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SHARON LUCKERMAN
Editorial Assistant
Tikkun magazine editor and
author Rabbi Michael Lerner
promotes pursuit of spiritual
needs over material ones.
Interview With
Rabbi Michael Lerner
JI\T Editorial Assistant Sharon Luckerman spoke with
Rabbi Lerner on various topics, ranging from Israel to
President Bill Clinton to "emancipatory spirituality."
For the complete interview, check
wvvw.detroitjewishnews.com
Q: In a Yom Kippur statement, you wrote that both
Israelis and Palestinians had things to atone for.
Rabbi Lerner: Violence is counterproductive because
it will only make Israelis feel justified in using their
overwhelmingly more powerful military might to
R
abbi Michael Lerner —
author, magazine editor,
spiritual leader — wants
spiritual matters out of the
synagogues, churches and mosques and
into our daily lives.
"The ethos of materialism has led to
a spiritual crisis," the San Francisco
rabbi told an audience of more than
300 people at his two talks Wednesday,
Oct. 18, at the Church of Today in
Warren, and also at dinner with 14
members of the Southeast Michigan
Coalition On the Environment and
impose even more hateful repression than what has
been imposed in the past. Palestinians should atone
for putting their children in harm's way.
Palestinians need to atone for not ever having serf
ously attempted massive nonviolent civil disobedi
ence...
Q After President Bill Clinton was elected in 1992,
he and wife Hillary invited you to the White House
to discuss your ideas. What did you learn from that
experience?
Rabbi Lerner: The Clintons told me they supported
that new bottom line (spirituality versus materialism),
but they made it clear that unless they could feel mil-
lions of others could say that publicly, they themselves
couldn't go for it. Everyone is scared about going to
his or her highest ideals... El
Jewish Life (SEMCOEJL) at the Royal
Oak Woman's Club.
The outspoken Rabbi Lerner, who
has been invited by President Bill
Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton
to discuss his ideas, is determined to
share his message about the importance
of spirituality.
In his recent book Spirit Matters
(Walsch Books/Hampton Roads
Publishing, $22.95), Lerner traces what
ails our society — the hurt that perme-
ates us emotionally, ecologically and
politically — to a systematic repression
of our spiritual needs.
Lerner urges pursuit of our highest
values instead of "looking out for No.
1." In the name of what we think is
rational or modern or productive, he
says, we have undermined friendships,
made relationships difficult and pro-
duced alienation and loneliness.
The central point of his philosophy,
said Rabbi Lerner, is the Torah being
put into language we all can under-
stand.
He is now working on a spiritual
commentary of the Torah.
"The spiritual movement must come
out of the closet," he said at the Church
of Today. He is calling for a new social
movement that would place human and
spiritual values ahead of Inaterial ones,
especially in the workplace. For exam-
ple, Rabbi Lerner would hold large cor-
porations responsible for the social and
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