“We Were All Once Strangers”: Emor and Inclusivity

A d’var Torah for Emor from community organizer Cole Parke. Coming out is a defining experience for most every queer person I know. This month marks 15 years since I first shared that part of myself publicly, and these days it’s a deeply integrated part of my identity — something that is far from secret,...
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Why Sukkot Matters This Year More Than Ever

This work is essential, now more than ever. But this work is also exhausting. Just like the holiday of Sukkot, our world is also one of contradictions. There is good within all the chaos, although right now it might be hard to see.
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Redigging the wells

In the struggle over democracy, it is not just about big ideas, levers of power, or sums of money: It is about human lives.
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A Message That Will Be Heard

A D’var Torah for Parshat VaEra by Rabbi Dr. Oren Z. Steinitz “Just as it is a mitzvah for a person to deliver a message that will be heard, so is it a mitzvah for a person not to deliver a message that will not be heard.” (Babylonian Talmud, Yevamot, 65b). This statement, attributed to...
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The Spiritual Task of Our Time

A D’var Torah for Parshat Beshalach by Rabbi Tova Leibovic-Douglas Someone asked me recently if I was a “Social Justice Rabbi.” I found the question odd, so I replied, “If you mean a rabbi that cares about everyone’s human rights and our world? Then yes, I am a Social Justice Rabbi.” And I continue to...
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In This Stormy Moment, We Must Make Room For Everyone On The Boat

This week's Torah reading of Parshat Kedoshim questions us about our human relationships, how we treat our siblings, and how we relate to our neighbors to make this world a better place to live. So here I go back to the beginning. When I read in Kedoshim, "Do not stand before the blood of your neighbor" (Leviticus 19:16), I feel the moral obligation to shout that it is not nationality that makes a life something sacred and that we have the responsibility to watch over our neighbors.
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Holding the Space

We were told earlier in the Torah to love our neighbor and even the stranger as ourselves. But these commandments are included and yet reframed in our mitzvah, "V’Ahavta et Adonai," love everything/everyone. Signaling, perhaps, that we are also to understand love differently, that we are ready to learn a higher level of embodying love.
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A Pandemic of Polarization

Strategically, we stand a better chance of finding our way if we do not dismiss (other's) capacity for moral reasoning. We stand a better chance of moving their hearts if we assume they have one. 
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