A Rabbi's Heart: A Conversation with Rabbi Robyn Fryer Bodzin

Today is a day for revolutionary love, for championing human dignity, for listening so that we can learn from the neighbors we are called to love as ourselves.

 

Justice is not achieved in one correct decision surrounded by countless unjust ones. This week's Torah portion calls upon us to demonstrate a duty of care to our neighbors as ourselves. 9 minutes and 29 seconds of murder in broad daylight, captured on video, should not be necessary for justice, nor should I forget the relived trauma that repeated footage of a black man being choked to death by a white man's knee causes my neighbor. Langston Hughes said it right in his piercing poem, 'Democracy': "I do not need my freedom when I'm dead. I cannot live on tomorrow's bread," and Maya Angelou taught us well: "Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible." Waiting is not an option, and we dare not make promises we do not make plans to fulfill. May we recommit to pursuing justice in the memories of George Floyd, Daunte Wright, Adam Toledo, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, and countless other black Americans. May we learn to truly see God in each other's eyes. May we come to truly love our neighbors as ourselves.

 

James Baldwin has been speaking to me.

 

Over the last few months,

James Baldwin has been speaking to me.

I've been trying to hear, to listen,

to pause, significantly, before trying to relate.

He left home because the fury there felt like a threat.

Away, he discovered love of that furious home,

which is why it hurt him so deeply.

Some of his thoughts require no translation.

Some are of a language which will never be mine.

Yet he speaks to me.

- Rabbi Menachem Creditor

Judaism as an Essential Ingredient for a Healing World

Judaism for its own sake is a strange concept - in Jewish terms. We weren’t created simply to be. We were created to bring light into the world. During this time of global fragility what can we bring to the world that it doesn’t already have? What is our responsibility as Jews in the world?

JTS Changemakers: What's Next for Jewish Life?

In the spirit of the gift of mikvah (ritual immersion) from this week's Torah portion, may you be blessed to be surrounded by possibility, affirmed by the living waters from above and from below. #Mikvah #BuildOnLove #ShabbatShalom