This year, Shabbat Pinhas is the first Shabbat of the Three Weeks. These three weeks are the least auspicious period in the entire Jewish year, leading up as they do to Tisha B’Av, the day on which, two thousand years ago, the Second Jerusalem Temple was destroyed. Our people began a two thousand year … Continue reading
Shabbat Balak: Fear and Loathing, and a Talking Ass
This week, parashat Balak allows us to appreciate the importance of parables to communicate difficult truths concisely and memorably. As our story opens, one King Balak of Moab hears his people talking about the immigrants – the Israelites – nearing their border: “This horde will consume everything around us like cows eat all the … Continue reading
Israel and Palestine: Come and Learn
Jewish? Ready to see the real Israel, ask any question, face every reality? Join hands with children learning to love in the face of trauma in a Palestinian School; link arms with Israeli activists working for a more just world. See for yourself ,and transform your feelings of inadequacy to know with the understanding born … Continue reading
Shabbat Hukkat: I Have Seen Outrage
This parashat hashavua, this Torah reading of the week, chronicles a time of terrible crisis for our people. The leaders we rely on are disappearing; the path is lost in a cloud of doubt and fear; the G*d of justice feels very far away. The relevance of parashat Hukkat is profound and somewhat unnerving … Continue reading
Shabbat Korakh: A Time To Rebel
There is a time for every purpose under heaven – Kohelet 3.1 This week’s parashah recounts a familiar place to we who are living the nightmare of what the United States has become. As our ancestors in parashat Korakh, we find ourselves in the middle of a long wandering. As then, we are lost, … Continue reading
Parashat Shelakh L’kha: Not So Close
This struggle is harder, and taking longer, than we thought This week’s parashah tells the story of how, in the old Yiddish expression, mahn trakht und Gott lakht, “people plan and G*d laughs.” Our ancestors, the ancient Israelites, expected that the journey to the Land they were promised would be their new home would be … Continue reading
