Dear Tikkun Collective Members,
It’s Nadine and Leila, your Nefesh Tikkun Collective co-chairs, sharing the latest installment of Tikkun Weekly, October 21, 2020.
ACTION:
With less than two weeks until the election, let’s all commit to at least one phonebanking shift! Will you join us? We can make a difference talking to voters! Let us know so we can coordinate and celebrate our accomplishments together. In this time of heightened anxiety, let’s keep each other motivated.
Below are several phonebanking times to choose from:
Yes on Prop. 15
- Register here
- Thursday, October 22 @ 5 pm
- Sunday, October 25 @ 5 pm – LEILA HAS COMMITTED TO THIS TIME
- Monday, October 26 @ 5 pm – NADINE HAS COMMITTED TO THIS TIME
- Tuesday, October 27 @ 5 pm
No on Prop. 25
- Register here
- Wednesday, October 21 @ 6:30 pm
- Sunday, October 25 @ 3:00 pm
- Wednesday, October 28 @ 6:30 pm
- Sunday, November 1 @ 3:00 pm
Voter Guides
Folks from Tikkun Collective met last week, and there was a request for a voter guide. We are sharing several below; please note that linking these does not mean that Nefesh is endorsing any particular viewpoint.
Unbiased, nonpartisan
Stances on ballot propositions
TORAH:
There’s so much in Parshat Noach (Torah portion of Noah) that we could discuss. In fact, much like this election cycle, it’s all a bit overwhelming! Let’s leave Noah and the flood for the time being and turn to the tower of babel, which appears later in the story. “Everyone on earth had the same language and the same words.” As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that this is dangerous, that uniformity of speech poses a problem. The people build a tower, heavenward, and when God sees it, God says if this is what people can do with one speech, imagine what comes next, let’s (to whom is God talking??) confound their speech. Then God scattered them so they could no longer be one unified people with one shared goal.
At first, uniformity seems like a problem and a threat for God, not people. We want unity and shared goals, don’t we? And dispersion and lack of understanding seem like a punishment for the human will to achieve some form of divinity. There are interpretations that suggest that this form of unity was like a totalitarian regime in which everyone is forced to utter the same words, spread the same messages. To speak with one voice. Is it possible that God is protecting people from ourselves? As we engage in activities like phonebanking, as we are fighting to win, as so many of us in this country are engaged in an attempt to convince and persuade, I think it’s important to keep this story in mind. What could it mean to genuinely value a multiplicity of voices as we fight for what we believe is right? In a time when we are so polarized, how do we fight the echo chamber effect? Is it even possible or desirable at a moment like this? No answers this week, only questions…
RECENT EVENTS:
- Sunday 10/25 from 2-4 pm. “Rage”, the 4th event in our 2020-2021 virtual storytelling series, “Transformation: Conversations and Storytelling About Healing and Social Action.” Sponsored by Repair: A Health and Disability Justice Organization. More info here
In solidarity,
Nadine and Leila
