Author: Rabbi David Levin

Ana BeKoach

Ana b’Koach is an enigmatic prayer said to conceal a mystical formula for spiritual renewal within its plea for divine aid.*

 

*https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/ana-bkoach-a-portal-to-creation/

Bring Them Home Now

Bring Them Home

This is the mantra we need to keep repeating in every conversation.  Our people must be brought home as the basis for any negotiation.

Many hostages have perished, all have endured unspeakable suffering, and we presume those still alive continue to be abused.  This is the moral basis for the continued war on Hamas.

Although Hamas does not care about the killing and destruction inflicted on the Palestinian people and crudely, cynically positions the hostages and the Palestinians as bargaining chips in political maneuvering, we care about them and will continue to fight against the forces of barbarism until our people come home.

I pray for peace, and I pray for the end to the pain and suffering.  Bring them home, and then we can take steps toward ending hostilities.

Shabbat Shalom

In our welcome of Shabbat, we share Ana BeKoach, a prayer asking we be released from the spiritual, emotional, and physical things that bind us.  It invokes the power of God’s name through Jewish mysticism.  In this troubling time, may we be freed.

Shir Appeal shares its acapella rendition with us here.

Shabbat Shalom

It depends on the context

 

Yes, the presidents of Harvard and MIT should also resign. Because it really does depend on the context.

Free speech is not the unfettered ability to say anything.  Free Speech on campus should be balanced against the needs of the students to attend school without threat or harassment.

Advocating for Genocide is despicable.  Although the University is a free marketplace of ideas, calling out for the extermination of Jews on campus is the furthest from a safe and secure space for Jews as there can be.  For those presidents unaware of Jewish history, 6 million Jews were slaughtered during the Holocaust.  So, Genocide is an exceptionally loaded concept.

The inability to understand the context of this issue and articulate it during an appearance before Congress demonstrates the incompetence of these people to fulfill the role of president at these Universities.  If Harvard and MIT are okay with that, that is on them, but they also demonstrate shameful behavior and terrible judgment.