The Sacred Task of Following Instructions

Let’s face it: change is usually slow. Confronting the institutional injustices we see at all levels of government and many parts of corporate America, it’s hard to know which of the two moves slower. As we persist, we need opportunities to renew our hope and inspire others to continue working to bring about desperately needed...
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Education: The Building Blocks of Justice and Understanding

“In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if [they are] denied the opportunity of an education,” U.S Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren declared in the famed case of Board v. Board of Education, almost 64 years ago. Decades later, in 2009, Former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan...
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Sickness and Sin (Parshat Tazria)

Commentary on Parshat Tazria (Leviticus 12:1-13:59) In the world of Tazria, scaly, raw, and oozing pustules called tzara’at erupt on the skin and spread impurity through the camp. Those who suffer from this illness are isolated. The word used in Leviticus to describe this skin ailment is nega, which specifically means a plague sent by...
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Wrestling With Our Fear (Parshat Vayishlach)

Commentary on Parshat Vayishlach (Genesis 32:4 – 36:43) Alone. Anxious. Curled in the fetal position, recalling and recoiling from the memories of a similar night years before. Scared of what tomorrow might bring. Sure, this sounds like how many of us spent election night. But it is also how we imagine Jacob’s fitful night before...
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Miracle Of Miracles (Chanukah)

Commentary on Shabbat Chanukah I’ve always had a problem with the familiar Chanukah story, which highlights the Maccabees’ unlikely victory over the Greeks and the kindling of the menorah from one jar of oil that lasted eight nights. “Miraculous war” surely represents a quintessential definition of oxymoron; a jar of oil burning for eight nights...
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Follow Your Heart (Parshat Terumah)

Commentary on Parshat Terumah (Exodus 25:1 – 27:19) Not so very long ago, I was an attorney with an environmental law practice when I heard a rabbi teach that to find one’s true calling, perhaps one should be working on the thing that they felt was most in need of repair in the world. I...
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Ritual and Regulation: A Priestly Corrective to Prophecy

Commentary on Parshat Kedoshim (Leviticus 19:1 – 20:27) In the Bible, there are two traditions, the prophetic and the priestly, both of which aim at building a good society, but do so taking very different approaches. In the Haftarah read on Yom Kippur the prophet Isaiah famously demands: “Is such the fast I desire, a...
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