A Message from Rabbi Maurice (February, 2007)

For contact information, click here...

The Audacity of Peace Work

Over the past two months, TBI has been fortunate to host three speakers who have each committed part of their lives to working towards this kind of genuine social transformation. In December, Dr. Martin Jones of Beyond War spoke at Shabbat services about his organization's effort to persuade people that it really is possible to use our government and our policies to make war disappear as an option for dealing with conflict.

That same month TBI hosted Peter Bergel from Oregon Peaceworks, who gave a presentation called "The Federal Budget as a Moral Document." Those who participated saw first hand how tiny our national investment in non-violent problem-solving is as compared with our massive allocation of tax dollars to military spending. Whether one is a pacifist or not (and I am not an absolute pacifist), it doesn't take a Talmud scholar to figure out that you reap what you sow. To build a more peaceful world requires a serious commitment to peacemaking. It's one thing to maintain a reasonable military budget to protect one's citizens from attack. It';s entirely something else, however, when there's virtually no investment being made at the same time to proactively build a global infrastructure for nonviolent conflict resolution. If we can splice genes, take photos of Saturn's rings, and put 5,000 songs into a piece of plastic the size of a keychain, then we can learn how to reduce war by making a serious investment in the practices and policies that reward and support peacebuilding.

In late January, TBI hosted David Hazen of the local chapter of the national initiative to establish a U.S. Department of Peace as a cabinet-level agency. Congressman Dennis Kucinich has been a leading advocate of this idea. A cynical impulse may lead many of us to say that a federal Department of Peace sounds like a bunch of wishful thinking and nonsense. But the idea isn't about wishful thinking at all. It's premised on the researched fact that intelligently pursuing peace through practical, intentional steps increases the frequency of conflicts getting resolved without bloodshed. Perhaps this is why the Psalm says, "Seek peace and pursue it." Peace is do-able - but we have to work for it.

David Hazen and the other speakers who came to TBI are part of a grassroots effort to create enough belief in the possibility of an end to war that a social tipping point gets reached. Why not join them? What have we got to lose? For a long while yet, most of us will probably continue to believe that war is inevitable, and that the best we can hope for is the occasional good world leader who manages to reduce war somewhat. Hazen and the others are out to convince us otherwise. Their claim is that peace is inevitable, because the stakes of war have become too high. It's a claim that's as audacious as Judaism's assertion that the world can and will be redeemed, and that humanity is going to partner with God to make it happen.

On Wednesday, February 7th, at 7:00 pm, I invite all of you to come to one more program that will explore the possibilities of transcending old habits of violence. TBI and Brit Tzedek v'Shalom, the Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace, are co-sponsoring an evening with two speakers who are members of an Israeli-Palestinian organization called Combatants for Peace. Former Israeli soldier Shimon Katz and a former Palestinian combatant and prisoner, Sulaiman Al Hamri, will share their experiences in transitioning from veteran fighters to peace advocates. Whatever your politics, this should be a fascinating and powerful evening. (For a full description see the enclosed flyer.) Please come and hear their stories, and if you feel so moved, lend your support to the efforts of those whose vision of a peaceful future may yet push humanity to a tipping point of social change.

With prayers for greater shalom,
Rabbi Maurice