Spiritual Support Message to Nahalat Shalom from Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb: Sacred Action, Prophetic Witness and Spiritual Resiliency

Sending you love from Berkeley,  California.

What a moment in time. An Intifada against the genocidal structures of anti-blackness in America is taking place. It appears that the country could not tolerate another lynching by police of a black man. Finally. Calls for defunding police and meaningful reparations are being acted upon by structures of power due to pressure from the streets. We need actions and not statements. Clearly. As the sage Shammai teaches: Say little and do much.

When I journeyed to Standing Rock and witnessed the remarkable coming together of the tribes and allies to Lakota lands, I realized that Standing Rock, along with Ferguson, are places upon which this intifada is built.

Nahalat Shalom Congregation comes into this moment with a four decade history seeking justice, since 1980 when we first came together as an idea, and then a reality. The founding of Nahalat Shalom in 1980, was for me, related to my life long and explicit commitments to serving minoritized people in the Jewish community and to building a community with the capacity to stand up publicly with front line people struggling for dignity and justice. The choice of when and how to stand up is the result of long term relationship building with communities fighting on the front lines of American white supremacy to resist racism, anti-blackness, homophobia, xenophobia, sexism, anti-semitism and able-bodied prejudice. A torah of nonviolence must always center the wisdom and experience of people most impacted by different systems of structural violence. This is the first principle of sacred action. And, Nahalat Shalom always centered teshuvah, the five part process of restorative justice and atonement, as a central principle of action by those who embrace the name Nahalat Shalom, Inheritance of Peace. The name we gave this project, Nahalat Shalom, was meant to sustain grassroots prophetic witness and spiritual resiliency as our spiritual resting place. That is why we were and are home to so many amazing ceremonial and spiritual achievements in arts, culture and prophetic justice. 

Do you remember when the Myuhoji Buddhists, who were walking across the country to give witness to the impact of the nuclear industry on native lands, came to stay with us on Shabbat, March 13, 2001? Our sanctuary held 200 people sitting on the floor as we opened the 500 year old Torah and Lauri Weeaki from Laguna Pueblo spread corn meal over the ancient Hebrew words and said, "Our sacred things have been speaking to each other since the beginning of time. Now it is time for us to speak to each other in the same spirit." One month later, we initiated the Muslim Jewish Peacewalk that eventually went to 18 cities throughout the US and Canada. Philadelphia and Tucson are still walking. This whole series of events came together because the night of Sept 11, we came together in the sanctuary and 100 of you, children to elders, expressed a commonly held desire to build a culture of peace while resisting war and racism. 

Now, we are being asked to consider once again how anti-blackness impacts our community. We are being asked as white people and non-black people of color to think about how white supremacy impacts our awareness and choices, and to hold ourselves accountability for the long history of anti-blackness in our hearts, in our institutions and in our nation.

Knowing our long activist history, I have faith Nahalat Shalom will indeed find ways of acting as a community. We will not just take action as individuals, but figure out how we can be a resting place for healing and reparations. I encourage you to consider a framework of reparations/teshuvah in thinking about a sustained response to anti-blackness in America as Nahalat Shalom. We have a rich ceremonial and spiritual life to sustain our capacity for action. 

I give thanks to our circle of ancestors who gifted us Torah as healing medicine. May we drink from its wells to find our resiliency. May we breath and nourish our spirits as we continue on the pilgrimage to equity and justice for every human being across all borders. May we continue to center the lives and wisdom of those most directly impacted by anti-blackness, and especially black trans people and immigrants who remain the targets of state violence. And of course, we continue to walk in solidarity with the people who hold the very heart of Turtle Island, the indigenous peoples of New Mexico. By choosing solidarity, we choose healing for our own hearts, and lay the ground work for the well-being of seven generations. ​