D'var Torah

The Torah teaches us that we have a special duty, not only to avoid exploiting, but to actively care for the poorest and most vulnerable in our communities. As we celebrate Labor Day, let us do all we can to ensure that every person [especially immigrant workers] can live and work in safety and dignity.

Use your bodies — your arms, hands, legs, feet, voices, hearts — to act on your burning desire for justice.

No one’s mistakes should be the end of their lives; we all deserve the chance to change, to grow, and to live.

“When I look at those poor people, I see us.” My father, Elliott Arian, passed away in November 2021, but for the last few weeks of his life, he wasn’t really able to speak. My last coherent conversation with him was some time in September 2021. He was very upset because he had been watching...

Here in America, where the majority of citizens are descendants of immigrants or immigrants themselves, we should remember what it is to be searching for home. We must work together to welcome all those who … need the security of citizenship.

A lifetime of Jewish observance has prepared me with the tools for spiritual resilience and meaning-making when it is our community who suffers... What I need are the tools for when the people I love are the ones inflicting suffering.

When you understand yourself to be part of a community, you’ll show up, you’ll fight for your neighbor, and you won’t let concerns for your own welfare be at odds with doing so.

As we deal with a scourge of baseless hatred in our world today, what would it look like to use curiosity as one of the tools in our spiritual toolbox?

Recognizing who we truly are is our best resistance against tyranny. Knowing what lies in front of us, cognitive dissonance-and-all, we proudly wave the flag of Israel in May, the rainbow flag in June, the Stars and Stripes in July, because we recognize the promise of the miraculous ideas these banners represent.

This, to me, is the Torah: It is liberation. It is the release that comes from being seen, truly seen, in our whole, struggling, imperfect selves.