[fsf60k] Fwd: Rabbi Arthur Waskow on Ruth and immigration
- From: akillelea@xxxxxxx
- To: FSF60K@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 25 May 2012 09:11:25 -0400 (EDT)
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From: LI Council of Churches <LI_Council_of_Churches@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: akillelea <akillelea@xxxxxxx>
Sent: Wed, May 23, 2012 1:58 pm
Subject: Rabbi Arthur Waskow on Ruth and immigration
I thought yoyu might
like to see this excerpt from a missive by Rabbi Arthur Waskow, a really
interesting character who le done of the most glorious seders I have ever
attended. I'm also attaching some info about some upcoming immigration events.
Tom Goodhue
The Biblical tale of "Ruth" rises in our awareness this week
because we are soon to celebrate her special holy-day.
This coming Saturday evening, Jews begin celebrating the
festival of Shavuot -- "Weeks." It begins seven weeks and one day -- fifty days
-- after the second night of Passover, and its observance brings us many
lessons. In Christian tradition, followers of Jesus gathered to celebrate this
holy day and experienced the in-rush of the Holy Breath-Wind-Spirit in many
languages. They named the day Pentecost, from the Greek for "fifty."
Shavuot has many faces. For the Bible, it was the moment to
celebrate the success of the spring wheat harvest. For the ancient Rabbis, it
was the anniversary of Torah's revelation on Mount Sinai.
And the Rabbis left as legacy to us the annual reading of three
extraordinary texts:
§ The Ten Utterances from Sinai, beginning with "Anokhi, I" --
not the ordinary Hebrew word, "Ani," for an ordinary "I," but the Infinite "I"
that bespeaks the Universe;
§ The Book of Ruth, an earthy tale of farming, outcasts, and
communal sharing;
§ The Prophet Ezekiel's mystical vision of what has come to be
called The Chariot: a moving vision of Four Faces moving -- crowned by the
iridescent Rainbow.
In the week before Shavuot, I want to explore all these aspects
of the festival.
First, "Ruth." In the biblical story, Ruth was a
penniless immigrant from a despised pariah people. Yet she was welcomed onto
the fields of Boaz, where she gleaned what the regular harvesters had left
behind. Boaz made sure that even this despised foreigner had a decent job at
decent pay. He forbade his male employees from harassing her. When she went one
night to the barn where the barley crop was being threshed, he spent the night
with her — and decided to marry her.
But — if Ruth came to America today, what would happen?
Would she be admitted at the border?
Or would she be detained for months without a lawyer,
ripped from Naomi's arms while Naomi's protest brought her too under suspicion
— detained because she was, after all, a Canaanite who spoke some variety of
Arabic, possibly a terrorist, for sure an idolator?
Would she be deported as merely an "economic refugee,"
not a worthy candidate for asylum?
Would she have to show a "green card" before she could
get a job gleaning at any farm, restaurant, or hospital?
Would she be sent to "workfare" with no protections for
her dignity, her freedom, or her health?
Would she face contempt because she and her
mother-in-law Naomi, traveling without a man, might be a lesbian couple?
When she boldly "uncovers the feet" of Boaz during the
night they spend together on the threshing floor, has she violated the "family
values" that some religious folk now proclaim?
Or has she affirmed that love engages the body as well
as the heart, the mind, and the spirit, and that sometimes a loving body comes
before a wedding?
Today in America, some 99% of us are powerless, like
Ruth; only 1% hold great property, prosperity and power, like Boaz. He was a
good-hearted, generous-spirited man. But his society did not leave justice to
the whims of the wealthy. Its laws and business regulations made sure that
everyone was entitled to decent work for a decent income.
Everyone. A disemployment rate of 14%, or 8.5%, or even
2% were made by law impossible. Everyone had the right simply to walk onto a
field and begin to work, begin to use the means-of-production of that era.
And Boaz could not order his regular workers to be
economically "efficient." They could not harvest everything: not what grew in
the corners of the field, not what they missed on the first go-round. Social
compassion was more important than efficiency. No "downsizing" allowed.
Although Boaz was generous-hearted, Ruth's right to
glean did not depend upon his generosity. It was the law.
Ruth was entitled not only to a job, but to respect. No
name-calling, no sexual harassment.
And she, as well as Boaz, was entitled to Shabbat: time
off for rest, reflection, celebration, love. She was entitled to "be" — as well
as to "do."
Because Ruth and Boaz, the outcast and the wealthy
property-owner, got together, they could become the ancestors of King David.
According to legend, they could thus help bring Messiah into the world. Help
bring the world of peace and justice.
What do we learn from their story today?
In America today, our society is dismantling many of
the legal commitments to the poor that ancient Israelite society affirmed. Our
government subsidizes not the middle class, the workers, and the poor -- but
the super-wealthy like Big Oil companies that make tens of billions of dollars
a year, pay few or no taxes, and take in whopping billions of subsidies because
they invest mere millions of their profits in buying Members of Congress. So --
what are our religious obligations?
And we — those of us with as little money as Ruth or as
much as Boaz — what can we do to help bring the world of peace and justice?
BUILDING BRIDGES” MAY 24 IN SMITHTOWN
Understanding—and welcoming--our growing religious and
ethnic diversity is one way to change attitudes toward immigrants and
immigration reform. The Long Island Multi-Faith Forum would be glad to do a
program for your congregation, community group, or workplace to help folks get
to know their neighbors of other faiths. The Long Island Council of Churches
and Auburn Theological Seminary launched the Long Island Multi-Faith Forum in
1993 to help people in our area understand their neighbors. The LIMFF unites
hundreds of Islanders from eleven different faith communities and many races,
nationalities, and cultures. Our volunteers represent the Bahai Faith, the
Brahma Kumaris, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduisms, Islam, Jainism, Judaism,
Native American Spirituality, Sikhism, and Unitarian Universalism. If you are
not familiar with all these traditions or did not know that they are your
neighbors, you may need a Building Bridges program! The Forum has presented
more than 260 programs in schools, workplaces, and houses of worship, for
audiences ranging from ten to 1100. While most of our programs are done in
English, we have also been able to accommodate requests for Spanish language
and bi-lingual presentations and could try other languages as well. The Forum
has also developed a fun game-show format called “What’s My Faith.” For more
information, please visit www.liccny.org.
The Annual Meeting of the Long Island Council of
Churches, at 1st Presbyterian Church of Smithtown on Thursday, May 24, will
feature a Building Bridges program. We will be showing our “Faiths of Long
Island” video before the meeting,
To request a Building Bridges presentation, please
contact Bernice Suplee at jbsuplee@xxxxxxx or (631) 665-7033.Michael Fairchild,
who produced the half-hour “Faiths of Long Island” video for the Long Island
Multi-Faith Forum has loaded it onto YouTube. You can see the video at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ncnn5pd6Gu4
Public comment under way for proposed immigration reform
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is
encouraging public input over the next 60 days on a proposed law that would
allow illegal immigrants with immediate family members who are U.S. citizens to
remain with their family longer while seeking permanent residency. For more
information on the proposed law, go to uscis.gov.
A 60-day public-comment period began Monday for a
proposed policy that would allow illegal immigrants who are immediate family
members of U.S. citizens to remain with their families longer while applying
for permanent residency. People can submit their input on U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services' proposal at regulations.gov through June 1.
The rule would allow illegal immigrants, through a
provisional waiver, to remain with their families longer if they could
demonstrate that separation would pose an extreme hardship on their spouse,
parents or children.
The government expects the rule to reduce the financial
and emotional hardship for families of illegal immigrants and also increase
efficiencies in processing visas.
“WELCOMING THE STRANGER” WORKSHOPS ON THE EAST END
Our next workshop for clergy and lay leaders on how to
help your congregation and community to become more welcoming of immigrants
will be Wednesday, June 6, at 6 p.m. at the Queen of the Most Holy Rosary on
Montauk Highway in Bridgehampton.
A similar workshop is being scheduled on the North Fork
at Sacred Heart Church in Cutchogue on Depot Lane and Main Road.
HELP FOR IMMIGRANT WORKERS
The State Department of Labor has a host of free
programs designed to help immigrants break into the workforce. The New York
State Department of Labor is addressing the language/employment barrier with a
new program designed to help immigrants navigate the working world and learn
English as well. Immigrant workforce counselors are set up at the State Labor
Department's one-stop centers in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Flushing, Patchogue,
Yonkers, Buffalo, Syracuse and Utica and they can provide assistance in a wide
variety of languages. They also refer clients to English as a Second Language
(ESL) classes. All of the Immigrant Workforce Project programs are free. For
more information, visit http://www.labor.ny.gov.
INTERRELIGIOUS VISITS
The LICC’s new Dialogue Committee wants to encourage
inter-denominational and inter-religious visits to houses of worship, which is
one way to create communities that welcome immigrants. When Christians meet
local Sikhs, Bahais, and Jains, they are reminded that not all recent
immigrants are from Latin America. And Latinos often find they need a little
help in understanding Long Island’s astonishing religious diversity.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, someone
remarked once at a meeting of the Long Island Multi-Faith Forum, a visit is
worth a thousand pictures. Would your church, synagogue, mosque, gurudwara,
temple or fellowship welcome interfaith visitors? If so, what are good times to
come and whom should we list as a contact for visits? Is there anything you
would like visitors to know about where they should sit, what they should wear,
and what you would prefer that they do or not do?
You might also consider hosting the Forum’s “Building
Bridges” program or its “What’s My Faith?” game show. Both are great ways to
help your congregation or community group to understand your immigrant
neighbors.
The Rev. Thomas W. Goodhue
Executive Director
Long Island Council of Churches
1644 Denton Green
Hempstead, NY 11550
516-565-0290 ext. 206 (voice)
516-565-0291 (fax)
tomgoodhue@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.liccny.org
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