The Blessings that Motivate Change

Jacob’s blessing becomes a charge, to his guardian angels and to all of us, that our blessings can motivate us to become agents of change, especially when inequity prohibits others from readily accessing these resources.
read more

The Wilderness of Homelessness and a Way Forward

I imagine the Israelites showing the same expression of confusion and disbelief as those families who realize that they have just lost their homes and that their lives have just been upended: not knowing to whom to turn and where to go because of a system that is not built to support them. At least in the story of the Exodus, God has other plans.
read more

The Essence of Being a Jew

That’s Kedoshim’s point – that those of us who own land (and its modern equivalent, a bank account) have an undeniable responsibility to support those who don’t. 
read more

Vayikra: Mincha and Roses

To stand for human dignity means not only insisting on the right to basic survival needs, but the right to live fully — to experience joy, pleasure, love, friendship, beauty.
read more
Rabbi Jill Jacobs headshot

Taking Time: A Resource for Shabbat by Rabbi Jill Jacobs

God, according to the Torah, created the world in six days and then rested on the seventh. This doesn’t mean that the world was perfect at the end of the sixth day of creation. Rather, God models the necessity of taking just one day to experience the world as it is, while acknowledging our own limitations in perfecting it.
read more

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...
read more

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...
read more

Keep Digging

Parashat Toldot tells a story of three wells dug by Isaac. Abraham Avinu has just died, and Isaac, not yet “Avinu,” seems to struggle to find his own way in the world. He is summoned, but the path is not clear. Isaac sets about re-digging his father’s old wells. Is he searching for something of...
read more

Does the Punishment Fit the Crime?

As my 8 month old son becomes more mobile and is more interested in engaging with his 2 ½ year old sister, the discussions about pushing and hitting have ramped up in my house. What’s most frustrating is that I know my daughter loves my son. She wakes up every morning wanting to know where...
read more

Sign up for updates and action alerts