This week in the Torah, the People of Israel received blessings from a foreign prophet, a donkey argued with its rider (the same foreign prophet), and a zealot ran through a couple with a spear.
This Saturday is also the 17th of Tammuz, a fast day commemorating the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem, which we instead observe on Sunday, since we generally don’t fast on Shabbat (except for Yom Kippur).
Meanwhile, the crisis on our border and in our country continues.
This summer we will work on turning our conversations around Fast Days into calls to action – particularly in starting fruitful conversations with people with whom we don’t agree.
Please join me on Saturday evening, July 21, the Ninth of Av (Tisha b’Av), at 7:00 PM, for a multi-media discussion about Jonathan Haidt’s material on The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Religion and Politics.
Look out for other opportunities to participate in conversations with interfaith partners, work on Voter Engagement and Registration, and more. We take seriously the demand from Hillel: If not now, when?
Wishing everyone a good week,
Jonathan