I’m often struck by how much lip service we pay to the so-called “global village,” yet how increasingly isolated and insular our lives are becoming. So what would it mean – beyond the cliches, beyond the catch phrases? What would it mean to really, truly, live globally?
In my office at our synagogue, I have a framed poster on my wall that says “How to Build Global Community,” then lists a long series of action components – a sort of of “Global Torah.” (The poster was created by the Syracuse Cultural Workers – a great publisher of peace and justice resources). Facing me on the wall just to the left of my desk, it offers me a regular daily challenge to really walk the walk:
- Think of no one as “them.”
- Don’t confuse your comfort with your safety.
- Talk to strangers
- Imagine other cultures through their poetry and novels.
- Listen to music you don’t understand.
- Dance to it.
- Act locally.
- Notice the workings of power and privilege in your culture.
- Question consumption.
- Know how your lettuce and coffee are grown: wake up and smell the exploitation.
- Look for fair trade and union labels.
- Help build economies from the bottom up.
- Acquire few needs.
- Learn a second (or third) language.
- Visit people, places and cultures – not tourist attractions.
- Learn people’s history.
- Re-define progress.
- Know physical and political geography.
- Play games from other cultures.
- Watch films with subtitles.
- Know your heritage.
- Honor everyone’s holidays.
- Look at the moon and imagine someone else, somewhere else, looking at it too.
- Read the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
- Understand the global economy in terms of people, land and water.
- Know where your bank banks.
- Never believe you have a right to anyone else’s resources.
- Refuse to wear corporate logos – defy corporate domination.
- Question military/corporate connections.
- Don’t confuse money with wealth or time with money.
- Have a pen/email pal.
- Honor indigenous cultures.
- Judge governance by how well it meets all people’s needs.
- Eat adventurously
- Enjoy vegetables, grains and beans in your diet.
- Choose curiosity over certainty.
- Know where your water comes from and where your wastes go.
- Pledge allegiance to the earth – question nationalism.
- Think South, Central and North – there are many Americans.
- Assume many others share your dreams.
- Know that no one is silent though many are not heard.
- Work to change this.
Parashat Lech Lecha 5767
“I see Judaism as a way of life. Sticking up for the underdog. Being an outsider. A critic of society. The kid on the corner who says the emperor has no clothes on. The Prophet.” (Abbie Hoffman)
God instructs Abraham to “go forth” on three distinct levels: from the land in which he lives (“mey’artzecha”), from his birthplace (“mi’molad’tcha”), and from his familial home (“mi’beyt avicha”). Commentators from Rashi onward have pointed out that this progression is meant to emphasize the nature of Abraham’s separation with an increasing degree of difficulty. (According to this view, one’s ties to one’s land are less compelling to one’s connection to one’s local community, which in turn is less powerful than one’s connection to one’s family).
But Abraham is more than someone who simply cuts his ties with his past. According to Jewish tradition, Abraham’s going forth represents nothing less than a challenge to the status quo of his day. Indeed, Abraham is portrayed in the Midrash as the iconoclast par excellance. These famous rabbinic accounts drive the point home repeatedly that Abraham resisted – almost to the death – the corrupt kingship and idolatrous world in his birthplace of Mesopotamia, one of the most advanced civilizations of its time.
This “spiritual nonconformity” will eventually reach its apotheosis in the book of Exodus, where God/Israel will revolt against Pharaoh/Egypt – an event which might be called the ultimate challenge to the status quo. We can, in fact, draw a direct thematic line from Abraham’s going forth in Genesis to Israel’s Exodus (which is actually foretold in this week’s portion – see 15:13-14).
Lech Lecha, then, defines for us the essence of the Jewish quest. From its very origins, Judaism has seen itself as a counter-cultural movement – a spiritual path that has always sought to subvert the dominant paradigm and challenge the so-called “powers that be.” It is a path that has been traveled by countless generations of Jewish iconoclasts, from Abraham to the Prophets to Emma Goldman, from Hannah to Spinoza to Abbie Hoffman.
→ 3 Comments
Posted in Religion, Torah Commentary