PREPARE

This is God’s message for the people before they are to experience the awesome Presence at the mountain: “Lekh el-ha’am v’kidashtam hayom umakhar…” Go to the people and sanctify them.  The exact meaning and practice of this sanctification is not explained.  Some commentators, such as Rashbam and Ibn Ezra, see it as purification and read...
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Ways to Give

Thank you for your tax-deductible gift, which brings a rabbinic moral voice to human rights in North America, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories. Donate Online Donate by Mail Make your check out to: T’ruah266 West 37th Street, Suite 803New York, NY 10018 Join the Shofar Society By giving monthly to T’ruah, you amplify the moral...
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The Blessings that Motivate Change

Jacob’s blessing becomes a charge, to his guardian angels and to all of us, that our blessings can motivate us to become agents of change, especially when inequity prohibits others from readily accessing these resources.
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Envisioning a Just Society

In parshat Ki Tetze we encounter the case of the ben sorer u’moreh, the wayward and rebellious son. We read in Devarim 21:18-21 that if a child does not obey his mother and father they should bring him out to the gates of the city before a council of elders, publicly declare him a glutton...
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Rabbi Margo Hughes-Robinson

Beshalach: No More Solitary Confinement in NYC

There is a deep and abiding power in saying to those who have died as a result of solitary confinement. We cannot bring back those we lost, but we can sanctify their memories by continuing to fight for a city that is dedicated to human rights for all.
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Photo of the author, Yael Marans

Naso: The Burdens We Cannot See

For me, acknowledging what I cannot see lies at the heart of community building. It helps me feel connected to the humanity of people in my circles and in the broader world, as ultimately the invisible heaviness of experience is one of the things that I know to be true of being human.
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Doing Justice Justly

When our methods are just, our system doesn’t grant privileges to the powerful and strip protections from the vulnerable. As the Torah formulates it this week, “You shall not judge unfairly: you shall show no partiality; you shall not take bribes.” The justice system ought to represent all equally...
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