0:00:00.960,0:00:03.176
I was a new mother

0:00:03.200,0:00:04.456
and a young rabbi

0:00:04.480,0:00:06.336
in the spring of 2004

0:00:06.360,0:00:08.600
and the world was in shambles.

0:00:09.240,0:00:10.496
Maybe you remember.

0:00:10.520,0:00:13.656
Every day, we heard devastating reports[br]from the war in Iraq.

0:00:13.680,0:00:17.536
There were waves of terror[br]rolling across the globe.

0:00:17.560,0:00:20.240
It seemed like humanity[br]was spinning out of control.

0:00:21.000,0:00:22.856
I remember the night that I read

0:00:22.880,0:00:25.016
about the series of coordinated bombings

0:00:25.040,0:00:27.736
in the subway system in Madrid,

0:00:27.760,0:00:29.816
and I got up and I walked over to the crib

0:00:29.840,0:00:32.256
where my six-month-old baby girl

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lay sleeping sweetly,

0:00:34.160,0:00:36.496
and I heard the rhythm of her breath,

0:00:36.520,0:00:40.096
and I felt this sense of urgency[br]coursing through my body.

0:00:40.120,0:00:44.176
We were living through a time[br]of tectonic shifts in ideologies,

0:00:44.200,0:00:46.856
in politics, in religion, in populations.

0:00:46.880,0:00:48.960
Everything felt so precarious.

0:00:49.480,0:00:50.736
And I remember thinking,

0:00:50.760,0:00:54.360
"My God, what kind of world[br]did we bring this child into?

0:00:54.960,0:00:58.016
And what was I as a mother[br]and a religious leader

0:00:58.040,0:00:59.560
willing to do about it?

0:01:02.840,0:01:05.616
Of course, I knew it was clear

0:01:05.640,0:01:08.536
that religion would be[br]a principle battlefield

0:01:08.560,0:01:11.016
in this rapidly changing landscape,

0:01:11.040,0:01:12.736
and it was already clear

0:01:12.760,0:01:15.480
that religion was a significant[br]part of the problem.

0:01:16.120,0:01:17.376
The question for me was,

0:01:17.400,0:01:19.880
could religion[br]also be part of the solution?

0:01:20.480,0:01:22.096
Now, throughout history,

0:01:22.120,0:01:25.336
people have committed[br]horrible crimes and atrocities

0:01:25.360,0:01:27.000
in the name of religion.

0:01:28.160,0:01:30.616
And as we entered the 21st century,

0:01:30.640,0:01:35.360
it was very clear that religious extremism[br]was once again on the rise.

0:01:35.760,0:01:37.016
Our studies now show

0:01:37.040,0:01:40.296
that over the course[br]of the past 15, 20 years,

0:01:40.320,0:01:42.456
hostilities and religion-related violence

0:01:42.480,0:01:45.416
have been on the increase[br]all over the world.

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But we don't even need[br]the studies to prove it,

0:01:47.720,0:01:50.896
because I ask you,[br]how many of us are surprised today

0:01:50.920,0:01:54.696
when we hear the stories[br]of a bombing or a shooting,

0:01:54.720,0:01:57.536
when we later find out[br]that the last word that was uttered

0:01:57.560,0:02:00.376
before the trigger is pulled[br]or the bomb is detonated

0:02:00.400,0:02:02.016
is the name of God?

0:02:02.040,0:02:04.696
It barely raises an eyebrow today

0:02:04.720,0:02:06.656
when we learn that yet another person

0:02:06.680,0:02:09.216
has decided to show his love of God

0:02:09.240,0:02:11.480
by taking the lives of God's children.

0:02:12.680,0:02:15.096
In America, religious extremism

0:02:15.120,0:02:19.656
looks like a white,[br]antiabortion Christian extremist

0:02:19.680,0:02:22.896
walking into Planned Parenthood[br]in Colorado Springs

0:02:22.920,0:02:24.776
and murdering three people.

0:02:24.800,0:02:27.056
It also looks like a couple

0:02:27.080,0:02:28.896
inspired by the Islamic State

0:02:28.920,0:02:33.536
walking into an office party[br]in San Bernardino and killing 14.

0:02:33.560,0:02:38.376
And even when religion-related extremism[br]does not lead to violence,

0:02:38.400,0:02:41.416
it is still used[br]as a political wedge issue,

0:02:41.440,0:02:45.536
cynically leading people[br]to justify the subordination of women,

0:02:45.560,0:02:48.016
the stigmatization of LGBT people,

0:02:48.040,0:02:51.640
racism, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism.

0:02:52.320,0:02:54.416
This ought to concern deeply

0:02:54.440,0:02:57.376
those of us who care[br]about the future of religion

0:02:57.400,0:02:59.616
and the future of faith.

0:02:59.640,0:03:02.016
We need to call this what it is:

0:03:02.040,0:03:04.200
a great failure of religion.

0:03:05.120,0:03:09.960
But the thing is, this isn't even the only[br]challenge that religion faces today.

0:03:12.040,0:03:13.776
At the very same time

0:03:13.800,0:03:17.416
that we need religion[br]to be a strong force against extremism,

0:03:17.440,0:03:20.456
it is suffering[br]from a second pernicious trend,

0:03:20.480,0:03:23.280
what I call religious routine-ism.

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This is when our institutions[br]and our leaders

0:03:26.440,0:03:30.216
are stuck in a paradigm[br]that is rote and perfunctory,

0:03:30.240,0:03:32.296
devoid of life, devoid of vision

0:03:32.320,0:03:34.040
and devoid of soul.

0:03:34.520,0:03:36.896
Let me explain what I mean like this.

0:03:36.920,0:03:39.696
One of the great blessings[br]of being a rabbi

0:03:39.720,0:03:44.376
is standing under the chuppah,[br]under the wedding canopy, with a couple,

0:03:44.400,0:03:46.656
and helping them proclaim publicly

0:03:46.680,0:03:49.936
and make holy the love[br]that they found for one another.

0:03:49.960,0:03:51.896
I want to ask you now, though,

0:03:51.920,0:03:53.816
to think maybe from your own experience

0:03:53.840,0:03:55.256
or maybe just imagine it

0:03:55.280,0:03:58.176
about the difference[br]between the intensity of the experience

0:03:58.200,0:03:59.936
under the wedding canopy,

0:03:59.960,0:04:03.176
and maybe the experience[br]of the sixth or seventh anniversary.

0:04:03.200,0:04:05.656
(Laughter)

0:04:05.680,0:04:09.576
And if you're lucky enough[br]to make it 16 or 17 years,

0:04:09.600,0:04:12.576
if you're like most people,[br]you probably wake up in the morning

0:04:12.600,0:04:16.136
realizing that you forgot to make[br]a reservation at your favorite restaurant

0:04:16.160,0:04:17.776
and you forgot so much as a card,

0:04:17.800,0:04:20.880
and then you just hope and pray[br]that your partner also forgot.

0:04:21.959,0:04:24.576
Well, religious ritual and rites

0:04:24.600,0:04:28.136
were essentially designed[br]to serve the function of the anniversary,

0:04:28.160,0:04:32.176
to be a container in which[br]we would hold on to the remnants

0:04:32.200,0:04:35.096
of that sacred, revelatory encounter

0:04:35.120,0:04:37.216
that birthed the religion[br]in the first place.

0:04:37.240,0:04:39.736
The problem is that after a few centuries,

0:04:39.760,0:04:42.000
the date remains on the calendar,

0:04:42.680,0:04:45.536
but the love affair is long dead.

0:04:45.560,0:04:49.856
That's when we find ourselves[br]in endless, mindless repetitions

0:04:49.880,0:04:52.096
of words that don't mean anything to us,

0:04:52.120,0:04:55.856
rising and being seated[br]because someone has asked us to,

0:04:55.880,0:04:58.776
holding onto jealously guarded doctrine

0:04:58.800,0:05:02.656
that's completely and wildly out of step[br]with our contemporary reality,

0:05:02.680,0:05:05.216
engaging in perfunctory practice

0:05:05.240,0:05:08.760
simply because that's the way[br]things have always been done.

0:05:10.080,0:05:13.576
Religion is waning in the United States.

0:05:13.600,0:05:17.536
Across the board,[br]churches and synagogues and mosques

0:05:17.560,0:05:19.160
are all complaining

0:05:19.960,0:05:23.976
about how hard it is to maintain relevance

0:05:24.000,0:05:28.136
for a generation of young people[br]who seem completely uninterested,

0:05:28.160,0:05:31.816
not only in the institutions[br]that stand at the heart of our traditions

0:05:31.840,0:05:34.416
but even in religion itself.

0:05:34.440,0:05:36.480
And what they need to understand

0:05:37.280,0:05:40.016
is that there is today[br]a generation of people

0:05:40.040,0:05:43.896
who are as disgusted by the violence[br]of religious extremism

0:05:43.920,0:05:45.616
as they are turned off

0:05:45.640,0:05:48.960
by the lifelessness[br]of religious routine-ism.

0:05:50.440,0:05:54.480
Of course there is[br]a bright spot to this story.

0:05:54.960,0:05:59.256
Given the crisis of these two[br]concurrent trends in religious life,

0:05:59.280,0:06:02.976
about 12 or 13 years ago,[br]I set out to try to determine

0:06:03.000,0:06:04.536
if there was any way

0:06:04.560,0:06:08.736
that I could reclaim the heart[br]of my own Jewish tradition,

0:06:08.760,0:06:11.376
to help make it meaningful[br]and purposeful again

0:06:11.400,0:06:12.840
in a world on fire.

0:06:13.520,0:06:14.936
I started to wonder,

0:06:14.960,0:06:19.096
what if we could harness[br]some of the great minds of our generation

0:06:19.120,0:06:23.096
and think in a bold and robust[br]and imaginative way again

0:06:23.120,0:06:26.216
about what the next iteration[br]of religious life would look like?

0:06:26.240,0:06:29.296
Now, we had no money,[br]no space, no game plan,

0:06:29.320,0:06:30.776
but we did have email.

0:06:30.800,0:06:34.496
So my friend Melissa and I[br]sat down and we wrote an email

0:06:34.520,0:06:37.376
which we sent out[br]to a few friends and colleagues.

0:06:37.400,0:06:39.216
It basically said this:

0:06:39.240,0:06:41.160
"Before you bail on religion,

0:06:42.440,0:06:44.616
why don't we come together[br]this Friday night

0:06:44.640,0:06:48.760
and see what we might make[br]of our own Jewish inheritance?"

0:06:49.280,0:06:51.896
We hoped maybe 20 people would show up.

0:06:51.920,0:06:54.480
It turned out 135 people came.

0:06:55.000,0:06:57.536
They were cynics and seekers,

0:06:57.560,0:06:59.296
atheists and rabbis.

0:06:59.320,0:07:01.856
Many people said that night[br]that it was the first time

0:07:01.880,0:07:06.176
that they had a meaningful religious[br]experience in their entire lives.

0:07:06.200,0:07:08.536
And so I set out to do the only[br]rational thing

0:07:08.560,0:07:10.696
that someone would do[br]in such a circumstance:

0:07:10.720,0:07:15.656
I quit my job and tried to build[br]this audacious dream,

0:07:15.680,0:07:18.720
a reinvented, rethought religious life

0:07:19.520,0:07:21.736
which we called "IKAR,"

0:07:21.760,0:07:24.936
which means "the essence"[br]or "the heart of the matter."

0:07:24.960,0:07:27.056
Now, IKAR is not alone

0:07:27.080,0:07:29.616
out there in the religious[br]landscape today.

0:07:29.640,0:07:33.456
There are Jewish and Christian[br]and Muslim and Catholic religious leaders,

0:07:33.480,0:07:35.776
many of them women, by the way,

0:07:35.800,0:07:39.816
who have set out to reclaim[br]the heart of our traditions,

0:07:39.840,0:07:45.040
who firmly believe that now is the time[br]for religion to be part of the solution.

0:07:45.600,0:07:48.056
We are going back[br]into our sacred traditions

0:07:48.080,0:07:50.816
and recognizing that all of our traditions

0:07:50.840,0:07:55.136
contain the raw material[br]to justify violence and extremism,

0:07:55.160,0:07:59.976
and also contain the raw material[br]to justify compassion,

0:08:00.000,0:08:02.416
coexistence and kindness --

0:08:02.440,0:08:07.256
that when others choose to read our texts[br]as directives for hate and vengeance,

0:08:07.280,0:08:09.896
we can choose to read those same texts

0:08:09.920,0:08:13.520
as directives for love[br]and for forgiveness.

0:08:14.120,0:08:15.616
I have found now

0:08:15.640,0:08:20.120
in communities as varied[br]as Jewish indie start-ups on the coasts

0:08:20.880,0:08:22.776
to a woman's mosque,

0:08:22.800,0:08:26.456
to black churches[br]in New York and in North Carolina,

0:08:26.480,0:08:28.776
to a holy bus loaded with nuns

0:08:28.800,0:08:32.159
that traverses this country[br]with a message of justice and peace,

0:08:33.039,0:08:35.895
that there is a shared religious ethos

0:08:35.919,0:08:41.576
that is now emerging in the form[br]of revitalized religion in this country.

0:08:41.600,0:08:45.736
And while the theologies[br]and the practices vary very much

0:08:45.760,0:08:48.456
between these independent communities,

0:08:48.480,0:08:51.896
what we can see are some common,[br]consistent threads between them.

0:08:51.920,0:08:54.960
I'm going to share with you[br]four of those commitments now.

0:08:55.800,0:08:58.016
The first is wakefulness.

0:08:58.040,0:08:59.936
We live in a time today

0:08:59.960,0:09:02.456
in which we have unprecedented access

0:09:02.480,0:09:05.376
to information about every global tragedy

0:09:05.400,0:09:07.856
that happens on every corner[br]of this Earth.

0:09:07.880,0:09:10.576
Within 12 hours, 20 million people

0:09:10.600,0:09:13.176
saw that image[br]of Aylan Kurdi's little body

0:09:13.200,0:09:15.576
washed up on the Turkish shore.

0:09:15.600,0:09:17.960
We all saw this picture.

0:09:18.920,0:09:21.256
We saw this picture[br]of a five-year-old child

0:09:21.280,0:09:24.720
pulled out of the rubble[br]of his building in Aleppo.

0:09:25.160,0:09:27.536
And once we see these images,

0:09:27.560,0:09:30.200
we are called to a certain kind of action.

0:09:30.520,0:09:34.936
My tradition tells a story[br]of a traveler who is walking down a road

0:09:34.960,0:09:38.496
when he sees a beautiful house on fire,

0:09:38.520,0:09:42.056
and he says, "How can it be[br]that something so beautiful would burn,

0:09:42.080,0:09:44.616
and nobody seems to even care?"

0:09:44.640,0:09:47.736
So too we learn that our world is on fire,

0:09:47.760,0:09:51.496
and it is our job to keep our hearts[br]and our eyes open,

0:09:51.520,0:09:54.056
and to recognize[br]that it's our responsibility

0:09:54.080,0:09:56.656
to help put out the flames.

0:09:56.680,0:09:58.736
This is extremely difficult to do.

0:09:58.760,0:10:02.536
Psychologists tell us that the more[br]we learn about what's broken in our world,

0:10:02.560,0:10:04.896
the less likely we are to do anything.

0:10:04.920,0:10:06.496
It's called psychic numbing.

0:10:06.520,0:10:09.080
We just shut down at a certain point.

0:10:09.520,0:10:13.576
Well, somewhere along the way,[br]our religious leaders forgot

0:10:13.600,0:10:16.896
that it's our job[br]to make people uncomfortable.

0:10:16.920,0:10:18.976
It's our job to wake people up,

0:10:19.000,0:10:21.136
to pull them out of their apathy

0:10:21.160,0:10:22.616
and into the anguish,

0:10:22.640,0:10:26.096
and to insist that we do[br]what we don't want to do

0:10:26.120,0:10:29.456
and see what we do not want to see.

0:10:29.480,0:10:31.856
Because we know[br]that social change only happens --

0:10:31.880,0:10:32.936
(Applause)

0:10:32.960,0:10:36.840
when we are awake enough[br]to see that the house is on fire.

0:10:37.760,0:10:39.696
The second principle is hope,

0:10:39.720,0:10:41.340
and I want to say this about hope.

0:10:41.364,0:10:43.496
Hope is not naive,

0:10:43.520,0:10:45.456
and hope is not an opiate.

0:10:45.480,0:10:49.536
Hope may be the single[br]greatest act of defiance

0:10:49.560,0:10:51.896
against a politics of pessimism

0:10:51.920,0:10:54.336
and against a culture of despair.

0:10:54.360,0:10:56.256
Because what hope does for us

0:10:56.280,0:10:59.056
is it lifts us out of the container

0:10:59.080,0:11:02.776
that holds us and constrains us[br]from the outside,

0:11:02.800,0:11:06.536
and says, "You can dream[br]and think expansively again.

0:11:06.560,0:11:08.960
That they cannot control in you."

0:11:09.760,0:11:12.776
I saw hope made manifest[br]in an African-American church

0:11:12.800,0:11:15.336
in the South Side of Chicago this summer,

0:11:15.360,0:11:17.016
where I brought my little girl,

0:11:17.040,0:11:18.256
who is now 13

0:11:18.280,0:11:19.976
and a few inches taller than me,

0:11:20.000,0:11:22.800
to hear my friend Rev. Otis Moss preach.

0:11:23.560,0:11:29.056
That summer, there had already been[br]3,000 people shot

0:11:29.080,0:11:32.400
between January and July in Chicago.

0:11:33.040,0:11:36.136
We went into that church[br]and heard Rev. Moss preach,

0:11:36.160,0:11:38.096
and after he did,

0:11:38.120,0:11:42.376
this choir of gorgeous women,[br]100 women strong,

0:11:42.400,0:11:44.360
stood up and began to sing.

0:11:45.200,0:11:48.336
"I need you. You need me.

0:11:48.360,0:11:51.040
I love you. I need you to survive."

0:11:51.720,0:11:53.416
And I realized in that moment

0:11:53.440,0:11:57.016
that this is what religion[br]is supposed to be about.

0:11:57.040,0:12:01.736
It's supposed to be about[br]giving people back a sense of purpose,

0:12:01.760,0:12:03.256
a sense of hope,

0:12:03.280,0:12:08.216
a sense that they and their dreams[br]fundamentally matter in this world

0:12:08.240,0:12:10.800
that tells them[br]that they don't matter at all.

0:12:11.760,0:12:14.536
The third principle[br]is the principle of mightiness.

0:12:14.560,0:12:17.216
There's a rabbinic tradition[br]that we are to walk around

0:12:17.240,0:12:19.536
with two slips of paper in our pockets.

0:12:19.560,0:12:22.976
One says, "I am but dust and ashes."

0:12:23.000,0:12:24.696
It's not all about me.

0:12:24.720,0:12:28.240
I can't control everything,[br]and I cannot do this on my own.

0:12:28.960,0:12:33.136
The other slip of paper says,[br]"For my sake the world was created."

0:12:33.160,0:12:36.280
Which is to say it's true[br]that I can't do everything,

0:12:37.040,0:12:39.240
but I can surely do something.

0:12:40.160,0:12:41.816
I can forgive.

0:12:41.840,0:12:43.040
I can love.

0:12:43.560,0:12:45.056
I can show up.

0:12:45.080,0:12:46.696
I can protest.

0:12:46.720,0:12:49.896
I can be a part of this conversation.

0:12:49.920,0:12:52.776
We even now have a religious ritual,

0:12:52.800,0:12:54.016
a posture,

0:12:54.040,0:12:57.736
that holds the paradox[br]between powerlessness and power.

0:12:57.760,0:12:58.976
In the Jewish community,

0:12:59.000,0:13:02.296
the only time of year[br]that we prostrate fully to the ground

0:13:02.320,0:13:03.976
is during the high holy days.

0:13:04.000,0:13:06.240
It's a sign of total submission.

0:13:06.840,0:13:09.896
Now in our community,[br]when we get up off the ground,

0:13:09.920,0:13:13.416
we stand with our hands[br]raised to the heavens,

0:13:13.440,0:13:19.056
and we say, "I am strong,[br]I am mighty, and I am worthy.

0:13:19.080,0:13:22.440
I can't do everything,[br]but I can do something."

0:13:23.720,0:13:28.616
In a world that conspires[br]to make us believe that we are invisible

0:13:28.640,0:13:30.176
and that we are impotent,

0:13:30.200,0:13:32.936
religious communities and religious ritual

0:13:32.960,0:13:36.576
can remind us that for whatever[br]amount of time we have here on this Earth,

0:13:36.600,0:13:39.056
whatever gifts and blessings[br]we were given,

0:13:39.080,0:13:40.816
whatever resources we have,

0:13:40.840,0:13:43.176
we can and we must use them

0:13:43.200,0:13:45.776
to try to make the world[br]a little bit more just

0:13:45.800,0:13:47.181
and a little bit more loving.

0:13:47.920,0:13:50.856
The fourth and final[br]is interconnectedness.

0:13:50.880,0:13:54.136
A few years ago, there was a man[br]walking on the beach in Alaska,

0:13:54.160,0:13:56.096
when he came across a soccer ball

0:13:56.120,0:13:58.616
that had some Japanese[br]letters written on it.

0:13:58.640,0:14:01.976
He took a picture of it[br]and posted it up on social media,

0:14:02.000,0:14:04.696
and a Japanese teenager contacted him.

0:14:04.720,0:14:08.496
He had lost everything in the tsunami[br]that devastated his country,

0:14:08.520,0:14:11.216
but he was able[br]to retrieve that soccer ball

0:14:11.240,0:14:14.256
after it had floated[br]all the way across the Pacific.

0:14:14.280,0:14:17.056
How small our world has become.

0:14:17.080,0:14:21.896
It's so hard for us to remember[br]how interconnected we all are

0:14:21.920,0:14:23.120
as human beings.

0:14:24.720,0:14:26.696
And yet, we know

0:14:26.720,0:14:29.416
that it is systems of oppression

0:14:29.440,0:14:33.536
that benefit the most[br]from the lie of radical individualism.

0:14:33.560,0:14:35.376
Let me tell you how this works.

0:14:35.400,0:14:37.336
I'm not supposed to care

0:14:37.360,0:14:39.816
when black youth are harassed by police,

0:14:39.840,0:14:42.136
because my white-looking Jewish kids

0:14:42.160,0:14:46.056
probably won't ever get pulled over[br]for the crime of driving while black.

0:14:46.080,0:14:50.096
Well, not so, because[br]this is also my problem.

0:14:50.120,0:14:53.296
And guess what?[br]Transphobia and Islamophobia

0:14:53.320,0:14:56.856
and racism of all forms,[br]those are also all of our problems.

0:14:56.880,0:15:00.336
And so too is anti-Semitism[br]all of our problems.

0:15:00.360,0:15:02.056
Because Emma Lazarus was right.

0:15:02.080,0:15:04.400
(Applause)

0:15:07.560,0:15:10.896
Emma Lazarus was right[br]when she said until all of us are free,

0:15:10.920,0:15:12.856
we are none of us free.

0:15:12.880,0:15:14.960
We are all in this together.

0:15:15.800,0:15:19.296
And now somewhere at the intersection[br]of these four trends,

0:15:19.320,0:15:24.056
of wakefulness and hope[br]and mightiness and interconnectedness,

0:15:24.080,0:15:28.616
there is a burgeoning, multifaith[br]justice movement in this country

0:15:28.640,0:15:30.896
that is staking a claim on a countertrend,

0:15:30.920,0:15:36.056
saying that religion can and must be[br]a force for good in the world.

0:15:36.080,0:15:40.096
Our hearts hurt from[br]the failed religion of extremism,

0:15:40.120,0:15:44.336
and we deserve more[br]than the failed religion of routine-ism.

0:15:44.360,0:15:48.136
It is time for religious leaders[br]and religious communities

0:15:48.160,0:15:51.536
to take the lead in the spiritual[br]and cultural shift

0:15:51.560,0:15:55.256
that this country and the world[br]so desperately needs --

0:15:55.280,0:15:57.416
a shift toward love,

0:15:57.440,0:16:01.336
toward justice, toward equality[br]and toward dignity for all.

0:16:01.360,0:16:04.800
I believe that our children[br]deserve no less than that.

0:16:05.360,0:16:06.576
Thank you.

0:16:06.600,0:16:14.124
(Applause)