Parashat Shoftim / August 18
Rabbi Noa Kushner
Egypt is not on the way to T’shuvah

When we reached the shores of the sea
(Knowing our Jewish community as you do you may or may not be surprised)
We did not act as one unified coalition, rather
There were four factions
Four responses to that fraught moment

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Parashat Eikev / August 4
Rabbi Noa Kushner
He Changed His Mind at 91: The Blessing

Now he simply wanted to undo what he had done, one public signature at a time.

He was still teaching that great Torah, that what we do matters. That it is never too late.

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Parashat Devarim / July 21
Rabbi Noa Kushner
These are the Words

All the words you were missing for all those generations in Egypt came rushing back to you — 
The descriptions and dreams and associations and conversations and unfinished sentences
A torrent of ideas and emotions all came pouring out, and your mouths began to heal 

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Parashat Nasso / June 2
Rabbi Noa Kushner
Close Your Eyes and Receive It

Sometimes the filter can be the conduit 
Counter-intuitively, strengthening our connection
A divine game of hide and seek  
“Before you even call, I will answer,” says God 

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Parashat B’midbari/ May 20
Rabbi Noa Kushner
What Are You Waiting For?

We walk as close to those we love as we possibly can, we carry them, and then there is a line we cannot cross

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Parashat B’midbari/ May 19
Rabbi Noa Kushner
Rules For The Wilderness

There are 4 Rules of the Wilderness:

1. You Can’t Leave Until You Journey

2. You Cannot Name the Station Until You're Done With It

3. Sometimes Backwards is Forwards

4. Every Station is Essential

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Parashat Behar-Bechukotai / May 13
Rabbi Noa Kushner
Can You Hear Me Now? : Walking in the Garden

Maybe Eve and Adam were hearing the sound of the pitter patter of little divine feet,

Or God’s high heels as they crunched down delicately and purposefully on the fine gravel paths of Eden

Or maybe as it says in Shir HaShirim Rabbah they heard the sound of God jumping from heaven to earth and back up again.

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Parashat Kedoshim / April 29
Rabbi Noa Kushner
Take Care Of My Garden

Maybe these commands are there to teach us, precisely, that there are some things we don’t know
Why have a command for something so painfully, really embarrassingly obvious?
To teach us that being holy doesn’t always make sense

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Parashat Shmini / April 14
Rabbi Noa Kushner
”Where’s Your Prophecy Now?”: Jerusalem, Democracy and Us

Do we in America even have the courage to stand, not leaving the shore for a second
To keep our eyes on what’s happening
To hold fast to a prophecy, the highest prize, even when all evidence is pointing to the contrary?
Do we have the strength to tell the truth about the severity of the situation?

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Parashat Vayekhel–Pekudei / Mar 17
Rabbi Noa Kushner
No Such Thing as ’Too Much’

Once we escape the tyranny of measuring everything
The over extension of the metaphors of the marketplace to measure everything in our lives
We remember
There's no such thing as extra, there is no more “too much”

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Parashat Ki Tisa / Mar 11
Rabbi Noa Kushner
No More Starting Over

As the kids say
Find someone who loves you the way Moses loved God 
Find someone, or I don’t know, find a tradition, a community who loves that way 
Where destruction is not an option
Where starting all over is no longer on the table

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Parashat Terumah / Feb 25
Rabbi Noa Kushner
The Most Dangerous of All

And actually, if I am being completely honest,
I don’t want to just access holiness with regularity or even predictability
I want to own it
What if it never returns again?
See, and here we are, you don’t have to admit it but I will:
I want to control it, even if I know I can’t
I want to bind holiness and keep it safe where I can always have it
A little golden cage for the divine bird

→ Click here to read + listen to the full drash