Parashat Vayakhel / Mar 21
Rabbi Noa Kushner
Maybe We Should Pray

In that moment we just asked for something beyond what we knew, 
from a source, from a God, in whom we did not yet believe

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Parashat Terumah / Mar 1
Rabbi Noa Kushner
Wanted: God-in-Residence

You see, the rabbis don’t have the same sensibility as many of us today
They are not trying to sell participation in the Jewish project with pretty websites, trendy tie-ins and/or free trips

They are actually trying to discern who is ready to be a part of this "building a holy place” project
It is so serious, see, and so important
Nothing less than our collectively making room for God
For holiness in our world
That it requires some thought

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Parashat Mishpatim / Feb 21
Rabbi Noa Kushner
Losing Our Song of Songs

But if you are ready 
Without negating your own pain, 
Whatever side you think you’re on, 
I beg you, I beg us all, to consider recognizing the pain of another, the other
Not in a casual, it’s-all-the-same-pain-way, it really isn’t
Not in a way that absolves grown adults of responsibility 
Not in a distanced, American, utilitarian, check-the-box way either — 

But in a way that expands what you thought you were capable of 
A way I believe is given to us by God 

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Parashat Vayechi / Jan 11
Rabbi Noa Kushner
Stealing From Yourself

We usually imagine ourselves as Joseph, the protagonist 
Talented and beloved, well accessorized and victimized — 
But it seems to me Torah wants us to see we can also be like these brothers 
Who, through force or commerce or both 
Push Joseph out of their frame of vision 
Reinforcing the idea that there is not enough love to go around 

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Parashat Vayetzei Yaakov / Dec 6
Rabbi Noa Kushner
A Rock Is Not Just A Rock

But then I looked at the torah for this week 
And I realized that a key without a door is still a key 
And sometimes doors show up, sometimes doors come out of nowhere

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Parashat Lech Lecha / Nov 8
Rabbi Noa Kushner
Blowing Kisses at Pharaoh

And so, this shabbat
Rather than being furious that people, through this election, are still writing love notes to Pharaoh 
Pantomiming, “I’ll call you,”
While God waits, incredulous holding the sea apart, looking at her watch, tapping her feet — 

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Parashat Ki Tavo / Sep 20
Rabbi Noa Kushner
Ready or Not

Perhaps now we can start to understand why it is our hands are mentioned
We can understand why the priest has to take the basket from our hands
It is because we cannot offer it all by ourselves

That is, to offer it ourselves is simply too much to ask of us
To grow something like that and then let it go without any help

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Parashat Ki Tetzei / Sep 14
Rabbi Noa Kushner
Now You See Me, Now You Don't 

“Sometimes what needs to be revealed begins with the not-finding.”

With the moon that sets
Or even, is hidden in the sky

Because the not-finding reminds us of our longing
That as much as we love the light of the moon, we desire more than the moon

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Parashat Shoftim / Sep 6
Rabbi Noa Kushner
עַ֤יִן בְּעַ֙יִן֙ / Eye to Eye 

If I accept that this giant swath of the Israeli population,
Many of whom are grieving personal family members and friends,
Including the hostages and hundreds of soldiers who have been slain,
If I accept, as Netanyahu suggests, that this giant swath of the Israeli population are all Hamas sympathizers —

And the only other choice I am offered is continuing to fight Hamas, which requires life after life after life
More war and force

Accepting this kind of cheap truth, cheap choice
Would be as preposterous as choosing between one of my two eyes
Any way I choose will blind

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Parashat Ekev / Aug 23
Rabbi Noa Kushner
We Are Marked

The mark, the reminder in the Torah is that we left Egypt once and so we will leave it again
That even this plague will end
That even this slavery will end
That even these oppressions will end
Because we will work to end them

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Parashat Devarim / Aug 9
Rabbi Noa Kushner
What Took Us So Long

It's not that we are back here again
It's that we're standing in the spot where our parents made their biggest mistakes
Where our parents were presented with what seemed inconceivable at the time — and good
But they could not overcome their own lack of חזון / vision

They just couldn’t see it

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Parashat Bechukotai / May 31
Rabbi Noa Kushner
The rock on the mouth of the well

We cannot move this kind of stone with blame
We cannot move it with force
We cannot move it with power alone, it does not matter how powerful we become
We cannot even move this kind of stone with demonstrating our victimhood, by accruing power based in real pain

If anything, the more we fight it, the more fixed it gets, the more set in its place

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Parashat Aharei Mot / May 3
Rabbi Noa Kushner
וַיִּתְרֹֽצְצ֤וּ הַבָּנִים֙ בְּקִרְבָּ֔הּ / The twins were struggling in her womb: Israel and Palestine there and here

?אִם־כֵּ֔ן לָ֥מָּה זֶּ֖ה אָנֹ֑כִנֹ֑וּ / Why are we here? 
I want to suggest that we have now really tried the answer of self-protection and violence 
And as much as I have stood by Israel in her need for self-defense and will 
I want to suggest this moment requires another kind of answer 
Another kind of way to get from here to there 
And in order to find this new answer 
we will need more discipline than we have exhibited in this country 

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Parashat Metzora / Shabbat HaGadol / April 19
Rabbi Noa Kushner
How to prepare to be free

People have been confiding in me that they're afraid to have Passover seder
They're afraid of destroying friendships and family over the arguments see
Because in recent years we have all taken on a polarized, untrusting mentality
We’ve become afraid to say what we think lest we are cancelled by our own friends
This is truly where we are
And this mentality is hard to break
Maybe, they tell me, better to not have seder this year

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Parashat Shmini / April 5
Rabbi Noa Kushner
Those of Us Left Behind

Who was Moses fooling anyway?
Wasn’t he also shattered by the deaths of these young men, his brother’s children?
Couldn’t he have just sat with his older brother, quietly, for a little while?

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Parashat Tzav / March 30
Rabbi Noa Kushner
?מִ֣י זֹ֗את עֹלָה֙ מִן־הַמִּדְבָּ֔ר / Who is she that arises from the desert?

Maybe it is the prayer that cannot be classified
We don’t know what it is for
It doesn’t fit neatly into a category
Maybe it is an unwieldy prayer for things to just get better
Maybe it is a prayer born from confusion or fear about our world
Maybe it is prayer concerned for those we love
And even for those in distant, far away places, empathy and love for those we don’t know, will never know
Maybe it is prayer born out of exhaustion, a prayer not fully formed, a prayer without all the proper words

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Parashat Ki Tisa / March 1
Rabbi Noa Kushner
Notes on Jerusalem

He said, "Peace has to come with honor and dignity — and not humiliation"

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Parashat Yitro / February 3
Rabbi Noa Kushner
Divine Recognition

One family told me that on Kol Nidrei when we were in lockdown — 

They got dressed up in white and feeling a bit self-conscious, It was all so strange, they turned on their computers and stood near their window to pray

But as they neared their window, onto a porchThey heard something across the park where they lived — they heard Kol Nidrei And they looked out and across the park…

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