To Transform Our Economic System, We Need to Challenge Inheritance

Mahlah, Noa, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah, the daughters of Zelophehad, recognize and name another crisis, which is that the inheritance laws are set so that families with only daughters are unable to inherit land and instead their families lose their access to land. The five women respond powerfully to the crisis of their father’s death, and a structural shortcoming, with an eye towards intergenerational shifts rather than short-term reform.
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Circumcised Hearts and Stiff Necks

...when we circumcise our hearts we can then turn our necks outward to the world, vulnerable, nakedly open to the experiences of others. The internal work cannot be separated from the work of changing the world, of standing shoulder to shoulder with those who are oppressed. We cannot have one without the other.
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Here All Along

Excerpt from Here All Along: Finding Meaning, Spirituality, and a Deeper Connection to Life – in Judaism (After Finally Choosing to Look There)
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Land, People, God: What Really Defines the Jews?

In our own time and place, we are wise to recognize the danger of allowing any single land to confer sanctity on any single people. Abram’s comings, going, and sojournings remind us that it is the covenantal blessing of our community that holds us together, regardless of where we came from or how we got there.
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Closing Words from Genesis

A D’var Torah for Parshat Vayechi by Randi Weingarten The Book of Genesis, the first in the Jewish Bible, begins with the creation of the universe. It can’t get more big picture than that. We are told that the creation of humanity is accomplished so that every person is b’tzelem elohim, in the image of...
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Sourdough, Matzah, and the Vaccine Wait

I wonder if, this year, the lachma anya, the matzah that represents deprivation, can help us bring some meaning to the wait. While for many months our deprivation has been uncontrolled, now it is controlled, in that we can realistically hope and pray and plan for a future of abundance. 
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The Pathway to Joy Begins in Discomfort

The illusion of security, the illusion of living in a world not deeply steeped in racism, and the comfort of staying committed to our illusions ultimately cuts us off from the fullest joy of life radically open and in relation to that which is. 
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The Symbolism of Planting During a Shmita Year

While we are deeply connected to the land of Israel, with spiritual roots that seek to implant themselves in its rich soil, connection is not predetermination. What we build on top of the land, as a civilization with our own agency, matters just as much. Whom we build it with matters.
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