Category: Uncategorized
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Being Good Citizens
In this week’s Torah portion the Israelites, under the leadership of Moses, have escaped from Egyptian slavery, crossed the Red Sea and are beginning their journey to the Promised Land. Jethro, Moses’s father-in-law, has heard about the events that took place, and travels from his home in Midian to meet up with Moses in the…
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Why American Jews Should Stop Observing Yom Hashoah
This post originally was on the Rabbis Without Borders blog. An interesting thing happened two weeks ago. When President Trump issued his executive order banning refugees from seven predominantly Muslim countries, setting off a wave of protests and condemnations, many Jewish groups who opposed the ban noted the cruel irony that the ban was issued…
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Interfaith Vigil for Compassion and Sanctuary
On Tuesday of this week, the day when the City Council meets, my clergy colleagues and I hosted an interfaith vigil to support our City Council’s decision to become a sanctuary city and to support the Olympia Charter of Compassion which we developed. Many powerful words were said, songs were sung and the feeling of…
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Executive Orders Based on Fear Won’t Work. Ask Pharaoh.
This week we have seen a flurry of Executive Orders coming from the desk of newly inaugurated President Trump. While Executive Orders are nothing new, and Presidents have routinely used them, the content of the orders and messages coming out of the Oval Office are enough to give one pause. These include orders to roll…
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Moses and Aaron: Allies for Justice
The Inauguration is upon us. The peaceful transfer of power that is a hallmark of our American democracy goes into effect on Friday. Yet this time power is being transferred to a man who enters the office with the lowest approval rating in recent history, who lost the popular vote by 3 million votes, whose…
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Make Your Voice Heard
Once again I had the opportunity to contribute to the Rabbis Without Borders blog on the My Jewish Learning website. I wrote on raising up our voices, keeping the flames burning and drawing strength from one another. And specifically too an initiative at my congregation to engage more in political advocacy. You can read the original…
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Torah tl;dr: “Vayigash”
Be your authentic self. Listen to the latest episode of my podcast here: 60 SECONDS TO WISDOM. Short teachings on the weekly Torah portion. Suitable for all who seek.
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“It is Quite Possible”
I’ve spent the better part of last week sick in bed. A bug that was going around our house caught up to me in the form of a bad headcold, and I was laying low through the new year, not doing much of anything. The saving grace was (in addition to watching the original Star…
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Torah tl;dr: “Miketz”
We can’t avoid. The newest episode of my podcast is here: 60 SECONDS TO WISDOM. Short teachings on the weekly Torah portion. Suitable for all who seek. You can read the entire portion here.
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