Rabbi Gary Pokras
  • Home
  • About
  • Israel
  • Torah
  • Sermons
  • Blog
  • Experience
  • Contact

Shoftim - 5777

8/23/2017

0 Comments

 
​Deuteronomy 16:18 –21:9
 
Today is Rosh Chodesh Elul, the first day of the new month in the Jewish calendar. Elul is the month immediately before the High Holy Days, our time to prepare ourselves through Chesbon HaNefesh, by reviewing the choices we have made over the past year to reinforce the good we have done and determine where we have faltered and need to improve.
 
Our parasha opens with: “Judges and magistrates shall you place at your gates.” (Deut. 16:18) Rabbi Steven Wernick, leader of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, looks to a beautiful Hasidic commentary which asks, ‘what are the gates?’ The answer could not be more perfectly written for these times: Our eyes, ears and mouth. “In other words,” Wernick writes, “how we understand and react to each other is how we establish a just society.”
 
Our nation is more divided, more polarized than ever – making it ever easier for words of hate and anger to dominate, to become a new ‘normal.’ How we respond, however, is up to us. Now is the time to look back on the year that has past, and forward to what we pray and hope will be a better year to come. Let us examine honestly how we have used our eyes, ears and mouths and weigh the choices we have made, and may we be inspired to use them in the future in the service of compassion, truth and justice – just as our Torah teaches.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Author

    Hi there!  I am the senior rabbi at Temple Beth Ami in Rockville, Maryland, where I have served since 2016.  

    Archives

    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015

    Categories

    All
    Community
    Education
    God
    Holidays
    Identity
    Interfaith
    Leadership
    Love
    Mitzvot (Commandments)
    Shabbat
    Social Justice
    Spirituality
    Wisdom

    RSS Feed

    View my profile on LinkedIn
(c) copyright 2018 by Rabbi Gary Pokras
  • Home
  • About
  • Israel
  • Torah
  • Sermons
  • Blog
  • Experience
  • Contact