Photo of the author, Rabbi Jill Jacobs

Rosh Hashanah: Tears on the Altar

God hears the cries and responds to the tears of Jews and non-Jews alike. God even responds to the tears of characters elsewhere disparaged as evil.

Responsibility, Guilt, Teshuva

Sources and guiding questions to help inspire and support Jewish clergy as they bring the ethical teachings of our tradition to their communities this High Holiday season.

Ladino socialist publication La Bos del Pueblo. Credit: New York Public Library.

A MULTI-ROOTED MOVEMENT: Sephardic Activists and Horizontal Alliances in the Early 20th Century

New scholarly work on how Jews of past generations advanced groundbreaking multiracial coalition work, and what the tensions they faced — including racism within the Jewish community — say about conditions today.

Search Resources

Photo of the author, Rabbi Richard Ettelson, Ph.D

Ki Tavo: Fear Is the Barrier to Peace

by Rabbi Richard Ettelson, Ph.D
We are strangers to others, and others are strangers to us.
more
Photo of the author, Rabbi Mimi Micner

Ki Tavo: Torah That Lights a Fire

by Rabbi Mimi Micner
[The Torah] asks us to take seriously our power and ability to create change. It asks us to get off the couch, and to use the best of our spiritual and political wisdom to challenge the injustice of our time and transform the world.
more
Rabbi Ilan Glazer

Ki Tavo: Inscribing Ourselves with Love During National Recovery Month

by Rabbi Ilan Glazer
What is the Torah inscribed on our lands and in our hearts? What Torah do we bring with us into a new land?
more
Rabbi Claudia Kreiman

Waiting On Our First Fruits

by Rabbi Claudia Kreiman
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.
more

Cultivating a Culture of Giving

by Rabbi Jethro Berkman
For the sake of the food insecure in these difficult days, and for the future health of our country, I hope that Ki Tavo’s powerful linking of sacred space and religiosity to the obligation to give to those in need can be strengthened. As Americans increasingly seek spirituality and community outside of organized religion, community builders, religious and non-religious alike, must work to cultivate cultures of giving.
more

Blessings, Curses, and Choices

by Talia Lavin
It’s Rosh Hashanah, and those lifeless eyes stare at the collective of mingled families, a lot of kids – I’m among them – who sneak off to play cards.
more

What Good Will Cursing Do?

by Rabbi David Wirtschafter
Rabbi David Wirtschafter argues against cursing our enemies in this d'var Torah on parshat Ki Tavo.
more

The Fugitive and the Path-Seeker (Parshat Ki Tavo)

by Rabbi Jonathan E. Blake
Commentary on Parshat Ki Tavo (Deuteronomy 26:1 – 29:8) “…My father was a fugitive Aramean. He went down to Egypt with meager numbers and sojourned there; but there he became a great and very populous nation” (Deut. 26:5). This verse constitutes the kernel of the Passover Haggadah. When we tell our freedom story, we start...
more

In Time of Upheaval: Wonder & Awe OR Wealth & Wall?

by Rabbi Ed Stafman
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel taught that there are two ways of being in the world: “the way of expediency” and “the way of wonder.” In the former, we seek to take what we can from the world and others; in the latter, our focus is on how we can serve. When we are driven by...
more

The Times They Are Not A-Changing

by Rabbi Aaron Kriegel
Our Torah is a unique holy book and it is like none other. The torah takes us on a journey towards the Promised Land, but we never get there. The people who are in charge of our journey fail in their attempts at leadership. Our Torah portrays our leaders as fallible, mortal, and prone to...
more

Sign up for updates and action alerts