(It took a while to write this one up!)
This past week I attended the Parliament of World Religions which was held at McCormick Place in Chicago. The first Parliament was held in 1893 in Chicago. I remember that one of my husband’s great aunts spoke at the very first one so I was excited to go. I have been engaged in interfaith dialogue since I was in college. I am currently the co-president of the Coalition of Elgin Religious Leaders.
At this year’s Parliament there were 200 religions and 80 countries represented.
Getting from Elgin to McCormick Place is not the easiest, however I managed to get there (and back!) Those are stories for another time. For me, this brought a lot of parts of my rabbinate together. It was worth the effort.
My first session was listed in room 271b. I couldn’t find that one at first, so I stopped in 271e. It was about a call to conscience through liminality of a global ethic. The premise is that this is liminal time, something talk about a lot. The best part of the session was a discussion on what they called reverent listening. Like active listening, this takes it to another level making listening something to be done with respect. It becomes a holy action. It was very affirming.
Next, I wandered over to the session I had really wanted to go to about why the interfaith movement is crucial in this time. The presenters were the Chief Rabbi of Ireland and a professor of Hindu from India who was talking about the need for religious diversity. While his example of the work he is doing in the UAE building a synagogue, church and mosque was welcome by the participants, she had a answer questions about what some called Hindu Nationalism and the persecution of Muslims in India. That part was quite uncomfortable. And while she maintained her composure and assured those gathered that the political aims in current day India are not normative Hinduism, people were not at all happy.
I was thrilled however to meet the chief rabbi of Ireland and snap a selfie. He was warm, personable and recognized my rabbinate as a women even within his Orthodox world. One of the things that he said that I found so affirming, is that people who do this kind of interfaith relations are most often secure in their faith. That would be true for me. I find that when I engage in these kinds of deep conversations about religion, it is not about convincing someone that my way is better, it is about sharing some of the things that are most important. Every religion talks about kindness and compassion. Understanding how is important.
Next, I wandered through the women’s village. They had a Red Tent created with beautiful weavings and tapestries. There was a tree made up of corrugated cardboard as the truck and post-it notes that you could write a wish for the planet and your intention for some action to heal the world. That was a very powerful experience for me. I wrote that it is my intention to continue to heal my community. There was an opportunity to create a crown. So for those of you who asked whether I would be wearing a tiara, I now have a new one. And there was an opportunity to be interviewed, which I did.
They asked three questions:
How does your faith inspire you toward this year’s Parliament theme of a Call to Conscience?
My faith includes the idea that we are all created b’tzelem Elohim. In the image of God. All means all, using U-46 School District’s Mission Statement. The idea of tikkun olam, repairing the world, comes from an old story of the Zohar. When G-d created the world, the light was initially in a clay jar. The light was so bright, it exploded the vessel. Finding those sparks and bringing the pieces back together, is what we need to do. We all need to do. Finding and seeing the divine spark in every person is part of recognizing that we are all created b’tzelem elohim, in the image of G-d. Meeting people where they are and fighting for justice for all, welcoming the widow, the orphan, the sojourner, the most marginalized amongst us is central to my core. This week, our liturgial calendar, includes a very famous line from Torah, “Tzedek, tzedek tirdoff, justice, justice shall you pursue.” This is something that we have to actively pursue, chase after, run after. I welcome the opportunity to pursue justice.
How does your faith inform you to protect the dignity and human rights for women?
I’ve worked tirelessly to protect the rights of women. That includes rights of women to worship as they see fit with organizations like Women of the Wall in Israel, fighting to maintain the rights of women to worship at the Western Wall. To work for equal access to health care for women, including rights for reproductive freedom and abortion rights. I actually, and still surprisingly to me sit on a local Catholic Hospital board for precisely this reason. I am a member of NCJW, T’ruah, and the Community Crisis Center. I have served on a rape crisis hotline. And as a sexual assault survivor I have written a book called Enduring Spirit that helps survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault use the spiral of the Jewish year to help with healing so that they can, we hope, thrive again.
What is your responsibility as a woman of your faith to protect our next generation of children?
Maybe because we are sitting here, near the climate tree, I am reminded of the story about Honi. Honi was walking on a road and he spied a man (it’s alwys a man in these stories, right?) planting a tree. He asked when it will bear fruit. The man answers not for 70 years. Honi wonders why bother, then since you won’t get to use it? The answer is “Just as my ancestors planted for me, so too do I plant for my children and grandchildren.” We all have an obligation to do what we can to protect this world for the generations yet to come. I am proud of this year’s B-Mitzvah students, two of whom are actively engaged in projects to help the environment, That is part of my responsibility too.
After filming my interview, I wandered through the exhibition hall and then found my friend Ziona Zelazo who was in from New Jersey. We attended a session on Jewish and Hindu storytelling. Really, they are not so different!
We went to a booth that was helping people made art work out of pieces of guns. And then, living out the quote from Micah, I pounded the barrel of a gun into a flat piece that later will be turned into gardening tools.
“And everyone ‘neath their vine and fig tree shall live in peace and unafraid. They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”
I have sung it in Washington. I have sung it with Peter Paul and Mary. At any number of youth group events. George Washington quoted it in his letter to the Jewish community of Newport Rhode Island, It is part of our weekly prayer for our country. It, too, is core to my being.
Yehudah Amichai added to that verse:
Don’t stop after beating the swords
into plowshares, don’t stop!
Go on beating
and make musical instruments out of them.
Whoever wants to make war again
will have to turn them into plowshares first.
– Yehuda Amichai
p. 777, Kol Haneshemah (Wyncote, PA: The Reconstructionist Press, 1996)
There was a musicality and a rhythm to my pounding. It was just an amazing feeling. It felt like many of the social justice things I have worked on came together in that brief moment,
Then I walked on a labyrinth which helped cement my commitment to my path. I love labyrinths. I eagerly look forward to walking the one at the University of Michigan Botanic Garden. It is part of my High Holy Day prep. If you haven’t tried one to enrich your own spirituality, I highly recommend it, There are several labyrinths in the Elgin area. One at Saint Joseph hospital. One at St. Alexius. One at the UU church on Highland.
After that, with a nod to my beloved Lake Michigan, it was time to find a cab, a train and my way back to Elgin. So glad I found my courage to go.