Essays

Long-form essays on Judaism, Zionism, halakha, and the present hour.

Zionism for Palestinians

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Zionism for Palestinians?

I’ve been having great discussions with listeners to The Z Word ‘s first episode, my conversation with Palestinian author Mo Husseini .

A central point of not conflict nor disagreement but, rather I would say, creative tension, between Mo and I was in the relevance of Zionism to Palestinians.

Mo represented an honest perspective: Zionism can mean different things to different people, granted, but beyond dealing with the localized (and often adverse) effects of Zionism on Palestinian lives, why should Palestinians care about Zionism? Isn’t it just something that the Jews are doing “over there”?

I, in response, made a brief argument for Zionism’s relevance to Palestinians.

I want to elaborate a bit more on why I think joining the Zionist discourse is not just relevant to Palestinians but, suggesting as a non-Palestinian, possibly desirable for them.

Firstly, I think that being subject to the localized effects of Zionism – whether under the current conditions of occupation and discrimination or in a situation where a future Palestinian state must partner with the Israeli state – is sufficient to make developing an active concern with its voices, institutions, policies, and direction a priority to Palestinians not just in the West Bank but “Israel proper.” From this purely pragmatic perspective alone, I think Zionism – as an irreversible fact of life not just in the modern Levant – is clearly relevant to Palestinians.

But beyond the pragmatic level, I think that the Palestinian national aim – to establish a just and autonomous society on this land of their ancestors, free from foreign colonialism and imperialism – is so closely aligned with the Israeli national aim that their attainments mutually coincide. Far from being an ideology of foreign invasion and exploitation, Zionism was and is a liberation movement of indigenous de-colonization, which for Israelis included an explicit process of leaving socio-political exile and reestablishing traditional society in their homeland. The intersection with Palestinian liberation and de-colonization is obvious – as is the shared dream of a just, democratic society. (Shared by most – obviously both Israelis and Palestinians deal with their own internal fascist demons and reactionary religious conservatives.) Zionism, in this sense, can serve Palestinians equally well as a vehicle and vector for realizing their national dream, as it does Israelis.

Furthermore, in my personal (controversial) opinion, while Palestinians and Jews are two separate peoples, we are actually majority descended from the same nation of Israel (which, again in my personal and controversial opinion, was called Palaistine in both Jewish and non-Jewish Hellenistic sources). The Romans did not succeed in driving out the entire nation, and many Israelites remained in this land after the Roman conquest. In the face of waves of colonization over the ensuing centuries, many Israelites eventually chose to adopt Christianity and/or Islam and an independent consciousness of peoplehood emerged among their descendants here in this land. While many foreigners came and joined them over the years, the exact same thing can be said of every Israelite community in the diaspora. This historical narrative makes a lot more sense to me than competing narratives which position either Palestinians or Israelis as essential interlopers in the land, based on superficial demographic markers and what I contend amount to the effects of colonization. Accordingly, Zionism – in its pursuit of Israelite autonomy – is as much the heritage of Palestinians as it is of Israelis, and the cultural dimension of Zionism (including the Kookian revivalism and renaissance of Israelite culture in all its spiritual and creative depth and diversity) may itself be further accessible to and expanded by the unruptured relationship with land (as well as the Christian and Islamic elements, redeemed of their imperialism and supremacism) of the Palestinian (-Israelite) people.

So there you have it:

We share the same roots.

We share the same land.

And I would go so far as to say that we share the same future.

Can we share the dream of Zion?

Kollelim as National Service

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I respect Haredim.

I think that their counter-cultural ethos is inspirational and the construction of a lifestyle revolving around the study and observance of Torah is admirable.

I, too, value the study of Torah and in fact I think that it can be a valid form of national service, on par with army service, in its own way.

The past century has painfully reminded us, again and again, that we need soldiers, pilots, and commanders.

In this stage of history, in this world of violence, that is undeniable.

But we also need – have always needed – dedicated researchers, thinkers, and writers, imbued with the values and commitments of the Torah, to study and contemplate and illuminate the pressing questions of state and communal policy, from the unique perspective of the Torah’s texts and traditions.

We need units of kollelim studying the major sugiyoth of our time and presenting informative literature and lectures to advise and guide our leaders through the crises of this era and of this year.

We need the best and brightest Talmudic minds expending every effort to plumb the depths of Torah for solutions to our society’s problems.

Now it’s true that this form of national service isn’t right for everybody – there will have to be standards for enrollment and maintenance, tests and evaluations, and supervision by qualified, competent heads of kollelim and yeshiboth.

Those who would rather hang out at the pizza shop, or protest army service in the streets, or climb construction cranes, instead of dedicating their lives to Torah study for the sake of teaching it to our nation at the most critical times, need not apply.

But the religious reform I envision for this country can and should recognize the unique contributions the Haredi sector can make to our national defense and welfare, on our own terms as the nation of Israel.

Igbo Israelites

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The Igbo culture always surprises me.

Today I learned that those Igbos that still pray according to the ways of Omenana, convene an additional service steeped in tradition (after they recite together the tephilloth that they have learned from Jewish sources) with the invocation: “Whom do Igbos serve?” “Yah!”

I don’t think we’re talking about a lost tribe of Israel that wandered en masse across Africa – but an Israelite nucleus that fled (northern?) Israel, migrated through Elephantine westward all the way to the Niger River Basin, where they naturalized/integrated with members of local communities and were supplemented by Jewish Berbers via Mali and Israelite/Jewish merchants from central and east Africa.

According to this theory, the nucleus diverged from Israel and the core community coalesced along the Niger River before the textual revolution of Ezra haSopher and his court in the (later!) Persian period.

Notably, unlike their Nigerian neighbors, the Igbo kept kashruth, family purity, inheritance laws, economic laws, the laws of to’eba and tuma, and male circumcision on the eighth day, just like Israelites.

Most importantly, the Igbos are unique in West Africa in preserving a form of “republicanism” that exhibits the same horizontality in socio-political organization that R José Faur z”l argued is central to Israelite society.

And according to this theory, and unlike their erstwhile Jewish cousins, the Igbos lost Hebrew, the text of the Tora, the Shabbath, the attachment to Israel, and their own history (beyond the popular tradition – “We are Israelites!”).

There remains so much research to be done in Israelite Studies, especially in Africa – anthropological studies, material culture cataloging, archival documentation, genetic sampling and classification.

We need to devote resources to developing a coherent and rigorous picture of Israelite history beyond the Jewish people, in Israel, the Middle East, Africa, and the rest of Asia.

Who Invented the Jews

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Who invented the Jews? Who invented the Palestinians?

“Sand explained during a newspaper interview his reasons for writing the book: “I wrote the book for a double purpose. First, as an Israeli, to democratise the state; to make it a real republic. Second, I wrote the book against Jewish essentialism.”

Sand explained in the same interview that what he means by ‘Jewish essentialism’ is, in the words of the interviewer, “the tendency in modern Judaism to make shared ethnicity the basis for faith.” “That is dangerous and it nourishes antisemitism. I am trying to normalise the Jewish presence in history and contemporary life,” Sand said.”

On the one hand, Dr Sand’s work has been criticized on all kinds of academic grounds.

On the other hand, as a Neomaimonidean Talmudist and a religious Zionist, I share his concern that “ethnicity” not become the basis for Jewish or Israeli identity.

I am proud to be a member of a nation that defines itself by its laws and its institutions, and not by blood, language, or phenotype.

I am proud to be a member of a nation whose culture is not derived from, and whose society is not organized around, myths of power and supremacy, but whose culture derives from and whose society is organized around the careful, collective reading and discussion of books that are accessible to, and the heritage of, all.

I am proud to be a member of a nation with both native and naturalized paths to citizenship, and both citizen and non-citizen paths to membership and inclusion, and an ethos of mutual support and solidarity regardless of social standing, and therefore does not require the administration of purity tests or the construction of walls to keep out the impure.

I am proud to be a member of a nation that has taught, and learned from, and mixed with, and been enhanced by every other people on this planet, of all “ethnicities” and “races,” to one degree or another. A nation that has preserved, transmitted, created, and shared so many different and diverse ideas about the True, the Good, and the Beautiful, ideas originating in the historical circumstances of members of our nation around the world and across history.

My religious Zionism reflects my understanding of Israelite nationalism, of Jewish peoplehood.

Of the unique covenant which is the political foundation of our society both in the land and in exile.

Of the psycho-spiritual collective organism that was created through that covenant and that has developed and evolved over the millenia since.

Of the cultural imperative to build a society that is just and holy, inclusive and diverse.

As the verse states:
ברב עם הדרת מלך
“In the multitude of the people is the glory of the King”

Dr Sands may have gotten a lot wrong but his mission seems to me – again, as a religious Zionist – to be sufficiently on track to merit giving the points he may have gotten right, careful consideration.

Our nation is an astounding thing, and the marvels have only begun to be revealed. Between shared origins and shared destiny lie many paths through history. Those who were estranged have been brought close, those who were distant now live side by side.

Traditionally, we call this “the ingathering of the exiled,” which might be best described by the American motto:

“From Many – One”

May we merit to see our nation fully revived, the crown restored to its glory, and a just peace in this land.

Political Zionism Is Autonomy

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Morning meditation on political Zionism:

The political component to Zionism is not Jewish sovereignty over the land.

According to Jewish tradition, the Creator was, is, and forever will be the sovereign over this land and all lands. We are just migrants, tenants granted the right to reside here and the responsibility to live with the land’s sanctity and natural sensitivity to injustice.

What political Zionism seeks to promote is Jewish autonomy.

The freedom to rule ourselves according to our laws and values, without external oppression, persecution, or pressure to participate in a supremacist social hierarchy.

Jewish people believe that the Creator brought us to this land in order for us to exercise that freedom, in safety, security, and holiness. Over the millenia our ancestors lived, prayed, and died in this land, our traditional culture was born and flourished in its mountains and its plains, its coasts and its wilderness.

But land – protected space – is just a precondition for full autonomy.

Full autonomy, according to Jewish tradition, finds expression in lawful self-governance. The בן חורין autonomous individual is the one paradoxically bound by the laws of the Torah. As a nation, full autonomy is found in our laws.

“The tablets were inscribed with autonomy”

Physically returning to the land is inarguably necessary.

Mentally healing from the exile is essential.

But the political goal of the re-establishment of Israelite civilization in the land of Israel is the reassertion of Israelite autonomy – and that comes through the establishment of a fully-functioning lawful society.

“There is no sanctity except in the Laws”

In the merit of our rejoicing in both the Torah and the return of our captive brothers to the embrace of our national family, may we merit to achieve full autonomy in this land in the establishment of a lawful, just, and holy society dedicated to the liberation and elevation of all sentient beings through the civilizational program of our sacred Torah. You know, political Zionism. 😉

Genocide Accusation as Blood Libel

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On October 7th, 2023, the Hamas military invaded southern Israel. For an entire day, they systematically murdered every Jewish person they found. Their stated goal was to join with Hezbollah forces scheduled to invade northern Israel on the same day, and together with militant cells in the West Bank successfully wipe out millions of Jewish people.

From October 7th, 2023 onward, for a period of two years, the IDF invaded, bombed, and shelled the Gaza Strip, targeting military tunnels, weapons caches, and Hamas units densely embedded and enmeshed amongst and under civilians, their homes, their schools, and their hospitals. Their stated goal was to rescue the captive Israelis that Hamas kidnapped and to destroy Hamas as an organization.

To my mind, one of these is clearly attempted genocide.

The other is not.

However, it would seem that there are many, many people – some of whom I would even count as friends – who disagree with this rather straightforward assessment.

Since October 7th, I have read and heard arguments from anti-Zionists accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.

Not just war crimes, not even ethnic cleansing, but genocide.

While the accusation originates in authoritarian state propaganda and is largely promoted by ignorant talking heads via memes and reels, it also has the support of several academic bodies dedicated to the study of international human rights law and genocide studies (as well as a bogus pseudo-academic fake institute, but I won’t dignify them with inclusion here).

These academics published and co-signed a paper suggesting that according to the standard and accepted definition of genocide, Israel is commiting genocide against Palestinians. As proof of this claim, they cited: select statements by Israeli politicians, the “totality of evidence” of the war’s devastating impact, select instances of IDF soldiers targeting civilians, and the widely-circulated casualty statistic claiming that roughly 3% of the population was killed.

Based on this paper, co-signed by several reputable academic centers for genocide studies, I am supposed to believe that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.

If I don’t accept this supposed consensus, then apparently I am a “genocide denier.”

🤔

Here’s why I am not persuaded by the argument.

1. Cherry-picking statements from hyperbolic politicians who ALSO made many statements asserting the goal of self-defense and the need for humanitarian aid for Gazans, completely fails the standard of the “only possible interpretation” of these statements being genocidal intent.

2. The recourse to the “totality of evidence” in the alleged absence of direct evidence of genocidal intent is completely unnecessary: the direct evidence available – in the form of all the measures the IDF took to protect Gazan life, from sending warning phone calls and leaflets to evacuating civilians to literally scheduling airstrikes in advance – indicates that there was no genocidal intent.

3. While over 70% of the Gaza Strip was reduced to rubble, only 3% of the Gazan population was killed in this war. The wild disparity between these two percentages indicates that rather than wantonly disregarding Gazan life, let alone targeting Gazans for slaughter, the IDF waged war in a densely-packed urban setting without genocidal intent.

4. Gazans are not a separate religious, ethnic, or national group. They are part of the Palestinian people. While Gazans were dying from Israeli airstrikes by the thousands, millions of Palestinians across Israel were completely safe from any threat of genocide; in fact, they were in greater danger from rockets and missiles from Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran. While military measures in the West Bank intensified and settler crimes against Palestinians increased, there was no genocidal targeting of Palestinians as a religious, ethnic, or national group at any point in the past two years.

5. As mentioned above, only 3% of the Gazan population died in this war. That number is not just civilians – it includes Hamas soldiers. And the fact that, on analysis, it actually *disproportionately* includes Hamas soldiers as opposed to, say, children (roughly half the population), indicates not only a lack of genocidal intent but a lack of genocidal *outcome*.

Kappara, this war has been undeniably devastating for Gazans.

The question itself of whether we have committed genocide or come close to committing genocide, is a valid question.

The debate itself in international human rights law regarding the meaning, nature, and definition of genocide, is a valid debate.

It is also clear that the IDF did not always follow its own policies and it may even be that war crimes were committed over the past two years.

Israel is a democracy dedicated to the rule of law, and we can and should investigate everything that needs investigation.

Howthebleepever.

The accusation of genocide, in light of the evidence, is a blood libel.

Its origins, its memes, its subtext, its imputation of ultimate guilt, its baselessness, make it a blood libel.

Not everyone who believes it is a rabid antisemite – but everyone who believes it has bought into modern antisemitism on some level. Including those Jewish people who support, repeat, and insist on the truth of the libel.

As I’ve written previously, I believe that Zionism must reckon with the devastation of Gaza, and that a new future must be built from the ashes of both Beeri and Gaza. And as anyone who has read my posts knows, I’m the last one to place the Israeli state, government, or military beyond criticism.

But the truth is the truth.

May the genocides actually occurring right now across the world be swiftly stopped, and may the world know no more genocide.

May a just peace come to this land and may Palestinians and Israelis together take the right steps forward towards a shared future of liberty, equality, and security for all.

Religion as Foundation

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People (especially those from a certain North American country) are obsessed with politics, especially partisan politics.

Everything must be explainable by reference to your political ideology or better yet, your party affiliation.

My concern for the welfare of the poor, of immigrants, of queer people, of Palestinians, of strangers within my community and outside its borders, does not derive from a political ideology or party line.

I am concerned with the welfare of these people because I am a Religious person.

Note that I don’t say, “because I am a Jewish person,” although my Judaism, from the days of Abraham abinu until our own, has had a lot to say about such concern.

Note that I don’t say, “because I believe in God,” although my belief in the divine image of humanity, the human ikon of God, is entirely aligned with such concern.

But because I am a Religious person – I am a vulnerable, imperfect man trying to grow past my failures and limitations in the process of actualizing my full human potential, under the same cosmic conditions shared by every other human being who seeks to live between birth and death, and in existential harmony with whom I seek to create a better world – I am concerned with justice and welfare and inclusion and equity and diversity.

Even my political beliefs – Zionism, Libertarian Socialism – ultimately flow from and around my core religious experience and conviction.

Don’t get it twisted.

Politics and parties may have their place, but the foundation of civilization is Religion.

The Road Leads to Zion

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Yesterday I saw a video of an execution on Facebook.

A row of kneeling men, shot in the head from behind.

The person who shared the video asserted that the shooters were Hamas soldiers, the victims were men accused of “collaboration” with Israeli forces. From what little I could tell, this was the case.

This event happened after the ceasefire went into effect and while the kidnapped Israeli captives were being returned to Israel.

Like the war itself at the beginning, I accept this ceasefire now for its necessity while harboring many questions and doubts.

It is necessary to stop bombing Gazans without a strategy or endgame or even evaluation of our tactics. It is necessary to rescue our kidnapped citizens. It is necessary to chart a new course forward, that neither abdicates responsibility for the populations of Gaza and the West Bank nor supports fascist enemies as “assets” for political expediency.

But there are many points in Trump’s updated Biden Plan that raise eyebrows, if not red flags. And the key security assurances depend on Hamas disarming, accepting an international transitional force, and withdrawing from Gaza.

None of which they have agreed to do.

While they apparently reorganize as a “police force” and execute Gazan dissidents.

Look, I’m glad the kidnapped captives are reunited with their families. I’m glad the airstrikes have stopped. I have deep gratitude to the Creator for these undeniably good things, and I recognize that neither our relationship with divine justice nor the tools it utilizes to achieve its implacable ends, are uncomplicated or pure.

But this deal – Biden’s deal – is a bad deal.

As much as I detest Benjamin Netanyahu for being a generally incompetent and criminal prime minister, and for unnecessarily prolonging this war in particular, this deal was and is a bad deal.

And if Donald Juniper Trump contributed to this deal, what he contributed was political pressure and/or guarantees (the ol’ carrot and stick) to Benjamin Netanyahu in order to persuade him to accept a bad deal.

It’s unsurprising that POTUS would be so proud of a bad deal for Israel (and Gazans, if we’re being honest). The mess he’s proudly made of his own country suggests that he’s not the man to bring about peace in the Middle East.

(So, no Noble Prize for him.)

But it seems that Israelis and Palestinians will be footing the bill for this deal in years (if not months) to come. (More exemplary leadership from the worst prime minister in Israeli history.)

But where does that leave us?

We still have a democracy. As the war (or this round of it) officially draws to a close, we can turn our focus to next year’s elections and the long-overdue investigations of the politicians and bureaucrats responsible for October 7. There is no longer any political excuse for delaying action on these crucial matters. For two years we’ve held off on holding our leaders accountable. The bill has come due.

We still have joy. Communities across Israel had a dual celebration last night and today – the regular celebration of the Torah on the eight day after the joyous festival of Sukkoth, which was stolen from us for two years and only resumed today – and the unprecedented celebration of the release and reunification of kidnapped captives with their families and friends and people, after they were stolen from us two years ago. Across Israel, we sang “the children have returned to their land” like never before. That joy was palpable and is a source of great power, if we nurture and bring it with us into the days ahead.

We still have each other. Despite every effort by the Russo-Sino-Iranian Axis to isolate and turn the world against Israel; to coerce Gazans into embracing Hamas; to radicalize Israelis and Palestinians, and their respective supporters, against each other – despite the horrors and devastation and trauma of war and occupation and loss, the bridges burned and the alliances torched in the livestreamed shock of rubble and bodies, the skyrocketing mistrust of the other’s intentions and good faith – despite this dirty diaper of a deal that neither ensures Israelis’ security nor grants Palestinians autonomy – Israelis and Palestinians here in this land are still talking to each other, quietly, two here and three there, as neighbors and fellows bound to the same land with the same fate. So much went so wrong in the wake of Oct 7, and we’re slowly picking up the pieces – together.

I don’t know what bends, twists, and dangers the road ahead will bring.

But I know where the road leads.

Peace. Justice. Security.

For all.

Zion.

Reckon with the Devastation

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This will make some people irrationally mad but: Zionism must reckon with the devastation of Gaza.

We’ve left behind the naive days when we waged war solely and wholly in self-defense, with great concern and cunning strategy to decisively end wars with as little human, moral, economic cost as possible.

Rejecting the blood libels and insulating ourselves from the propaganda is insufficient in light of our public failure to meet our professed standards of conduct and policy in Gaza.

Correct assignment of moral agency and culpability to Hamas for instigating and doing their part to prolong the war is insufficient in the aftermath of what we, together, wrought in Gaza.

Even if the bombs were meant for the deserving, even if steps were often taken to protect the undeserving from the bombs, the net result has been thousands dead that should have lived and they too have a claim on our dream of Zion.

Zionism is about return.

Return to the nation.

Return to the land.

Return to the covenant.

Return to right relationship.

Now as we end this miserable war, we must return to our senses and show the world what it means to return to the right way.

What return to the unfinished dream of Zion, as a nation of individuals with agency and autonomy, truly looks like at home and on the world stage:

– a just and peaceful law-abiding society
– a symbiotic relationship with the land
– a common culture of beautiful holiness
– a sanctuary for all human beings, created in the divine image

And furthermore.

In the name of building the Zion of which we have dreamed for millenia – in the name of return – it is not enough that we bring about the rebuilding of and return to Beeri and Nir Oz.

We must do everything we can to rebuild and encourage the return of Gazans to their homes, their communities, their lives.

Yes, Gazans – those who have unfathomably suffered for the past two years as they scrambled for cover trapped between Hamas and the IDF, deserve to return home no less than any Israeli.

We must reckon with their loss at our hands, just as we must reckon with our own – and build Zion from the ruins of Beeri and Gaza together.

At this delicate and uncertain time, on the eve of the Hebrew anniversary of the attempted genocide that started this horrific war, when so much about the future remains unknown and opaque to us – I pray that the Creator of all hearts accept our prayers for a just peace, for an end to wicked injustice and cruel violence, for the remaining kidnapped hostages to be reunited with their families, for a rebuilt Gaza, and for a day when awareness of our common Creator fills the world like the waters of the ocean.

Benevolent Sensitivity

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Jewish Religion: A Rough Sketch

At the heart of our practices, theories, and forms lies חסידות, a word translated variously as piety, loving-kindness, and mysticism.

For reasons that I hope will become clear, I prefer the somewhat clunky translation “benevolent sensitivity.”

The first usage of חסיד in the Torah is in Moshe rabbenu’s blessing of the tribe of Lewi: “Your tummim and urim [priestly oracle] to your Hassid” – a reference to the tribe’s general role, and the specific responsibility of the descendants of Aharon haKohen, in the guidance of Jewish religion, both in the central nexus of the Qodesh (al Quds) and scattered throughout the cities and communities of the nation.

Moshe was the rabban of all nebiim but we see that traditions, praxis, and concepts were transmitted, developed, and shared in the context of the Levitic activity, especially at the Qodesh. Ruwwah haQodesh – the psycho-spiritual experiential mode associated with this activity – was established as the preliminary to full nebua. From these circles emerged many of the nebiim that contributed to our textual and spiritual heritage.

But why Hassid?

I believe that the path of Israelite religion, as actively taught and developed by the nebiim especially of the tribe of Lewi, is one of cultivation of benevolent sensitivity, to one’s self – one’s nature and needs, to one’s fellows – their natures and needs, and to one’s God – and the nature and needs of the divine pathos, as R Heschel z”l described it, within the creation.

This path of cultivation brings the human being from raw animalistic potential to actualized psycho-spiritual resonance with the divine. It is the revelation and the attunement of the divine image in which all human beings were created, and it is the generative process that lies at the heart of all religions, including Islam, in the context of which it is called التصوف‎ the tasawwuf, Sufism.

Rambam, the last and greatest of the Geonim, drew upon the Sufi discourse and works of his Mediterranean milieu in formulating his exploration of nebua in his famous Guide. It may be justly said that the entire project of the Guide is the cultivation of a cognitive and intellectual sensitivity to the divine as an active alternative to the barren and often irrational quagmire of theology.

Rambam’s son, R Abraham Maimuni, overtly recognized the Islamic Sufis as contemporary adherents to the same Way of the ancient nebiim and publicly taught a form of practice that harmonized with theirs. Subsequent generations of the Maimuni family developed the Sufi themes of
Maimonideanism, both in writing and in practice, all with the aim of cultivating the self along the way of the nabi, as described above.

While the Maimuni Sufism did not directly survive the vicissitudes of history in a region ravaged by competing empires, it later contributed (along with the broader Sufi influence) to the development of the kabbalistic circles around the Mediterranean, which in turn resulted in the emergence of European Hassidism. And of course Rambam’s legacy, in the widespread impact of both his Guide and his legal rulings, definitively shaped the חסידות that came after him, both in illumination and in shadow.

It is only natural that Religionists – Sufis of whatever community – should work together to heal a world in desperate need of Religion, of “benevolent sensitivity.”

It is my hope that on this festival of Sukkoth, in which we continue the theme of unity with creation in worship of our Creator with an expansive hope for all the world’s families to join us in celebration of our Creator’s goodness, we will merit to traverse the bridges our ancestors and prophets built before us and between us, and bring the world to a more perfected state both in justice and in awareness of the divine.