Occupy London & Occupy Shabbat: An open letter to a friend
Posted: October 31, 2011 | Author: Russell Collins | | Tags: London, Occupy London, Occupy Shabbat, Shabbat |Leave a comment »
by Russell Collins
Dear Richard,
I really do see where you are coming from. Maybe a few months ago I might have been the one saying bluntly what you have said. Perhaps I have changed – but haven’t we all over these last few years. This aside, I can’t help feeling that your comments regarding OccupyLondon and OccupyShabbat are unfair and misguided. It hurts when you say that we are an embarrassment to our religion and community, that we have no right to call ourselves Jewish. I know I shouldn’t feel this way and I know you didn’t set out to make me feel this way, but I am hurt. Most of all I am hurt that you do not see or do not want to understand why we had to be there on Friday night (and other nights before this).
Have you been to the St Pauls site? Yes there are people who fundamentally believe global capitalism to be evil – but (in my experience) most people seem to be there simply to call for a paradigm shift – to stand up in public and shout “things aren’t getting better – there must be another way”. Of course, it is not just the protesters who are calling for change. Just last week you showed me an essay on consumerism by the Chief Rabbi. Did he not write:
Affluence dulls the senses. It makes you forget where you came from. You start taking prosperity for granted, not realising how vulnerable it is. Bad things begin to happen. Inequalities grow. The social bond becomes weak. The nation forgets who it is and why.
Surely the taboo is now broken? Surely we are allowed to talk about the alternatives? As Jews and citizens of this country, surely we are obliged to think about the alternatives?
This is why I participated in the OccupyShabbat Friday night service. Not because I am anti-capitalist and not because I hate the ‘bankers’ (whomever they might be). You know that my politics are rarely leftwing. I was there because the Judaism I want to be part of has, at its core, a deep commitment to social justice, to repairing the world – to tikkun olam. Are we so different in this respect? Is this not what we both want for our daughters? I know your thoughts and misgivings about OccupyLondon but I wonder whether you supported the J14 protests in Israel? It seems so strange to me that our community held the Israeli rallies to be a symbol of democracy and pride but yet the reaction to events in our own backyard is so different!
You describe the camp (and by extension, me) as protesters, but we should all be careful not to subscribe to the media driven view that the occupy movement is a protest in the traditional sense. By falling back to what we know (or rather think we know), we fail to listen to the new language – that spoken through the stillness and steadfastness of the occupation rather than the hyperbole of the media and the fear of the politicans (and church). Like many others, perhaps you are waiting to hear a clear set of demands, but by doing so you distance yourself from understanding that the medium is the message! It’s not what we are calling for but the fact that we are here together, calling for change, calling for a better world. And isn’t this such a ‘Jewish’ way of doing things?
The Torah tells the story of the Akeidah – the binding of Isaac. This might be the most terrible story in the whole of our faith and tradition – the story of a father, instructed by God to sacrifice his son. We sat next to each other in shul on Rosh Hashanah and listened to this very story in the leyning. Remember the one phrase that reconciled this most dreadful situation – ‘Hineni’ – Here I am! ‘Hineni’ – the revelation of self and other, together. And the response? The unspoken voice that reassures, here I am, there is nothing more that you must do, it is enough that you are here.’ Hineni.’ ‘Hineni.’ This is why we made Kiddush in the midst of the ‘machaneh.’ No slogans. It was enough that we were there.
Perhaps my message now resonates with you. But yet you scorned me personally, telling me that on Shabbat I should have been at home, relaxing in the warmth and comfort. But is not Shabbat the most revolutionary of days? A day of perfect rest, which allows us to transcend the limitation of the realistic and embrace the possibility of the utopian? How often do we really ‘occupy’ Shabbat? How often do we fully occupy this ‘space’ and say out loud and in public “This is the change I want! This is the change I am!”? Do we even believe anymore that this is possible? On Friday I did just that – even if it were only for a few fleeting and beautiful moments. If you were with me you would have spent time in the company of families and Rabbis and likeminded souls. Like old times we would have forged new friendships with people we could never have met elsewhere. We would have stood side by side and listened to three young sisters make kiddush and say hamotzi over two challah loaves. How different is this from the scene around your table? Is this not the spirit of Shabbat? Is this not the world that we dreamed of?
Your friend always
R