Sinai Anew?!
by Rabbi Arthur Waskow
Dear friends,
As we look toward Shavuot, we hear one ancient teaching about Sinai and at once we ask ourselves new questions.
Why did the great Revelation come on Mt. Sinai? Because Sinai was not in Israelite space, or Canaanite space, or Egyptian space, or anybody else’s. It was for everybody.
What would the Utterances be if they were indeed for all Humanity and all Life on Earth today – a world utterly different from Planet Earth 3,000 years ago?
And why does our title, “Sinai Anew?!” end with a question mark and an exclamation point?
Because we are living between a question and an exclamation!
Everything we are imagining about Sinai Anew is really a question to ourselves about our future. And everything we do imagine is an exclamation, and excitement!
The question mark also means we invite your own imaginations of what could come from a new Sinai. Please write me, as custodian of our collective imagination, at awaskow@theshalomcenter.org.
Can there be a new Sinai in a world so fractured, so violent, so hopeless, so greedy, so corrupted?
And in a world so wistful, so knowledgeable, so yearning, so creative?
SAVE THE DATE! – At 8 pm Eastern time on Friday, May 26, the 1st evening of Shavuot, The Shalom Center will present a conversation on a new Sinai. How do the oppressions we call out connect with each other? How do the liberation movements we call “intersectional” find their passion in Unity? Is this text that we have heard from our hearts and our history adequate for the New Sinai?
Sinai Anew?!
Anokhi YHWH [pronounce “Yahhhh” as in “Hallelu-Yahhhh”] ruach ha’olam, nishmat chayyim, oseh hashamayim v’haaretz.
I am Breath of Life, breath/wind/spirit of the world, interbreathing all life, maker of the Heavens and Earth.
Nishmat kol chai tivarekh et shimi, Yahhhh elohenu. The Breath of all life praises My Name, YHWH, for My Name is the breathing of life, Our God.
I have made, do make, and will make every human community and every life-form in its own sacred form, to respect all others and be respected in the uniqueness of each and of all – not to be despised – and to be woven together through their diversity to become a necessary aspect of The One.
Do not carve out for yourself any single aspect of the world – physical, emotional, intellectual, or institutional – into a god and bow down to it, for it is in their interbreathing that they become and create the Sacred One.
You who are human: honor and love your parents and ancestors, love and honor your children and descendants.
You who are human: honor and love those of all sexual orientations, gender identities, religions, philosophies, races, nations, and peoples. You must not kill other humans. You must not make wars or other excuses for killing. You must not allow nuclear weapons, the burning of fossil fuels, or other genocidal or ecocidal technologies to abide in your midst. You must instead reforest Earth.
For no more than six days of every seven you may work; on at least the seventh day you must rest from your labors. For six years you and Earth may work together, with responsible care for the health of both; for the seventh year, you and Earth must rest.
Do not rob anyone of the sustenance necessary to life. You must share the abundance of Earth, and let no one go hungry or homeless.
You must seek to elevate Love and Justice, Truth and Peace above Greed and Envy
If you want to help The Shalom Center pursue this new question through new imagination during the weeks before Shavuot, please feel free to contribute the manna that will empower our search.