The Death of a Prophet and Friend, Rabbi Michael Lerner

I received this announcement just now from Rabbi Arthur Waskow of the “Shalom Report.” 

Dear Companions and Beloveds,

Rabbi Michael Lerner has just died. May the memory of this great justice-pursuer be a blessing to us all. And may the One who gave his teachings such an impact on the world fulfill the compassion and the truth that are embodied by his death.

Till his mind got twisted by the ravages of Alzheimer’s, he was a great friend of mine for 50 years and a great champion of peace and justice against great odds. I often said that I loved him and kept him close because he always chose to risk being closer to the precipice than I did.

With a broken heart for a broken beloved friend, Arthur 

I knew that Michael’s death was coming since he invited me to his home a few months ago to discuss it, and share memories of shared work and common struggle over the years.  It was a special and graced 50-minute exchange and it ended with my asking—and receiving—a blessing from him. 

One of the first topics he raised was that of Resurrection and I made the point that of course that was a hot topic in Jesus’ day, and it was clear what side of the argument he was on.

I owe Michael a lot, for he was a prophetic voice and demonstrated generously the courage necessary for being true to that vocation.  He brought forth many other such voices in his Tikkun magazine. 

He ran a very alive synagogue in San Francisco for years and I remember leading a spiral dance there on one occasion.  We shared an invitation to preach back-to-back at All Souls Episcopal church near Christmas time in San Francisco also.  I remember both of us being invited to speak at a gathering of the Dalai Lama in San Jose and I was moved that he began his talk with a heart-filled and unselfconscious chant and ritual from his tradition for the very diverse religious group that was gathered. 

The greatest compliment I can afford him is that he was a true and loyal son of his teacher, the great Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. 

He lived Heschel’s prophetic spirit and nowhere so much as in taking on persons of his own faith who were blinded to the suffering of the Palestinian peoples.  He dared to speak out regularly about justice for all in the Middle East and he underwent considerable criticism for that from his own people. 

He walked and talked his values and absorbed the wounds that came with that without bitterness.

When I was, in effect, fired from Holy Names College, under pressure from Ratzinger’s Vatican, and started my own University of Creation Spirituality in downtown Oakland, he called me to New College and together with his sidekick, Peter Gabel, dean of the very progressive law school there, offered to take our ICCS program under the wing of New College in order to guarantee its accreditation. 

I had never met either of them previously, but they simply said to me, “we feel you were unjustly treated by HNC and we want to help.”

When WASC began its many attacks on New College a few years later, one of their stipulations was to drop all recent programs, so UCS had to look elsewhere and were blessed to  create an alliance with Naropa University which bore abundant fruit for a number of good years.

I was honored to receive the TIKKUN Ethics Award from them also.  I was pleased to nominate him for the International Sufi Humanities award a few years ago, and at the event honoring him, we sat at a common table and he told me how he was undergoing Alzheimer’s, a disease his parents had died of.

Rabbi Lerner was a hard working devotee of peace and justice and truth.  He will be missed.  But his work goes on and is needed now more than ever and that includes his fine books including Jewish Renewal and The Left Hand of God.

I thank him for his life and work and integrity and friendship.  And, above all, courage. 

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See Matthew Fox, Confessions: The Making of a Postdenominational Priest, pp. 336, 352.

And Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine.And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society (Michael was especially praiseworthy of these last two books of mine.) 

Banner image: The wedding of Rabbi Michael Lerner and Cat Zavis, 2015. Photo taken from Tikkun article HERE.

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Queries for Contemplation

Have you been blessed, directly or indirectly, by Michael Lerner’s works and theology?  Do you recognize the spirit of his mentor, Abraham Heshel in his work?  Let us all give thanks for his memory.  

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Recommended Reading

Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election

Matthew Fox tells us that he had always shied away from using the term “Anti-Christ” because it was so often used to spread control and fear. However, given today’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables in this book employing the archetype for the cause of justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a moment, for examining the archetype of the Antichrist, it is now…Read this book with an open mind. Good and evil are real forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For immediate access to Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE. 
To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white images, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE. 
To receive a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for immediate download.

Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest (Revised/Updated Edition)

Matthew Fox’s stirring autobiography, Confessions, reveals his personal, intellectual, and spiritual journey from altar boy, to Dominican priest, to his eventual break with the Vatican. Five new chapters in this revised and updated edition bring added perspective in light of the author’s continued journey, and his reflections on the current changes taking place in church, society and the environment.
“The unfolding story of this irrepressible spiritual revolutionary enlivens the mind and emboldens the heart — must reading for anyone interested in courage, creativity, and the future of religion.”
—Joanna Macy, author of World as Lover, World as Self

The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine

To awaken what Fox calls “the sacred masculine,” he unearths ten metaphors, or archetypes, ranging from the Green Man, an ancient pagan symbol of our fundamental relationship with nature,  to the Spiritual Warrior….These timeless archetypes can inspire men to pursue their higher calling to connect to their deepest selves and to reinvent the world.
“Every man on this planet should read this book — not to mention every woman who wants to understand the struggles, often unconscious, that shape the men they know.” — Rabbi Michael Lerner, author of The Left Hand of God