Tikkun Recommends

DIETFORAHOTPLANET Anna Lappé Bloomsbury, 2010 FOODJUSTICE Robert Gottlieb and Anupama Joshi The MIT Press, 2010 What we eat (and how) has an important impact not only on our own health but also on the health of the planet. Anna Lappé demonstrates that our food choices have a very direct effect on climatewarming—becausetheyshapetheworld’s agricultural production. With verve and clarity, Lappé presents us with the tools to understand and fight for a more rationalapproachtofoodproduction,governmentpolicies,andour own personal food consumption. Gottlieb and Joshi’s book gives us a fuller idea of how the food justice movement has grown in the past several decades. This book gives plenty of reason for hope, plus lots of useful information on how the struggle is being mounted for a sane food policy. The authorsareawareofthewaymovementscanfail,sotheyarecareful to expose the structural changes that are necessary, in addition to showing what is being done well. I’MGOD,YOU’RENOT Lawrence Kushner Jewish Lights Publishing, 2010 This collection of short articles by one of the great contemporary teachers of Jewish spirituality, subtitled “Observations on Organized Religion & Other Disguises of the Ego,” is a quick way to get what Zalman Schachter-Shalomi calls “a window in the heart and soul of a man who models what it means to be a rabbi.” Kushner teaches that “the goal of all spiritual life is to get your ego out of the way—outwit the sucker; dissolve it; shoot it; kill it. Silence the incessant planning, organizing, running, manipulating, possessing, and processing” because these activities “preclude awareness of the Divine.” The Torah is the story of what happens to people when they forget God’s message: “I’m God, you’re not.” A pleasurable read that is often profound. ACRYFORDIGNITY Mary C. Grey Equinox Publishing, 2010 Subtitled “Religion, Violence, and the StruggleofDalitWomeninIndia,”MaryGrey’snew book reveals the incredible suffering of those who wereoncecalled“untouchables”inIndia.Greyhasbeenapioneerin the effort to publicize in the West the problems facing Indian women—particularlythosewholiveinruralareasandhavetostruggle to obtain water. Now she turns her attention to the way that the persistence of caste prejudice and oppression of women has become a major obstacle to economic development. As a Roman Catholic theologian, Grey has concentrated her attention on issues of social justice, especially in the area of feminist and liberation theologies. Recognizingthatreligioncanbebothasourceofoppressionandalso a resource for liberation, Grey presents a nuanced account of the movements that have arisen to challenge the oppression of the untouchables,aswellasapowerfulcallforaction. ISHALLNOTHATE Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish Walker & Company, 2011 On January 16, 2009, Israeli shells hit Dr. Abuelaish’s home in the Gaza Strip during Israel’s invasion, killing three of his daughters and his niece. A Palestinian physician who grew up in the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza and went on to study in Cairo and then at Harvard, Dr. Abuelaish writes that the personal catastrophe (accompanied , of course, by the deaths of some 1,400 Palestinians during the Israeli assault), deepened his belief that “violence is futile. It is a waste of time, life and resources, and has been proven only to beget more violence.” DARKGREENRELIGION Bron Taylor University of California Press, 2009 In earlier environmental writings, some used biblical quotes to blame the environmental crisis on Western religions’ alleged attitude that humans should dominate nature. Taylor skillfully presents a counterargument , showing that many of those fighting to protect nature from the destructive effects of our economic and political systems have been deeply rooted in spiritual or religious traditions that have enhanced their sensitivity to nature, and many have also helped create what he calls “green religions” and what others call “earth-based” spiritualities. The good news, Taylor proclaims, is the existence of a “new global earth tribe” composed of people with wildly different backgrounds but sharing “darkgreen” perceptions and values. These peoplestandupforlife,andweatTikkunstandup for them! RECOMMENDS Jumps_1:Jumps 12/7/10 2:35 PM Page 96 CHASINGTHESUN Richard Cohen Random House, 2010 Every religious and spiritual tradition incorporates within it the experience of being overwhelmed by the mystery and wonder of nature . Richard Cohen dedicates his book to “the love that moves the sun and the other stars” and we at Tikkun might add that this love is what some people call God. Cohen takes us...