and 64-bit NiceDrivers are functionally the same, but are optimized for respective platforms. The latest 64-bit NiceDrivers versions are compatible with Windows XP x64 Edition and Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition.
To take advantage of 64-bit NiceDrivers you need to install NiceLabel software version 4.1.


Kontour is very soft compared to many other fluorocarbons, allowing it to quite literally peel from the spool smoothly as your lead propels through the air. This aids casting distance and accuracy.
It is also particularly heavy, ensuring that it sinks to the lake bed keeping flush and out of the carp's way. Launched in one breaking strain, namely 12lb (0.33mm), it will be suitable for all manner of situations and due to its genuine knot strength will be strong, reliable and user friendly.