Category: Social Justice

Did God Do That? (P. Shemini)

4/5/2026

Why do we believe or not believe? Why do our beliefs change? There are countless reasons. You have yours.

One reason, I've come to sense, is how religious and spiritual concepts are conveyed – which, for most of us, requires translation from Hebrew.

The thing is, translations aren't value-neutral, which can tilt much of what we learn and come to understand. Over the centuries, it can make a huge difference spiritually.

Come see how it can impact what we hold most dear or keep furthest at bay.

When the Liberation Began (Passover 2026)

3/29/2026

As we have for many centuries, the Children of Israel will gather at Passover seders to celebrate the liberation of bygone days.

When we gather with family and friends, we would do well to ask what liberation is, and when the ancient liberation began.

Why? Because the answers bear pivotally on who we are and what Passover asks of us now.

No Easy Walk to Freedom (P. Tzav)

3/22/2026

In olden days, during the week leading into Passover, rabbis gathered folks to huddle about the strictures of keeping kosher for Passover.

Instead, let's huddle about the freedom that we're about to celebrate.

Let's huddle about the Passover that rekindles the eternal flame of our identity and social- justice mission to spread freedom to others who cower in dehumanizing want and fear.

Let's huddle about how, especially now, freedom means bringing light to dark places.

Drilling Under Ourselves (P. Vayikra)

3/15/2026

Time and again, the world reminds us that we all are completely and utterly in it together.

Still we forget. Circumstances get the better of us. Reactions get the better of us. Leaders turn us off (or worse). We turn away from each other.

It's like drilling a hole in our shared lifeboat.

The Western Wall is Not a Golden Calf (P. Ki Tisa)

3/1/2026

I hadn't planned to write a D'var Torah this week. Rather than write a new D'var Torah this week, I planned to repost last year's teaching about the Golden Calf in civil society. But developments in Israel compel me to speak – clearly and bluntly – to affirm Judaism's core values of pluralism and gender equality. At stake are Israel's identity and the Western Wall's spirituality itself, lest each risk becoming just another Golden Calf.

Commanding Joy When the World is a Mess? (P. Terumah)

2/15/2026

Nobody needs me to confirm that vast swaths of our world burn like a raging dumpster fire.

Judaism is about reality-based reality. We do not pretend away trouble or turn a blind eye. We certainly do not fiddle while Rome burns.

Yet even so – precisely so – the Jewish calendar encodes a radical and wise spiritual practice starting now, linked to this week's Torah portion, that at first blush can seem oddly un-real and ill-fitting when the world is a dumpster fire.

The practice is one of Judaism's sometimes overlooked superpowers: elevating joy amidst all.

Justice and a World Blind and Toothless (P. Mishpatim)

2/8/2026

In a world of passive aggression, physical and emotional aggression, and mounting societal outrage, there can be instinctive allure to Torah's "eye for an eye" maxim about justice.

Except it doesn't mean what the millennia made it out to mean. What principles should guide us in addressing bad behavior? When – if ever – does "like" merit "like"?

"The Way They Will Walk" (P. Yitro)

2/1/2026

When I was a Harvard graduate student lo many years ago, person-sized Biblical words about law looked down on me every day from atop one of the academic buildings.

They look down on me still – and on you, and on our country.

Gifts of Foresight (P. Bo)

1/18/2026

How do we perceive the world – as it is becoming or as a projection of ourselves?

How do we perceive the future? Do we see the future merely continuing a past or present, or brimming with possibility?

A rare few among us – the prophets of old, and modern visionaries like Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – get out of their own way, defy inertia and see a becoming world long before the rest of us can.

Often society ignores them or mocks them. What if instead we listened and dreamed?

Subverting Absolute Power (P. Vayigash)

12/21/2025

We live in an era of rising global strongmen and eroding guardrails for democracy.

Judaism has seen much in its 3,500 years, including the rise and fall of many strongmen.

Effective frontal confrontations are rare against absolute power and its penchant for corruption. Such powers tend to entrench themselves by means as damaging and corrupt as they are.

More common are less attention-grabbing ways to subvert absolute power. These tend to be less frontal, less direct, maybe less effective taken one by one. But together, they make the difference.

<<Previous

Did God Do That? (P. Shemini)

When the Liberation Began (Passover 2026)

No Easy Walk to Freedom (P. Tzav)

Drilling Under Ourselves (P. Vayikra)

The Western Wall is Not a Golden Calf (P. Ki Tisa)

Commanding Joy When the World is a Mess? (P. Terumah)

Justice and a World Blind and Toothless (P. Mishpatim)

"The Way They Will Walk" (P. Yitro)

Gifts of Foresight (P. Bo)

Subverting Absolute Power (P. Vayigash)

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