After years I have rediscovered "Nine Spoons" - a powerful story about Hanukkah during the Shoah. I forgot the title of it, but found it last night at my Rabbi's house - and thanks to iPhone have it posted as a PDF to share with you all...

http://rhizome.info/ASeasonalTale.pdf

I found myself 6 rows back at the Israel Tomorrow closing plenary - not so close at the opening session - and pulled out some half-decent quality recordings of talks by Tony Blair, Amos Oz, Shimon Peres and Benjamin Netanyahu...

http://soundcloud.com/user9761653

Out of the global reactions, three are interesting...

Afghanistan: Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he hopes the world believes that his country is "not the place of terrorism" after the announcement that the al Qaeda leader was killed in neighboring Pakistan. "If the international troops/forces are true allies of the Afghans - they should come out and say that the killing of Afghans, children and elders which took place over the many years on a daily basis was not a good idea," Karzai said on RTA TV.

Hamas: Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister for the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, condemned the killing, describing bin Laden as a Muslim "mujahid" or holy warrior. Al Qaeda and the Islamist radical group Hamas have no official relationship, but the Palestinian conflict with Israel has been the subject of frequent audio messages from al Qaeda. The only international leadership calling Usama a hero... and they just signed a unity deal with Fatah! How can the UN recognize Palestinian legitimacy in light of that? Pants down for Abbas having bedfellows like these!

Egypt: Esam El Erian, Muslim Brotherhood official spokesman: We see that Osama's death especially after the revolutions in the region, as a new beginning for a normal relationship with the United States in the Middle East so that the US can finalize the peace treaty and recognize Palestine as an independent nation, allow the return of Palestinians to their land, withdraw of US forces from the region and start a new relation with the Arabs. We would like to put behind us the old image portrayed by the 9/11 attacks which has mixed politics, religion and media. This is by far the most interesting response. I haven't had a lot of time to follow the Egyptian political scene since the overthrow of Mubarak, but have assumed Muslim Brotherhood would be playing a big role in things to come. I wonder what manner of "new image" they seek to manifest?

This is a recording of parts of our Yom HaShoah observance here in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada... which is about as far away as you can get from Israel and Auschwitz in the Jewish World. I don't think geography makes a difference, however.

France joins countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran in telling women what they may or may not wear in public.
I wonder if they appreciate the irony?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/04/11/paris-france-islamic-veil-arrest.html

Sanfrancisco is debated whether or not to ban circumcision for persons under 18 years of age:

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/jerusalem-babylon-confessions-of-a-jewish-infant-genital-mutilator-1.353397

I love the attitude of the kiosk attendant who helped clear folks away from the bomb that exploded in Jerusalem...

“I’ll be back there in total spite of them,” he said of the terrorists who planted the bomb. “I will also continue to help people in any way they need, including our cousins,” he said referring to the many Arabs who patronize the kiosk, which in 1994 was destroyed in a suicide bombing.

http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=213779

I've started a new blog / e-Journal for Judaica related postings. The latest posting is drawn from my participation in a Shabbaton in Ashland, Oregon a couple of weeks ago. The event featured Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi of the ALEPH Alliance for Jewish Renewal, and is the movement's founder. Ashland is also blessed with a Kabbalistic Garden, in the shape of the Tree of Life and featuring plants appropriate to each sephira in the design. You can check it all out here:

http://roshtipheret.com/?p=43

There's audio recordings of Reb Zalman speaking at the Shabbaton and a video/slide-show of the garden, neighbouring outdoor hot springs mikvah, and Havurah Shir Hadash.

Statement by Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff on Israeli Apartheid Week

OTTAWA – Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff made the following statement condemning Israeli Apartheid Week:

“Israeli Apartheid Week is an attack on the mutual respect that holds our society together. It is a dangerous cocktail of ignorance and intolerance, both of which stand in the way of peace. The Liberal Party of Canada condemns Israeli Apartheid Week, in no uncertain terms.

“Recent events in the Middle East offer us an opportunity to build a candid and constructive dialogue about peace and democratic reform in the region. Such a dialogue requires give and take; we must be able to acknowledge criticism as legitimate, while treating with respect those who share our hopes for peace and democratic freedoms for all.

“Israeli Apartheid Week does the opposite. By portraying the Jewish state as criminal, by demonizing Israel and its supporters, and by targeting Jewish and Israeli students for abuse on our university campuses, the organizers and supporters of Israeli Apartheid Week tarnish our freedom of speech.

"The voices of anti-Semitism and intolerance have no place in Canada, in the Middle East, or anywhere in the world. All Canadians – and all university students – have the right to feel safe and secure in our communities, regardless of who they are or what they believe.

"On behalf of the Liberal Party of Canada and our Parliamentary caucus, I urge all Canadians to join with us in once again condemning Israeli Apartheid Week here in Canada and around the world.”

let me commence
the knowing
of knowing
the peeling back
of the garments
the gentlest undressing
of this

let me arouse
the quality
of being
and fall into embrace
the immersion
into the knowing
of knowing itself

like swimming
in a warmth
that has every synonym
and none
of discovering
one is water
melting into a pond

like disappearing
in the sweetest dissolution
in the consummation
that is
now
like a delightful surrender
to yourself
only to discover
it isn't yours

it is only knowing
it is only is

the thinnest meridian of an instant
this most transparent love

an arena
of sky
with everything within it

we have so few words
for kisses
so few concepts
for embrace
for surrounding
for dissolving into
for the
simultaneous
merging
and emerging
or for the yearning, the coming to know
the song
the holy playfulness
of being itself
the secret seduction
of seducing itself

we have so few words
and every one of them
points in the wrong direction
so, beloved,
let me put an end to language
let me commence
this undressing
of reality
this unwording
of simplicity

let me know
the nakedness of experience

coming near

nearer

that is none other
than






-Jay Michaelson, excerpt from Everything is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism
(2009, Shambhala Publications)

 Peace It Together is an annual summer camp held on Galiano Island in British Columbia, Canada.  The camp brings together Israeli and Palestinian Youth to co-exist and co-create short films together.  Here's a trailer for a documentary on the project:


The project is currently well in the running for a $50,000 Aviva Grant (in the top 25) - so check it out and Vote for helping future generations realize the possibilities of peace and productive coexistence.

EMPOWERING YOUTH TO BUILD PEACE

The sense for the realness of G-d will not be found in insipid concepts; in opinions that are astute, arid, timid; in love that is scant, erratic. Sensitivity to G-d is given to the broken heart, to the mind that rises above its own wisdom. It is a sensitivity that bursts all abstractions. It is not a mere playing with a notion.

There is no conviction without contrition; no affirmation without self-engagement.

Consciousness of G-d is a response and G-d is a challenge rather than a notion. We do not think of G-d, but rather we are stirred by G-d. We can never describe G-d, we can only return to G-d. We may address ourselves to the Most High, but we cannot comprehend.

We can sense Presence, but we cannot grasp Essence.
G-d is the call, ours is the paraphrase.
G-d is the creation, ours a reflection.

Awareness of G-d is not an act of G-d being known to humans; it is the awareness of our being known by G-d.

In thinking about G-d we are thought by G-d.

-----

Extracted and modified for gender-neutrality from the Mahzor for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (New York: The Rabbinical Assembly, 2007)

L'shanah Tova... may you all be inscribed in the good book!

x-posted.

I am generally not one for cute animal videos, but this one is golden (no pun intended)...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38786481/ns/technology_and_science-science/

This past Sunday my rabbi organized a silent prayer vigil in response to the Gaza Flotilla fiasco...




Shot on a cel phone - so mind the A/V inadequacies.

The Province of Quebec in Canada is tabling Bill 94 - a law not unlike Frace's law banning full Muslim headcoverings.  I have blogged previously how I hope it doesn't pass as it sets a dangerous precedent - a slippery slope that could result in the limitation of other religious freedoms.  Seeing recent news out of France, I hope it doesn't pass for a new reason...

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/05/french-shopper-allegedly-rips-veil-off-muslim-woman-in-burqa-rage-brawl/1?csp=obnetwork

By institutionalizing religious dscrimination, the scene is set for the concerned ignorant to become more interventionist in public.  Brown shirts, if you will.  These laws do not address any of the relevant issues, which need to be addressed from within Islam (and there are folks doing good work towards that).  If anything, you are going to see members of society who are already isolated, become more isolated as they choose not to enter the public sphere.  As seen in the Southern US, South Africa and Israel-Palestine...  policies of segregation always lead to trouble.

I hope Quebec legislators - or our Supreme Court where this would ultimately wind up if the Bill is passed - have the sense to see this.

I don't mean to fan the flames, as I have full appreciation of the reasons why Mohammad isn't depicted within Islamic tradition. If Christianity had followed the same pattern, theological focus may have returned to G-d, rather than a human - who in my view has become somewhat an object of Idolotry.

At the same time the blind dogma over images of Mohammed seemed suspect, much like the blind dogma over hijab and headcoverings. Historical images of Arab streetscapes show that while women dressed modestly - the hijab and more elaborate headcoverings didn't come into play as standard dress until the 16th century. Much like the hijab, this website documents that images of Mohammed have been produced through time in both Western and Islamic cultures:

http://www.zombietime.com/mohammed_image_archive/

While this shouldn't give license for mass production of Mohammed images, it should give perspective that maybe both sides of the free expression debate over the Danish cartoons need to chill out. I won't be drawing Mohammad myself - I'd rather devote that energy to facilitating more conciliatory relations between Islam and the other faiths.

As for hijab, etc -I fully support Muslim women in Quebec (and France) in their right to religious expression. The laws against niqab and other full head coverings are a dangerous legal precendence and a slippery-slope towards the oppression of spirituality in these jurisdictions. While our troops our ostensively risking their lives for the rights of Afghani women to choose NOT to wear the burqha, the Quebec government is tabling a law that takes away that choice entirely. It says to Islam that we are more interested in cultural imperialism than we are in the freedoms and rights that are enshrined in our own Charter.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2010/03/24/quebec-reasonable-accommodation-law.html

http://www.myjewishlearning.com/blog/israel/pre-state-israel-in-color/

http://www.rhizome.info/OmerReport.2.Gevurah.htm