From Tikkun.org:
“The big problem facing us is how to take the millions of Americans who are ready to move in this new direction to work together coherently. Yet we can rejoice the first step has been taken: Americans coming out of the closet of despair and calling for a world of justice, peace and caring for each other and for the planet.
I’m particularly proud that young Jews participating in these demonstrations have created Sukkot, the temporary huts that Jews are supposed to live in for 7 days (the holiday started Wednesday night October 12) to symbolize detachment from the material security provided by our homes, to re-identify ourselves as a people that has mostly been homeless for most of our history, and to remind ourselves that all the accomplishments of material security are meaningless unless shared with everyone else. Tikkunista Jews (tikkun means healing and transforming the world) are challenging the establishment Jews, some of whom run the very institutions that all of us supporting Occupy Wall Street hope to see replaced by a more just order. Though right-wingers have followed David Brooks’ attempt to smear the demonstrators as anti-Semitic, the truth is that the Jewish world can be proud that a high percentage of these demonstrators are Jewish — and challenging the establishment Jews who have a disproportionate presence in the community of bankers and investment brokers.”
Oy gevalt, Jewish anti-semites! What’s the world coming to?
I have kept a Christianized version of Sukkot with various congregations. Most took liberties with “sukkot,” interpreting it as “temporary dwellings,” including anything from tents, campers, or fishing cabins, all the way up to condos and luxury suites if that’s what you wanted. One year I did keep it at a campground in a tent — much closer to the original intent. It is a pretty radical thing to *celebrate* homelessness. The Jews interpret it nationalistically, while early and latter-day Christians applied it to the spiritual nation of Christ, whose home is not this world. Also the temporary dwelling symbolizes the tempoary nature of this life.
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…symbolize detachment from the material security provided by our homes…remind ourselves that all the accomplishments of material security are meaningless unless shared with everyone else.
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People could stand to familiarize themselves with the many social justice provisions on the Torah. Prohibition of usury on fellow countrymen, mass debt forgiveness every 50 years, protection of individual land ownership, and the command to share with the poor, mainly through private charity.
(Also, returning to Sukkot specifically,there is the command to eat “whatsoever your soul lusteth after” and to enjoy some “strong drink” — a couple of my favorite Old Testament laws.)
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…the establishment Jews, some of whom run the very institutions that all of us supporting Occupy Wall Street hope to see replaced by a more just order.
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ZOMG, Abe Foxman and Morris Dees must’ve been tearing their hair out over this part.
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Though right-wingers have followed David Brooks’ attempt to smear the demonstrators as anti-Semitic,
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I even saw a hit piece written by some girl surnamed Rothschild, making that very accusation.
I
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I am not that kind of libertarian. I don’t worship the market.
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Amen. Old god works just fine, no need for a new one.
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f you want freedom in the real sense, you can’t be enslaved to your appetites.
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Amen again — a lesson for materialists/ secular humanists both left and right.