The Problem with Korach is the Problem with “All Lives Matter”
Both of Korach’s challenges have the same structure. Korach rejects the notion that something small— either tzitzit or mezuzah—could be more important than something big. In opposing tzitzit to a blue tallit and mezuzah to a houseful of scrolls, the midrash picks up on Korach’s tactic of putting Moses and Aaron in opposition to “all of the community.” Korach invokes the whole, promoting the general over the specific, the greater over the lesser. He fails to recognize that in Torah, the detailed particulars make all the difference. In the realm of ritual as in the domain of justice, the demands of righteousness are precise.
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Antisemitism is Not Inevitable
I believe, however, that antisemitism is not eternal or inevitable. It is something we can overcome, if we understand it properly. Common references to antisemitism as “the world’s oldest hatred” obscure the ways that it actually functions and who it benefits.
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Democracy and Elections
Text studies, divrei Torah, placards, and more resources for elections.
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Redigging the wells
In the struggle over democracy, it is not just about big ideas, levers of power, or sums of money: It is about human lives.
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What Progressive Jewishness Could Have Been
A D’var Torah for Parshat Mishpatim by Allen Lipson As workers across the country lead backs-to-the-wall organizing drives in the long odds of a COVID economy, Parshat Mishpatim’s labor laws offer a timely opportunity to reclaim the legacy of Rav Avraham Bick’s Mishnas Ha’Poel (The Teaching of the Worker), an all-but-forgotten tale of Jewish class...
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The Exodus from Egypt Was Only the Beginning
As Emma Lazarus taught us, “until we are all free, we are none of us free.” Even once the Israelites left that narrow place, Egypt, they were still pursued by Pharaoh and his army. They eventually came to stand at the shore of the sea, at the crossroads of history; that is where we stand today.
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Embodying “Never Again”: Learning the Lessons of Pesach in time for Yom HaShoah
The horror stories we’re hearing about Uyghur people taken in the night, being separated from their families, having their heads shaved, put on trains, interned, forced into slave labor, and systematically murdered are all too familiar to the Jewish community.
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A Blessing of Peace for Jerusalem
Everyone in Jerusalem – every Palestinian resident and citizen, every Jew, every activist standing in solidarity across lines of difference...was at one time a child, ready to receive a parent’s tender blessing given in love.
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A Sampling of Moral Torah 2022
In honor of Shavuot, we present a sampling of Moral Torah spanning from last Shavuot to today.
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