How Darkness Immobilizes (Parshat Bo)

Commentary on Parshat Bo (Exodus 10:1 – 13:16) I am usually one to heed a call to mobilize for justice and human rights. I participated in a peace delegation to Israel and Palestine at the beginning of the Second Intifada and was at Standing Rock for the clergy action against the Dakota Pipeline. But lately,...
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Follow Your Heart (Parshat Terumah)

Commentary on Parshat Terumah (Exodus 25:1 – 27:19) Not so very long ago, I was an attorney with an environmental law practice when I heard a rabbi teach that to find one’s true calling, perhaps one should be working on the thing that they felt was most in need of repair in the world. I...
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Freedom of Speech in Jewish Tradition

Freedom of speech is an ancient Jewish value, as well as a keystone of democracy. Even if we find certain speech distasteful or disruptive, we all lose when we attempt to quash such speech—as long as it does not rise to the level of inciting violence. Boycotts have long been defined as a form of...
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Memory — Defining Our Communities (Shabbat Zachor)

Commentary on the Torah reading for Shabbat Zachor (Deuteronomy 25:17-19) “We’re all in this thing together  Walkin’ the line between faith and fear  This life don’t last forever  When you cry I taste the salt in your tears”   —Old Crow Medicine Show Memory is at the very core of our identities. Jewish memory is both...
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Are Scepters Only for Boys? (Purim)

Commentary on the Book of Esther.  “Oh, there’s no such thing as boy things and girl things. It’s just whatever you like.” Such was my 7-year-old son’s gently delivered and matter-of-fact response when another child firmly told him that flowers and hearts are “girl things.” Faced with the notion that gender is a binary (there...
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Addiction: The Strange Fire in Our Midst

Commentary on Parshat Shmini (Leviticus 9:1 – 11:47) What happens when the gift we want to offer isn’t accepted? Why do our efforts to be holy sometimes have tragic consequences? Our Torah reading celebrates the completion of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle built to be God’s dwelling place amongst the people. Precise instructions have been followed,...
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Elijah’s Covenant Between the Generations

Commentary for Shabbat HaChodesh and Shabbat HaGadol This coming Shabbat is Rosh Chodesh Nissan, which means the clock is ticking for Pesach’s arrival. The following Shabbat, we will read as Haftarah the very last passage of the last of the classical Hebrew Prophets: Chapter 3 of “Malachi.” We name the day “Shabbat Hagadol” – referring...
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Reaching Past Our Boundaries

Commentary on Parshat Metzora (Leviticus 14:1 – 15:33) One of the most powerful experiences I had during my rabbinic training was serving as a hospital chaplain. I practiced chaplaincy with a group of five other people on the path to becoming clergy of various faiths, and we were trained by a supervisor – an ordained...
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