Proximity for Consolation and Deliverance

July has been a hard month. Elie Weisel passed away. Alton Sterling and Philando Castile were senselessly shot and killed by policemen. Women wearing tallit, kippot, and tefilin while praying with the Torah were shouted down and called “Amalek” by fellow Jews at the Kotel. Eight police officers, five in Dallas and three in Baton...
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Transforming Envy Into Energy

A d’var Torah for Parashat Korach I often notice comparing and self-judging thoughts arise when I read about the work of activists: There they are speaking boldly at major rallies, or tweeting or blogging to many followers, or traveling to meet with Important People. What am I doing? Why aren’t I more like them? Then...
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The Holiest Place on Earth

Think of all the reasons you can get kicked out of Disneyland: if you are caught cutting in line; if you take video on roller coasters; if you smoke in undesignated areas; if you (an adult) dress up as a Disney character. (I love this last one!) I know that for some people, Disneyland/World are...
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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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On Arendt: Creating a Zionism That Owns Its Mistakes

Hannah Arendt would find it very tricky to be a Zionist today. She was critical of David Ben Gurion’s policy of effectively ignoring the Palestinians’ sincere pursuit of national sovereignty. She advocated a Zionism that would be achieved through excellent relations with the Palestinian neighbors, rather than in spite of them. In her essay “To...
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From Racism to Liberation: Confronting Tzara’at in Our Society

In our parashah, we learn about the mysterious affliction tzara’at. Further on in the Book of Numbers, Miriam the Prophetess is stricken with tzara’at as a punishment for speaking against her brother Moses. Miriam and her other brother Aaron – we’ll have to save the question of why Aaron goes unpunished for another d’var Torah...
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Water Water Everywhere…

“I knew something like this was coming,” said the octogenarian with wizened face and farmer’s posture. “I’ve been a township trustee for over 40 years. It used to be that new drilling sites had to be approved by the township. Just a few years ago, the state took our power away. Now they alone can...
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Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend

“Diamonds are a girl’s best friend,” so the song says. And so might be rubies, sapphires, amethysts, and the whole gamut of precious and semi-precious stones that shine and shimmer when dangling from a bracelet or sitting pretty in a ring. And why not – they sparkle and shine, and the many variations and colors...
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Why Listen to the “Goy”?

This week’s Torah portion is Yitro, named for Moses’s father-in-law, a non-Jew. It is in this parashah that we receive the Ten Commandments and make our covenant with God. So, how could the Rabbis have decided to name such an important parashah after a gentile? In today’s climate of polarization, it is more important than...
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