Election Thoughts

Dear Friends, Here are five thoughts on yesterday’s election:   #1 The separation of church and state is sacred in American civil religion. I believe in this creed, and I bet you do, too. This means religious teachings must be beyond the government’s control. And it also means that people who hold divergent political views… Read more »

The God of Faith in You

ROSH HaSHANAH, 5777   I stand before you, forced to select one of two unappealing options. Given the immense range of possibilities, given all the talent and wisdom and charisma out there, how is it possible that our system could not produce more exciting choices? And yet in the end, it is a binary decision.… Read more »

The American Jewish Community and Black Lives Matter

But Baldwin’s rage reminds us that the black and Jewish experiences of America have been very different: largely a liberation for one community, and largely enslavement for another. How much tension for black Jews, who experience both simultaneously! To help heal America’s ever festering wounds, we have to come to understand that experience.

On Orlando

Like all decent people, I feel sick from this dreadful weak in Florida.

Hearing God’s Voice on Shavuot

Perched at the edge of Shavuot, Jewish thoughts turn to the meaning of ma’amad Har Sinai, the singular event of revelation, as described in Exodus 19. For all its grand drama, the mystical absorption, the thrilling pyrotechnics … is there anything here contemporary heterodox Jews can believe about revelation?