Rise Up

Dear friends,

“I see you everywhere,” the warrior Arjuna says to Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita,
“with billions of arms, eyes, bellies, faces, 
without end, middle or beginning, 
your body the whole universe, Lord.” 

The Eleventh chapter of this holy Hindu scripture tries to describe revelation, as the Torah does when it describes the scene at Mount Sinai. What is clear in both descriptions is that this experience rips apart any previously held idea about the world, the self and the other. All three become engulfed in the light of “one thousand suns rising all at once in the sky.” In that light, what meaning is there to the differences between one group of people and another, between me and you, between the living and the dead?  

This year’s Kumah Festival, which begins this evening, will be a search for the light of Echad at the heart of existence, culminating on Shavuot, the Jewish holiday of revelation.  

The closing event will be this coming Thursday evening, when we will come together with several other like-minded communities for an incredible night of music, drag, learning, dancing and re-imagined ritual. Don’t miss the healing music of Mahya, an Iranian singer who will perform with an Israeli accompanying her. Grammy nominated Tal Mashiach, who has been accompanying services with us at the Shul for years, will be convening an international band of Latin Americans as a tribute to our brothers and sisters in Cuba, Venezuela, the US and across the Americas who need our prayers and support. Yael Kanarek, founding director of Beit Toratah will be offering teachings from her new feminist Torah, which reverses the genders of all characters in the Hebrew bible. It will be a night to remember. 

This evening at 6:30 we will begin our Shabbat of Untangling Antisemitism with Michelle Goldberg with two new songs by our Kibbutz NYC members, Dana Herz and Arnan Raz. For the past six months, a group of us has been studying the Siddur, or prayer book in search of the messages it holds for those of us don’t approach prayer from a traditional perspective. What these non-halakhic Jews found in the prayers were messages that dissolve what we see with our eyes into something we can hear with our hearts. Karov, or Close, Dana’s composition invites us to experience divinity as intimacy, and the world around us as kindness. And Arnan’s Oseh Shalom is a rousing call for all of us earth-dwellers to imagine, invite and create peace. 

Michelle published yet another stirring, complex piece about a contemporary expression of antisemitism this week, this time from the American left. As I wrote to you a couple weeks ago, I’m in awe of her ability to express the truth within the landmines of this issue and it’s hard for me to think of another person I’d trust more to untangle the loud web of hatred and lies that perpetually surrounds our people. Revelation doesn’t work if you come to it mindlessly. Michelle can help us prepare. There will be time to ask her some questions, so think about what you might want to ask her. 

Before our festival begins officially this evening, we invite you to gather for a special ceremony at Judson Memorial Church, at 3:30pm, where we will join a screening of the Israeli-Palestinian Nakba Day Ceremony. The Nakba, or disaster, is what Palestinians call the 1948 war, when more than half of the Palestinian population were forced out of their homes and became refugees. In Israel, any organization that marks this day as a day of mourning is disqualified from government funding and risks a host of intimidation and legal action against it. But our brave friends at Combatants for Peace are now hosting a joint ceremony for the seventh straight year, because they know that: “genuinely understanding the lived experiences and historical narratives of both societies is essential to breaking the cycle of violence and building a different future.” 

I hope you can join us to Rise Up in this exciting 6th year of the Kumah Festival. 

Shabbat shalom, 

Rabbi Misha