America's Mezuzah: Parshat Bo 2026 January 23
Name/Title
America's Mezuzah: Parshat Bo 2026 January 23Entry/Object ID
rdi-2026.01.23Scope and Content
Drawing on Parshat Bo’s imagery of blood-marked doorposts and the Israelites’ experience of vulnerability, this sermon argues that Jewish memory must become a moral imperative. The Torah’s repeated command to care for and protect the stranger—because “you were strangers in the land of Egypt”—is presented as a direct challenge to contemporary treatment of immigrants and other vulnerable people. The mezuzah becomes a symbol of this responsibility: placed at the threshold, it reminds us that our values are most visible when we encounter those seeking safety and belonging at our doors. Extending the metaphor to the Statue of Liberty and Emma Lazarus’s poem, the piece calls on Jews and Americans alike to renew the promise of welcome, dignity, and freedom for those who are most vulnerable.Category
Shabbat sermons