Learning the Torah of Us, this summer
by Rabbi Arthur Waskow
When you have been a teacher/ writer/ maker of good-trouble all your adult life (and somewhat earlier too) and you are 89 1/2 years old, your main thought about teaching is this:
What is the best of what I’ve learned this life that I can enjoy teaching and learning in what might be my last chances? (I’ve learned that I never teach without learning at the same time.)
And that’s what I have this summer: Time to teach what I have pursued since creating the Freedom Seder in 1969:
From July 3-9, an afternoon class at the ALEPH Kallah in West Chester, PA.
How do we learn and teach, as Psalm 85 says, “Compassion and truth to meet in their journey; justice and peace to kiss one another.
Truth to spring unexpected from Earth; and justice surprisingly flow from Heaven.”
How do we learn and teach Torah with less of an eye to Rashi and more of an ear to our own lives as Torah, struggling with the same issues as arose in ancient lives and often coming to different conclusions from ancient shepherds?
For example:
Have we ever lived through a night or a day as “Godwrestlers”? What brought us there? How did it feel? Was it unspeakably scary? Were we shaking with joy? When we walked out of that moment, were we dancing or limping? How can we shape a long, slow kiss between ourselves struggling for Justice and ourselves taking joy in Spirit?
The course will explore doing this with four festivals: Fourth of July, Yom Kippur, Hanukkah, and Pesach. The first festival—actually on the day of July 4—will be focused on the Torah roots of the Declaration of Independence found in the Torah passage called Perek haMelekh—limits on powers of the king. Does the Torah’s attempt at a new Constitution for Children of Israel point us toward a new Constitution?
When Isaiah spoke out on a Yom Kippur long ago, he laughed at the idea that God just wanted us to go hungry for a day and smear ashes on our faces. Instead, he walked into a coven of ash-faced Jews and yelled at them, “Feed the starving, house the homeless!” They got so mad at being disturbed that they shook their fists at him. So the rabbis said this was so important we must – umm, listen quietly while somebody reads it at us, usually in a language we don’t understand. Did that listening feed anyone who was starving?? Not so you’d notice!
How could we put as much passion into housing the homeless as a passionate kiss between love and justice?
Come to my course and find out! Register at
https://aleph.regfox.com/kallah
Blessings to see our own lives as Torah,
— Arthur
P.S. — This Shabbos is Earth Day. If you’re in shul, when the murmured Amidah prayer comes, walk outside and find a tree, maybe just budding. Breathe in the Prayer she/ he/ they/ it breathes out for you to breathe in. Let Justice and Love kiss. If you’re not in shul, do the same thing.
