צֶ֥דֶק צֶ֖דֶק תִּרְדֹּ֑ף לְמַ֤עַן תִּֽחְיֶה֙
Pursue and chase after justice, that you may live. –Deuteronomy 16:20
For the next eight weeks, we embark on a journey with our students to explore Jewish concepts around justice. And it couldn’t feel more timely. Our students come in from school daily with questions about justice in their worlds—both at school and about what they are hearing from the news.
And we must be clear. Jewish tradition offers us a compass for intensely challenging moments like these. We are to “pursue and chase after justice, so we can live,” (Deuteronomy 16:20). This is no easy task. Our world can always be made more just, and Jewish tradition invigorates us with life by setting a task that is never complete.
The process of pursuing justice is our mandate as members of the Jewish community. When we are not sure what to do or how to react to our changing leadership and policies, we pursue justice, and we teach our children to do the same.
Every day, before we sing the prayer Mi Kamocha in Tfilah, we recount our ancestors transformation from a disorganized cohort of slaves into the Jewish people. Our redemption began when “…the Children of Israel cried out because of the [harshness of] their work, and their cry went up to God. God heard their cry, and God knew” (Exodus 3:23-24). When we realized there was a problem, we cried out. Only after the people noticed their plight and cried out could God set the stage for plagues, redemption, and Exodus.
And now, it is our moment to cry out and to continue our constant quest for justice: A version of justice that recognizes all of humanity is created in the Divine image and expects our government to treat all people, citizens, immigrants, and refugees, with true reverence for that divinity.
Makom Community invites you to cry out with us against injustice. We invite you to engage in the holy work of bringing more justice to our world as we love our neighbors and teach our children that love, justice, and the essential holiness of people are core Jewish values.
At Makom Community, we stand together in educating our children for a more just world. We are deeply concerned about the executive orders, early policies, policy promises, and appointments coming from our new administration. With so many of our families’ stories rooted in our own immigration to the United States, the Executive Order barring immigration from seven majority-Muslim nations is especially concerning. We cannot and will not ignore faith-based discrimination. We stand in solidarity with our Muslim neighbors, who should never be afraid in their homes, on the street, or in school. We will continue to support you in every way we can. We will continue to instill in our children a moral compass that helps them know when to stand up, speak up, and cry out for justice for the Jewish community, their Muslim, LGBT, immigrant, and people of color friends, and anyone who is victimized.