#BringThemHomeNow

Sep 29, 2016

Rosh Hashana Day 1 Big Community Picnic

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Sep 22, 2016

To Kneel [a #Poem]

To Kneel 

(c) Rabbi Menachem Creditor
for Landingham & Kaepernick, our angels in the wings

Sometimes, it isn't about nuance.
Sometimes it just comes down to facing the storm,
calling God out,
standing at the center of a whirlwind
holding your ground.

No cathedral is immune to agony,
no soul impervious to life itself
no nation purely noble.
If it were any other way,
there would be no need for cathedrals
in the first place.

Kneel, 
stand, 
sit, 
rise up.

To kneel is
to submit 
to lower oneself 
to step down 
to pause.

To kneel is to call attention 
to touch the Earth's face
to listen to those 
whose blood saturates 
the very roots of our story.

To kneel is to step aside 
to step outside 
to invite others to come closer 
to remember.

To kneel is not to stand
not to stand
not to stand idly by.

Speak your truth,
God damn it.

That's what God wants most of all.
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Sep 21, 2016

We Will Do Our Best [a #poem]

We Will Do Our Best
(c) Rabbi Menachem Creditor
for Eileen Soffer, National Coordinator of Rabbis Against Gun Violence

Everybody's got guns
and we're doing our best.
But that's not good enough.

It is, 
unfortunately 
simultaneously
not good enough and true
that everybody's got guns
that we're doing our best,

When will our best be good enough?
When will the Messiah arrive?

Though 
the Good Enough 
and the Messiah 
may tarry...

...still
we will do our best.

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Sep 12, 2016

I wish, Okay? [a #poem]

I wish, Okay?
(c) Menachem Creditor
I wish...
I wish Syrians would stop killing each other.
I wish ice cream were good for me.
I wish 9/11 never happened.
I wish Josiah Bartlet were real.
I wish laughter were louder.
I wish flowers could stop us when we pass them by.
I wish painful lessons could be a little less painful.
I wish we would turn golf courses into free public housing.
I wish Sesame Street were still on PBS.
(Did I mention that thing about Bartlet? Okay.)
I wish for one wish.
Per person.
(Okay?)
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Sep 2, 2016

To the One: Gratitude

To the One: Gratitude
(c) Rabbi Menachem Creditor

To the One 

Who witnesses life
   Who is Life
      Who feels our joys and sorrows,
          Who is our Tears and Laughter

To the One

Who touches us from the inside
   Who knows the world we dream about
      Who is the Dream we will one day realize

To the One

Who waits in the quiet hour
   Who vibrates in joyous noise
      Who fills every moment with the potential of Presence

To the One

Infinite One
   Source of Life
      You

Thank You.

............................
Rabbi Menachem Creditor
Rabbi, Congregation Netivot Shalom
Chair, Rabbis Against Gun VIolence (#RAGV)

Scheduling Inquiries: ra@netivotshalom.org or (510) 549-9447 x103

To join Rabbi Creditor's email list, send a blank email to thetisch-subscribe@yahoogroups.com!
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Sep 1, 2016

A Moment of Awareness

A Moment of Awareness
© Rabbi Menachem Creditor

An awareness that my beat-up shoes were in need of replacement and that I can afford a new pair; an awareness that I can also control my own time to go buy a new pair of shoes; an awareness that I'm now wearing shoes that help renew my sense of sure-footedness in the world; an awareness that I'm so privileged in all these ways, and finally:

an awareness that inherited privilege must be earned and shared, until no person's need exceeds another's.

Please make a gift to My New Red Shoes, a Bay Area non-profit founded in 2006 to boost the self-confidence, educational experience and quality of life of our community's homeless and low-income children. This year, our goal is to provide 10,000 impoverished children with a new pair of shoes and the opportunity to shop for new school clothing for the 2016 back-to-school season.

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