Rabbi Jason Klein's Drashah for Shabbat Matot-Masei, 2025

“I’ve been thinking a lot about the world that could be a world with peace and justice, integrity and truth, reparations and reconciliation for Jews and for Palestinians in and beyond the land of Israel.

For years, I thought and taught that Judaism is not about the world as it is. It is about the world as it could be and should be. Yet the more I have returned to this idea as a guiding principle, the more I have to realize that there is more to it. It is not honest to focus on the world that could or should be without first observing the world as it is. Naming what is right in front of us. So I’m going to say it again right now, right now. Jews are starving Palestinian people in Gaza. It stings to say it, and I hope it stings to hear it. And we must face this truth without ‘Hamas this and Hamas that.’ We have to worry about cleaning up our own selves and our own siblings. We have to face this without What about -isms We have to face it without both sides  -isms, Jews are starving people to death in Gaza.“

Rabbi Klein gave this drashah on Friday, July 25 / 1 Av. Watch their full talk above. 

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