Judaism today is a microcosm of the world: there are fundamentalists as well as those who see the state of Israel as an example grand peace and interdependence, as well as those who focus on the religious practices of the religion itself.

Well Judaism is just a micro version of . . . Judaism is in a state that’s very similar to the state we’re describing of the world. It’s just a mini version. So you have everything happening in Jewish life. You have fundamentalists who wanna kill all Arabs. We have people who wanna give up the state of Israel because in some vision of grand peace and interdependence, no one needs a nation state. And you have everything in between regarding Israel. Then regarding religious and spiritual practice, you have people that are saying Judaism has done its job. It’s time for it to simply unfold back into the world. And it’s basic ideas and messages have already been incorporated, so we don’t have . . . we don’t need to retain Judaism. And then you have other people who are playing with Jewish wisdom and Jewish practice in very creative ways. And so you have every type of expression right now. And that, again, is either a cause for great fear to some people, or great hope. I’m on the hope side of this. The more different expressions; the more we can have people play – and I mean play in a kind of sacred play – the more we can have people in a sacred play fashion play with their traditions, play with their inheritances, the more wisdom, and practice, and insight we’ll have at the table we all need to dine at. Recorded on: 8/15/07