When the world is sick…
Click here or onthe image above to play the song.
For weeks now, I’ve been humming and singing this song. This dear song that has been circling in communities I’ve been part of for at least a decade. I’ve been humming it in the car and while working, singing it from the bimah while leading Shabbat services and quietly to myself late at night.
The lyrics: “When the world is sick, can’t no one be well, but I dreamt we were all beautiful and strong.”
Fitting, because my little family has been quite sick since the Thursday before Inauguration. Strep, flu, pneumonia, fifth disease, and head lice twice. Cascading sickness from one of my kiddos to the other, and then to me and my spouse. We have not been well in our little village.
And nearly everyone I’ve talked to, they or someone they know has been sick. A terrible season of germs, they say. Can’t no one be well.
A terrible season of germs that just so happened to coincide with the Torah readings about the plagues in Egypt (see above, head lice).
A terrible season of germs that just so happened to coincide with a deep, soul-level, existential sickness in this country, cascading down from the top and infecting us all. A sickness that has existed and defined this country from its genocidal inception, but is now spiking again. And fast. A deadly spiritual rash out in the open and spreading wildly.
These weeks have been horrible for us and the people and values we love. Maddening. Frightening. Violent. A caricature of evil. A real-time midrash on hate, greed, spite, and division. The world is indeed quite sick.
But when my kiddo, lethargic and laying on our bed, throat sore and body achy, moaned - “I’m never going to feel better! I’m going to feel like this forever!” - I knew that wasn’t true. I knew the body’s ability to heal itself is miraculous. I knew that antibiotics are powerful. I knew, even when he couldn’t, that one day soon he would feel like himself again. Beautiful and strong. And I told him that.
Friends, nothing is guaranteed. The future could be many things. Will be many things. Some probably amazing and some grim beyond what we thought was possible at this point in history.
But I truly believe that if we can’t dream the future we wish to inhabit, if we can’t dream the future we deserve and that is our birthright - a future of wholeness and care and the thriving of all creation - then we have no chance of getting there. Because right now, as adrienne maree brown writes, we are in an imagination battle: “We are living now inside the imagination of someone else…It is our right and responsibility to write ourselves into the future. All organizing is science fiction.”
Or in other words, all organizing is dreamscape. If we want a future reality where we are all beautiful and strong, we must sing it into existence. We must dream it into existence.
So, on this Tu B’Shvat, as the proverbial sap (in each of us) and the physical sap (in some climates), begins to rise again in the trees, might we understand that sap as the substance of imagination? As dreams softening and creativity awakening? Can we allow the surging movement of energy inside each of us to presage budding growth that is not yet visible? That is still weeks or months away? The fruits of our dreams gaining strength and momentum for a time not yet determined?
We will need to translate our dreams into action, our imagination into reality. Many are already - and have already been - doing that. And thank YHVH for them/you - the lawyers and justices and organizations doing the work! But if you’re like me, and you’ve been sick of body or weary of spirit this last month. If you’ve been cooped up at home or cut off from the spiritual energies of action these last few weeks. If you’ve been stilted and suspended beneath the surface of the soil. If, like my kiddo, you’ve been feeling like you’ll feel this way forever, perhaps now is the time for dreams. Perhaps now, today - Tu B’Shvat - is the time to welcome the sap beginning to flow again, upwards, bringing to the limbs and branches the nutrients needed for the bursting forth that is surely on its way.
With many blessings on this day of rising blessings,
Rabbi Nate DeGroot
To help the dream-sap rise, we are glad to share with you a handful of meaningful opportunities for learning and action, beginning with two webinars tonight, an upcoming Shabbat offering, and an important public statement from Jewish clergy and public figures in today's New York Times.
Jewish Youth Climate Movement – Underwrite Earth Virtual Launch Rally
TONIGHT
Thursday, 2/13, 8pmET / 5pmPT
As we close out Tu B’Shvat, we invite you to join the Virtual Launch Rally for Jewish Youth Climate Movement’s Underwrite Earth Campaign, targeting insurance companies for their simultaneous support of the fossil fuel industry and failure to safeguard people on the frontlines of the climate crisis. The Shalom Center is proud to be joining JYCM in the campaign, and we will continue to promote opportunities to get involved in the coming weeks.
Join us for the Virtual Launch Rally TONIGHT at 8pm ET / 5pm PT, where you will hear from key youth activists, artists, rabbis, and others, joined by Shalom Center Board Member Madeline Canfield and Director Rabbi Nate DeGroot. This program will be recorded and sent to registrants.
Community Teach-In: Building shared safety during the Trump - Netanyahu - Musk - ADL alliance
TONIGHT
Thursday, 2/13, 7:30pmET / 4:30pmPT
Also tonight, we’re glad to uplift an important virtual teach-in on antisemitism, Christian nationalism, and how our multifaith, multi-racial movements are prepared to show up to keep each other safe. Brought to you by Rabbis for Ceasefire, this teach-in features Shalom Center Board Member Rabbi Mordechai Liebling and Shalom Center Advisory Council member, Rabbi Dr. Koach Baruch Frazier, among others. This program will be recorded and sent to registrants.
Repro Shabbat
February 21-22, 2025
The Shalom Center is proud to partner with National Council of Jewish Women on Repro Shabbat, coming February 21-22 (Parshat Mishpatim). Repro Shabbat provides an opportunity to honor the important Jewish value of reproductive freedom as we read Parshat Mishpatim, the portion of the Torah commonly used as the foundation of Judaism's approach to reproductive health, rights, and access.
Host a Repro Shabbat event in your community or bring Repro Shabbat into your home with a gathering of family or friends or even a quiet celebration for yourself. Learn more about Repro Shabbat and get involved today!
Jewish People Say No to Ethnic Cleansing in today’s New York Times
It should be stating the obvious, but unfortunately it isn’t these days: Jewish people say no to ethnic cleansing! Our Director, Rabbi Nate DeGroot, was honored to sign this, alongside public figures and many other extraordinary rabbis and Jewish clergy, including many Shalom Center Board Members and Advisory Council members. You can find this ad in today’s New York Times. Read about the ad in The Guardian here and sign on to show your support (if you are Jewish clergy) here.
#SayNoToEthnicCleansing #Gazaisnotforsale