Yom Ha'atzmaut
Prayer for North American Jews on the 75th Anniversary of Israel’s Founding
A prayer by Rabbi Ayelet Cohen for the State of Israel.
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Connecting Parshat Tazria-Metzora to the Moment in Israel
A resource for clergy speaking about Israel at 75.
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Israel at 75 Resources for Clergy: Shabbat of April 21-22, 2023
As Jewish clergy we have an obligation to raise our moral voices against injustice being perpetrated at home and abroad.
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Loving Israel with all of my Jewishness: A Photo Essay
In words and photographs, activist Gili Getz explores his complex relationship with the State of Israel. A d'var Torah for Parshat Kedoshim and Yom HaAtzma'ut.
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Atzma’ut and Atzamot: The Bones of Israel
Reading haftarah on Shabbat Chol HaMoed Pesach, we saw through the prophet Ezekiel’s eyes a valley full of dry bones (bikah meleah atzamot) declaring that their hope is gone (avdah tikvateinu). For a living human being, bearing witness to human mortality at vast scale is profoundly unsettling. These bones in earth show us where we come...
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Yovel (Jubilee): Condensed Resources
If the full yovel sourcebook feels a little overwhelming, consider these two condensed forms as a starting point. The Yovel Sampler offers one text from each of the eight sections, in Hebrew and English, with discussion questions. It’s a great way to get the 30,000-foot view on yovel in a single class. The “Yovel at...
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Yovel Text Study: Shofar
The Torah describes counting a cycle of seven seven-year periods—forty-nine years in all, and then sounding the shofar to announce the beginning of the yovel (Jubilee) year, during which land returns to its original owners and slaves go free. We associate the shofar primarily with Rosh Hashanah, which is known in the Torah as Yom...
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Yovel Text Study: Return
The Jewish mystical tradition offers depictions of periodic cosmic rebirth, in which every 50,000 years, the entire universe returns to its original state. This can be seen as a more mythic, cosmic version of a the radical notion of land-return in our earthly yovel, the biblical commandment in which every fifty years, land would return...
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Yovel Text Study: Make the Year Holy
In The Sabbath, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel famously frames Jewish perceptions of holiness as holiness in time rather than in space: “The quality of holiness is not in the grain of matter. It is a preciousness bestowed upon things by an act of consecration and persisting in relation to God.” He describes Shabbat as a...
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Yovel Text Study: D’ror (Liberation)
In the yovel year, the enslaved go free; the Hebrew word d’ror refers to this release, and to liberty itself. Perhaps the most famous use of Leviticus 25:10 is on Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell, on which is enscribed: “Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof”. The iconic bell was created for the...
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