Congregation Beth Israel

What do you want me to say? It can’t get worse? It’s going to get better? If life imitates art, then the times we’re living in are imitating this week’s Torah portion. In Sh’lach l’cha, messengers were challenged to scout out the Promised Land and report back to the Israelites what they found there. All but two of the scouts came back and said, “The country that we ...

I used to write about this week’s Torah portion in glowing terms, especially Moses’ short and alliterative prayer to heal his sister Miriam’s scaly affliction: “El na r’fah na lah,” God, pray heal her! From the Torah’s account it was quite effective, too. Would that all our prayers were as short and effective.

But after years of rising antisemitism in our time—followi...

Hatred happens every day. Vile words, destructive acts, and divisive headlines are the norm. We adjust ourselves to it by dodging literal and figurative bullets. And we hide to protect ourselves because the price of doing anything less feels too high. It comes at the expense of reaching out to others whom we don’t know, and it deprives us of changing with and adapting to the...