More than 90% of the violence in the world is done by men. An abused child is far more likely to grow up to be abusive than someone who wasn’t. This is how I understand what’s being done by the state of Israel, a people who have been abused for centuries. My people!
I’ve been telling myself this since I did my junior year abroad at Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1971/72 – but it doesn’t stop the heartbreak I feel about the treatment of the Palestinians.
The shema is our core prayer, but I have reached the point where I need alternative, non-patriarchal language. Instead of the traditional shema, I say Chavah/Eve, the mother of us all, and I invoke the Shekhinah, the divine feminine in our tradition, who I call Malkateinu/our Queen. Queen: She. And queen, I’m an old gay man. Friends who I’ve shared this with remind me that Yisrael is a reminder that we are people who wrestle with God, as did Jacob who was renamed Israel, but/and….
Shema Chavah, Shekhinah Malkateinu, Shekhinah Ekhat.
