Amichai Lau-Lavie: Judaism Unbound Episode 477 - Israel-Palestine - V’ahavta (and you will love)
Amichai Lau-Lavie, co-founder and spiritual leader of Lab/Shul, is a leading voice calling for compassion toward all Palestinians and all Israelis. He joins Dan and Lex for a conversation exploring how the notion of V'ahavta (and you will love) could be channeled more thoroughly in the world -- toward peace and justice for all people. They consider connections between contemporary work for liberation, and the holiday of Passover as well. This conversation is the 9th episode in an ongoing mini-series, exploring American-Jewish discourse about Israel-Palestine.
[2] For Amichai Lau-Lavie’s previous appearances on Judaism Unbound, see Episode 29: Lab/Shul, Episode 219: Tools for the Journey, Episode 381: Rites (Rights?) of Passage, and/or Bonus Episode: Intermarriage — Changing the Rules.
[3] Rachel Barenblat (the Velveteen Rabbi) has two blog posts that relate deeply to pieces of this podcast conversation. The first explores the idea that V’ahavta (and you will love) is located at the very center of the Torah — connecting this idea to notions of literary “chiasm” and applying them to Leviticus. It’s entitled “Love, Leviticus, and Embracing the Middle.” Another ties to the four letter name of God (Y-h-v-h) as a human body, and is entitled “Breathing, Prayer, The Planet.” We’ve included a visual of Y-h-v-h as a human body below, with Yud as the head, Hay as the arms, Vav as the torso, and Hay as the waist and legs.
[5] For the document entitled Joy: A Proposal, outlining a framework for rabbinic validation of interfaith marriages — which Amichai Lau-Lavie wrote a few years ago — click here.
