![](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Rabbi-Paula-Marcus-1.jpg)
Cleaning up the mess together
One of my favorite programs at my synagogue is our B’nei Mitzvah family retreat. At the beginning of the summer, we take our incoming seventh grade families to camp for the weekend. It’s remarkable: relationships between kids change, parents get to know each other, and, after the Bar or Bat Mitzvah, we keep most of...
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My trip to Immokalee
CONGREGATION SHA’AREI KODESH 2nd Day of Passover MARCH 27, 2013 © RABBI LOUIS RIESER Hag kasher v’Sameah. I want to thank Rabbi Baum for this invitation to speak about my experience in Immokalee with T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights. In January I joined 9 other rabbis to learn first-hand about the conditions...
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Rabbi Jason Fenster
Jason Fenster is a second year rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. Before coming to rabbinical school, Jason served as an Eisendrath Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism where he focused on issues of gun control, LGBT equality, criminal justice, disability rights, and voting rights. After his fellowship,...
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Opening the Narrow Straits with Advance Care Planning
We have come to the end of Genesis, and with it the conclusion of the stories of our matriarchs and patriarchs. For the last several weeks we have been engaged with the stories of the children of Jacob, focusing mainly on his favored son, Joseph. Now Joseph is on his deathbed. We are privy to...
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The Other Side of Shmita
In Hebrew there is an etymological connection between the words “peace” and “pay”. The root of each, shin lamed mem, has lent merit to the quip that “if it is not paid for there is no peace.” One cannot be shalem/whole or complete if one is in debt. Over the years I have certainly felt...
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![Clergy marching in Ferguson](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/mordechain-marching-1024x683.jpg)
10 Rules for Engagement for White Jews Joining the #BlackLivesMatter Movement
"1. Show up. It's not too late to build relationships."
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Paying Priests, Paying Parents
This past weekend, many of us celebrated Father’s Day to honor the important work our dads do. A month ago, we did the same thing to honor our mothers: BBQs and brunches, phone calls and cards in the mail, “Number 1 Mom” mugs and “World’s Best Dad” baseball caps. As a congregational rabbi, I spend...
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Cast Out in the Be’er Sheva Desert: Hagar, Ishmael, and the Bedouin of the Negev
The Torah portion that we have just read tells a story about Abraham and Sarah, Hagar and Ishmael, which is both moving and troubling. A number of years earlier, at the suggestion of Sarah, who had reached old age without being able to bear a child, Abraham had a son with Sarah’s servant Hagar. Abraham...
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When a Leader SIns
This Torah portion begins the book’s extensive treatment of the sacrificial system that was practiced in Israel for more than 1000 years. And it is now some 2000 years since we stopped offering sacrifices. In the interim we have developed a sense of distance from that ancient cultic practice. Nevertheless, it may still be possible...
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