Rabbi Weill's Blog

Dear Friends,

This is a serious moment for our democracy. We would like to believe that what we viewed on our screens was surreal, but it was real. And we would like to say that the transition to a new administration will be smooth, but we are anxious.

Anxious, but optimistic. The stories of our tradition – indeed, the history of our people – illustrate that seeds of redemption take root during trying times. At the outset of the Book of Exodus, the Israelites suffer under bitter, agonizing oppression. But it is precisely during that terrible time that God calls Moses at the burning bush, launching the process of redemption from Egyptian bondage.

In Second Kings, which we are reading in The Land Beyond Torah class, a succession of evil Israelite kings is followed by one of our greatest kings, Josiah, who brought peace and purity back to the land. Josiah became king at eight years old. He spent his earliest within a palace and a land rife with immorality and idol-worship. He saw the bad, and yet he brought the good.

We have seen some bad recently, but we are hopeful – indeed, we are confident – that good will reign in our land.

Kein y’hi ratzon. May this be God’s will.

Rabbi Jeffrey Weill