Korach: Holding onto Hope for Korach
When we escalate from anger to contempt, to what 19th century philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer described as āthe unsullied conviction of the worthlessness of another,ā we move our gaze from a personās actions to their individuality, their personhood.
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Counting everyone, including the stranger, for the 2020 CensusĀ
A d’var Torah for Parshat Naso. āThe Eternal one spoke to Moses: Take a census.ā This weekās Torah portion, Naso, focuses on one of the multiple censuses that was carried out, the census of the Levites in the desert. This year in the U.S. is our year to carry out the census ā to be...
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On Power, Hope, and Change
A Sermon for Rosh Hashanah, 5772 Rabbi Barbara Penzner Iād like to start by talking about the movies. Who here has seen āMoneyballā? Who is planning to see it? Good, that means that you may have some idea about the movie. Itās the story of Billy Beane, general manager of the 2002 Oakland Athletics....
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Fat Torah: Emerging Together from the Shadow of Fear
I loved the cover of my first album. It was all swirls of red and blue painted by my friend Eileen. The year was 1996, and I was proudly selling my CDs (and cassette tapes!) after finishing a performance. One woman bought a CD, took one look at it, shook her head, and said, āYour...
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Good Tents Help You Really See
Commentary on Parshat Balak For the past 10 years, Iāve been leading my synagogueās childrenās school team, yearly, in a 5k walk that likely none of you have ever heard of. TheĀ Save Our Homes Walk SomervilleĀ is indeed a very small local effort. Its purpose is to raise cash for keeping people on the verge of...
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Restoring the Dignity of Refugees Should Be Part of Living in a Democracy
Sabrina Lustgarten, Country Director for HIAS in Ecuador, writes that Parshat Vayakhel emphasizes "the importance of harmonizing wills to achieve a common good."
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