Photo of the author, Rabbi Jonah Winer

Yom Kippur: Atoning for Our Patterns

While we don’t make the same mistakes each year, the mistakes we make come from similar places. Repentance is a way of approaching the struggles at the core of our being, rather than just feeling guilt for discrete acts of harm.

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

Pursue Justice So That You May Truly Live

by Rabbi Rachel Barenblat
This week’s Torah portion contains one of the most famous justice-related verses in Torah: “צֶ֥דֶק צֶ֖דֶק תִּרְדֹּ֑ף, / tzedek tzedek tirdof” — “Justice, justice shall you pursue!” Although the parsha begins with the injunction to establish judges, this instruction — to pursue justice — doesn’t seem to be aimed solely at those whose job it...
more

Envisioning a Just Society

by Mónica Gomery
In parshat Ki Tetze we encounter the case of the ben sorer u’moreh, the wayward and rebellious son. We read in Devarim 21:18-21 that if a child does not obey his mother and father they should bring him out to the gates of the city before a council of elders, publicly declare him a glutton...
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

Proximity for Consolation and Deliverance

by Rabbi Shoshanah Conover
July has been a hard month. Elie Weisel passed away. Alton Sterling and Philando Castile were senselessly shot and killed by policemen. Women wearing tallit, kippot, and tefilin while praying with the Torah were shouted down and called “Amalek” by fellow Jews at the Kotel. Eight police officers, five in Dallas and three in Baton...
more

Being Like Reuben and Gad: What sort of allies will we be?

by Rabbi D'ror Chankin-Gould
Have you ever been the one white person, or one of the only, attending a Black activist event or protest? Have you been the one, or one of the only, men gathered in a Feminist space? Have you been the one cisgender individual in a room of Trans activists organizing for change? Have you ever...
more

The Stranger in our Story

by Rabbi Ted Falcon
We are creatures of story—it’s how we make sense of ourselves in the world. So it is with purpose that Deuteronomy, the fifth and final book of the Torah, begins with our shared story. Our individual stories define our individual identities; our group story, delivered here by Moses, defines us as a People. What seems...
more

Transforming Envy Into Energy

by Rabbi Randy Kafka
A d’var Torah for Parashat Korach I often notice comparing and self-judging thoughts arise when I read about the work of activists: There they are speaking boldly at major rallies, or tweeting or blogging to many followers, or traveling to meet with Important People. What am I doing? Why aren’t I more like them? Then...
more

The Failure of Moses’–and Wendy’s–Leadership

by Rabbi Jesse M. Olitzky
Rabbi Jesse Olitzky writes about Parshat Chukat.
more

Balak and Solitary: Dealing With Our Desire To Curse Those Who Harm Us

by Rabbi Rachel Gartner
"In this reorientation from one way of doing things to a better one lies the relevance, power, and teaching for our broken criminal justice system today."
more

Seeing the Face of Ruth in Asylum Seekers

by Miriam Grossman and Rabbi Lev Meirowitz Nelson
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.
more

Sign up for updates and action alerts