(M)oral Torah

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.  

Our Torah depicts what can happen to us in a world without water... Moses striking the rock to yield water is a vivid metaphor for the water-related violence that is breaking out all over our world — particularly in the Middle East, as well as in South Asia and Africa.

Nowhere do we see God and the people in a real process of engagement with their history and what is broken in their relationship. With so much left unsaid and unresolved, we should not be surprised to see the same issues in their relationship emerging again and again.