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...
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From Moses to Today: Accountability and Transparency in Leadership

Brandon Tate-Brown, a 26 year-old African-American man, was, according to his mother and friends, finally putting his life back together. After spending some time in jail for aggressive behaviors, he was trying to rehabilitate himself—working at a new job and finally moving into an apartment of his own. On December 15, 2014, Brandon Tate-Brown was...
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Sanctuary Cities: No Walk in the Dog Park

Commentary on Parshat Masei (Numbers 33:1 – 36:13) When I take my dog to the dog park, he loves to run from picnic table to picnic table and dive underneath them, seeking shade and safety. The picnic tables are a safe zone, a refuge, a sanctuary. Between 1980 and 1991, nearly one million Central Americans fled...
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The Essential Human Right

“Sticks and stones,” the nursery rhyme says, “may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” The intent of this pithy statement is probably to help children solve disputes with words rather than physical violence. Its message does, however, raise serious doubts. Words can and do hurt us. Words can trivialize, words can insult,...
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Hearing and Hearing Out

If you’re like me, the intractable status quo between Israel and the Palestinians is really getting you down. Ever since Yitzhak Rabin’s handshake with Yasser Arafat on the White House lawn nearly 24 years ago, my heart has been given over to the Oslo accords. An Israel and a Palestine, existing side by side in...
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Wrestling With Our Fear (Parshat Vayishlach)

Commentary on Parshat Vayishlach (Genesis 32:4 – 36:43) Alone. Anxious. Curled in the fetal position, recalling and recoiling from the memories of a similar night years before. Scared of what tomorrow might bring. Sure, this sounds like how many of us spent election night. But it is also how we imagine Jacob’s fitful night before...
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Every Last One of Us

Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg opens Torah 20/20, a year of divrei torah dedicated to the discussion of democracy, with Parshat Bereshit.
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Choosing a Life-Giving Narrative

In this week’s d’var torah on Parshat Mishpatim, Judith Plaskow notes that it is easy to focus on those passages in the Torah that are inspiring and uplifting, or to depict US history as a continuing march toward equality and freedom, passing over in silence the aspects of both narratives that are troubling or oppressive.
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When We Make Art Together, We Dream a Better World Into Existence

A d’var Torah for Terumah (Ex.25:1-27:19) by Caroline Rothstein.  I am an artist. That’s been my identity, purpose, and path since I was three years old and slid on ballet shoes to dance across a recital stage. Then came poetry. And nonfiction prose. Then came singing, acting, musical theater, jazz and modern and hip-hop dance,...
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