I’m teaching a weekly Zoom class on the parshah in which we’ll do our best to use Torah as a lens through which to reflect on this moment and imagine, prepare ourselves for, and build resilience to fight for a better world. The class is on Sundays at 12 PM EST -- sign up here for the zoom link. 

I don’t know that this is what we need right now; in fact, I think what we most desperately need is space for grief, political organizing, brave leaders, and deep historical analysis. But maybe Torah, too, has a role in that — may it can offer us means of mourning, and maybe it can open us up to worlds not yet dreamed of. I don’t know if I believe that. Sometimes I feel so hopelessly angry about how often Torah is twisted to legitimate violence that I despair of it ever being used otherwise. Sometimes I worry that studying Torah while the world is burning is simply navel-gazing. But I want to believe Torah may have something to offer us — in this moment of grief over and horror at Hamas’ massacre, fear for Gaza, fury at settlers in the West Bank, fear in the face of rising antisemitism, fear in the face of rising ethno-nationalism, anger at the global left, anger at Hamas, anger at the American, Israeli, and Jewish rights, anger at everyone, and in the face of all of this rage and hopelessness — I want to believe that we, like God once did according to the Midrash, can look into the Torah and create a new world.

About me: a rabbinical student living in Jerusalem, activist/organizer, used book peruser, intermittent poetry writer, would-be cat adopter, more words at https://aronwander.substack.com/