As soon as I read the headline, I thought "self-promoter! This is fake news. This is like a report on a guy translating the Bible into Australian."<\/p>\n
Others must think, "Holy man!"<\/p>\n
Then I saw the article was about someone I knew and I hesitated.<\/p>\n
Here’s the JTA article<\/a>:<\/p>\n A Massachusetts rabbi<\/a> has written a prayer<\/a> to say before voting.<\/p>\n The prayer is nonpartisan, says Rabbi David Seidenberg, a Conservative and Renewal rabbi in Northhampton, and based in part on the custom of pledging tzedakah when called to the Torah.<\/p>\n The prayer also includes a promise to engage in "tikkun olam."<\/p>\n "Just as I participated in elections today, so may I merit to do good deeds and repair the world with all my actions," reads the prayer, which then asks the reciter of the prayer to fill in a specific pledge to undertake "on behalf of all living creatures, and in remembrance of the covenant of Noah’s waters to protect and to not destroy the earth and her plenitude."<\/p>\n "The voting booth felt like a sacred space to me," said Seidenberg, and thus he hopes the prayer will put those who recite it "in a different frame of mind" when voting.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n I knew Rabbi Seidenberg when he lived in Pico-Robertson. He was a colorful character, very much into protecting the environment. He was on a panel discussion I attended with various religious leaders talking about what they could do as religious leaders to reduce global warming.<\/p>\n I thought the panel discussion was phony posturing because none of the clerics had PhDs in meteorology and hence had no business making proclamations about global warming.<\/p>\n I hate it when people who have knowledge in one area believe that entitles them to make public pronouncements on stuff they know little about.<\/p>\n Rabbi Seidenberg stopped the discussion to force each of us in the audience to meditate on concrete steps we’d take to reduce global warming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As soon as I read the headline, I thought "self-promoter! This is fake news. This is like a report on a guy translating the Bible into Australian." Others must think, "Holy man!" Then I saw the article was about someone … Continue reading \n