Believing in Things We Have Never Seen

“Hope is essential to our capacity to create justice. We have to believe in things we have never seen.” These are the words of Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, an advocacy group that opposes mass incarceration and racial injustice. In the face of the racially motivated murder of nine...
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The Other Side of Shmita

In Hebrew there is an etymological connection between the words “peace” and “pay”. The root of each, shin lamed mem, has lent merit to the quip that “if it is not paid for there is no peace.” One cannot be shalem/whole or complete if one is in debt. Over the years I have certainly felt...
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Who Stands With You?

Early one Friday morning in June, I stood with a group of hotel housekeepers who were about to do something very brave. Returning from a one-day strike, as a protest against unsafe working conditions, they feared retaliation. Juan Carlos was selected to be the first worker to punch the clock at 7 am, hoping that...
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Consuming With Kedusha

With this week’s parashah, Vayikra, we enter the culturally foreign world of Leviticus. It’s hard to resist the impulse to tune out. Vayikra takes us into a thicket of rituals and laws about animal sacrifices, skin diseases, moldy eruptions, purity status, and . . . have I lost you? Wait! With a little cultural translation,...
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The Heart of the Torah

We often point to Kedoshim, The Holiness Code (Lev. 19 & 20), as containing the heart of the Torah, the mitzvah to Love your neighbor as yourself (Lev. 19:18). Having recently retold the story of our liberation from oppression in Egypt at our Pesach seders, we might reconsider and look to Leviticus 19:33-34 as the...
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Not There Yet (Parshat Lech Lecha)

Commentary on Parshat Lech Lecha (Genesis 12:1 – 17:27) Our third and youngest child started college this fall. She left her city, her birthplace, and the only house she has lived in. At least once a day, someone asks me, “How’s the empty nest?” The answer is complicated, because I’m not in the nest anymore...
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“Mishpat Echad”

At the end of parashat Emor, our rabbis focus on a single phrase, “You shall have one justice for the stranger and the citizen alike, I am the Eternal.” (Leviticus 24: 22) We have to ask ourselves: how are we doing upholding the principle of equal justice? Let us begin with the great scholar who...
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