We are pleased to welcome guest writer, Sarah Mulhern, program associate at American Jewish World Service. Parashat Nitzavim describes a ceremony through which the people of Israel will “enter into the covenant of Adonai [their] God.”[1] It is a powerful ritual, with its recited litany of curses for when the Israelites abandon God and blessings …
Read MoreMany assert that helping non-Jews in developing countries isn’t a Jewish thing to do. They argue that while pursuing betterment for all takes nothing away from living Jewishly, such pursuits are not dictated by Jewish law. They interpret Jewish imperatives like caring for the orphan, the widow and the stranger, or loving one’s neighbor as …
Read MoreWe are pleased to welcome guest writer, Sarah Mulhern, program associate at American Jewish World Service. Parshat Emor closes with one of the most famous and controversial pronouncements in the Torah: If anyone maims his fellow, as he has done so shall it be done to him; fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for …
Read MoreIf one peruses economic literature on virtually any topic of significance, one will find multiple, and often competing, theories. In our social justice work—where there are any number of theories on which we could base our strategies for alleviating poverty—it is easy to become frustrated by the options before us. Especially because the problems we …
Read MoreParshat D’varim is always read on the Shabbat immediately preceding Tish’a B’av, the ninth of the Hebrew month of Av—the day commemorating the destruction of both Temples. On this Shabbat, we read the first prophecy of Isaiah as our haftarah. It describes the destruction of Jerusalem, “The faithful city that was filled with justice, where …
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