Pharaoh and King
Martin Luther King, whose birthday we remember and celebrate this week, confirmed what Pharaoh’s behavior already taught us: God helps each of us become who we are determined to become. Amongst the most obvious differences between the modern giant of social justice and the ancient Egyptian ruler is that MLK had, in his own words,...
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He Shall Then Remain (Parshat Mishpatim)
Commentary on Parshat Mishpatim (Exodus 21:1 – 24:18) So, we’re free from bondage! We’ve accepted our lot as God’s chosen people! Now we eagerly move on to… a list of regulations for a hypothetical society we cannot build yet? Why is Parshat Mishpatim here? The essential clue, I think, is in the first topic: rules...
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The Holy Task of Welcoming People Re-Entering Society
The experiences of those returning from incarceration recall the Torah’s description of someone with tzara’at, an infectious and highly stigmatized skin disease.
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Watch: Israel-Hamas War Public Webinars
Since the attacks on October 7, T'ruah has offered public webinars for prayer and mourning, to engage with the moral challenges of the war, and to hear from staff who traveled to the region.
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Criticism of Israel and Antisemitism: How to Tell Where One Ends and the Other Begins
In this time of inflamed passions, it’s crucial both to ensure that criticism of Israel does not cross the line into antisemitism, and to protect the free speech of those protesting Israel’s actions.
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Rosh Pinna: Keystone of Justice
I am standing by a pristine mountain stream at 10,000 ft. in the Wind River Range in Wyoming and sobbing. My hiking partner Ed, whose family has been here for hundreds of years, has just said to me that the land belongs to me as much as it does to him. That was nearly 40...
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The Wilderness of Homelessness and a Way Forward
I imagine the Israelites showing the same expression of confusion and disbelief as those families who realize that they have just lost their homes and that their lives have just been upended: not knowing to whom to turn and where to go because of a system that is not built to support them. At least in the story of the Exodus, God has other plans.
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The Triple Lives of Refugees (Parshat Shemot)
Commentary on Parshat Shemot (Exodus 1:1 – 6:1) The opening lines of the book of Exodus serve as a bridge between a family history and the birth of a nation. Somehow, in an infinitesimal span, the progeny of one man becomes an entire people: the Israelites. And a very prolific one at that. The new...
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A Long Walk Continued
Nelson Mandela called his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom, and that title resonates with this week’s Torah portion, Haazinu. This parashah is only one chapter long; it is written in two columns in poetic form, resembling a two lane road; and it records Moses’ last song to the Children of Israel. It is a last...
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