The Covid pandemic has taught us to wear masks to prevent the spread of the disease. We have learned to protect ourselves by taking care of others. It has taught us the ethics of care. Feminism also promotes the values of caring, kindness, empathy, love. These are values that are also germane to a socialism that builds institutions through which society as a whole fosters the well being of all.
Rabbi Michael Lerner and Cat Zavis lay out a powerful and compassionate plan for building that caring society. They draw on the Judio-Christian ethical tradition to present a vision of a society based on community and love.
There is much in U.S. society today that points in the opposite direction. There are many who feel no responsibility to others and see mask wearing as a violation of individual freedom. The individualist, competitive, materialist ethos makes for a nasty, brutish society. Rabbi Lerner and Cat Zavis seek a path out of such a divisive politics toward a more humane politics based on a love of the other. Their core premise is that all human beings seek love, acceptance, and a higher purpose for their lives.
The spiritual wisdom of Rabbi Lerner is laid out in his book Revolutionary Love: A Political Manifesto to Heal and Transform the World. Drawing from a lifetime of social activism, it provides a treasury of practical tools to counter the drift to domination and violence, and to build a more caring and sustainable society for us all.” Rabbi Lerner is the editor of Tikkun magazine and the author of eleven books, including two national bestsellers, Jewish Renewal and The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right. Cornel West has called him “one of the most significant prophetic public intellectuals and spiritual leaders of our generation.”
He will be joined in this webinar by Cat Zavis. She is executive director of the Network of Spiritual Progressives and rabbinic student in the Aleph: Jewish Renewal rabbinical ordination program.