We Are Unstoppable/Another World Is Possible
Rabbi Arielle Lekach-Rosenberg reflects on her visit to the San Diego-Tijuana border with T'ruah and HIAS.
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Harvest Prayer
Sukkot, the fall harvest holiday, blends our gratitude for a bountiful harvest, our awareness of the fragility and vulnerability of all life, and our ancient communal memory of leaving Egypt to travel in the desert under God’s protection. This prayer-poem connects those themes to the astounding human rights accomplishments of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers...
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Unetaneh Tokef: Rising to Deal with Uncertainty and Change (Parshat Ha’Azinu)
The question is not “who will live and who will die?” because we are all mortal creatures: “our origin is dust and dust is our end.” Rather, in this specific year ahead, what kinds of transience will we experience, and how will we weather it?
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Seeing the Broken World: Discovering Myths Around Homelessness (Parshat Bereshit)
Commentary on Parshat Bereshit (Genesis 1:1 – 6:8) The story of humanity in the Torah begins with homelessness. The first two humans, Eve/Chava (“Mother of all life”) and Adam (“Earthling”) are unhoused vegetarian nudists living in bliss – and blissful ignorance – in the bubble of perfection of the Garden of Eden. There is no...
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Joseph in the Era of #MeToo (Parshat Vayeshev)
Commentary on Parshat Vayeshev (Genesis 37:1 – 40:23) In Andrew Lloyd Weber’s telling of the Joseph tale from Genesis, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, one of the biggest laugh lines comes when Joseph, sexually pursued by the wife of his master Potiphar, yells out “I don’t believe in free love!” After this, in both...
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Expanding the Birthright (Parshat Vayechi)
Commentary on Parshat Vayechi (Genesis 47:28 – 50:26) This past summer, five participants in a Birthright Israel trip (free 10-day Israel tours offered to young adults) left the tour to visit with Palestinians on the West Bank. Their decision to do so came after receiving a map that made no effort to demarcate the Palestinian...
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Fearing G-d Means Giving No Platform to White Supremacy
With the seders behind us, we are on our way to the Red Sea. But we’re not fully free yet. On the last day of Passover, according to tradition, we find ourselves trapped, with the Red Sea in front of us and Pharoah’s army closing in from behind. Moses tells us, “Have no fear! Stand...
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Here We Are Again
Rabbi Rob Dobrusin warns against cynicism and makes the case for hope in this d'var Torah for Shabbat Shuvah.
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Democracy: Remembering Where We Are Going
A d’var Torah for Yitro (Ex.18:1-20:23) by Rabbi Gordon Tucker. The Book of Eikhah (Lamentations) contains this apparently oxymoronic phrase when speaking of how ancient Judea had lost its moral way: “It did not remember its future” (1:9). What could it mean to remember something that is not in the past? The usual ways of...
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