Kavvanah (intention)

  Written during the T’ruah delegation to the Legacy Museum and National Memorial for Peace and Justice, January 26-28, 2020 Rabbi Nina H. Mandel Bo Bo el Par’oh Come after the oppressor Join the trouble Muster your strength Gird your loins Mobilize your anger Disrupt, disrupt, disrupt Watch for bias Cry out for truth Soften...

Written by Rabbi Simkha Y. Weintraub, recipient of the 2019 T’ruah Founders’ Award, this prayer asks for the safety of immigrants and refugees, as well as their families and communities.   Find more resources for your Tisha B’Av #CloseTheCamps vigil here.

Our tradition teaches us that our individual laments form a collective lament, gathering the disparate parts of ourselves into a unified sorrow. It comes from the bones, from breath. The city weeps, and we weep with her, her wails are our breath, her voice in our mouths.

A supplemental reading and discussion prompts for your Passover seder, as you retell the story of our slavery in Egypt. We recommend you download and print this beautifully designed PDF in full color, but you can also scroll down for the full text.             Our oppression in Egypt was the...

Sukkot, the fall harvest holiday, blends our gratitude for a bountiful harvest, our awareness of the fragility and vulnerability of all life, and our ancient communal memory of leaving Egypt to travel in the desert under God’s protection. This prayer-poem connects those themes to the astounding human rights accomplishments of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers...

For Pesach 2018, T’ruah offers this short, text-and-photos conversation starter about Jewish women’s resistance over the centuries. Bring it to your seder for use with the Four Children, the story of the Israelites’ enslavement, or a springboard for discussing the #MeToo movement.

An introduction to the Book of Ruth that sees the faces of African asylum seekers in the family of Elimelekh and Naomi, who seek refuge in a foreign land.

Ribbono Shel Olam, Master of the Universe — Shekhinah, Whose wings shelter creation — Once our people wandered the desert sands. Now we merely vacation in rootlessness While our Bedouin neighbors perch Without permission, their goats forbidden to graze. Time after time the bulldozers tear down homes And playgrounds, uprooting spindly olive trees To make...