Vayakhel
![Headshot of the author, Rabbi Amy Josefa Ariel](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Rabbi-Amy-Josefa-Ariel-Portrait-Sizer.jpg)
Vayakhel: Every Letter, Every One
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.
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Elevating Our Hearts and Spirits Towards Justice
The Mishkan was not just a compound our ancestors built; it is a state of mind that we can inhabit.
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Building Mishkans Together
Our movements for justice rely on the ecology of different people and different groups bringing the contributions that make our hearts sing.
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Building a Temple of Democracy Together
"If we want our vaunted “Temple of Democracy” to contain actual holiness, it means we all must be able to build it up." A d'var Torah for Parshat Vayakhel-Pekudei by Amelia Wolf.
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And they Assembled
A prayer for Shabbat Vayakhel-Pekudei 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Restoring the Dignity of Refugees Should Be Part of Living in a Democracy
Sabrina Lustgarten, Country Director for HIAS in Ecuador, writes that Parshat Vayakhel emphasizes "the importance of harmonizing wills to achieve a common good."
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Love as Resistance (Parshat Vayakhel)
Commentary on Parshat Vayakhel (Exodus 35:1 – 38:20) “He made the washbasin of copper and its stand of copper, from the mirrors of the women.” (Exodus 38:8) Parshat Vayakhel describes the mishkan, the portable desert sanctuary, as filled with beautiful items created from donated materials. Near its entrance stood a copper washbasin, a public fountain...
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Education: The Building Blocks of Justice and Understanding
“In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if [they are] denied the opportunity of an education,” U.S Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren declared in the famed case of Board v. Board of Education, almost 64 years ago. Decades later, in 2009, Former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan...
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Encompassing the Truth in Four Directions
In college, I used to tutor inner city middle school students through an organization called Making Waves. Once during a staff training, I was placed in a group with two Latinx tutors and two black tutors; the other group consisted of five white tutors. When my group playfully accused the supervisors of dividing us up...
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Water Water Everywhere…
“I knew something like this was coming,” said the octogenarian with wizened face and farmer’s posture. “I’ve been a township trustee for over 40 years. It used to be that new drilling sites had to be approved by the township. Just a few years ago, the state took our power away. Now they alone can...
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