Purim is tonight, and Passover is around the corner by Rabbi Scott Hausman-Weiss

Celebrating Purim matters especially today, because the averted attacks on the Jews of Megillat Esther (scroll of Esther) were not averted on October 7, 2023. And that for reasons that I will never be able to fully grasp, there are a lot of people in the world who just don’t like Jews. They imagine we represent a threat to them, and we must keep our eyes open. It is true that we must never forget. But it’s not a matter of never forgetting the Holocaust. It’s a matter that we must never forget that we are a special people with a unique destiny and a unique relationship with God. This doesn’t necessarily make us better, but it does make who we are and what we have sacred enough to protect, preserve, and defend.

With great sorrow, we recognize that any delusions we had have dissolved.

The story of the Jewish people in a nutshell.

Finding personal meaning in ancient scripture is not only a creative approach to studying Torah it is Judaism's prime directive. The stories, especially from the book of Genesis are not meant to be memorized and regurgitated, as if they are gospel, no pun intended. Rather, they are meant to make us think critically about our lives, our relationships and the pursuit of becoming one's self, in this limited, but fantastically-filled-with-potential-life of ours.

This new American administration is going to cause many to react in extreme ways whether you are on the right or the left. Jewish tradition, spirituality in general, cautions us to slow our roll. We are canceled to calm our reactions, to assess and evaluate before determining that we know the absolute and final truth.

We are Bound by Rabbi Scott Hausman-Weiss

Are you ready? by Rabbi Scott Hausman-Weiss

Which stories do you tell about freedom? If they ain't messy, they are probably missing something!

Outside in the world at least for a few minutes every day you can remind yourself without imagining the worst that much in life is redemptive and redeeming when we bring down the temperature of our worries and concerns and seek to connect to others, free of politics.