We met in May, as spring continues to unfold across North America, and as we know the IDf is beginning its assault on all the terrified Gazans who were pushed into Rafah and now have nowhere else to go. How does one – if one has a heart still capable of being broken – pray within these two realities?
We tried a new ritual for just this reason – proceeding through our May liturgy, all about the beauty of the world, and then let the images and realities of Gaza break through and interrupt. I introduced a draft of a three-part blessing I’m working on, to be said as one bears witness by looking at/watching images of victims/survivors of violence. May’s version is in the slide deck – a fuller version and notes will be posted here soon.
This month’s liturgy can be viewed here. During the Blessing of Redemption, after reading Tony Kushner’s “Hope,” we listened to the Bengsons’ “Hope Comes” and watched a short video of photos from protests in Israel and on US college campuses. The liturgy slide deck was too large to upload with that video; you can view it here separately. Find a video of The Bengsons performing “Hope Comes” on youtube.
For Torah study, we learned about the work of author/professor/theologian Marc H Ellis. His ideas and writings underlie how Fringes understands our connection to Judaism, Zionism, and the Jewish future. Our text study touched on a few key ideas from his extensive body of work: Constantinian Judaism, The Last Exile/New Diaspora, The Ecumenical Deal, the Prophetic, and the Death of the Ethical Jewish Future. These ideas were absorbed into the entire “Judaism Beyond Zionism” social movement, although often without Marc’s name. His publication list of books, much less articles, is extensive, but here are a few online articles that touch on the ideas we reviewed:
On The Rabbis and the Future of Jewish Life, 2001
Rabbi Brant Rosen writing about Marc Ellis, Exile, and the New Prophetic, 2018
Exile and the Prophetic: The heartbeat of the prophetic, 2012
The Interfaith Ecumenical Deal is Dead, 2012
