“We thought that the days of authoritarian strongmen bestriding the narrow world like a Colossus were over,” says Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch as Russian troops bore down on Ukraine’s capital. “Now we are engaged again in a renewed test of wills between the democratic West and the non-democracies. I wish it weren’t so, but there is a price that must be paid to preserve liberty.”
“Passions have been ignited because Hellen Mirren will play Golda Meir in an upcoming movie. If a gentile cannot play a Jew, can a Jew play a gentile?” asks Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch. “This all started with the recognition that there is bias in casting, but we’ve gone off the rails. We’re sliding down a slippery slope of secular apostasy — the betrayal of liberalism and Western values.”
Just as the Olympic athletes take us away from everyday limitations, in this week’s parasha, we remember that “in their time, the priests were a source of great inspiration — yet they were just as human as anyone else,” says Rabbi Samantha Natov. “When you feel depleted or uninspired, remember that you have great strength within you — that the impossible is possible.”
“Whoopi Goldberg said some truly offensive and ignorant things, but she apologized immediately and sincerely,” says Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch. “Repentance, forgiveness and atonement are central concepts in Judaism. And this was a rare opportunity for a profound teaching moment about antisemitism and the Jewish experience.”
“This week’s Torah portion begins with a long list of laws,” says Rabbi Samantha Natov. “Laws can seem abstract, but rulings respond to how our lives unfold. As Jews, we are constantly in conversation with the Torah’s vision of how to create a moral society.”
“Why a synagogue? Why Jews?” asks Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch in the wake of the standoff at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas. “To fight effectively against antisemitism, it is not enough to condemn the individual antisemitic act — as welcome and as necessary as that is. We must also take on the toxic ideology that poisons the hearts and racializes the minds of so many.”
