If Fiddler on the Roof granted us perhaps the most well-known prayer for the government, the first one dates back to the prophet Jeremiah in the 6th century. A prophet of the exile, he writes from Babylonia, saying: “And seek the welfare of the city to which I have exiled you and pray to the LORD in its behalf; for in its prosperity you shall prosper.” (Jeremiah 29:7) As my colleague, Rabbi Rachel Isaacs, explains: “Since the destruction of the first Temple in 586 B.C.E., the Jewish community has recognized how our fate is inextricably tied to the welfare of the states in which we live and the quality of their governance.” Over the summer, while writing the Deuteronomy commentaries for the Union for Reform Judaism, I reflected on Parashat Shoftim, in which God and Moses set forth some ideas about guidelines around leadership. While I was not thinking particularly about November 2024, it was a reminder that, [...]

Scholars have identified 12 Psalms, two of which appear in the Psalms of the Day, as a collection of the Psalms of Asaph. According to the Society for Old Testament Study, “they are widely regarded by scholars as a coherent group of Psalms written in reaction to the exile of 586 BCE.” Most of the Biblical references to this figure, Asaph, appear in later books—particularly Chronicles and Nehemiah. According to these texts, Asaph had responsibilities for the Ark and for the music used in the Temple, making it logical that Psalms would be attributed to him. Perhaps more important, though, is which Psalms are attributed to him. The first is Psalm 50, but the main collection is Psalms 73-83, which— according to scholars—open the third “book” of Psalms. It is, overall, the darkest of the sections of Psalms, he writes, then, of that sense of betrayal and abandonment. He [...]

While there is no official “Hump Day” in the weekly Shabbat cycle, Wednesday is—according to Hasidic tradition at least—a bit of a turning point. In Hasidic tradition, Tuesday night is the last possible time to make havdalah, officially ending Shabbat; the same tradition suggests you can begin saying Shabbat Shalom on Wednesdays.Reading the Psalm of the Day for Wednesday, though, you certainly feel like the Psalmist is going through something. While the Psalms of Kabbalat Shabbat, with their celebrations of creation and new possibilities, begin with Psalm 95, today’s Psalm 94—which immediately precedes those—is painful. The verses of the psalm begin with a violent plea:אֵל־נְקָמ֥וֹת יְהֹוָ֑ה אֵ֖ל נְקָמ֣וֹת הוֹפִֽיעַ׃God of retribution, LORD,God of retribution, appear!Nekamah, the word here for retribution, is the word we see often in Israel today; when a soldier falls in battle, or an Israeli is killed in a terrorist attack, we will see HY”D—an abbreviation meaning May [...]