L’shem yichud kud’sha b’rich hu u’sh’chinah . . .V’ahavtah l’rey’a’cha k’mo’cha
For the sake of unification of the Divine Masculine and the Divine Feminine,
We commit ourselves to the obligation to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Shalom Chevrey, Dear Friends!
Please join us for our upcoming
25th year in the wilderness together!
Dates: Thursday, April 25
– Sunday April 28
Location: Joshua Tree National Park
This year’s village again promises:
·
Connection with Nature, amid
the amphitheater of boulders in our “home court” in Joshua Tree. In an age of global climate catastrophes and
the threat of extinction, being with the Earth, the Great Mother, seems one of
the only logical steps to take;
·
Connection with Community – gathering of
old and new friends, relatives, elders, youngers, recognizing the essence of
each other, envisioning new ways to live together as brothers and sisters; and
·
Connection with Sacred Ritual –
continuing to awaken our indigenous mind through earth-based ceremonies, enlivening old
rituals, creating authentic experiences of the sacred
Kavanah for 2019
(spiritual intention)
As in years past, we will carry an additional kavanah into the Village, born from
our year-long study of the Book of
Joshua. The author(s) clearly
sought guidance for the question, “How shall we not be slaves again?” Just as
clearly, they answered, “By colonizing everything we encounter.” The answer
they perceived led to this:
Joshua 6:15-21:
“It happened on the seventh day . . . They destroyed everything that
was in the city – man and woman, youth and elder, ox and sheep and ass – by the
edge of the sword.”
In this age of climate disruption and planetary destruction,
rising corruption, genocide and ethnic cleansing, white supremacy, demagoguery,
authoritarian governments, and general dis-ease of the culture, we honor the
ancient question – How shall we not be slaves? – by adding further questions:
Does the ancient perception still offer guidance? If not, what then are we
called upon to do?
Why is this PV different from
all other PVs?
We carry essential and existential questions into this
year’s PV. We have no answers. We can barely frame the questions.
We plan to sit in deep council together and spend much time
leaning on the rocks and listening to what the land has to teach us regarding:
·
How do we rid ourselves of our “colonial mind” –
the thought processes and belief systems that result from millennia of
colonization and oppression - where competition, greed, extraction of
resources, and social inequality are the status quo drivers of human behavior? Put another way, how have we been (and
continue to be) colonizers and oppressors of the Earth and the “Other” (both
human and non-human)?
·
What would it be like to collaborate rather than
dominate? To cooperate rather than compete? To listen rather than just hear? To
know that the way things are is not the way things have to be? To organize
human society so that society serves all beings and the earth and not
vice-versa?
· Can developing indigenous mind, earth connection, listening to nature,
and putting humans in right relation with earth and other beings lead us into
the promised land through the shadow of Joshua?
We will again trust the mythology and ritual of our ancestral
Pesach story to provide a jumping off point to and through difficult territory
and universal questions. We do this in
order to find relevance for our Village’s existence, to help us understand the
times we live in and the imperatives demanded of us, and to perhaps discover ways
for us to move together for the sake of
all beings and the planet.
The prophet Micah teaches: “What does the Holy require of you but to do justice, to love
kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
And to riff off our ancient sage Hillel, if we do not do
something to face the destructive forces of conquest and colonization that have
plagued humankind for millennia, who will? And if we do not do it now, then
when?
B’shalom v’ahavah
Your Passover Village Leadership Council
PS: Though certainly
not necessary, the following brief readings and podcast are suggested if you
want to deepen your immersion into the kavanah questions before coming to PV
(in no particular order):
1.
“Extinction
Illness: Grave Affliction and Possibility,” essay published in Tikkun,
by Deena Metzger, https://www.tikkun.org/newsite/extinction-illness-grave-affliction-and-possibility
2. "Decolonizing Restorative Justice" by Denise C.
Breton, pp. 176-190; in “Unsettling
Ourselves: Reflections and Resources for Deconstructing
Colonial Mentality, a sourcebook compiled by the Unsettling Minnesota
collective”, https://unsettlingminnesota.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/um_sourcebook_jan10_revision.pdf
3. “White
Fragility“, Podcast featuring Robin
DiAngelo, at: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-learners-corner-podcast/the-learners-corner/e/57420409
a.
And for those who want to take a deeper dive,
take a look at her book “White Fragility: why it’s so hard for white people
to talk about racism” https://b-ok.cc/book/3553806/99f7ce
4.
Book
of Joshua
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