Writings

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  Teshuvah and the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

  Winner of the HUC-JIR Lorraine Helman Rubin Memorial Prize for Scholarly Writing

  Introduction

  On March 24, 1989, just after midnight, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker ran aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, an inlet in the Gulf of Alaska, on its way from Valdez, Alaska to California. Due to delayed efforts to contain the spill and stormy conditions, 11 million gallons of North Slope crude oil dispersed into the waters eventually polluting 1,300 miles of shoreline and adjacent waters. This was the largest environmental disaster in US history up to that point in time. At risk was “the delicate food chain that supports Prince William Sound’s commercial fishing industry… ten million migratory shore birds and waterfowl, hundreds of sea otters, dozens of other species, such as harbor porpoises and sea lions, and several varieties of whales.” In the end an estimated 250,000 seabirds, 2,800 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, 250 bald eagles, as many as 22 killer whales, billions of salmon and herring eggs were killed. More than 25 years after the spill the killer whale population, the herring population (once a life source for the region), several bird species had not recovered, and pools of oil were still found under and between rocks along the shore line. 

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  Reading for Parshat Misphatim 2025/5785

  By Student Rabbi Leah Julian

  The universe is so mysteriously cruel and beautiful. As the world around us turns inside out, and we are confronted like Job by God out of the whirlwind who tells us nothing except that the true workings of the world are unknowable– we turn to our holy books, for there we find eternal wisdom.

  On this Shabbat we read Parshat Mishpatim, from the Book of Exodus, the Torah portion right after Moses receives the 10 Commandments on Mount Sinai. Parshat Misphatim continues with the giving of some of the most famous and revered of all the mitzvot, the sacred obligations of the Jewish People– including the mitzvah around safeguarding a mother’s life, for which Repro Shabbat gets its inspiration.

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  Jewish Psychological / Spiritual First Aid Tips

  February 21, 2025

  A Message from your Friendly Neighborhood Soon-To-Be-Rabbi with extensive training in pastoral care/person who has spent the last several years researching collective trauma transmission, Jewish collective trauma transmission, and secondary traumatization for her rabbinic thesis: 

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  The Power of Post Election Dreaming

  November 21st, 2024

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  Barbie and Humanity’s Search for Meaning

  A Rosh Hashanah 5784/2023 Sermon by Leah Julian

  When the Barbie Movie came out this past summer I rushed to the movie theater. A lifelong Barbie devotee I was thrilled to watch my favorite childhood toy brought to life on the big screen. I had few expectations of the film other than I expected to like it because come on- it’s Barbie! 

  What I did not expect was just how much I would like it. Yes, it’s colorful and upbeat, there are large choreographed dance numbers, and that’s not to mention the star studded cast. But more than that, the Barbie Movie is deeply moving. It touches on so many important themes- the complexities of being a woman in today’s world, gender equality, patriarchy, body shame, women’s empowerment, aging. I could go on and on. Perhaps what moved me the most though, was that a movie about a doll is fundamentally a meditation on what it means to be human. Let me explain. 

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  When Time is Sacred to Us, it is Sacred to God

  A Teaching for Parashat Emor by Leah Julian

  This past Pesach I was reading through some new haggadot in order to prepare for my family’s seder, and I came across a new tidbit that I had never learned before. It was about the meaning of charoset. I have to confess something to you. Before this I never really thought much about charoset beyond what I was taught in religious school as a kid- that it symbolizes the mortar the Israelite slaves used to build the pyramids, and that it’s yummy. I was not aware that there is a whole debate in the Talmud (Pesachim 116a) about the meaning and purpose of charoset. One rabbi argues for the standard “mud/mortar” meaning and that the spices in charoset represent the straw in the mud. Another rabbi says that we eat it “In memory of the apple tree” (Pesahim 116a). Which apple tree? The only apple tree mentioned in the Bible is in Song of Songs (8:5) where the female lover tells her beloved “under the apple tree I roused you.” While the rabbi in the Talmud does not elaborate on what he meant by “in memory of the apple tree,” the author of the haggadah I was reading, Gabriella Spitzer, provided a beautiful and powerful explanation of this rabbi’s interpretation, based on that line from Song of Songs: the apple tree is where Israelite slaves would meet their lovers in secret and share intimacy and leisure time together. One of the most oppressive aspects of slavery in Egypt was that there was no time to be with loved ones- there was no time for anything except back breaking work. Enslavement not only involved oppressive work and working conditions but also oppressive constraints on time and cherished relationships. According to Spitzer, then, we eat the charoset to remind ourselves of the sweetness of the freedom to be masters over our own time, and the sweetness of using that time to be with the ones who make our lives sweeter. 

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