Shabbat Greetings

I will not be with you all on this Shabbat as I am in Washington, DC with our Confirmation class for their Religious Action Center’s L’Taken Weekend, a program that creates advocacy to action. This Shabbat, our portion is Mishpatim (Exodus 21:1-24:18), which details a myriad of rules and regulations for a crowd of people to proceed to the Holy Land in some kind of order, and be the basis of a model for running their society when they get there. 

In addition, from the National Council of Jewish Women, this weekend we celebrate Repro Shabbat, in which we are partnering as a way of bringing the whole Jewish community together to talk about what our tradition teaches about reproductive health, rights, and justice. And when we study, we know: Reproductive freedom is a Jewish value. 

One in four people who can get pregnant will terminate a pregnancy by the age of forty-five. That includes members of our own community — for their own deeply personal reasons. So many important stories in our community go untold. Our tradition not only permits the termination of pregnancy, but even requires it when the life of the pregnant person is at stake. And, of course, kavod habriyot — human dignity — and, more broadly, building a just society are ultimate Jewish concerns. Our communities should be places where anyone who has terminated or may ever terminate a pregnancy feels loved and welcomed. And our communities should be places where everyone can feel welcome to share their reproductive health stories, without fear of shame or stigma. If folks wish to share, let us be a community that welcomes sharing of personal journeys, whether that involves termination, fertility challenges, pregnancy loss, or any other experience. 

With the fall of Roe v. Wade, 40 million people of reproductive age are now trapped in states hostile to abortion access. Those harmed most by abortion bans are communities of Black, Indigenous, and other Peoples of Color (BIPOC); people struggling to make ends meet; people living in rural areas; immigrants; disabled people; youth; and trans and nonbinary people. During a time when abortion access matters more than it ever has in many of our lifetimes, we here at Temple Shalom of Aberdeen are committed to this work. Thanks to leaders in our community and our special guest this Shabbat, we’ll be sharing with you ways that we can all be part of advocating for reproductive health access, rights and justice in the weeks and months to come.

SHABBAT SHALOM