Friends of Jewish Renewal in Poland
Chag Sameach and Shabbat Shalom everyone. Sukkot is considered the most joyous of Jewish holidays. One of its biblical names is Z’man Simchateinu – “The time of our rejoicing”. It is actually our religious obligation to be happy on every day of Sukkot. And the best way, I believe, to achieve this goal is to please other people – your wife, husband, your children, parents, namely, everyone in your family and – best case scenario – everyone in your community.[…]
“You stand this day, all of you, before your God יהוה —your tribal heads, your elders, and your officials, every householder in Israel, your children, your wives, even the stranger within your camp, from woodchopper to waterdrawer —to enter into the covenant of your God יהוה […] (Deuteronomy 29:9-11)
These words, spoken by Moses to the Israelites on the cusp of entering the Promised Land, echo across centuries to us, a small but vibrant Jewish community reborn in the heart of Poland. We live in unprecedented times, a world bursting with possibilities—technological marvels, global connections, and opportunities for renewal. Yet, these days are also turbulent, marked by civilizational and social tensions, from rising populism to global conflicts and the lingering shadows of antisemitism. The history of Polish Jews is a history of resilience and revival, and it infuses the message of parashat Nitzavim with hope, urging us to embrace our role in shaping a brighter future for ourselves, our people, and all humanity as we approach the High Holy Days.[…]
In the summer of 2012, during a multi-day Torah and Talmud study program called “Mini-Yeshiva” at the local Orthodox Jewish Community in Lublin, I met Rabbi Boaz Pash.A wonderful, warm, kind, smart and witty man, with enormous knowledge, who served as a rabbi in the kehila in Krakow several years earlier. Even though he was born in Jerusalem, his Polish was fluent, which is very impressive. I met with him later several times at different Jewish events in Poland, and was always impressed with the way he approached people. Why am I talking about him? His brother, Icchak Pash, also a rabbi, was murdered in the recent terror attack in Jerusalem, last Monday. This made me again realize how not-numerous, vulnerable and easy-to-hurt we are as people, and therefore relatively easy it is to destabilize our Jewish communities, inducing the largest of them – the one in Israel.[…]
Parashat Ki Teitzei, a portion rich with mitzvot that guides us toward a life of compassion, justice, and holiness. Among these is the mitzvah of leket, found in Deuteronomy 24:19, which reads: “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to take it; it shall be for the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.” This verse speaks of a simple yet profound act: leaving behind what we might claim for ourselves—forgotten sheaves of grain—for the most vulnerable in society: the ger (stranger), the yatom (orphan), and the almanah (widow). Leket is not about giving from excess or charity born of pity; it’s about restraint, humility, and recognizing that what we “own” is never fully ours. It is ‘imprinted’ in the Hebrew language which doesn’t have the verb ‘to have’ or ‘to own’ something – everything we own IS given to us. The Torah commands us to let go, to leave room for others to thrive, and in doing so, we invite God’s blessing into our lives.[…]
