A working document based upon guides from PG Watkins of The BlackOUT Collective and Frontline Election Defenders Tefillat HaDerech (The Travelers’ Prayer): May it be Your will, our God and God of our ancestors, that You lead us in peace and direct our steps in peace, and guide us in peace, and support us in...
A D’var Torah for Parshat Vayeshev by Rabbi Jeremy Kridel “And I — where am I to go!?” (Gen. 37:30, trans. Everett Fox) Thus Reuben, the eldest of Jacob’s sons, cries out after Joseph is taken into slavery in Parshat Vayeshev, sold during Reuben’s absence. A closer look at Reuben’s story reminds us: Justice delayed...
A D’var Torah for Purim by Rabbi Micah Buck-Yael As a Queer and Trans Jew, Purim has long held a special place in my heart as a holiday that envisions a world in which oppression can be turned upside down, in which coming out can be liberatory and world-changing, and miracles come to life through...
"If we want our vaunted “Temple of Democracy” to contain actual holiness, it means we all must be able to build it up." A d'var Torah for Parshat Vayakhel-Pekudei by Amelia Wolf.
I wonder if, this year, the lachma anya, the matzah that represents deprivation, can help us bring some meaning to the wait. While for many months our deprivation has been uncontrolled, now it is controlled, in that we can realistically hope and pray and plan for a future of abundance.
Just as the Menorah is juxtaposed to the appointment of the Levi’im, so too do we have a responsibility – not just to our veterans, but to those who died defending this country.
For the rest of us, it took ground penetrating radar, and other technologies which render the invisible visible, to wake us up. But for the Indigenous communities most directly affected, none of that was needed. The voices we most desperately need to be listening to already knew. They already saw.
The lesson of Matot-Massei is very simple: If we want to move forward, we must first begin to acknowledge the people behind the comforts and luxuries of our everyday lives. We must acknowledge that our healthcare system is no longer truly about care, but about profit.