D'var Torah

A D’var Torah for Rosh Hashanah by David Arnow, Ph.D. From climate change and the erosion of democratic norms to the resurgence of antisemitism and the fight for human rights, one thing is clear: If despair triumphs over hope, we’ll never overcome the challenges we face. Hope enables us to envision a better future and...

The work of pursuing justice, healing this world, feels at moments like a desert without a clear destination. The journey is hard and long, but when in the desert, when in the midst of suffering, when in despair, we are commanded not to lose hope.

These passages (from this week's parshah) go beyond the basic responsibility of physically helping the poor; they challenge us to take into account their dignity and personhood.

...justice comes in many forms. It is not, as many mistakenly think, mostly punishment and consequences.

We do not celebrate the destruction of other people’s holy sites. Nonetheless, Moses had it right: Establishing a just society, as the Holy One commands, requires rooting out the symbols of evil.

We should never assume our success is rubber-stamped or approved forever. Our actions can always be re-evaluated, and based on prophetic precedent, God tends to hold us to a higher standard of behavior than our neighbors, not a lower one.

In our tradition, from any place on earth, even in a prison cell, there is always the possibility of teshuvah — a return.

...the Torah instructs that in the midst of our holiest cities and amongst people who do the work of God, that precisely there — in that place — are the vulnerable to take refuge.

I would like to see us reclaim what women’s rights can mean – and note that our tradition supports our demand to be seen as fully human, however we identify.

Balaam models being an independent and critical thinker... He refuses to stoke the hot coals of fear that demonize the other.