In liberal Jewish life, mitzvah often is translated as "good deed" and tzedakah as "charity." To English speakers, both sound optional.In Jewish life, however, they're not optional. They are mandatory and essential to Jewish continuity and resilience. The whole point is to rise, and lift others as we do, and together raise up the holy. By… Continue reading Giving, Up (P. Terumah)
Wise Restraints and Sapphire Skyways (P. Mishpatim)
The Judaism of tradition is full of laws. It's easy to get lost in the laws, miss their ultimate point and turn our backs.But societal moments that spotlight the rule of law often reveal grave risks when folks can accept or reject the role of law as they please. The point of law is to… Continue reading Wise Restraints and Sapphire Skyways (P. Mishpatim)
The Eleventh Commandment (P Yitro)
Ten Commandments. We've read them. We've seen the art. We've seen the movie.Jewish continuity, ethical purpose and spiritual becomingness all trace back to the pivotal sense-scrambling scene at Sinai. It is said that each of us was there, the roots of our souls joined in the creation of our collective covenant. On the Ten Commandments… Continue reading The Eleventh Commandment (P Yitro)
The Impossible Song of Our People (P. Beshallach)
It was impossible. The liberation from bondage – our birth through the Sea of Reeds that opened into a birth canal – it could not happen.Yet here we are, and we've been talking about it ever since. The splitting Sea animates Jewish liturgy. It drives Judaism's identity of ongoing human liberation from bondage, xenophobia and… Continue reading The Impossible Song of Our People (P. Beshallach)
Come to Narcissist – P. Bo
We all have emotional and psychological vested interests in seeming externally to be our best selves. Most of us, we hope, respond to these impulses by actually trying to be our best selves in the world. Our insides aspire to match our outsides.For others, the optics of manipulated perception are the primary reality or even… Continue reading Come to Narcissist – P. Bo
The Moral Arc Discovered (P. Vaera)
No liberation is easy. Each begins with a promise that seems too good to be true. Even a promise can seem fanciful during the squeeze of hurt or bondage – like a fantasy, or a delusion. If there's a moral arc at all, at first it can seem out of reach. So it was for Dr. King. So it was for Moses. So it is for every liberation and transformation.
The Name of Becoming (P. Shemot)
Who (or What) is God? It's a question (perhaps the question) of the ages, and no blogpost can fully do it justice. Yet it is exactly the subject of Moses' first encounter with the One we call God: how should the Children of Israel name their liberator? And nothing has been the same ever since.
The Days Approached (P. Vayehi)
At some point (maybe many points), life teaches us that what we see depends on how we see. So it is with our perspective on life itself. Few of us go through life deeply inhabiting the ultimate truth of our own mortality. But once we do, the very limits of our lives can help imbue them with greater richness and meaning. If we let them.
Showing Up, Taking Responsibility (P. Vayigash)
t's not my fault. Why should I take responsibility for any part of it? We're all prone to say so. Yet our penchant to claim rightness has spiritual and practical limits. Our acts and omissions ripple out far beyond their space and time, and Jewishly we claim collective responsibility for much seemingly beyond ourselves.Just ask the… Continue reading Showing Up, Taking Responsibility (P. Vayigash)
Be A Light (P. Miketz)
It's telling that Hanukkah is one of the Judaism's most popular holidays: more than any other ritual, Jews light candles for the Festival of Lights. Amidst so much darkness it's tempting to think that the candles we light can't do much – and in truth, wee candles can't do much. They certainly don't automatically dispel the world's darkness. But that's not the point. The candles aren't the point. We ourselves must be the light.
Pointers Along the Way (P. Vayeshev)
What if the random nondescript person actually held the missing piece of our puzzle? What if the bad driver who cut us off on the highway actually put us in the right place at the right time? What if we lived into the possibility that our lives are full of pointers hidden amidst the mundane? What if they've been there all along?
On Mideast Peace: Is ‘Yes’ Possible? (P. Vayishlah)
Is peace possible? What might it take to imagine real reconciliation between the Children of Israel and the Children of Eisav, the Biblical brothers whose descendants became Jews and Arabs? If their Biblical relationship could go south and rebound, can our world get past xenophobia? By Rabbi David Evan MarkusVayishlah 5785 (2024) Click here for last year's post on… Continue reading On Mideast Peace: Is ‘Yes’ Possible? (P. Vayishlah)
Wherever You Put Your Head (Vayetzei)
Jacob's dream of a mystical ladder is one of my personal favorite encounters of Torah. Jacob has a transformational experience he didn't anticipate, didn't plan for and didn't fully understand. He learned that he might experience God wherever he went, wherever he put his head.Same for us. By Rabbi David Evan MarkusVayeitzei 5785 (2024) Click here for… Continue reading Wherever You Put Your Head (Vayetzei)
The Flags Up Front (P. Toledot)
We're all global citizens of a shared and fragile planet. And at the same time, Jewish life – and with it, global diversity and genuine belonging – tends to ebb and flow in cycles of societal turbulence. Yet again, Jews and other minorities face a recurring existential question: who are we relative to where we are? In the U.S. flag's stars and stripes, there is still enough starlight for all of us.
Where Are We Going – Post-Election 2024 (P. Lekh Lekha)
Rabbi David offers brief words written at sunrise after Election Day 2024.We don't know what the days to come will bring – not for us, not for our country, not for the world.We've never been here before, but in a sense we have. Over the long view of centuries, as a people we have experienced many… Continue reading Where Are We Going – Post-Election 2024 (P. Lekh Lekha)
On Love and War – Sermon for Yom Kippur 5785 (2024)
Opinions and arguments. War. Antisemitism. Elusive hopes for peace. Pride and prejudice. Morality in the crosshairs. What we're about. What we want to be about. What we crave to be about. And back to opinions and arguments, and war, and antisemitism....Amidst the swirling chaos of the year that's been, and so much hurt still ongoing,… Continue reading On Love and War – Sermon for Yom Kippur 5785 (2024)
The Tunnel of Love – Kol Nidre 5785
The Tunnel of Love – Sermon for Kol Nidre 5785 (2024) There are times in life that rivet us on what's core and strip away the rest. In those moments, we can enter a tunnel of love and be transformed. If we're purposeful, or lucky, we can experience these times long before our last time. We can experience Eckhart Tolle's… Continue reading The Tunnel of Love – Kol Nidre 5785
Our Shared Heart: Rosh Hashanah 5785 (2024)
Judaism's time-tested superpower is community – not because it's easy, not because we're similar, but because community is the mainstay channel for the kind of existential love that heals society. This love is possible because spiritually, we share one heart. It's equally true if times are tough and even more important then – but also harder. Note: These remarks concern… Continue reading Our Shared Heart: Rosh Hashanah 5785 (2024)
What The World Needs Now: Sermon for Erev Rosh Hashanah 5785 (2024)
Rabbi David introduces our High Holy Day theme for 5785 amidst the anxiety of this hour. We remember that the core mitzvah of Jewish life is to love – not to be loved – come what may. And we remember that, even when deep pain causes us to lose this elemental love, we can find it anew. Shanah tovah. … Continue reading What The World Needs Now: Sermon for Erev Rosh Hashanah 5785 (2024)
Who’s In? You’re In. We’re All In. – P. Nitzavim-Vayeilech
One of my favorite moments of the Jewish year is coming... and it's probably not what you think. There's a point on Yom Kippur when we come together as if to receive anew the ancient covenant, knowing that the very act of being together magnetizes that covenant. But Torah's basis for this moment, in this week's portion, asks us to read it in a counter-intuitive way.
David Evan Markus 