A Testimony

Posted by Matt Soffer
On June 28, 2017
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Testimony before the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy Rabbi Matthew Soffer, Temple Israel of Boston Massachusetts State House June 20, 2017 I’d like to thank the Chairs, Sen. Barrett and Rep. Golden, as well as the Vice Chairs, Sen. Brady and Rep. Chan, and the members of this esteemed and essential Committee, […]

Posted by Matt Soffer
On November 15, 2016
1 Comments

As many of you know, the history of our congregation has been written beautifully by Susan Porter, Lisa Davis, and Meaghan Dwyer-Ryan, in their work entitled Becoming American Jews. It’s a book you can judge by its title. It tells our story; it reminds us that when we say “our story,” we are not talking […]

Posted by Matt Soffer
On August 23, 2016
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Rabbi Soffer’s D’var Torah from 8/19/16 delivered at Temple Israel of Boston This week’s portion is called “V’etchanan,” and it offers a clear window into the fierce love between Moses, God, and the Israelites. I say, “fierce love,” because that’s what we mean when we say, “Covenant,” or B’rit. Covenant is not an easygoing friendship. […]

Posted by Matt Soffer
On March 16, 2016
1 Comments

Pekudei 5776: Finishing Exodus by Examining Our Practice of Giving (This blog was originally delivered as a sermon to the Riverway Project during Soul Food Friday on March 11, 2016) You know the feeling when you love a book so much that as the pages in your right hand get fewer and fewer, you begin getting […]

Pulpit on the Common

Posted by Matt Soffer
On January 8, 2016
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“Make the old new, and make the new holy.” – Rav Kook The most significant study of the Jewish community, “A Portrait of American Jews,” by the PEW Research Center, has shined a flashlight on the mandate for institutional change. More than one in five […]

A Word on the Word, “Word”

Posted by Matt Soffer
On August 21, 2015
0 Comments

This past Tuesday Temple Israel went to the Holy Land of Fenway Park, 40 strong, for Jewish Heritage Night. As we gathered before walking together, I offered this quasi-irreverent D’var Torah, to complement our peanuts & cracker jacks: A D’var Torah is Hebrew for “a word” of Torah. Davar means “word.” So let’s take with us […]

Becoming “More Human” Knowing We Are “Only Human”

Posted by Matt Soffer
On August 14, 2015
1 Comments

In this week’s portion we encounter what is the Torah’s most unequivocal statement on economic justice. It reads, and I’ll excerpt the passage, for the sake of brevity: Efes ki lo yih’yeh b’cha evyon – There shall be absolutely no poor among you—since Adonai your God will bless you in the land that Adonai your […]

We Need Deuteronomy – Because Slavery is Not Over

Posted by Matt Soffer
On July 29, 2015
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I just finished reading Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, an extraordinary work on the travesty of mass incarceration today in the US, particularly of African Americans. I haven’t yet recovered from what Alexander achieved in this work, essentially a telling of the facts, the reality, the truth about a state of injustice that I […]

Being Played, Playing Along, and Praying for Facts

Posted by Matt Soffer
On July 14, 2014
0 Comments

As I pray for a ceasefire to this conflict, looking back on how it flared up, I am haunted by the facts. I am haunted by the reality of Israel’s vulnerability, haunted by the prospect of a world without a Jewish State. I am haunted by the fact that Hamas continually launches missiles into Israel, targeting […]

Adult

Youth

A Testimony

A Post-Election Reflection: Still Becoming American Jews

Sinful but Saved by the Grace of God

Examining Our Practice of Giving

Pulpit on the Common

A Word on the Word, “Word”

Becoming “More Human” Knowing We Are “Only Human”

We Need Deuteronomy – Because Slavery is Not Over

Being Played, Playing Along, and Praying for Facts