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Rabbi's Week in Review - 1/27/2025

01/27/2025 07:48:59 PM

Jan27

In a week of chaos nationally and internationally, I have had congregants (and others outside of Congregation Kol Ami) reach out to me, fearful of what the future holds. There are two groups of people prominent amongst those who hold this place of fear. One is our queer/LGBTQ+ congregants, particularly trans congregants. The other group is the immigrant community with whom we are connected in our work with the Migrant Farmworkers Assistance Fund.

While I have had congregants reach out to me individually, and I welcome others to do so if you ever need to just talk, I have, and I will continue from time to time, to provide some space within our services or other gatherings to check in with one another. In the meantime, I am including in this week’s blog a prayer offered by the Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, D.C.

“Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you, and as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and independent families, some who fear for their lives. The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meatpacking plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals, they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurdwara, and temples.

I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear their parents will be taken away, and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land. May God grant us the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth to one another in love, and walk humbly with each other and our God, for the good of all people, the good of all people in this nation and the world. Amen.”

In her prayer, she references a foundational Jewish commandment and value: to not oppress and to love the stranger. We are commanded to do this based on our own experience as strangers. Let us have the strength to live our deepest Jewish values in spite of our fear.

Sat, February 15 2025 17 Shevat 5785