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1. Reach out in your neighborhood for Jews in pain over the current crisis. A havurah-style service and/or program of connection for those troubled by the situation in the middle east can be very important to someone you don’t yet know right now. Notice I didn’t mention guest speaker or panel here, we’re talking meaningful intimacy and support. 2. Find a spiritual support partner who will not debate you on your views, who can listen and if you’d like, reflect the depth of your feelings back for you, or ask questions that will help you go deeper. You might bring some fabric to tear or magazine articles to tear, or something to break as part of this time if your level of frustration, exasperation and concern is anywhere near the level of mine at this point. Before a traumatically aroused person can reason, the level of emotion needs attention. Or at least that’s my personal experience. My teacher, Reb Zalman, sent me Dr. Gene Gendlin as a visitor earlier this year and he’s become a dear friend and guide. He wrote the book Focusing and has a link on his non-profiit’s site [www.focusing.org] that will assign you a listening partner training in the excellent method called Focusing. And Lassie, get help, if deep down this world has gotten to you to the point of the possibility of damage to your long-term well-being. Help helps, collegial listening (as in avenues like co-counseling or focusing) is prevention and palliative, not treatment. 3. Shrie gevalt in the forest til nothing more will come up. This is a Jewish meditation practice and goes by the name hitbodedut. 4. Avoid otitis media, a.k.a., over-exposure to the news and other peoples’ opinions about it. Contemplate the rhythm of your life and select a time of day that is least disruptive and then take in the mitzvah of knowing what’s going on. It might help to craft a kavannah before television watching and to have some one to pray with or beat up afterward. [Just kidding about the beat up.] 5. Collect hopeful ideas about this world we live in and fund them. I’m sending a letter of support and $18 to each one from a fund of $1800 I earned at a recent scholar-in-residence weekend for a small mainstream Conservative synagogue. If they knew what their payment is funding, would they still have invited me? I think so. Let’s not stereotype. Seeds of Peace.Org This is a group that bring young leaders together from difficult to evolve countries and regions for non-violent communication training, mediation training and just plain having the experience of being treated with respect and set into a place where an idea-exchange exists that isn’t about the best meditation before martyrdom. It’s backers are international ranging from my $18 to a bundle from the Queen of Jordan. AJWS.ORG Jewish World Service Run by one of my favorite role models, Dr. Ruth Messinger, this remarkable organization not only sets Jewish volunteers up in the same G-d-awful [aweful?] places that Doctors without Borders go, they also run several programs inside of Afghanistan to support women’s health, education and oh, so subtly, rights. 6. Call and email friends in Israel steadily, visit or make aliyah if possible, this is nightmare time, be there for them. 7. Stay in touch with any connections you may have in the Palestinian, Arab and Islamic communities. Good fences make good neighbors, let's lean over the fence to create rapport as much as possible. 8. Get to know your legislators personally, even a ten minute drop in contact at their local offices become very important. I suggest stopping by with a some kugel or chocolate Hanukkah gelt and a note that says: "This is in appreciation for all the hard work you’re doing in the face of these stressful times. With blessings for shalom........add your name and email so you start getting their missives and can respond to them. The same goes for your area health professionals. At a local provider network meeting on Sunday, I never saw a more fried collection of caring professionals. Before you leave their offices, give them a blessing from your heart....blessings carry spiritual energy and you might help someone get through the day. 9. Turn on your favorite music and simmer in it until your soul is ready to re-engage. The poet Rumi says it nicely: "Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument. Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground." I’m going through a box of Jewish music cds, I always buy them to support the artists and then get too busy to listen. I’m occupied writing a book due out this fall, Reclaiming Judaism as a Spiritual Practice, and the deadlines are just about right now (can’t you tell - look at this avoidance and digression from my task that you are reading!) Meanwhile, I’m staying sane boogie-ing around and even getting in some yoga between huge bouts of writing because of these great Jewish mellow listening discoveries and re-discoveries in the pile today: (Likely you can find them on-line somehow if you’re interested, my usual cd collection is in the car with my hubbatzin Barry Bub who’s teaching applied spirituality and communications skills at a medical school in Florida this week.) Julie Silver: Walk with Me 10. Help expand this list of ideas - practices, music, good works to support, quotes. I’d love to hear from you and promise to collate what comes and give it right back to the e-mail lists. If you find this version helpful, you are free to pass it on. With love from my heart to yours, Rabbi Goldie Milgram, a.k.a., Reb Goldie. For additional resources on Jewish spiritual practices you are welcome to drop in at: [www.rebgoldie.com.]
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