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All articles

- co-create a more possible world

- your questions, addressed

- Pharoah + Moses revisit their talks on religion and race

- the holy is where you are

- Force the Oppressor to make a Lose/Lose Choice

- Ask the Clergy Time!

RABBI DANYA RUTTENBERG | MAY 10, 2026, 11:44 AM EDT

co-create a more possible world

a preview of what's cooking at LiST and beyond

Life is a Sacred Text is blooming— and we need your help.

Back in February, I announced our new chapter. I told you how, after four and a half years of Torah commentary, we’re entering a whole new world.

And we’ve been doing just that: Writing toward defying empire; offering practical tools for more effective changemaking; tips for perservering; walking you through ways to nourish and replenish yourself through it all. We've also begun to get into the moral and narrative perspectives on the prophetic books, and navigated some big questions about a couple of holidays in between.

But there’s a piece of the puzzle that's missing: Who we are and why we need you to be a part of this process.

Amidst the sea of billionaire-owned media, Life is a Sacred Text is entirely reader-funded, so that we can keep telling the truths that love on our world and come up with strategies to fight harm– and build something bigger, together.

In 2024, we moved off Substack—that Nazi-tolerating, Elon-sycophantic for-profit machine. Then nestled into our home here on Ghost—recently recognized as a “digital public good” by the DPGA— making us a fully independent public education project.

This is more than just a newsletter: We're a community of readers building a movement that ties our own becoming to the grander project of collective liberation. And we have big plans.

But to build towards this, we need your support. We need more House of Study members.

And, so we're all clear: in addition to our content changes, we are actively laying the foundation for the growth of this community (here, in no particular order:)

1. We're working on a training for liberatory work series with absolutely unbelievable guest teachers that's soon to be unveiled and can have a real impact, I believe.

2. We’re upgrading the website, big time. We’re working on a new look and more streamlined navigation. There’ll be a LiST menu, of sorts. You’ll be able to return to the pieces you love, sort by theme or need, and find treasures you may have missed. All coming very, very soon.

3. With that, we’ll be making more opportunities for more active participation, both within this space and beyond. We're hoping that this upgrade will make it easier to have more engaged conversation together in a number of ways, both in this virtual space and beyond.

4. And as part of that, we’re working on ways to move the conversation off the page. That is to say: We're working towards building local networks of readers so that you have access to the other folks who share this part of yourself with you. So you can connect, meet up, support one other in many ways. Keep an eye out for that soon, too.

But we can't do any of this in a vacuum.

Joining the House of Study is the most direct way you can support LiST’s vision. And if you're already a member, consider upping your tier, telling a friend about this project, or both?

As you know, we grow off the algorithm. So, spreading the word to even one friend who might enjoy better understanding the world, having new ways to nourish themselves and/or tools to make the world better is everything— literally.

In other words, if you’ve been waiting for the right moment to jump in:

Now is the time.

Let’s keep this thing blooming, yeah?

With utmost gratitude,

RDR❤️🌱

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And, as always: Thank you.

This article was downloaded from https://www.lifeisasacredtext.com/co-create-a-more-possible-world/ on May 12, 2026 at 7:51 PM EDT.

RABBI DANYA RUTTENBERG | MAY 7, 2026, 9:30 AM EDT

your questions, addressed

the rabbi takes your queries via video, because why not

As it turns out, way too many of our usual Rabbis And Other Clergy On Deck have been deeply up in it over the last few weeks – new jobs, dissertations, pulpits with too many unexpected things happening (you don't get to pick when a lot of funerals happen, friends), the list goes on.

So I thought I'd try doing this in a different format instead, see how this felt. Please please let me know what you think! Addressing 2-3 qs per clip. Not gonna say "answering" because most of the time I don't think I have The Answers for you per se, but perhaps this combo of opinions, perspectives, sources and reflections will jog you to the next step:

Reminder: You have to click through to the website to comment. Please do!

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I would love to hear your thoughts, and your guests' thoughts on imprecatory prayers. How do we make sense of them in our current climate of increasing xenophobia, racism, transphobia, misogyny, and overall hate?

Hegseth and other Christian nationalists have been calling upon the imprecatory Psalms (aka  55, 59, 69, 79, 109, and 137) in the last couple of weeks (see especially Brooks Pottger, Hegseth's pastor, and Josh Haymes telling people to pray the imprecatory Psalms against James Talarico, who is demonic). I'm familiar with some Christian traditions on these Psalms that read them metaphorically. What are some Jewish/Rabbinic approaches to these Psalms?

The writer Bogi Takács recently brought up on Bluesky that the Hebrew word for "heavens" is *dual* (like English "scissors" or "trousers") and wondered why Why, oh Rabbis? What are the Two Heavens? (No, this doesn't go thematically but figuring out how to unclip it was beyond my technical capacity and it's a nice chaser to talking about cursing people anyway.)

This article was downloaded from https://www.lifeisasacredtext.com/your-questions-addressed/ on May 12, 2026 at 7:51 PM EDT.

RABBI DANYA RUTTENBERG | APR 30, 2026, 9:30 AM EDT

Pharoah + Moses revisit their talks on religion and race

or: A few texts for processing SCOTUS' horrific Voting Rights Act attack

This is Life as a Sacred Text 🌱, an everybody-celebrating, justice-centered voyage into ancient stories that can illuminate our own lives. It‘s run on a nonprofit, so it’s 100% NAZI FREE. More about the project here, and to subscribe, go here:

It is late Weds night. I was preparing something else for this week but given the absolutely disastrous SCOTUS decision today I feel a necessity to respond, in the way that I can, through text.

Opinion | The Supreme Court has all but killed the law that helped kill Jim Crow

Stacey Abrams: The Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais ruling tells a lie to America

MS NOWStacey Abrams

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This first piece is from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel's speech at the Religion and Race conference in 1963 at which he first met Dr. King:

At the first conference on religion and race, the main participants were Pharaoh and Moses... The outcome of that summit meeting has not come to an end. Pharaoh is not ready to capitulate. The exodus began, but is far from having been completed. In fact, it was easier for the children of Israel to cross the Red Sea than for a [Black American] to cross certain university campuses.

... What is an idol? Any god who is mine but not yours, any god concerned with me but not with you, is an idol.

This article was downloaded from https://www.lifeisasacredtext.com/pharoah-moses-revisit-their-talks-on-religion-and-race/ on May 12, 2026 at 7:51 PM EDT.

RABBI DANYA RUTTENBERG | APR 23, 2026, 9:30 AM EDT

the holy is where you are

how we'll get through this is by filling up on the here and now

This is Life as a Sacred Text 🌱, an everybody-celebrating, justice-centered voyage into ancient stories that can illuminate our own lives. It‘s run on a nonprofit, so it’s 100% NAZI FREE. More about the project here, and to subscribe, go here:

The oldest truths are sometimes the easiest to forget, and during these times of suffering and rage – and when our own lives have their own stresses and complexities– sometimes it's good to pause and get an infusion of the good stuff.

So please, let's pause and engage deeply with the eternal truths in these passages – and remember, sometimes these texts talk about God. And maybe that word resonates for you and maybe it doesn't. And maybe plugging into the Great Interconnected Everythingness, or the Big Bigness, or the pulsing flow of your intuition, or the Universe, or love – whatever words resonate are great words, and for some people these are all the same thing and for other people they are not.

(Answers to Ask the Clergy next week!)

If you are amazed at how it is possible to speak, hear, smell, touch, see, understand, and feel,  tell your soul that all living things collectively confer upon you the fullness of your experience. Not the least speck of existence is superfluous, everything is needed, and everything serves its purpose. 'You' are present within everything that is beneath you, and your being is bound up with all that transcends you. (Rav Kook, Orot ha-Kodesh, b. Latvia 1865- d. Jerusalem 1935)

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This article was downloaded from https://www.lifeisasacredtext.com/holyhere/ on May 12, 2026 at 7:51 PM EDT.

RABBI DANYA RUTTENBERG | APR 20, 2026, 9:30 AM EDT

Force the Oppressor to make a Lose/Lose Choice

Social Change Toolkit: Dilemma Actions

This is Life as a Sacred Text 🌱, an everybody-celebrating, justice-centered voyage into ancient stories that can illuminate our own lives. It‘s run on a nonprofit, so it’s 100% NAZI FREE. More about the project here, and to subscribe, go here:

Today we're going to break down an idea that I wish more people knew about, because it's dang useful, particularly in these times of oppression and harm:

A dilemma action is a strategic action that forces your opponent into a lose-lose situation.

Basically: You've given them only bad options. No matter what choice they make, it's valuable for your goals in some way.

I'll give you some examples, and then we'll talk about how to design them.

(Please share this missive. More people need to know, OK?)

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- There's long been a movement for independence of Western Sahara from Morocco. In 2011, during a period of civil resistance, there were protests against the Moroccan law forbidding the flying of the Western Saharan flag, as well as building momentum generally. So instead of letting people get targeted, activists tied flags to the tails of dozens of feral cats– forcing government police to either be humiliated chasing the cats around or to let the flags fly.

Sign with a bamboo farmer's hat that says "National League for Democracy" in Burmese.

- In Burma/Myanmar, the traditional farmer's bamboo hat was the symbol for the National League for Democracy opposition party during the campaign before their 1990 elections. Theoretically, wearing this hat, the repressive ruling military authority had declared, was "subversive." But if they actually tried to arrest people for wearing a common item worn by hundreds of thousands, they'd lose credibility. But if they didn't, they'd give people a tool to openly scorn the regime. They didn't react immediately– and so wearing the hats as a symbol of resistance spread quickly, bolstering the movement and becoming important for a decade or more.

The underlying belief: People should be able to wear what they want.

- In Serbia in 2000, a group of students set up a project echoing a government initiative pushing people to donate money. With the students, people could donate a dinar (the currency), and would then get a stick to hit a barrel with a photo of then-president Slobodan Milosevic. If they didn't have money because of Milosevic’s politics, could hit the barrel twice. No matter how the regime reacted, it lost: arrest the families in line, and risk spreading more anti-government sentiment, or do nothing and let the concept potentially spread? They chose Option 3: Confiscate the the barrel. So the group sent out a press release saying that the police arrested the barrel, and that they'd collected enough money for Milosevic’s retirement. (So the government still lost.)

The underlying belief: People should be allowed to have a laugh, even about the government.

Image of a guy hitting a barrel with an image of Milosevic's face on it

- In 1982, people in a small town in Poland protested government-media propaganda by taking their TV sets for a walk. Boycotting the 7:30pm news wouldn't be visible as a tactic, and putting the TV sets in the windows every evening didn't get the attention needed. So at 7:30 each night, activists pushed TVs in wheelbarrows, like baby carriages. It was public, social and outside– a time of laughter and gossip, something that soon spread around town and to other towns. There was no law saying that people couldn't walk TVs in a wheelbarrow, so the government moved the curfew up from 10pm to 7pm, revealing that they couldn't handle critique, and outraging more of the public– thus building movement support.

The underlying belief: People should be able to walk at night.

- If you think about it, sit-ins at the lunch counters during Civil Rights were a form of dilemma action. The list of the ways Jim Crow laws impacted Black American lives is too long to list– housing, education, transportation, jobs, access to bathroom facilities, marriage, even with whom one could play cards or dice in some states. The decision to focus on something as both visible and seemingly small as buying a cup of coffee at a lunch counter– by well-dressed students holding schoolbooks and Bibles– was a great way to make sure that no matter what happened next, the opposition lost, by highlighting, visibly for all to see, the clear injustice of the law. When there was refusal, mockery, assault, and/or arrest (as there was often), media amplified the story. And while we think of sit-ins as one component of a larger movement (and they were), it's also true that as sit-ins and pressure grew, local businesses began voluntarily desegregating, states started passing statutes, and Title II of the Civil Rights Act passed Congress in 1964.

The underlying belief: People should not be arrested for trying to get a cup of coffee.

Students stage a sit-in at a Woolworths in Charlotte on Feb. 1, 1960. (A bw photo of at least 12-14 Black students sitting at the counter, waiting)

“[Dilemma actions] make you...think about what the opponent might do, and what their choices are, and select your own options in that light.”

– Scholar of dissent Brian Martin

A recent study on dilemma actions indicates that they are overwhelmingly successful:

- 84% of the time, media coverage is sympathetic to the campaign’s goals

- 87% of the time, dilemma actions reduce fear or apathy among participants

- in 93% of cases, a dilemma event boosted public sympathy for the campaign

- 88% of events succeed in reframing the opponent as less scary or more repressive

- While it's true that 90% of dilemma actions are met with some sort of aggressive or violent response from the opponent, or at least a response that makes the opponent appear like they are overreacting– and/though

- Over 50% of dilemma actions elicit some sort of concession, such as the resignation of a government official or policy change.

That's pretty good.

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A good dilemma action can dramatize injustices or contradictions– making the invisible visible and changing the narrative around an issue that matters.

"Some targets tend to be more vulnerable or susceptible to dilemma actions. People with big egos, for example, are very often good targets."

– Srdja Popovic, Serbian political activist and nonviolence expert

Making authoritarians– and their agents– look like fools is can be a crucial way to undermine them.

AND YOU THOUGHT I FORGOT ABOUT THE VERY BEST PLAGUE (never). Now you can see WHY the ridiculousness in Portland was so effective, yes? Federal agents were forced to choose between, what, teargassing an adorable froggy (a bad look: Lose) or letting protesters continue on as they were (Lose). And because it was a spectacle, like every great dilemma action, the contrast of the inflatable unicorn suits, the seniors with the ukuleles, etc. vs. the Storm Troopers and Trump's narrative about how the city was a crime-ravaged war zone was a perfect meal to serve to the media. (Photo of a Very Good Frog - a person in an inflatable frog costume- staring down a bunch of feds in Portland)

So how do you design a dilemma action?

1) Review the opponent's policies, especially those that impact the daily life of the population. The more personal and intrusive the restrictions are, the bigger the dilemma will be for the opponent.

(Banning access to abortion and/or gender-affirming care? Banning books? Stealing human beings and putting them in concentration camps? Healthcare cuts that impact people's access to crucial medication? [Generate your own list here].)

2) Figure out which policies run most counter to widely held-beliefs, even among the people who might ordinarily support your opponent. Not just which policy, but which belief that might be deeper or could be unearthed.

3) Figure out what action would force your opponent to either give your side a clear win (an exemption to the restrictions? some other victory?) or would result in unpopular sanctions. What reaction do we want from the opponent? What would get more people on our side? Would getting respected leaders / celebs / whoever help others feel more confident in taking the risk and following?

4) After the action: Exploit the other side's response!

Make sure you have publicity (ideally set up beforehand) to get as many people activated as possible.

Whether there's a reaction or a non-reaction, whatever happens, use the other side's response. Get skillful PR people on this.

Make sure you have next steps for all these newly activated people – what do you want them to do?

Table with three columns: OPPONENT’S PRESENT POLICY, DILEMMA ACTION, “WIDELY HELD BELIEFS.” Present policy: Censorship. Action: Publish Buddhist literature Belief: People have the right to read literature. Policy: Gatherings are illegal. Action: Gather in large groups for a funeral or a sports match Belief: People have the right to gather in groups. Policy: Curfew: Curfews. Action: Defy the curfew in groups Belief: People have the right to be outside their homes at any time. From CANVAS' core curriculum, from which much of this post was drawn.

Thanks to nonviolent training operation CANVAS, co-founded by anti-Milosevic activist Srdja Popovic-- for much of the learning in this post, as well as the major study by Profs. Sophia McClennan and Joseph Wright, and Popovic.

EXERCISE: Design two dilemma actions.

Draw a table with three columns.

In the far left, list a bunch of the most difficult problems that you think people are facing today.

Then, in the far right, list the widely held beliefs that contradict these policies.

In the middle column, develop a dilemma action based on pitting people’s widely held beliefs against the unpopular policies. Try to think of something that has an element of spectacle to it, that would translate for media (social and/or conventional) as indicated by many of the above examples.

Don't be afraid of the ridiculous, the silly, the funny, the wild. What could a brainstorm with the funniest mischief-makers you know generate over tea or a couple of beers?

At the same token, don't shy away from gravitas when it's called for. Die-ins (and lie-ins) have been used to protest neglect of the AIDS epidemic, police violence, and much more.

Really, it's all about how far your creativity can take you. But make sure you're being strategic, thinking through what your goal is, and what the other side is likely to do in response to your actions–and where you want things to go.

That's how to get the job done.

I believe in you.

And all of us.

❤️ 🌱 ❤️

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Send it to them.

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In 1976, two men were arrested for kissing on a Toronto street corner. So a large group of queer activists later took over the same corner and smooched it up, daring police to arrest them, too, for the simple act of locking lips. This was one of the first kiss-ins, which would become a time-tested dilemma action to fight policies related to homophobia, the stigmas of HIV-AIDS, racism, and more. This time-- as many others--the police watched but didn't intervene. (BW vintage-looking photo of three pairs of what appear to be white men kissing, L to R: David Foreman, Tim McCaskell, Ed Jackson, Merv Walker, David Gibson, Michael Riordon. Photographer: Gerald Hannon.)

What, you thought there wouldn't be a resource section?!?

Of course so many people have done great homework and groundwork for us:

Find Tactics - New Tactics

Search our database of more than 250 successful human rights tactics for ideas and inspiration to reach your advocacy goals.

New Tactics

This is incredibly useful! But of course any tactic must be tweaked for current contexts!

Tactic4Change

The Tactics4Change interactive website provides free access to information about more than 400 hundred cases of nonviolent dilemma actions, from all continents, and more than 100 countries. This dataset of creative tactics, which were designed to put opponents in a lost-lose position, offers opportunities for further learning for activists, students and scholars. The database is a collaborative project between the Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS) and faculty from the Pennsylvania State University. Learn more about the database.

More tactics! To play with, adapt, tweak, evolve, FrankenTactic, whatever!

How to Build a Nonviolent Movement in Under 45 Minutes! – Canvas

Canvas

The resources on this site are beyond amazing.

Y'all, I sent this right before Pesach / Easter (my fail, really) and because of that I don't think enough folks gave it a real look (but there's some useful stuff, is what I'm saying)

Persevere.

Making change needs consistency, just like everything else

Life is a Sacred TextRabbi Danya Ruttenberg

And if you're new here, these are probably useful:

find your place on deck

another world is possible-- but we must start living into it today

Life is a Sacred TextRabbi Danya Ruttenberg

On Organizing

time to level up / an early draft of a playbook

Life is a Sacred TextRabbi Danya Ruttenberg

fortify inside

why spiritual practice matters during the rising authoritarian tide

Life is a Sacred TextRabbi Danya Ruttenberg

This article was downloaded from https://www.lifeisasacredtext.com/force-the-oppressor-to-make-a-lose-lose-choice/ on May 12, 2026 at 7:51 PM EDT.

RABBI DANYA RUTTENBERG | APR 16, 2026, 9:30 AM EDT

Ask the Clergy Time!

what's on your mind / heart / soul / nerves these days

This is Life as a Sacred Text 🌱, an everybody-celebrating, justice-centered voyage into ancient stories that can illuminate our own lives. It‘s run on a nonprofit, so it’s 100% NAZI FREE. More about the project here, and to subscribe, go here:

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It's that time again!

You bring the Qs and I'll bring you As in a couple of weeks from some of the smartest people I know.

What's on your mind?

- Ethical questions?

- Spiritual-type questions?

- Questions about navigating the vicissitudes of the heart?

- Questions about navigating family?

- About navigating community?

- About navigating These Times?

- Questions about learning?

- About trying to live as a person with integrity in a world designed to reward us when we behave at our worst?

- Something else entirely??

This article was downloaded from https://www.lifeisasacredtext.com/ask-the-clergy-time/ on May 12, 2026 at 7:51 PM EDT.

Table of Contents

Life is a Sacred Text: 2026 May 10

All articles

co-create a more possible world

your questions, addressed

Pharoah + Moses revisit their talks on religion and race

the holy is where you are

Force the Oppressor to make a Lose/Lose Choice

Ask the Clergy Time!