New Thanksgiving I dream a dream in which I find myself walking up the steps to a big blue house. A black woman who seems to be working there as a domestic, leans her upper body over mine and embraces me in a warm, sensual, womb-like fashion, as a mother would embrace her child. Gathered thusly to her bosom I listen with pleasure as she proceeds to sing in a beautiful, motherly voice, a sort of lullaby that goes: “Your people and my people, when it won’t matter, just our people.” We are each the son or daughter of a nation We are each as well a link in the chain The chain that binds the world together The chain that makes all people one Let no man be so bold or vain That he would dare to break that chain In a time when the wolf Called by the voice in my dreams Ze’ev Olam “The World-Wolf” May be heard howling in the night All tribes are called to the Mother Who sings the song The song of we All tribes are called to the house Petals to the flower Branches to the tree The “Tree of Trees Great Great Great” In a time when Death Itself walks the Earth When it seems as if the world is under a terrible curse If not for you and I Then for our neighbor All tribes are called to lift up their voices To join in the anthem of a new day: “Not your people Not my people Just our people” I dream a dream in which I find myself sitting at a table opposite a well-known Christian. It makes me angry when in the course of our discussion he refers to me as “the Jew,” though I realize now he didn’t mean this in a negative way, but only wanted to show me how my defensiveness contributes to the atmosphere of tension between us. In the dream however, I reject the current state of affairs and remark: “It doesn’t make any difference that I’m a Jew and you’re a Christian, it doesn’t matter if you hate me, because there are much more important things out there we both have to fight against, which are our common enemy. All tribes are called to the table Called to a banquet A banquet of love Called to share in a New Thanksgiving Called by the Mother The child The dove The spirit of peace Forgiveness Compassion I dream a dream in which I see two women standing side by side. There is a podium or pulpit nearby laden with sacred books, and I realize that the two women are preparing to lead a special Sabbath celebration in the temple where I worship.