Shabbat Beshalah 5780

We are excited to welcome our scholar-in-residence, the renowned Israeli journalist Tal Schneider, this Shabbat. No doubt she’ll address the many conflicts that persist in both Israeli and American politics, and the somewhat complex relationship between Israeli and American Jews.

It’s also Shabbat Shirah, the Shabbat of Song, so I’ll spend a few moments exploring the relationship between conflict and song in my dvar Torah.It just so happens that our latest lifelong learning class, the JTS curriculum Beyond Doubt, provided the perfect text in its opening session this past Monday evening. That, along with one of the songs we encountered in my Beyond Naomi Shemer class (which you can see by clicking here), should help us see that music is a great way to understand and manage debate.

Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom,

 Rabbi David Wise