Powerful Kings and Degraded Hallelujahs

Right now, our society is in the middle of an important discussion about how we deal with sexual harassment and assault, especially from our leaders and other public figures. With the grossly inappropriate conduct of media moguls, actors, comedians, celebrity chefs, professional athletes, news anchors, business executives, clergy, politicians, and other powerful men coming to...
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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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Reckoning With the Harm We’ve Caused

According to the Netziv, the brit is meant as a healing salve. God knows the ways committing acts of violence may leave a permanent scar on those who commit them. Perhaps God is speaking from experience. 
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Meet our 2024 Gala Honorees

Raphael Lemkin Human Rights Award From the arts, to the United Nations, to Human Rights Watch, Marina Kaufman has dedicated her life to human rights for all people. In 1978, she became involved with an organization called the University for Peace in Costa Rica, where she was one of the “producers” of a benefit concert...
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Re’eh: See Immokalee with your own eyes and you’ll understand

See. Re’eh. Much of Sefer Devarim instructs us to listen—Shma. Listening is one important way that people understand and empathize with the stories of others. When we hear or read these from afar, we feel great empathy and outrage. But in our portion, the mitzvot we are called to fulfill require that we see life’s...
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The Heel, the Heart and the Binary

What does Moses’ closing address to the Children of Israel have to do with gender? It’s no secret that Torah is gender specific. The Hebrew language assumes a gender binary. Rabbinic Judaism accorded the greatest amount of esteem and religious status to those whom we often refer to today as cis-gendered men – individuals who...
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Id, Superego, and Israel

Parshat Sh’lach seems, at first glance, to have two totally disconnected halves. Part one is the story of the twelve scouts whom Moses sent to Canaan and their sin that led God to decree 40 years of desert wandering. Part two is a series of laws about sacrifices, tithing, repentance, and wearing tzitzit. But a...
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The Heart of the Torah

We often point to Kedoshim, The Holiness Code (Lev. 19 & 20), as containing the heart of the Torah, the mitzvah to Love your neighbor as yourself (Lev. 19:18). Having recently retold the story of our liberation from oppression in Egypt at our Pesach seders, we might reconsider and look to Leviticus 19:33-34 as the...
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