Photo of the author, Rabbi Lana Zilberman Soloway

Bamidbar: Lispor and Lesaper

We have been counting the days since October 7, counting the unbearable number of lost lives, counting the number of hostages, counting the number of people who became refugees in their own land. We count and we count and we count. And we tell a story. Each and every one of us.
read more

“Now We Are Free”: But Who Pays the Price?

A d’var Torah for Chol HaMoed Pesach. “Let My people go,” God famously said to Moses. We usually don’t finish the quote, which ends “…so that they may serve Me.” Freedom, the rabbis say quite plainly, is another kind of servitude. The cheirut, freedom, that the Jews achieved on Passover (z’man cheiruteinu, the time of...
read more

Free At Last?

“Maybe it’s time to move the museum displays to the side,” she said, “and get back to work.” That’s what one of my students said, and I couldn’t have been prouder. Recently, I had the privilege of journeying with members of our staff and teens from our congregation on a service/learning trip to New Orleans...
read more

Opening the Door at Passover

At the first Passover, we marked our doorposts with the blood of a sacrificial lamb to protect us from the Angel of Death (Exodus 12:23). Although that was a one-time ritual, doors continue to be a central symbol of the holiday. It is a symbol that seems more relevant than ever in an age when nativism...
read more

A Commitment to Justice Means Remembering Our Tribes

But whether or not the Sinai wilderness was ever ownerless as the midrash suggests, in North America, the so-called wildernesses never have been. Those places — and indeed every square mile of North America — have always been, and continue to be, the home of specific tribes of Indigenous peoples.
read more

Texts and Resources for Tisha B’Av: Jews Say Free Them All

Prayer for Tisha B’Av Actions A prayer by Rabbi Mónica Gomery designed to be read preceding or following the sounding of the shofar at a collective protest on Tisha B’Av. The use of this resource has helped unify Tisha B’Av events across the country. T’ruah’s Past Tisha B’Av Divrei Torah Commentaries by Rabbis Edward C. Bernstein, Ruhi Sophia...
read more

Sign up for updates and action alerts