Our Shared Humanity

Jacob’s words remind us that life’s most sacred moments call us to speak truth and to recognize our deep ties with one another. Even when relationships are fraught, even when pain tempts us to turn away, we are bound together.

The Chanukah lights are intended for people on the “outside” — those on the margins. The internal practice of Chanukah is to turn outward and examine how we help illuminate God’s holiness for people on the outside of our society.

"More and more I begin to believe that we are as defined by those calls for help we do not answer as by those calls that we do."

We’re connected to each other in surprising ways, even during this time of disruption and loss.

No creation is possible without first stepping back and creating room for the infinite breadth of everything it could be.

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.

We are strangers to others, and others are strangers to us.

Use your bodies — your arms, hands, legs, feet, voices, hearts — to act on your burning desire for justice.

A lifetime of Jewish observance has prepared me with the tools for spiritual resilience and meaning-making when it is our community who suffers... What I need are the tools for when the people I love are the ones inflicting suffering.

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.