June 18th, 2017 — Shabbat Sh'lah Lekha
Rabbi Sharon Brous
MLK, Jr. warned us of ministers consumed with pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities, hiding behind the anesthetizing security of stained glass windows rather than taking a stand to end racial and economic injustice. Today we must again resist the pull toward sacred narrative as nostalgic entertainment and ritual only as a balm for the troubled soul, rather than a tool for social transformation. Today, we reclaim the moral heart of our tradition, reading the story of a band of slaves rising before the most powerful ruler of ancient world to demand freedom and dignity as an inherently political – and timeless – message. This doesn’t make our synagogues partisan, it asks us to take Torah seriously enough to guide us through a time of national spiritual crisis.