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Temple Israel Greenfield

Center for Jewish Life in Franklin County

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Rabbi Message: June 1, 2020

June 1, 2020 by Rabbi Andrea Cohen Kiener

This moment calls for tremendous moral courage and clarity. This is a time to call things by their right name: Police lawlessness; Murder;Organized and Intentional Right Wing Provocateurs;Intentionally Sown Confusion and False Flag Operations.We are in grief. And we are angry. And that anger gives us the power to be brave, to use the right words, to say “NO!” to what is intolerable.This moment calls for tremendous courage and moral clarity. This is a time for all of us to use whatever privilege we have to be allies to justice. We have to learn how to be allies and how to cultivate allies. In a time of moral confusion and deliberate misinformation knowing and speaking truth is oxygen, countering the dizzying effects of gaslighting.We are in a moment of tremendous and layered stress. Along with the obvious challenges -of pandemic and ecomonic free fall- are the subtler contextual challenges: a sense of powerlessness and of not knowing what to do to effect and embody the change we crave so deeply. This powerlessness and unknowing can be toxic and disempowering at a time when our need for right action could not be more necessary. To be outraged by what is outrageous is an act of moral courage.To hear and care about and support the voice of the oppressed is a commandemnt in the Torah, 42 times!To be angry about what is intolerable is an act of human clarity. These co-crises are social, environmental, emotional, political. They require a whole body and whole-hearted response. We live in interesting times. Our next thought, our next donation, our next vote, our next political action, our next conversation can all impact our collective human consciousness and our individual inner clarity.Rabbi Tarfon of the mishna, 1900 years ago said: It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it.

Filed Under: Spiritual Life

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Greenfield, MA 01301

413-773-5884

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