Commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves, we understand that if we fail to see a member of our community, it is because we are not looking for them with enough love.
“And if you do obey these rules and observe them carefully, YHVH your God will maintain faithfully for you the covenant…” (Deuteronomy 7:12) “Therefore impress these My words upon your very heart: bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead…” (Deuteronomy 11:18) “That shall be...
T’ruah’s resources on trafficking are collected in Fighting Modern-Day Slavery: A Handbook for Jewish Communities. This handbook will help Jewish communities across North America fight trafficking on a local level. It includes background information sermon ideas text studies a children’s program ways to take action a poster to photocopy and hang in institutional restrooms further resources...
I didn’t know what to expect when I went to visit the Coalition of Immokalee Workers this past February, with a delegation of rabbis organized by Rabbis for Human Rights. Since Dorshei Tzedek became involved with CIW’s Fair Food Campaign two years ago, I’ve learned that this farmworker organization has had remarkable success in getting...
My step-daughter has a very distinctive sense of style, part Goth, part Emo, part anime, part steam-punk, part Asian, part her. She is also very petite, and finds it hard to find the clothes that she likes in her size. We recently realized that we can often find things that fit her if we order...
Our Torah is a unique holy book and it is like none other. The torah takes us on a journey towards the Promised Land, but we never get there. The people who are in charge of our journey fail in their attempts at leadership. Our Torah portrays our leaders as fallible, mortal, and prone to...
A d’var Torah for Parashat Korach I often notice comparing and self-judging thoughts arise when I read about the work of activists: There they are speaking boldly at major rallies, or tweeting or blogging to many followers, or traveling to meet with Important People. What am I doing? Why aren’t I more like them? Then...
I had never been inside Perth Amboy’s quaint, two room art gallery on the outskirts of this heavily Hispanic town in Central New Jersey. What brought me inside at this moment, nearly four years after I moved to Perth Amboy to be the rabbi of Congregation Beth Mordecai, the remaining synagogue in town, was not...
“Diamonds are a girl’s best friend,” so the song says. And so might be rubies, sapphires, amethysts, and the whole gamut of precious and semi-precious stones that shine and shimmer when dangling from a bracelet or sitting pretty in a ring. And why not – they sparkle and shine, and the many variations and colors...
The Israelites’ Egyptian bondage was Joseph’s fault. Ok, I admit, the Egyptians were directly to blame. But Joseph’s economic reforms laid the foundation for the enslavement. Let me explain. After Jacob and his sons relocated to Egypt, the famine worsened. Joseph oversaw the collection of funds from the people of Egypt in return for rations...