If you thought that my earlier post spotlighting the Matzah boxer shorts was in poor taste, just take a look at the matzah kitsch below. The matzah toilet seat cover embossed with the words “Let my people go” has got to be a sure sign that Armageddon is close at hand.
(I will say, tho, that the Matzah Ball timer is pretty clever…)
In this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Metzorah, we learn that the disease of Tzara’at does not only afflict human beings but houses as well:
…the owner of the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, “Something like a plague has appeared on our house.” The priest shall order the house cleared before the priest enters to examine the plague so that nothing in the house may become impure…” (Leviticus 14:35-36)
The text goes on to instruct the priest to examine the plagued house: if it has certain characteristics and appears to go “deep into the wall” of the house, the home is determined to be infected. The affected stones of the structure then must literally be taken down and placed outside the camp and that part of the home must be rebuilt, literally, stone by stone.
There are many ways we might understand the spiritual symbolism of the infected home. In particular it suggests to us the many ways a community or society can often become “socially infected,” resulting in the breakdown of certain sacrosanct values that would typically considered central to its communal life. And like the High Priest, members of society must take care to identify and treat this infection to insure that its spread can be contained and eventually eradicated.
As Americans, can we identify the contemporay nega’ot (plagues) that currently afflicted our national “home? ” As I read the words of Metzora, I am particularly mindful of a news report I read this past week:
Highly placed sources said a handful of top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects — whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding.
The high-level discussions about these “enhanced interrogation techniques” were so detailed, these sources said, some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed — down to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic.
The advisers were members of the National Security Council’s Principals Committee, a select group of senior officials who met frequently to advise President Bush on issues of national security policy.
At the time, the Principals Committee included Vice President Cheney, former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft.
The Bush Administration’s open willingness coutentance torture in open defiance of the Geneva Conventions and other Human Rights norms might well be considered a contemporary plague upon our house. Indeed, recent reports confirm suspicions that this negah seems to have infected our home to a deep and fundamental extent. More than ever, it seems as if our inherent fears have been confirmed, and that certain parts of our home – i.e. our national values and civic culure – will have to be rebuilt stone by individual stone.
It’s time to expiate this plague upon our house. I urge you to read and sign this “Jewish Statement Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment of Detainees Under United States Control.” To learn more about this critical issue, I recommend the recent issue of The Washington Monthly, which features a collection of essays by a former president, the speaker of the House, two former White House chiefs of staff, current and former senators, generals, admirals, intelligence officials, interrogators, and religious leaders. They range across the political spectrum, but they all agree that it “was a profound moral and strategic mistake for the United States to abandon long-standing policies of humane treatment of enemy captives.”
Posted in Human Rights, Judaism, Politics, Religion
If you’ve already gotten started on your Pesach shopping, you might want to grab the latest in seder fashion…
I recently read that the Washington Nationals brand-new ballpark is the first baseball stadium to achieve LEED certification (Silver) from the US Green Building Council. Among the notable green amenities at Nationals Park: drought resistant landscaping, low-VOC paints, a water filtration system to minimize pollution into nearby Anacostia River and a 6,300 square foot green roof beyond left field to collect rainwater and help cool the roof on hot days.
But the Nationals aren’t the only ballclub playing on greener grass these days. It was also reported that the San Francisco Giants recently installed 590 solar panels on the outside of AT&T Park to power their new scoreboard, among other things. And how about this: the World Champ Boston Red Sox have just teamed up with the Natural Resources Defense Council to make Fenway Park more eco-conscious. Their five-year plan includes an improved recycling program, local grown organic produce at concession stands, and solar power heating for chilly night games.
(Meanwhile, as I write this, the Cubs are on the verge of blowing a 7-0 lead to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Ah, the rites of spring…)
Reports of the formation of a leftist Israel lobbying group are growing, and all indications point toward a mid-April launch of the project. According to a recent article in the Jewish Forward:
In a mission statement distributed among supporters last month, the new political action committee and lobbying group vows to support “consistent and concerted” American diplomatic engagement to achieve peace based on a two-state solution. The statement also calls for reviving the stalled Israeli-Syrian peace track, supports diplomatic dialogue with Iran and opposes any alliances with the religious right “in the name of supporting Israel.” In order to achieve these goals, the group is initially aiming to raise $1.5 million for a fund to support politicians who subscribe to its agenda.
According to The New York Jewish Week, which also published an extensive feature about the informally dubbed “The J Street Project,” there has been a growing desire to create an alternative voice for the pro-Israel lobby on Capitol Hill:
The idea has less to do with creating “alternate” AIPACs, some say, than ending the view in the political world that the Jewish community speaks as one on controversial Mideast policy issues.
Here’s hoping that J Street finds some traction. Let’s stay tuned…
Posted in American Jewish Community, Israel, Peace, Politics, Zionism
I wrote about Mia Farrow and ”Dream for Darfur” almost a year ago – and since that time DFD has geared up big time to use the Beijing Summer Olympics to focus world attention on the ongoing genocide in Darfur, Sudan.
Here’s DFD’s own description of their mission:
The 2008 Olympics are fast approaching. Between now and August there is precious little time to use the leverage of the Beijing Games to press China to bring security to Darfur.
China holds unrivaled influence with the genocidal regime in Sudan. China must immediately use that influence to persuade the Sudanese government to allow a full and robust civilian protection force into Darfur.
If China does not act, in its role as Olympic host and world leader, Beijing will go down in history as the host of the “Genocide Olympics”: China will be sponsoring the Olympic Games at home and the genocide in Darfur – in which it is complicit – abroad.
DFD has a formidable laundry list of actions they’ve organized including an alternative torch relay and the promotion of a pledge for folks to engage in a mass “turn-off” of commercials by the Olympic sponsors when the games are televised (during which DFD will be offer alternative programming including Farrow’s interviews with Darfurian refugees). Olympic sponsors, by the way, include such big guns as Adidas, Anheuser-Busch, Atos Origin, BHP Billiton, Coca-Cola, General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, Kodak, Lenovo, Manulife, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Panasonic, Samsung, Staples, Swatch, UPS, Visa and Volkswagen. (A full list of Olympic sponsors can be found here.)
Click above for a great video about their efforts. Last Sunday’s New York Times Magazine also featured an excellent piece on DFD – click here to read.
Posted in Africa, Current Events, Darfur, Genocide, Global Activism, Human Rights
Sad and frustrating, but true: a recent Peace Now report has found that Jewish construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has actually increased since the Annapolis peace conference in November 2007. Though Israel promised to freeze construction in the settlements, the report paints in vivid detail the various ways in which construction has continued unabated.
The report was written by Hagit Ofran, who works in the settlement watch division of Peace Now (and who led our tour of the settlements during the Meretz/Brit Tzedek delegation last January – click here for my post on that experience). According to the report, construction has taken place in 101 settlements, excluding East Jerusalem, in the past four months. About 275 new buildings were started since Annapolis, and 20 percent of the construction is taking place east of the security barrier. The Defense Ministry has also approved plans for the construction of 946 units.
In East Jerusalem, tenders for the construction of 750 housing units were granted after the summit, while in the year before the summit only 46 housing units were approved. The report also found that there was construction in 58 “illegal outposts,” including 16 permanent structures, and that none were evacuated.
The pic on the top shows current construction at Givat Ze’ev, a settlement located northwest of Jerusalem. The next pic down shows shots of the West Bank settlement of Eli before and after Annapolis. In the pic on the right, new caravans are clearly visible.
Why would Israel actually increase settlement in the immediate wake of a peace conference? We’ve heard the usual tired explanations: “these were settlements already approved before Annapolis,” “Olmert needs to placate the right-wingers in his coalition,” yada, yada. The bottom line? Unless the facts on the ground change and change soon, Abbas and the Fatah party will be totally hung out to dry and progress in the peace process will seem even more remote (if such a thing is imaginable).
Postscript: If news such as this makes you want to do something real to convey the importance of the peace process to our national leaders, you should consider attending Brit Tzedek’s National Advocacy Days (June 21-24) in Washington DC. Click here for more details.
From My Other Blog:
Illness and Expiation
This week’s Torah portion, Ta’azria, offers a detailed description of tzara’at – a scaly skin affliction that is understood to render the afflicted as ritually impure (in Hebrew, “tamei.”) The portion makes it clear that the well-being of the entire community is potentially affected by this illness unless and until the High Priest performs certain rituals that will return the individual to a state of ritual purity (“taharah”).
While this portion has nothing to teach us about an appropriate understanding of how to treat physical illness, it has traditionally been understood as a profound statement on the ways that “spiritual infection” can potentially afflict a community. (For their part, the Rabbis famously interpreted the illness of tzara’at as a metaphor for the infectious social effects of destructive speech.)
There are so many ways a community can become infected from within – on this Shabbat, which falls on the 40th anniversary of the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I am particularly mindful of the insidiously infectious power of racism – and how little we Americans have done to truly expiate it from our midst.
In the immediate aftermath of this tragedy forty years ago, Bobby Kennedy, then campaigning for President, delivered a speech in Indianapolis in which he passionately addressed the national “illness” that resulted in King’s death:
The next day, cities all over the United States went up in flames. Kennedy himself would be assassinated two months later. Forty years later, our national community awaits expiation.
To see and hear Kennedy’s speech in its entirety, click above.
→ Leave a comment
Posted in Civil Rights, Judaism, Peace, Religion, Spirituality, Torah Commentary
Tagged Race