The Voice Trembles

A few weeks ago I sat in a hearing room of the Washington State House Judiciary Committee. I was there to testify on behalf of a coalition of interfaith and Jewish groups for passage of a bill that would hopefully limit gun violence in my state. The bill would create an “extreme risk protection order,”...
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Thirsty for Justice

“The sky above your head will be copper and the earth beneath you iron.  HaShem will give the rain of your land over to dust, and sand from the sky will descend on you until you are destroyed.” (Deut. 28:23, 24) This week’s parashah contains some of the most terrifying verses in the Torah. Curses...
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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, “Your...
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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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Who are YOU in the Passover story?

“…And you shall explain to your son on that day, “It is because of what Adonai did for me when I went free from Egypt…” (Exodus 13:8). From the midst of the original Exodus narrative, the text jumps suddenly forward in time, imagining you and me, future generations, retelling this sacred story in a very...
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Good Tents Help You Really See

Commentary on Parshat Balak For the past 10 years, I’ve been leading my synagogue’s children’s school team, yearly, in a 5k walk that likely none of you have ever heard of. The Save Our Homes Walk Somerville is indeed a very small local effort. Its purpose is to raise cash for keeping people on the verge of...
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Spreading a Sukkah of Peace Over a Person in Sanctuary

My community in Boston, Nehar Shalom Community Synagogue, is part of a sanctuary cluster of six houses of worship—three Christian, three Jewish—supporting a man lacking immigration status who is currently a guest in one of the churches. I had the privilege to speak at a Sanctuary press conference during the deeply reflective days of turning...
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A Flood of Unsafe Water

On August 31st, 2005, I sat waiting for a connection in Brussels, coming back from a summer studying in Israel. I was about to begin rabbinical school in just a few weeks. TVs streamed footage of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina; it was the first I knew of it, having been cut off from most...
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Real Leadership

Rabbi David Ackerman on Pinchas' two distinct visions of leadership, and two sharply divergent paradigms of proper behavior on the part of a leader.
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