Text Study

In recognition of Israel’s 70th birthday, we have created a resource to try, in a condensed way grounded in Jewish tradition, to reckon with the fullness of what 70 years means for the Jewish state. This resource brings the voices of four rabbis, commenting, as if on a page of Talmud, on four verses from...

This two page source sheet has applications both for the issue of domestic gun sales and gun violence and regarding international arms sales, whether by Israel or the US.

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.

This discussion guide and text study, created for Human Rights Shabbat 2017 but widely applicable to any time of year, asks us to consider what it means to bring holiness to the front lines of our activism. Also suitable as sermon sparks.

This eight-page source sheet makes an argument from classical Jewish sources that Jewish employers should pay a living wage. Includes executive summary.

T’ruah’s complete Jewish guide to the New Sanctuary Movement is here in a revised and expanded edition! This resource includes: Background information on sanctuary and immigration, placing them in the larger context of white nationalism and America’s history with immigration Concrete steps to take An original essay grounding sanctuary work in Jewish tradition and text...

A text study about the individual and communal responsibility to heal, especially the poor.

If the full yovel sourcebook feels a little overwhelming, consider these two condensed forms as a starting point. The Yovel Sampler offers one text from each of the eight sections, in Hebrew and English, with discussion questions. It’s a great way to get the 30,000-foot view on yovel in a single class. The “Yovel at...

The Torah describes counting a cycle of seven seven-year periods—forty-nine years in all, and then sounding the shofar to announce the beginning of the yovel (Jubilee) year, during which land returns to its original owners and slaves go free. We associate the shofar primarily with Rosh Hashanah, which is known in the Torah as Yom...

The Jewish mystical tradition offers depictions of periodic cosmic rebirth, in which every 50,000 years, the entire universe returns to its original state. This can be seen as a more mythic, cosmic version of a the radical notion of land-return in our earthly yovel, the biblical commandment in which every fifty years, land would return...