Aaron’s response shows, even though Jewish tradition is full of words, there are times, like the times we are in now, when no words are adequate, when silence is exactly the right response. Loving silence doesn’t try to give reasons, or fix, or do -- it just is there, with you.
Read MoreHow are we to treat people with little power, people far away from their own families and communities? This is the Torah’s response (Exodus 22:2):
You shall not wrong the ger, nor shall you oppress him; for you were gerim in the land of Egypt.
The Torah repeats this 36 times: lo tonu — “Do not oppress the stranger.” Remember you are a nation of immigrants, recall your answers who fled ancient Egypt, Czarist Russia, Nazi Germany. Don’t build walls that cut you off from those memories. Rather, let these memories expand your hearts across the borders that threaten to cut you off from your past. Let’s welcome those now seeking asylum from violence and uncertainty, who yearn to link their future to ours.
Read MorePlease enjoy this recording of the first night Passover seder I led for Hebrew SeniorLife’s Orchard Cove community.
Read MoreWhile we as a people have had years to understand our experience of slavery, and can retell its story in a way that helps us find new meaning in it, the challenge we are all experiencing now is new: we don’t know how we will tell its story, or what meaning we will find in it months or even years from now. As we live through this particular chapter, many of us are feeling a kind of discomfort -- deeper than our inability to hug our children, or see our friends, or order the food we want. This discomfort has a name: grief.
Read MoreThe Torah tells us what defined the mishkan, our first spiritual home, was not how strong it was, how long it lasted but the effect building it had on us. God tells our ancestors, if they create a sacred space, shechanti betocham (25:8) – “I will dwell amongst you.” Our sages point out, betocham literally means I will dwell “in them.” God is not in what we build, but within the hearts and souls of its builders.
Read MoreThe Purim story is fundamentally an us-versus-them story. And even though it was written some 1500 years ago, it speaks across the centuries to the culture wars and political struggles of our day: The failure of our leaders to reach across the aisle to address the climate crisis, the widening wealth gap, or global health threats like the new Coronavirus. To compromise on their personal agendas, or set aside their egos, in order to focus on the well-being of humanity and our planet.
Read More“You shall not wrong the ger, nor shall you oppress him; for you were gerim in the land of Egypt.” Remember you are a nation of immigrants, recall your ancestors who fled ancient Egypt, Czarist Russia, Nazi Germany. Don’t build walls that cut you off from those memories. Rather, let these memories expand your hearts across the borders that threaten to cut you off from your past.
Read MoreAfter the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, they turned around to see the water closing on the advancing Egyptian armies. The angels, seeing all this, were about to break into song when God suddenly silenced them, declaring, “How dare you sing for joy when My creatures are suffering.” The angels’ silence reflected a moral and spiritual victory. A strength that enabled our ancestors to, in my grandfather’s words, “differentiate between transitory and relatively insignificant values and those which are truly fundamental.”
Read MoreOur tradition acknowledges, there are times when there is a clear conflict between what is legal – the decrees of politicians and legislators; and what is just – the higher moral codes of our religious and ethical traditions. It is at times like these we are inspired by those who realized the only way to redeem the world was to challenge the status quo in the name of a higher authority.
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