Halachic Left

@halachicleft.org

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Halachic Left is changing the conversation about Israel/Palestine in halachically observant Jewish communities

Contents Introduction ⬩ 4 Reflections on Kinnot ⬩ 4 4⬩Kinnah 4 by Eliana Padwa 〜 שומרון קול תתן ✶ 6 ⬩ Kinnah 11 by Rabbi David Polsky 〜 ויקונן ירמיהו ✶ 7⬩Kinnah 17 〜 Empathy by Ya'aqov Lawrence Shenkin 〜 אם תאכלנה ✶ 11 ⬩ Kinnah 26 by Yitzhak Graff 〜 רחל מבכה ✶ 12 ⬩ Kinnah 31 by Rana Bickel 〜 אש תוקד בקרבי ✶ ✶ A poem 〜 Kinnah 31 by Rabbi Dr. Aryeh Cohen ⬩ 14 15 ⬩ Kinnah 36 by Nathan Young 〜 ציון הלא תשאלי ✶ 16 ⬩ Kinnah 41 by Laynie Soloman 〜 שאלי שרופה באש ✶ 19⬩Kinnah 45 by Rabbi Vincent Calabrese 〜 אלי ציון ✶ About Halachic Left ⬩ 2
תאוכל באש בשר Reflections on Kinnot ~ Tisha B'Av 5786 Published by Halachic Left
Halachic Left Tisha B’Av Online Programming Thursday, July 23 via Zoom • Register at bit.ly/hl-9av-5786 3:30–4:30pm EDT “‘Would You Like Me to Kill Them All?’: Torah Overcoming Violence in the Churban Narrative” with Rabbi David Polsky 4:30–5:00pm EDT Short pre-film shiur (*required to get film login info) with Rabbi Lexie Botzum 5:00–6:50pm EDT Free virtual screening of The Zone of Interest 6:50–7:30pm EDT Post-film community discussion
He also left with some parting words for the Israeli government. “Free advice to the Israelis: It’s not a good idea to detain long-shot presidential candidates,” he said. “Not how you’re going to build good will with the next American president, whoever that is.”
Peter Beinart and our moderator Gershon Rozenberg speaking at the HL event on Thursday, July 9, sitting at the front of a room. There is a camera in the foreground recording and some audience members (sitting with their backs turned)
Tisha B’Av 5786 Online Programming Thursday, July 23 via Zoom * 3:30-4:30pm EDT: Shiur with Rabbi David Polsky: “‘Would You Like Me to Kill Them All?’: Torah Overcoming Violence in the Churban Narrative” * 4:30-5:00pm: Pre-film shiur with Rabbi Lexie Botzum (*** REQUIRED to attend film) * 5:00-6:50pm: The Zone of Interest film screening * 6:50-7:30pm: Post-film community discussion RSVP at bit.ly/hl-9av-5786
An Evening with Peter Beinart Thursday, July 9 | 6:00-8:00pm Upper West Side, NYC Nosh served * Address provided upon RSVP
Crisis and Conversation An evening with protective presence activists Or Sivan, Maya Mark, and Roei Kleitman June 7 at 7:00pm Havurat Shalom 113 College Avenue Somerville, MA
A goose chase meme showing the goose in the top image saying, "50k New Yorkers, and...? who else was also marching?" And in the bottom image, the goose chases a person labeled "deliberately obtuse Jewish media outlets" while shouting, "WHO ELSE WAS ALSO MARCHING??!?!!"
Jewish Reckoning with Power A Halachic Left Learning Series | Part 4 (Los Angeles) Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller, Rabbi Dr. Aryeh Cohen, Alona Weimer Sunday, May 31, 1:00 - 5:00 PM PDT 1729 S La Cienega Blvd (& via Zoom) Swipe for shiur topics! -> *** We believe in learning Torah from all. Speaking does not imply agreement with Halachic Left's political positions. Institutional affiliations are for identification purposes only.
JEWISH RECKONING WITH POWER A Halachic Left Learning Series, Part 4 Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller, Rabbi Aryeh Cohen, and Alona Weimer Sunday, May 31, 1:00 - 5:00 PM PDT Los Angeles (Pico-Robertson) & via Zoom Register Now
"The Nile is Mine, I Created It": Higher Governance and Changed Nature in the Sefat Emet with Rabbi Amelia Wolf Why did B'nai Yisrael have to descend into Egypt and what was taught through our redemption? By whose word did we go down, by whose word were we enlsaved, and by whose words did we go free? The Sefat Emet (Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh Leib Alter) examines questions of speech, power, and restraint in light of the Exodus and the breaking of barriers -- whether those barriers be human nature or the natural order itself.
Of Mice and Hasidic Men: The Populist Revival of Reb Shayele & Its Lessons for the Left with Prof. Sam Shuman Prof. Sam Shuman asks what we might learn about Jewish power and powerlessness from a contemporary Hasidic populist revival movement? Shuman’s talk will draw upon their fieldwork in four annual pilgrimages to the gravesite of Reb Shayele of Kerestir (1851-1925), a Hungarian Hasidic miracle-worker, who has been resurrected as the Jewish patron saint of hospitality. As the consummate host to his “guests,” Shayele performs prophylactic miracles that protect his followers from unwelcome “intruders” (rodents, auditors, police, inspectors, etc.), as well as auspicious miracles that facilitate Jewish social reproduction (children, health, and livelihood). Orphaned at a young age and lacking dynastic pedigree, Shayele is venerated as a rebbe of the people—one who provides for his followers' everyday material needs (in contrast to “elite,” dynastic Hasidic leaders) and protects them from non-Jewish “enemies.”
What do we mean when we say “Halachic Left”? with Rabbi Avigayil Halpern Until now, “Halachic Left” has largely functioned to describe a group of leftists (at least on Palestine) and other progressives who affiliate with halachic communities. I aim to offer an initial theory of what halachically-observant and/or -aligned people can offer to the broader left from that perspective, with the goal of sharpening our collective thinking and work. What are the unique ways of thinking and acting that the halachically-oriented person can offer to broader Left projects? We will engage both traditional Torah sources around the potential moral work that Torah and halacha does to shape our character as well as theoretical/philosophical texts on related questions.
Jewish Reckoning with Power A Halachic Left Learning Series | Part 3 (Washington, DC) Rabbi Avigayil Halpern What do we mean when we say “Halachic Left?” Prof. Sam Shuman Of Mice and Hasidic Men: The Populist Revival of Reb Shayele & Its Lessons for the Left Rabbi Amelia Wolf A Higher Governance and a Changed Nature: Freedom and Sovereignty in the Sfas Emes Sunday, May 17, 1:00 - 5:00 PM EDT The Festival Center (& via Zoom) Light lunch served *** We believe in learning Torah from all. Speaking does not imply agreement with Halachic Left's political positions. Institutional affiliations are for identification purposes only.
A YouTube thumbnail for "What Is Judaism -- Episode 1" by Noa Tishby
Jewish Reckoning with Power A Halachic Left Learning Series | Part 2 (Philadelphia) Shiurim include: - Rabbi David Greenstein on gender power dynamics in halacha - Laynie Soloman on halacha as a site of resistance to empire - Zohar Hodkin and Netanel Zellis-Paley on the halachic obligation to fight tyranny Sunday, May 10, 5:00 - 9:00 PM EDT Old Pine Community Center (& via Zoom) Dinner served + (egal) ma’ariv following Learning in honor of the yahrtzeit of Moshe ben Leibel z”l *** We believe in learning Torah from all. Speaking does not imply agreement with Halachic Left's political positions. Institutional affiliations are for identification purposes only.
Tweet from Ilan Goldenberg (@ilangoldenberg): Lots of noise on this site from both J Street’s left and right about what our position is on the US-Israel security relationship. @JeremyBenAmi explains where we actually are. It’s time to normalize the US-Israel security relationship. That means maintaining a strong relationship and cooperation but also ending blank check support by making some important changes. 1. The US should rapidly and responsibly phase out direct financial subsidies for arms sales to Israel and treat it as it does other US allies. There is broad consensus on this from Bibi Netanyahu to Lindsay Graham to AOC. Israel can buy its own stuff. 2. We should still be SELLING the necessary components of Iron Dome and other missile defense systems to Israel. We are NOT arguing for a total cutoff. 3. US arms sales and other forms of assistance to Israel should be consistent with US law and align with American policy objectives and interests. The US should apply the same standards to Israel as it does to other US allies. That means withholding certain weapons systems when those standards aren’t met. https://jstreetdotorg.substack.com/p/time-to-end-us-military-aid-to-israel
Table of contents for this year's HL Pesach reader: Contents: Introduction • 7 Essays • 11 ✶ On the Limits of Parental Education by Raphael Magarik • 11 ✶ Liberation Isn’t Linear: Learning from Rambam’s Snatched Matzah by Rabbi Margo Hughes-Robinson • 16 ✶ Challenging Our Moral Imaginations by Liana Wertman • 22 ✶ “I Behold the Tears of the Oppressed”: Nahmanides and the Revolutionary Message of the Exodus by Rabbi David Polsky • 27 ✶ “And God Commanded Moshe and Aharon Regarding the Israelites, to Let them Free”: Lessons in Community Organizing from the Exodus Story by Rabbi Aryeh Bernstein • 35 ✶ It Is Forbidden to Live in Egypt by Amit Gvaryahu • 43 ✶ Becoming Pharaoh by Maya Rosen • 49 Suggested Tzedakah • 57 About Halachic Left • 59
The cover of Halachic Left's Pesach 5786 reader, “כי ישאלך בנך מחר” / “When Your Child Asks You in Days to Come.” The background is a light blue/periwinkle with soft clouds. The title is in Hebrew and English, and there is an illustration of a man holding a small child in his arms as she points towards the sky. The cover also says "Essays for Pesach 5786" and "Published by Halachic Left" at the bottom.
Jewish Reckoning With Power A Halachic Left Learning Series | Part 1 (Boston) Rabbi Aryeh Klapper, Rabbi Avigayil Halpern, and Rabbi Jonah Winer Sunday, March 15, 1:00-5:00pm EDT Cambridge Community Center (and via Zoom) Register at bit.ly/hl-power *** We believe in learning Torah from all. Speaking does not imply agreement with Halachic Left's political positions. Institutional affiliations are for identification purposes only.
NIF Boston NewGen Presents: Coexistence, My Ass! Thursday, March 12 Doors open at 6:00pm Screening starts at 6:45pm Join Boston NewGen, Temple Beth Zion, Dr. Shayna Weiss, and the Halachic Left as we screen the award-winning documentary "Coexistence, My Ass!" Hosted by Temple Beth Zion 1566 Beacon Street, Brookline, MA
A collage of photos, clockwise from top left: - a young man with dark hair holding honey and a package of dates - a young woman holding a bag with the logo of Khadra, a Ramallah-based business that sells Palestinian-made produce and food items - people sitting in a circle for the Mesarvot meeting with the shalach manos bags in the center
A group of HL members standing in front of the “Featured” sign at the YU Seforim Sale
Jewish Reckoning with Power: A Halachic Left Learning Series | Part 1 (Boston) Rabbi Aryeh Klapper, Rabbi Avigayil Halpern Sunday, March 15, 1:00-5:00pm Cambridge Community Center (& via Zoom) Register at bit.ly/hl-power *** We believe in learning Torah from all. Speaking does not imply agreement with Halachic Left's political positions. Institutional affiliations are for identification purposes only.
Send mishloach manot to IDF conscientious objectors! Donate to buy Purim treats and write messages of support to these courageous young people at bit.ly/mm-refusers or the QR code below!
“One Life at a Time” was inspired by the 2025 Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land. They wrote it for Palestinian Awdah Hathaleen, a consultant on the film, who was killed in his West Bank village by an Israeli settler. The title of the song comes from a line that No Other Land filmmaker Basel Adra said at his funeral. “One life at a time is kinda an existential suggestion,” Bono says. “We can change the world for the better or for the worse…one life at a time.”
A pile of square stickers with the new Halachic Left logo
Halachic Left's new logo, which consists of a colorblock design forming an H (resembling a sefer Torah) and L (resembling a daf). The color blocks are shades of purple, with the exception of the center block of the L/daf which is yellow. Out of this block grows an olive branch cutout with yellow leaves growing leftward and covering part of the H/sefer Torah. Below the logo is the text "HALACHIC LEFT" in capital letters, with "LEFT" off-center to the left and light purple rectangular blocks filling in the space on either side.
A photo of Avichai Suisa holding two goats
Prof. Omer Bartov x Halachic Left Sunday, Jan. 25th 1pm EST via Zoom Prof. Omer Bartov is Dean's Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University and author of the book "Israel: What Went Wrong?" (out in April). Prof. Bartov made headlines last year when he wrote a New York Times opinion essay saying that while he did not initially believe Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, he had become convinced that the term was accurate. RSVP at bit.ly/hl-bartov
Help us go into 2026 strong! Donate to our year-end fundraising drive. Any amount helps — thank you so much for your support! PayPal: bit.ly/hl-2025 Venmo: @HalachicLeft
9. Community shiurim Shiurim over the summer through our beit midrash initiative in Washington Heights, with dinner included!
8. Chanukah! Chanukah shiur in NYC and virtually, and shiurim in partnership with NIF NewGen in Chicago and Boston
7. “Staying Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza” w/ Peter Beinart We talk with Peter Beinart about his latest book and our experiences in our communities, with schmoozing afterwards
Halachic Left Highlights* from our 2025, part 3 *order is not ranked
Help us go into 2026 strong! Donate to our year-end fundraising drive Donate at the link or QR code below! Any amount helps — thank you so much for your support! bit.ly/hl-2025
6. Tu Bishvat Learning + Fundraising In NYC, Boston, & Chicago, we partnered with NIF NewGen to hold fundraisers to support Palestinian olive farmers, combining Torah leaning & on-the-ground updates about communities facing settler violence
5. ...and Tisha B'Av Action For the second year in a row, we held a vigil + demonstration mourning Palestinian life in NYC
4. Tisha B'Av learning... Shiurim with Dr. Rivka Press Schwartz and Rabbi Leead Staller, and “Seven Jewish Children” film screening + talkback with director Omri Dayan
Halachic Left Highlights* from our 2025, part 2 *order is not ranked! Let us know which events you found meaningful in the replies!
The graphic shows several photos from HL events during 2025, along with a donation appeal with a link (bit.ly/hl-2025) and QR code
The photos show the cover of Ya'aleh Zikhroneinu, Halachic Left's high holiday reader, along with a screenshot of Hannah Einbinder's Instagram story sharing the reader
In both photos, people sit around a living room learning Torah in the Halachic Left summer program
Clockwise from top: 1. Rabbis Avigayil Halpern and Leead Staller on a panel 2. Rabbi Will Friedman asks a question in the audience 3. An attendee asks a question in the audience
Halachic Left Highlights* From Our 2025, Part 1 *order is not ranked! Tell us your favorite in the replies
Shaul Magid speaks about Chanukah to a group in Cambridge at the event "From Darkness to Light"
Miko Zeldes-Roth standing in front of a screen that says "Celebrating Chanukah Beyond Jewish Supremacy, 12.16.2025"
Around a dozen people sitting around a living room listening to Rabbi David Polsky give a Chanukah shiur
The day the Alter Rebbe left prison… is the day he did too. For the past several months, I’ve been learning weekly with a Jewish man in prison. Week by week, through Torah, tefillah, and simply showing up for him, I watched his spirit slowly rebuild itself. Before Rosh Hashanah, we learned together about the power of prayer, and I encouraged him to speak to G-d from the depths of his situation and to envision the sound of the shofar whenever he prayed. A few weeks later, he came to our video session holding a small Chabad siddur he had “miraculously” found. After being unexpectedly moved to a different area of the prison, he went to straighten a messy bookshelf and the very last book on that shelf was an English Chabad siddur. Torn first page, no explanation, no way to know how it got there. He told me, with tears in his eyes, “Rabbi, this was G-d telling me He’s here with me even in a place like this.” And then came yesterday, which was the 18th of Kislev the very day, historically, when the Alter Rebbe’s (the first Chabad Rebbe) release from prison was decided. Yesterday morning I went to court wearing my chaplaincy badge to support him. Through a series of unbelievable turns, the judge granted his release, with one of the conditions being ongoing study and spiritual guidance. Every detail felt orchestrated. I jumped into the car and traveled to Nowra Correctional Centre waiting to greet him as he walks out. He lay tefillin outside the prison walls, we sang the song Tzeitchem L’ shalom (as we would do whilst he was inside, over zoom on Friday afternoons) and we danced to the words Thank you Hashem! We farbrenged the whole way home and by the time he arrived home it was already after dark, he stepped into freedom on Yud-Tes Kislev, the day we celebrate the day of liberation of the first leader of the Chabad movement. This is not coincidence. This is open, revealed Divine Providence. [continued in next photo]
Celebrating Chanukah Beyond Jewish Supremacy 7:00pm 16 December Sketchpad Chicago Co-sponsored by NIF NewGen Halachic Left Our hope for a future grounded in justice, dignity, and safety for all who live in Israel/Palestine can, in part, be realized if we come together to celebrate this holiday outside of Jewish supremacy.
From Darkness to Light Join us in Cambridge for an evening of food, music, and solidarity. Opening remarks form Shaul Magid. All funds raised will be directed toward Legal Aid for Palestinians (LEAP). Address provided upon registration.
"‘The Might of Israel’?: The Heresy of a Popular Chanukah song” with Rabbi David Polsky Tuesday, Dec. 16, 6:30-8pm, Latkes and sufganiyot served NYC, Upper West Side (*addresses sent to RSVP list) + Zoom option Sign up at bit.ly/hl-chanukah The Zionist Chanukah song “Mi Yimalel” (written in 1936 by Menashe Ravina) plays off a Biblical verse to extol the military might of the Jewish people. After noting the ways in which it denies traditional Jewish beliefs, we will explore Jewish texts that provide alternative, non-militaristic understandings of gevurah (power). Rabbi David Polsky is a rabbi and educator living in Southfield, MI, with his wife and children. A graduate of Yeshiva University Rabbinical School (RIETS), his main research interest is the intersection between Halakhah and values. He recently published a Halakhic argument against the starvation of Gaza.