Tracie’s Torah Takeaway: Parsha Shemini (Lev 9:1 - 11:47) on Intention and Impact

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This week’s portion can be a challenging one. Over the past several parshot (portions), we’ve been reading instructions about how the priests, Aaron’s sons, are supposed to treat different sacrifices offered on the altar of the mishkan, the tabernacle. In this week’s portion, we’ve moved past instructions, and we see Aaron and his sons actually slaughter the calf of sin offering, mark the horns of the altar with its blood, and turn the appropriate bits into smoke upon the altar. We see this happen with Aaron’s sin offering, with the people’s sin offering, and with the people’s offering of well-being. These animal sacrifices happen again and again, pretty much the way we read it was supposed to, with oft-repeated phrases that turn a vegetarian’s stomach, like “the protruberance of the liver.” To be honest, it’s tough for me to to pay close attention or to distinguish between this portion and earlier ones describing sacrifices.

And then something curious happens.

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Jews Talk Racial Justice - S2E11: Transition, Trajectory, and Trellises

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April and Tracie explore the ways the messiness of spring contributes to its beauty and potential. The also notice how structure--whether the practice of counting the Omer, a vine's trellis or their online course Awareness Accelerator--can support the important and messy work of growth.

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Jews Talk Racial Justice - S2E9: The Sea Never Parted

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In the first of two Passover-themed shows, April shares her epiphany that despite a resonance between the story of the Israelites leaving mitzrayim (Egypt, the narrow place) and the emancipation of enslaved Africans in the U.S., the two stories diverge in important and significant ways.

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Tracie's Torah Takeaway: Parsha Va-yikra (Lev 1:1 - 5:26)

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Several years ago, I decided to move to a fully vegetarian (actually ovo-pescatarian) diet because of my empathy for animals. I saw too much of humans (and dogs) in the cattle and even the chickens whose bodies had formed my meals to continue to consume them. That backdrop of my life choices makes this week’s parsha particularly unpleasant for me to read. The Adonai of Va-Yikra is a big fan of barbeque. The scent of burning animal flesh is pleasing to this Adonai. Indeed, in Lev 3:16 we read “All the fat is Adonai’s.” The phrase “dash the blood against all sides of the altar,” or versions of it is repeated again and again in parsha Va-Yikra.

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Jews Talk Racial Justice - S2E8: BOTH a lot to learn AND something to contribute

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April and Tracie continue to flesh out some of the key obstacles from their flip the script resource with the help of a question from a listener. One of the limiting beliefs that shows up in racial justice work is the sense that you've learned a lot, but not enough to take action. April and Tracie dig into this notion and give some suggestions for ways to productively hold the both / and of having a lot to learn AND having being able to humbly and meaningfully contribute.

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Jews Talk Racial Justice - S2E7: Exhaustion

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“Be gentle with ourselves and listen to the messages our bodies are giving. I believe that our bodies are our allies. It doesn't always feel that way, but I believe they're trying to communicate with us in different ways for our thriving, and the more we can slow down and soften enough to listen, the better it is.” - April N. Baskin

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Jews Talk Racial Justice - S2E6: Getting Unstuck when Fear has you Frozen

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“Even when we do things right, people are still going to be upset, because they have unhealed trauma. Our country is drowning in unhealed, unaddressed trauma, and it plays out in all kinds of ways. But how I would love for it not to continue to play out is stopping or impeding good people from doing courageous, trajectory-shifting work for our community around justice. In this case, specifically, racial justice.” - April N. Baskin

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Tracie's Torah Takeaway: Parsha Ki Tisa

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“In that golden calf I see today’s hustle for worthiness. The things that are separate from us that seem precious are productivity, perfection, and pleasing. Instead of earrings melted into a calf, today we meld job titles and salaries into worth and worthiness. We bow down to our idol and serve it, even though the Divine is right here.”

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Jews Talk Racial Justice - S2E5: On Purim, Joy, and Liberation

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“Whether it's joy, peace, contentment, power, calm - what if we didn't have to wait? What if that experience could be less conditional on external circumstances? And how many more circumstances could we start to shift over time if we were able to stay in that place?” - April N. Baskin

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