Category: Social Justice

Showing Up, Taking Responsibility (P. Vayigash)

12/29/2024

It's not my fault. Why should I take responsibility for any part of it? We're all prone to say so.

Yet our penchant to claim rightness has spiritual and practical limits. Our acts and omissions ripple out far beyond their space and time, and Jewishly we claim collective responsibility for much seemingly beyond ourselves.

Just ask the guy whom Jews are named for.

The Flags Up Front (P. Toledot)

11/24/2024

We're all global citizens of a shared and fragile planet. And at the same time, Jewish life's public vitality – and with it, global diversity and genuine belonging – tends to ebb and flow in cycles of societal turbulence. Yet again, Jews and other minorities face a recurring existential question: who are we relative to where we are? In the U.S. flag's stars and stripes, there is still enough starlight for all of us.

The Fever Dreams (P. Vayera)

11/10/2024

Spirituality is partly about how our consciousness flows – how we experience our own hearts, minds and spirits. This flow can change for many reasons – misfortune and suffering, shock and awe, profound joy and love. The shift can feel like a fever dream – intense, unreal but totally real, in us and also beyond us.

Maybe the whole country is having a fever dream now. If so, we can take lessons from our spiritual ancestors... and there yet can be so much good.

On Love and War – Sermon for Yom Kippur 5785 (2024)

10/12/2024

Opinions and arguments. War. Antisemitism. Elusive hopes for peace. Pride and prejudice. Morality in the crosshairs. What we're about. What we want to be about. What we crave to be about. And back to opinions and arguments, and war, and antisemitism....

Amidst the swirling chaos of the year that's been, and so much hurt still ongoing, what keystones to Jewish spiritual life can secure our foundations? What can help keep our hearts open amidst all?

What the World Needs Now – Sermon for Erev Rosh Hashanah 5785 (2024)

10/2/2024

Rabbi David introduces our High Holy Day theme for 5785 amidst the anxiety of this hour. We remember that the core mitzvah of Jewish life is to love – not to be loved – come what may. And we remember that, even when deep pain causes us to lose this elemental love, we can find it anew.

Avinu Malkeinu: The Greatness to Lead Small (P. Shoftim)

9/1/2024

In a few short weeks, Jews worldwide will gather to proclaim Avinu Malkeinu – Our Parent, Our Sovereign. The Jewish notion of a "sovereign," whether divine (God) or mortal (king or queen), hails from this week's Torah portion that is laser-focused on the interplay of justice and humility.

Because too often the two don't go together.

The Neck's Cure is the Heart (P. Eikev)

8/18/2024

Week by precious week, we're shown how we strayed from our best selves. Slowly at first, this season hints, asks, presses, cajoles, demands and then forces us to see some things that maybe we labor mightily not to see. We turn away, perhaps with the whole of our lives or just a part. Or we turn away from truths about ourselves.

In Torah's words, we become "stiff necked." This season's call to turn back means that we must our neck, and this turn begins... on our hearts.

How "Women's Lib" Began (P. Pinhas)

7/21/2024

Judaism is all about collective transformation. The Jewish narrative continually has "transformed" its "collective" from a first human eventually to all humans. At the same time, the Jewish narrative continually has "transformed" roles and rights within the "collective," in fits and starts striving for dignity and equality for all.

At its best, Judaism's social justice ethic does both at the same time – which is how "women's lib" began.

Rabbi's Corner – July 2024: Spirituality on the Slow

7/1/2024

When I began with Shir Ami one year ago, the "early" High Holy Days were fast approaching. Our first months together sometimes felt like launching off an aircraft carrier.

This year, we get a real summer. Rosh Hashanah won't be until October. This summer, we get to take it slow. What's spirituality on the slow?

The So-Called Blemished Among Us (P. Emor)

5/12/2024

We're all blemished – no exceptions. Yet in one of Biblical tradition's most vexing admonitions, only the physically perfect could serve as spiritual priests, as representatives of the people.

Society hasn't evolved far past this spiritual no-fly list, its prejudices or its offenses to equal dignity. We miss out on the great gifts that differently abled persons offer. So why would Torah have a no-fly list at all? Maybe to hold a mirror to us, provoke our moral outrage, and force us to leap beyond ourselves.

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Showing Up, Taking Responsibility (P. Vayigash)

The Flags Up Front (P. Toledot)

The Fever Dreams (P. Vayera)

On Love and War – Sermon for Yom Kippur 5785 (2024)

What the World Needs Now – Sermon for Erev Rosh Hashanah 5785 (2024)

Avinu Malkeinu: The Greatness to Lead Small (P. Shoftim)

The Neck's Cure is the Heart (P. Eikev)

How "Women's Lib" Began (P. Pinhas)

Rabbi's Corner – July 2024: Spirituality on the Slow

The So-Called Blemished Among Us (P. Emor)

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