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Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox 

Good News of Human Nobility & Compassion from 150 Rabbis

11/10/2023

We ended yesterday’s DM with this question for pondering: 

How is humanity today, how are we today, doing in expressing our divine nobility by way of compassion and justice? What is holding us back?

I share here some Good News that tells of humanity’s nobility that is found in our power for compassion and justice. And in our capacity to choose to seek 

In Gaza, compassion under fire: Palestinian journalist Ahmad Hijazi shares his only bottle of drinking water with a terrified and thirsty stray dog. Middle East Monitor video on Instagram (click to view)

understanding of others over vengeance. 

Recently, over 150 rabbis and rabbinic students in America signed a petition for a Ceasefire in Gaza and called upon people everywhere to appeal to their congresspeople to do the same. 

Their statement speaks from a place of common humanity. It begins this way: 

Rabbis speak out for peace and for an end to the genocide being inflicted on Gaza. Rodfei Shalom: Rabbis for Ceasefire

We are Rabbis and Rabbinical students and at this moment of great moral reckoning, we are speaking out with one voice. Those of us grieving both Israeli and Palestinian loved ones this week know there is no military solution to our horror. We know that many 

Jews in our communities are feeling confused, afraid, and despairing over the events that began on October 7th.

Together with Jews in Israel, we are in deep grief over the 1400 Israelites who were brutally killed by Hamas. We are terrified for the over 200 Israeli hostages—adults, children and infants—who remain in captivity.

However, the US and Israeli governments are using our grief to justify genocidal violence directed against the people of Gaza. 

According to Defense for Children Internationals, the Israeli military is killing one child in Gaza every 15 minutes…..
In the fact of this terrifying violence we say no!…. Torah should be a source of life not death. 

“Zionism is not the same as Judaism.” Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss، Activist and Spokesman for Neturei Karta, talks to Al Jazeera English.

This honest and brave stance shows a way forward. The signers call upon “all Americans” to pursue this path and to write their congressional representatives to do the same. God bless them.

For the full declaration, click HERE. 

See Matthew Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion.

Banner Image: “Jewish Voice for Just Peace in the Middle East” rally in Berlin to commemorate the forcible evacuation of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes by Zionist militias in 1948. With Berlin banning all such commemorative events, the 5/20/2023 rally was violently broken up by the police. Photo by Matthias Berg on Flickr.

Statement of Solidarity with Israel/Palestine.

Queries for Contemplation

How does this declaration affect you?  How does it bear witness to the “better angels of our nature” that Abraham Lincoln spoke of and that we have been meditating on in discussing humanity’s royal personhood?

Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, please click HERE
to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field.

Recommended Reading

A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice

In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the meaning and practice of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the future that promises personal, social, and global healing, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, leading the way toward a gentler and more ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate activity.
“Well worth our deepest consideration…Puts compassion into its proper focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register

UPCOMING EVENTS

See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE

Join Matthew Fox as he delivers a Lecture and Q&A: “Towards a New Mythology: New & Ancient Names for God from Mystical Ancestors and Contemporary Science (& Fit for Some Atheists too)” as part of the Unitarian Universalist of Berkeley Lawrence Lecture Series. Friday, November 10, 2023, 7:00pm-8:30pm PT. Register HERE. 

Join Matthew Fox online as he offers a lecture and Q&A on “Peacemaking and Creation Spirituality Today” hosted by The Beatitudes Center for the Nonviolent Jesus.

November 11, 11:00am PT. Register HERE.

Creation Spirituality Conversations

Hunger for Wholeness: What is Wholeness in the Midst of Crisis with Matthew Fox (Part 1)

In the midst of increased violence between Israel and Palestine, Ilia Delio and theologian Matthew Fox discuss the state of the world today and how to have courage in Part 1 of their conversation. Ilia and Matt discuss his mentor, Marie Dominique Chenu, the influence of liberation theology on social justice in the church today, and what can still be learned.

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