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Doing Justice Justly
When our methods are just, our system doesn’t grant privileges to the powerful and strip protections from the vulnerable. As the Torah formulates it this week, “You shall not judge unfairly: you shall show no partiality; you shall not take bribes.” The justice system ought to represent all equally...
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Our Wealth is Not Our Own: What Is Jewish Power For?
...the Torah teaches us that the particular and the universal are inextricably intertwined. Just as we need partners in the fight against antisemitism, we must use our power to become partners to others in the fights for social, racial, and economic justice. As the Talmud says, even a poor person who is sustained from tzedakah must also perform tzedakah (Gittin 7b). When we feel the fragility of our power, when we feel we need help, even then – precisely then – we must share what we have with others.
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“Mishpat Echad”
At the end of parashat Emor, our rabbis focus on a single phrase, “You shall have one justice for the stranger and the citizen alike, I am the Eternal.” (Leviticus 24: 22) We have to ask ourselves: how are we doing upholding the principle of equal justice? Let us begin with the great scholar who...
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Healing the Rift: Jacob’s Ladder & the Great Law of Peace
When President Trump announced that he would no longer receive The New York Times or Washington Post at the White House, I was struck that a sitting President would brazenly cut out half of America’s civil discourse to justify his domination of American politics. I felt how deep the rift in our politics has become,...
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Ancient Wisdom for this Post-Election Era
As I recall standing upon those millennia-old steps holding that aged stone in my hand, I take heart in the ancient truth that functional families, close friendships, and coalitions of decency with other religions and peoples have the capacity to sustain us, that historical perspective is a balm to mind, heart, and soul, and that pragmatic, sure, and visionary leadership is a hedge against societal chaos and an opportunity to seek the fulfillment of our people’s
and nation’s highest aspirations.
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Favoring the Many, Not the Mighty
This is but one example in a web of inequity that favors an ever-shrinking group of American elites... And yet, one word — Ish, a person — repeated over and over again in the dictation of these mitzvot is a reminder that the work is indeed mine to do as an individual.
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Unlearning the Tzara’at from Our Walls
The Kli Yakar (16th century, Prague)... says that it is this stinginess that brings “tzara’at of houses,” that our refusal to share is what will ultimately destroy our homes and society.
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Israel at 75 Resources for Clergy: Shabbat of April 21-22, 2023
As Jewish clergy we have an obligation to raise our moral voices against injustice being perpetrated at home and abroad.
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Shavuot: Revelation in Montgomery
We are called to elevate the difficult truths, and sometimes our complicity in them, in order to “lift them up” for tikkun — for fixing.
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