On Valentine’s Day, Let's Uncomplicate Consent
The inability of society to talk openly and honestly about consensual sex makes it difficult to talk about nonconsensual sex, isolating us in our experiences.
The Torah of Flu
It is a mitzvah to keep our bodies safe. It is a mitzvah to protect the bodies of others.
Words Not Spoken . . . Words Not Heard
Words are powerful. In Genesis, chapter one, God creates through words: “God said, ‘Let there be light!’—and there was light. . . . God said, ‘Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters,’. . . . God now said, ‘Let us make human beings in our image,’ ” (Genesis 1:3, 6, 26).
The Challenge of Righteousness
The wording of the verse gives rise to this debate. The text states that “Noah was a righteous man,” but immediately follows with the phrase “in his generation, he was above reproach. . . ” All of us, including the ancient Rabbis, are left to wonder if Noah is exceptional or not, if his righteousness would be universally righteous or simply righteous in his time.
A Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous World
When the world is changing quickly, unpredictably, in new and confusing ways, it seems to be human nature for us to look for ways to try and slow down that change or control it. Or, failing that, we look for someone to blame.
Some in our great nation, in this "VUCA" world, are falling back on the oldest scapegoat in the world, in a desperate move to try to slow the rate of confusing change. They want us to blame 200,000 El Salvadorians who fled earthquakes and gang violence 16 years ago. They want us to blame the 800,000 "DREAMers"-- young people who were brought to this country as children by their parents. They want us to blame the 11 million undocumented residents of this nation who live in the shadows, all while working hard, raising American children, contributing greatly to our nation and, oh, by the way, committing crimes at a much lower rate than native-born American citizens.