Photo of the author, Rabbi Pamela Wax

Pinchas: Kein B’not Zelophehad: Diplomacy Vs. Vigilantism

by Rabbi Pamela Wax
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?
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Photo of the author, Rabbi Joshua Jacobs

Balak: Blessing in the End

by Rabbi Joshua Jacobs
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.
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Photo of the author, Rabbi Jenna Shaw

Chukat: Moses, the Rock, and Me

by Rabbi Jenna Shaw
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.
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Photo of the author, Rabbi Jacob Chatinover

Korach: The Entire People is Holy

by Rabbi Jacob Chatinover
The entire people is holy, each of them. God is with their pain and their needs. As narrow as our focus can be when we are in acute moments of pain, in struggling with what to say and when to say it as a leader, I see that there are times to push, times to be silent, and times to support.
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Photo of the author, Hazzan Abbe Lyons

Sh’lach-Lecha: Encountering the Other, Encountering

by Hazzan Abbe Lyons
Even if you are feeling a lack of empathy for an “other,” God does not make that distinction. God wants to be in relationship with both of you. May this profound teaching inspire us to resist the dehumanization of any group of human beings.
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Photo of the author, Rabbi Debra Kolodny

Beha’alotecha: Lighting a fire in Us to Rise Up

by Rabbi Debra Kolodny
What if the Torah is saying that if ever there was a time for us to act like members of a nation of priests, that moment is NOW?!
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Photo of the author, Rabbi Eva Cohen

Naso: Patriarchal Surveillance, Bodily Autonomy, and Longing for “a Regulated World”

by Rabbi Eva Cohen
This “regulated world” is only idyllic if you are the monitor and punisher of “deviation,” not the monitored and punished. For [the monitored and punished,] the longing instead is for a world that affirms the dignity of all people.
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Photo of the author, Rabbi Michaela Brown

Shavuot: Do the Act of Love

by Rabbi Michaela Brown
We can start the process of being our authentic selves and accepting others as they want to be seen before we fully understand what or why that might be.
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Photo of the author, Rabbi Marc Gruber

Behar – Bechukotai: Abolish the Minimum Wage

by Rabbi Marc Gruber
We live in a privileged society. The Torah teaches that God judges us on how we meet our societal responsibility to provide for the most vulnerable people within our society. While we enjoy the blessings [of our privilege], we fail to meet the responsibility.
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Photo of the author, Rabbi Julie Hilton Danan

Emor:  Insiders and Outsiders

by Rabbi Julie Hilton Danan
The devastating consequences of excluding “the other” reverberate through history and are particularly relevant in our current climate of nativism and xenophobia, where human beings are being exiled for their words, and the very term “inclusion” is being banished.
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