Burt Jacobson z"l and Die-ins to Challenge War-makers & Planet-burners
Rabbi Burt Jacobson, whose memory will bear many blessings, this past Shabbat joined such Prophetic ancestors as Amos, Malachi, and the Baal Shem Tov. Burt spent years writing a powerful book on the Besht, finishing it shortly before his death. He was also an activist-organizer for Jewish renewal, a good-humored midrash-treasure, and a mensch. We offer what comfort is possible to his life-partner Rabbi Diane Elliot and to those he loved and all who loved him. May his legacy be both the deeper understanding of the Besht he wrote for and the broader shalom he struggled for.
— Arthur
Die-ins to Uphold Life:
Challenge War-makers & Planet-burners
Tisha B’Av Eve, Mon, Aug 12–Tue, Aug 13;
Hiroshima Day, Aug 6.
The menorah of Zechariah’s vision. Sephardi Cervera Bible (c. 1300). Yosef Asarfati, artist. (Public domain.)
Dear Companions,
The Mourners Kaddish of Jewish tradition has many words extolling life — and only one that invokes mourning for death. That is nechamata — consolation. It comes in a list of celebratory words, all of which, the Kaddish says, we cannot offer God enough. Not enough joy, not enough song, not enough praise — and not enough consolation.
It doesn’t fit. Why would we want to offer God, YHWH [Yahh, the Breath of life] consolation, and why can’t we offer enough?
Because when human beings shaped in the Image of God kill other human beings made in the Image of God, God is inconsolable.
That means every murder, every war, every desecration of Earth that kills human beings in needless wildfires, heat domes, floods, droughts, famines, caused by burning fossil fuels for corporate profit.
Empires great and small burned two holy Jerusalem Temples, two sacred Japanese cities, for the sake of imperial power. And still today: eleven of its own workers, tens of thousands of fish and birds from BP’s “research” into oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Gaza City, Kharkiv.
What can we do? Symbolic deaths could teach us to recall real deaths. On Tisha B’Av and Hiroshima Day, we could gather for an utterly silent hour. Hundreds or thousands of us could create a die-in at the offices of killers.
The Prophet Zechariah gave us a motto: “Not by might, and not by power, but by My Spirit.”
Zechariah’s prophetic vision of a future Temple gave us a flag where together Adam and Adamah light up the world: Two olive trees pour their golden oil directly into the Golden Tree of the sacred Temple Menorah.
The Shalom Center encourages many variations in this holy motif. We invite you to send us your comments on this proposal and, if you choose to plan a die-in, what you have in mind and what resources you need for your die-in. We will help, if we can.
But — we need to make clear: We are not able to do the intense work of local organizing. Local committees who are moved by the desire to challenge warmakers or planet-poisoners will have to do the local work.
With blessings of shalom,
Arthur
The menorah of Zechariah’s vision. Sephardi Cervera Bible (c. 1300). Yosef Asarfati, artist. (Public domain.)