Don't Send Them Back: Parshat Ki Teitzei (August 22, 2026)
Name/Title
Don't Send Them Back: Parshat Ki Teitzei (August 22, 2026)Entry/Object ID
rdi-2026.08.22Scope and Content
The sermon explores the Torah’s striking commandment not to return a fugitive slave to their master, arguing that its radical message goes beyond physical liberation to the restoration of human agency. Freedom, the sermon suggests, means not only escaping domination but being given the space, dignity, and security to choose where and how to build a new life. The sermon asks what a liberated people will do with their freedom and extends that question to our personal lives: how can we support people who are leaving behind addictions, abusive relationships, old patterns, identities, or other forms of constraint? Don't send them back to their old identity! As the High Holy Days approach, the Torah becomes a call to resist pulling people back into who they once were, to honor their emerging choices, and to become facilitators of one another’s dignity, freedom, and possibility.Category
Shabbat sermons