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The Gates We Keep - Parashat Shoftim
Parashat Shoftim commands us to appoint judges and officers at “all your gates,” raising a question for our own communities: when does protecting a boundary become gatekeeping, and when does gatekeeping become injustice?

Rabbi Shais Rishon
4 days ago5 min read


See: The Choice Before Us - Parashat Re'eh
Explore Parashat Re'eh's call to "see" before choosing between blessing and curse, reflecting on how the roads that appear easiest rarely lead to the greatest good.

Rabbi Shais Rishon
Aug 74 min read


The Royal Tea - Chodesh Tov Av
The month of Av, Hashem centers the leadership of paternal energy

Rebbetzin Tifarah Rishon
Jul 315 min read


Under the Heel - Parashat Eqev
Explore the Midrashic connection between Eqev (“because”) and aqeiv (“heel”), examining how the smallest things we overlook can reveal the deepest truths about our values.

Rabbi Shais Rishon
Jul 314 min read


Seeing Beyond the Wilderness - Parashat D’varim | Shabbat Chazon
Shabbat Chazon invites us to ask what future our children will inherit from the choices we make today.

Rabbi Shais Rishon
Jul 175 min read


The War We Fight, The Journey We Remember - Parashat Mattot-Mas'ei
Mattot-Mas'ei weaves together two enduring questions: Which ideologies deserve our resistance, and which journeys shape who we become?

Rabbi Shais Rishon
Jul 103 min read


From Passion to Peace - Parashat Pinchas
As the Three Weeks begin, Parashat Pinchas confronts us with an unsettling paradox: an act of zeal is answered with a covenant of peace. What does it mean to pursue justice without becoming captive to anger?

Rabbi Shais Rishon
Jul 34 min read


Wells in the Wilderness - Parashat Chuqqat
The wilderness is more than a place—it is a condition of the soul. In Parashat Chuqqat, the deaths of Miriam and Aharon, the drying of the well, and Moshe's striking of the rock reveal a people learning to trust G’d in the midst of grief and uncertainty.

Rabbi Shais Rishon
Jul 34 min read


When a Curse Leaves a Scar - Parashat Balaq
Parashat Balaq celebrates G’d’s transformation of Bilam's curses into blessings, yet the Talmud teaches that many of those blessings eventually carried the weight of the very curses they had replaced.

Rabbi Shais Rishon
Jun 263 min read


The Women Who Save the Story - Parashat Qorach
Parashat Qorach tells the story of a public rebellion, yet the Midrash directs our attention toward two women whose wisdom shaped the fate of their families and influenced the course of Jewish history.

Rabbi Shais Rishon
Jun 193 min read


The Royal Tea - Chodesh Tov Tammuz
The month of Tammuz, Hashem puts the maternal energy within our tribe to the test.

Rebbetzin Tifarah Rishon
Jun 183 min read


Grasshoppers in Our Own Eyes - Parashat Sh'lach
When the spies returned from the Land of Israel, their greatest mistake emerged through the way they saw themselves.

Rabbi Shais Rishon
Jun 124 min read


Raising the Lamps, Raising One Another - Parashat B'ha'alothka
Parashat B’ha’alotkha begins with Aharon's charge to light the menorah, yet the Torah describes his task as "raising up" the lamps until their flames can burn on their own.

Rabbi Shais Rishon
Jun 53 min read


Excluded, Displaced, and Marginalized - Parashat Nasso
This week’s parashah introduces the nazir, the individual who embraces temporary restraint in pursuit of deeper spiritual clarity. Through the lens of the nazir’s separation, this drash explores how boundaries, discipline, and cultural self-preservation cultivate strength within both Jewish tradition and the African-American experience.

Rabbi Shais Rishon
May 294 min read


Freedom, Covenant, and the Voice at Sinai - Shavuot
Shavuot is more than a celebration meditation on what freedom is for. Explore why the journey from slavery to Sinai carries enduring resonance within African American and Black Jewish experience, where liberation must ultimately become purpose, responsibility, and covenant.

Rabbi Shais Rishon
May 212 min read


The Royal Tea - Chodesh Tov Sivan
The month of Sivan Hashem unravels the word “no.”

Rebbetzin Tifarah Rishon
May 153 min read


Under Our Own Banner - Parashat B’midbar
Parashat B’midbar opens with a census, but the Torah’s counting of Israel is about far more than numbers.

Rabbi Shais Rishon
May 155 min read


“ I Said What I Said”: The Torah’s Harshest Warning - Parashat Behar & Bechuqotai
Parashat Behar-Bechuqotai contains some of the Torah’s most terrifying language—not because G’d abandons justice, but because G’d takes it seriously. This drash examines the Tochachah through an African American lens, connecting the Torah’s warnings about exploitation, land, and covenant to the modern realities of voter suppression, housing discrimination, and the dismantling of civil protections.

Rabbi Shais Rishon
May 84 min read


Say Less… - Parashat Emor
A single word opens the parashah—emor, “speak”—and the Torah quietly raises the stakes. Speech is not passive; it shapes reality, sanctifies or desecrates, builds or breaks. Moving from the blasphemer to our own inherited and weaponized language, this piece asks what it means to take words seriously in a world where nothing said is ever neutral. Because if speech builds worlds, then every word is already doing more than we think.

Rabbi Shais Rishon
May 13 min read


The Human Before Halakah - Parashat Acharei Mot
Acharei Mot opens with Moshe addressing grief through precision, law, and ritual structure—yet something essential is still missing. This parashah is a call to explore how holiness begins when human recognition precedes even the most faithful articulation of law.

Rabbi Shais Rishon
Apr 243 min read
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