![Rabbi Ian Chesir-Teran](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Rabbi-Ian-Chesir-Teran-Portrait.png)
Vayeshev: No to Nekamah
This Chanukah, let’s choose to follow the examples of Joseph and Tamar, and say no to nekamah. When the time comes to say the “Al Hanissim” prayer, let’s skip the vengeful words “nakamta et nikmatam.”
read more
![](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Portrait-sizer-14.png)
Behar-Bechukotai: Proclaiming Dror Throughout the Land
...modern American politics have alienated the word dror from the Jewish concept of liberty.
read more
![](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/stan-levy-731x1024.jpg)
The Pursuit of Justice
This week’s parshah opens with the command, “Give yourself judges and administrators to carry out just decisions…” (Deut. 16:18) On the face of it, this seems to be about how society should be ordered. It needs police, judges, lawyers, and a whole mechanism of justice in order to function rightly. Rather than each individual carrying...
read more
![](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/TfT-logo-600x600-e1525114857372.png)
Praying With Our Feet
“Praying for freedom never did me any good ‘til I started praying with my feet.” – Frederik Douglas “On the seventh day there shall be a Sabbath of complete rest, a sacred occasion. You shall do no work.” – Leviticus 23:2-3 (Parshat Emor) We are blessed to live in a thriving democracy. Though American and...
read more
![](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/TFT-with-border.jpg)
Real Leadership
Rabbi David Ackerman on Pinchas' two distinct visions of leadership, and two sharply divergent paradigms of proper behavior on the part of a leader.
read more
![](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Lester_Bronstein-683x1024.jpg)
“The Part About The Stars”
The girl who will become bat mitzvah in my shul on Parshat Lech Lecha has noted that her special day falls a week before the anniversary of Kristallnacht, which members of her family witnessed. So she requested I let her leyn her portion from the Czech “Shoah” scroll in our ark. Those who possess such...
read more
![](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Liz_getting_brick.jpg)
One Land, Many Names
Jacob said to his kin: Gather stones. They took stones, made a mound, and ate there by the mound. Laban called it Yegar-Sahaduta, but Jacob called it Gal-Ed. (Gen 31:46-47) Two different languages, the same name. Witness-mound. Laban’s name for the site of this peace treaty is in Aramaic; Jacob’s is in Hebrew. How did...
read more
![](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/LaurieGreen1.jpg)
Velcro, Leather, & String: Towards A New Understanding of Gender and Embodied Mitzvot
“And if you do obey these rules and observe them carefully, YHVH your God will maintain faithfully for you the covenant…” (Deuteronomy 7:12) “Therefore impress these My words upon your very heart: bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead…” (Deuteronomy 11:18) “That shall be...
read more
![](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Savannah-Lipner-Portrait-Sizer.jpg)
Pinchas: If the Law Is Wrong, Change It
The daughters of Zelophehad had previously been disenfranchised by the system but were able to advocate for themselves and not only did God heed their request, God changed the law entirely. We must act as the daughters of Zelophehad and reconcile the injustices we find.
read more