Social Act!on

In the aftermath of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services, I hope that we have been able to start a new year with a clean slate. There are many ways to tap into Judaism’s wisdom to add meaning to our lives. One way is by responding to the prophetic call for justice and engaging in social action.

Twisted Morality

Congregants be on alert: If you come to me with a money-laundering scheme or plans to sell organs on the black market, I have a legal responsibility and moral imperative to contact the authorities. If I learn that a congregant is allegedly suffering from Munchausen Syndrome and is systematically starving her child, I have a legal responsibility and moral imperative to contact the authorities.

If only my respective rabbinic colleagues felt the same way.

Echoes of Jeremiah

Like it or not, we have a responsibility to be witnesses.  Talk about a daunting task. It is hard enough to be a witness to one’s own life — to remember the details accurately day to day, month to month, year to year and infuse them with meaning. We are also expected to be witnesses to events separated by generations, even centuries? In a word — “yes.”