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Book of Amos

Words with Gods

Saturday, April 18, 2015
6:00 PM–7:30 PM
Free

“Book of Amos,” directed by Amos Gitai

“Conceptually elaborate “¦ passages from the eponymous Hebrew text are recited by a relaying group of street folk (played by faces familiar from Gitai’s past features) as soldiers face down a public riot.” ““ Variety

Followed by a conversation with rabbinical spiritual leader Amichai Lau-Lavie and psychotherapist Robert Rosenthal of the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science.

Presented with the Auburn Seminary and the Nalanda Institute of Contemplative Science.

The film is shot in the contemporary city of Haifa, a city of tolerance and coexistence. The film includes references to the Book of Amos, from the Old Testament. Amos who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, in the days of Osaiah, king of Juda, and Jeroboam, king of Israel. Amos presents to us a vision of divinity with a strong social dimension. Amos is preaching for social justice, using metaphors from his experience as a peasant and as a shepherd.

Can two walk together, except they be agreed? Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey? Will a young lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing? Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him? Shall one take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all? Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it? Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. – Amos, 1, 1-7

The film was shot as a series of short monologues including some of the main cast of Amos Gitai films (actors who participated in Kadosh, Kippur and Kedma) and they incarnate fragments of the prophecies of Amos.

About the Speakers

Amichai Lau-Lavie is the spiritual leader of Lab/Shul NYC, an emerging nondenominational congregation, and the founding director of Storahtelling Ritual Theater Group. An Israeli-born Jewish educator, writer, and performer, he was hailed by Time Out New York as “Super Star of David,” an “iconoclastic mystic,” and as “one of the most interesting thinkers in the Jewish world” by the New York Jewish Week. He is currently a rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, a consultant to the Reboot Network, a member of the URJ Faculty Team, and the member of the Global Interfaith Network.

Robert Rosenthal, M.D. is a practicing psychiatrist in the Princeton, NJ area who specializes in the treatment of relationships, psychological trauma, and the interplay between psychology and spirituality. He held the rank of Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the U.C. San Francisco School of Medicine and at Hahnemann in Philadelphia. He is the author of From Plagues to Miracles: The Transformational Journey of Exodus, From the Slavery of Ego to the Promised Land of Spirit (Hay House, 2012), a fresh new look at the Moses-Pharaoh story as a parable of the stages of the spiritual journey back to God. Dr. Rosenthal has served on the board of the Foundation for Inner Peace, publisher of A Course in Miracles, for over 20 years. He was also a screenwriter, with two options and an unproduced TV pilot to his credit.

About Words with Gods

“Words with Gods” are short cinematic meditations on faith and consciousness masterminded by writer-director Guillermo Arriaga. The full omnibus will have its theatrical release later in the year. Here is a chance to see five of the short films in advance. The screening for each individual short is followed by a rich dialogue between a faith practitioner and a mind scientist.

Tickets: $20.00

Member price: $18.00

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