As protests continue throughout each of our communities, don’t wish them to end but instead commit to supporting them until we truly achieve justice for all. Show your support. Cheer on the protestors. Join the protestors. And when you vote, vote for real change.
Trying to endure loss in isolation is more than painful; it puts our lives at risk. Rambam understood that when he described the consequences of not being connecting to Am Yisrael at times of trauma, including our fast days.
Rebuke, תוכחה, when done correctly, looks for an opening, a sympathetic moment or shared memory to draw upon. Before reproving the other, we first join them. Once we are allies, our words urging change might be heard.
"The light of day / Crept beneath my eyelids / And pushed sleep away..."
My search for “silver linings” in no way minimizes the toll in suffering, pain, loss, and inconvenience the pandemic is exacting from our lives; I fervently pray it will end soon. Still, I believe that the secret to Jewish survival despite all the hardships and tragedy history has imposed on us is our ability to cling to the hope that things will get better.
This work is our calling, and it doesn’t pause for a pandemic. Instead, we find creative ways to engage and mobilize our communities at a distance.
The determining factor, in my opinion, as to who can be considered a Zionist and who not, is not dependent on one’s solution for the end of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It’s not about one state versus two states, nor is it about one’s perspective on the potential annexation of territory. It's about two determining factors.
Together, we will champion the lessons of Passover by bringing greater wholeness, justice, and belonging to our world.