Packaging a Mitzvah

Purim is almost here and in my home we are busy preparing our Mishloach Manot baskets to deliver to family and friends. It’s important to me that we select only the finest products to fulfill this important mitzvah of Purim, so I always look for an American equivalent of Pri Etz Hadar (the beautiful etrog); vine...
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Technicalities, Flames, and Democracy

Before I was a rabbi, I was a lawyer. Most of my legal career was spent assessing almost-inevitably doomed appeals. These were often criminal cases based upon what are popularly called “technicalities.” That work came back to me when I read the story of Nadav and Avihu, to which we return again this week in parshat...
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Kedoshim: Love the Stranger as Yourself

On a recent Sunday, I was invited to preach at a neighboring Episcopalian church. This church is unusual in that its members are a mixture of English and Spanish speakers. The vast majority of the Spanish speakers are undocumented immigrants and their children. My congregation has been working with this church community to support and, if...
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A Yovel for the Poor People’s Campaign (Parshat Behar/Bechukotai)

Commentary on Parshat Behar/Bechukotai (Leviticus 25:1 – 27:34) One week from today, Monday May 14, the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival will launch across this country. As I prepare for this momentous event, I’m struck by the alignment of Torah and sacred season. This Shabbat when we read of the yovel...
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Poor People’s Campaign Resources

From May 14-June 22, 2018, the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival launched 40 days of “nonviolent moral fusion direct action,” calling on our country to change course on the deep moral crises that threaten our democracy and our survival. T’ruah supported the campaign in a variety of ways, including by publishing...
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Not There Yet (Parshat Lech Lecha)

Commentary on Parshat Lech Lecha (Genesis 12:1 – 17:27) Our third and youngest child started college this fall. She left her city, her birthplace, and the only house she has lived in. At least once a day, someone asks me, “How’s the empty nest?” The answer is complicated, because I’m not in the nest anymore...
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The Binary Brothers (Parshat Toldot)

Commentary on Parshat Toldot (Genesis 25:19 – 28:9) This week’s Torah portion, Toldot, tells the story of twin brothers who were labeled from the moment they were born, and the consequences have reverberated throughout our history. Jacob, the heel-grabbing younger brother who tried to prevent his sibling from emerging from the womb first was the...
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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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On Human Rights Day, Choosing to Remember

December 10 is International Human Rights Day, marking 70 years since the passage of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948, seven months after the creation of the State of Israel and one day after the passage of the UN Convention on Genocide. When T’ruah was founded, back in 2002, Rabbi Gerry...
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