- All articles

All articles

- cities of refuge

- This, Instead (subscriber only)

- under the constellations

- do you believe in magic?

- dispositional (subscriber only)

- Juneteenth Voices

RABBI DANYA RUTTENBERG | JUL 14, 2025, 10:00 AM EDT

cities of refuge

sanctuary

This is Life as a Sacred Text 🌱, an everybody-celebrating, justice-centered voyage into ancient stories that can illuminate our own lives. It‘s run on a nonprofit, so it’s 100% NAZI FREE. More about the project here, and to subscribe, go here:

I know that I've promised you a second post after the women and witchcraft piece, and Part Two on some of Jewish women's traditional modes of spirituality and ritual is coming! But given some of the changes in the news recently, this felt like it needed to go from a Thursday House of Study post to a more expanded everybody essay.

Today we're going to talk about yet another biblical concept that feels all too relevant in these days of suffering:

Sanctuary cities.

That is, the Torah tells us that if a person commits accidental manslaughter, they may be allowed to claim refuge in one of a few specific cities.

They didn't mean to murder the person– listen, mistakes happen– but the family of that person might be very angry and desire blood vengeance nonetheless.

The Torah recognizes that someone who didn't cause harm with malign intent deserves to be protected from such an assault, and sets up a failsafe for them, as described in Numbers and now here, in Deuteronomy:

You shall set aside three cities in the land... You shall divide the territory of the country that God your God has allotted to you into three parts so that any manslayer may have a place to flee to...

Now this is the case of the manslayer who may flee there and live: one who has slain another unwittingly, without having been an enemy in the past. For instance, a person goes with another into a grove to cut wood; as their hand swings the ax to cut down a tree, the ax-head flies off the handle and strikes the other so that they die. That person shall flee to one of these cities and live.—

Otherwise, when the distance is great, the blood-avenger, pursuing the manslayer in hot anger, may overtake them and strike them down; yet they did not incur the death penalty, since he had never been the other’s enemy.

That is why I command you: set aside three cities.…if you faithfully observe all this that I enjoin upon you …then you shall add three more towns to those three.

Thus blood of the innocent will not be shed, bringing bloodguilt upon you in the land...If, however, [for instance,] a person who is the enemy of another lies in wait for them and sets upon him and strikes a fatal blow and then flees to one of these towns, the elders of that town shall have them brought back from there and shall hand that person over to the blood-avenger to be put to death… (Deuteronomy 19:1-12, abridged)

If you accidentally kill someone, you can come and be protected in one of the officially designated cities so someone bent on revenge doesn't come get you, but if you actually do a murder and try to use our cities to hide– well, we sure won't be protecting you, that's for sure.

Though this passage does not name the cities, elsewhere in Deuteronomy and the Books of Joshua do. There are initially three, and then up to six and possibly nine cities once their manifaux destiny kicks in (remember, there was very most likely no actual historical conquest of the Holy Land).

Many ancient near eastern cultures subscribed to the notion that one would be safe around or near their deity's turf – by the altar or in a similar holy space. (See also the double-meaning of the word, "sanctuary," – which comes from the Christian understanding that one might be safe from the law if within a church, in use by the mid-14th c.)

Remember how, with Deuteronomy, the Temple became centralized and all these local "high places" became obsolete, and the priests working them were put out of work? Well, two things. First of all, the local priests were turned into landless Levites, with special cities set aside for them to live in. And second of all, some scholars suggest that, before the centralization, folks may have gone to these high places for refuge– so now, without them, people still needed safe regional spaces. Go figure: These sanctuary cities were all Levitical towns.

The bottom line is this:

The sanctuary cities existed to protect someone who had not had malicious intent from the threat, and possible reality, of communal violence.

Alberto Toscano, Untitled #3. Polymer clay on wood panel. One can see references to Munch's The Scream and the port of Oakland, here. P

The Rabbis took this concept and engaged in their textual activism, expanding the range of what was possible through midrash and other means. They do things like turning those nine cities into as many as, potentially, forty-eight (which Maimonides holds by.)

They work out some of the logistics:

If an unintentional murderer, exiled to a city of refuge, unintentionally killed a person in the same city, that person is exiled from that neighborhood where they resided to another neighborhood within that city. And a Levite who is a permanent resident of a city of refuge and unintentionally killed a person is exiled from that city to another city. (Mishnah Makkot 2:7)

They provide the person fleeing with protection:

And the court would provide the unintentional murderers fleeing to a city of refuge with two Torah scholars, due to the concern that perhaps the blood redeemer, i.e., a relative of the murder victim seeking to avenge his death, will seek to kill the person in transit, and in that case they, the scholars, will talk to the blood redeemer and dissuade him from killing the unintentional murderer. (Talmud Makkot 9b)

Most importantly, the Mishnah regards these cities as a sort of a holding space for everyone who has killed, in order to ensure that due process takes place:

Rabbi Yosei bar Yehuda says: Initially, either one who killed another unintentionally or one who killed another intentionally would hurry and flee to the cities of refuge, and the court in that person's city would send for them and would bring them from there to stand trial. For one who was found guilty and obligated to receive the death penalty in court for intentional murder, the court would execute them, and for one who was not found obligated to receive the death penalty, e.g., if they deemed that the death occurred due to circumstances beyond their control, they would free that person. For one who was found obligated to be exiled, [aka who committed involuntary manslaughter] the court would restore them to their place in the city of refuge where they can be safe. (Mishnah Makkot 2:6)

The Torah delineated two basic categories: If you meant to kill someone, you'd wind up getting the death penalty.* Or you didn't mean to, you go to the city of refuge.

*We'll talk more about the Rabbinic understanding of the death penalty some other time– suffice to say, it wasn't handled with the carelessness and racism that we see in the U.S. now, and might have been an entirely theoretical exercise for them.

The Rabbis articulated the difference between gross negligence- cases wherein you should have been more careful, and bore some responsibility for the death of the other person– and cases in which you were doing your job just fine and something went totally awry, out of your control. Wild accidents. "Acts of God," if you will.

According to this mishnah, above, everyone goes to the sanctuary city initially. If you're found guilty of murder, you're executed. If you're found guilty of what we might call gross negligence, you get sent back to the sanctuary city. If the court concludes that the person's death was actually totally beyond your control, you get to go home.

In Rabbinic Judaism, intention matters.

L to R: Ximena Arias-Cristobal was brought to the US when she was four, is now a college student in Georgia, was pulled over on a routine traffic stop. Yolanda Perez was taken by ICE as "collateral" when they were seeking her son. She is the primary caregiver to her daughter with cancer. (Her son has a few minor charges for drug possession -- not dealing, not trafficking, just having on his person.) Jeanette Vizguerra, a 53 year-old grandmother with four American children, works at Target, fled violence in Mexico City in 1997, and was arrested as retaliation, as she is an immigrant rights activist and SIEU organizer. She has repeatedly been granted stays by the system-- no lawful removal order exists-- and sought sanctuary in a Colorado church for a time before her capture by ICE. Some of these cases have been resolved simply because they hit the news and public pressure mounted. But they exemplify so many of the other cases that haven't hit the news, the stories that we haven't heard, because there are too many. There are too many.

When you subscribe to the Life is a Sacred Text House of Study, you get extra sustenance for your heart, soul and brain and every week.

These days, we all need as much nourishment as we can get.

(You can opt-in to email, or read the archives / Thursday posts on the site.)

Isn't it time to invest in the parts of you that matter most?

Of course, the idea of sanctuary cities today are different– and not.

The people seeking sanctuary today are, like the people in the Torah, those who have not done anything so grave that they would merit the punishment that those who pursue them are attempting.

They are people who did not mean to cause harm. They are people who did not wish ill for anyone. And yet, those who pursue them would see them suffer without due process, and quite possibly have their blood spilled.

I'm speaking, of course, of those running from the gaping maws of ICE– which now bears all the characteristics of a secret police force– and, with its new budget increase of $100 billion –is now bigger than most worlds' militaries. ICE is now the 16th largest military budget in the world. ICE's budget is bigger than Israel's, Italy's, and Brazil's military budget.

ICE is "disappearing" people. They're being taken from courthouses, citizenship appointments, churches, graduations, restaurants, Home Depots, farms, and other workplaces– often without warrants or probable cause, let alone due process or basic human rights. They're holding a record 57,861 human beings in custody, and the monstrous Stephen Miller has demanded that they take 3,000 people a day. According to data from TRAC, over 71% of those being held have no criminal record at all.

This is to say nothing of the horrors endured once in detention, or the concentration camps being opened by the State. (Click the links there if you have any uncertainty about what happens.)

Never again is now, friends.

Right. Now.

This is what it looks like when people get taken away and they may never come back. This is what it looks like when the State disappears people. This is what it looks like when the State targets people based on their race and ethnicity to be taken away. This. Here. Now. This.

What are you going to do about it?

L: Masked and unmasked white men in CBP vests forcibly take a struggling Brown woman by the arms. R: White men in POLICE ICE vests look as a young Brown woman and young Brown man walk past them with their hands zip-tied behind their backs. Center: Six Brown children lined up in an institutional setting; it says ICE painted on one of the counters behind them.

ICE's (or Trump's) vendetta of vengeance may not always be personal to the person they're going after*, but the dynamic of people running from violence– despite meaning no harm and trying only to do their best by all involved feels... familiar.

*In many cases. Though there are many others-- like Mahmoud Khalil's, Mohsen Mahdawi's, and Rümeysa Öztürk's among others, that were very personal indeed-- that is, in which they were targeted for their political articulations, even though "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech."

Em Fishman observes,

There are a lot of people who talk about how "MY ANCESTOR CAME HERE THE RIGHT WAY," as though that means that anyone else should be, well, doomed to the death penalty (or something not far off from it.) And– sure. That immigration process was available to your ancestor at that time.* But now that kind of process does not exist in the same way. The people who are being hunted now did not come into this country with nefarious intentions– whether or not they fit the official definition of an asylum case. We need to let people be able to live in safety, and under protection.

*Those ancestors probably got in before the Immigration Act of 1924, also known as the explicitly racist Asian Exclusion Act, which was the big tightening of U.S. immigration overall. According to the Department of State, the purpose of the act was "to preserve the ideal of U.S. homogeneity." Yep. It also authorized the creation of the U.S. Border Patrol.

Vera, an organization fighting mass incarceration, describes contemporary sanctuary cities as

jurisdictions that prioritize the safety and well-being of all residents by limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities, allowing limited local resources to be used to support local community members.

Twelve states and many cities/counties have self-designated as sanctuary spaces, often with ordinances and other formal policies. You can find a fairly updated list here. In a devastating, horrific blow, a federal judge ruled in April that ICE can raid houses of worship.

This doesn't, of course, mitigate our ethical obligations to try to save every life that we can, to hide every person that we are able to hide.

Sanctuary spaces to protect innocent human beings from the horrors of ICE are a moral imperative.

And, even now, even as the terrors rise around us, our cities of refuge can remind us of the world that we are striving to build.

As Rabbi Arielle Lekach-Rosenberg wrote,

With the command to construct [sanctuary cities], the Israelites receive a profound challenge: create new possibilities for yourselves, outside the context of violence and revenge. It’s a commandment to make manifest new possibilities so that those most persecuted can live with dignity. It’s a manifestation of the unwillingness to live as though only some in society were deserving of rights and respect.

Our vision of justice must include everyone.

The command to make cities of refuge can be read as the command to transform the rhythms and expectations of our society.

To hard-wire within the very design of our society an alternative to the whiplash cycle of persecution and cruelty.

Printed by Jesse Purcell at Repetitive Press in Toronto. (Image says: Sanctuary Cities Now, has a woodcut-looking illustration of hands cradled, from which wooden houses spring up in the distance, and people with faces and rough black outlines of clothes appear to rise, as if they are being held by the arms.)

There's a classical midrash that looks at the end of this Deuteronomy passage, the verse about intentional murder, and learns from it that someone who is able to start walking down the path of hate will ultimately arrive at dehumanization and all that it brings:

"If a person hates their neighbor, and lies in wait for that person, and rise up against them" (Deuteronomy 19:11)

From here [the Rabbis] taught: If a person violates a "light" mitzvah, in the end they will violate a grave one:

If they violated

"You shall love your neighbor as yourself," (Leviticus 19:18)

they are destined to violate "You shall not hate," (Leviticus 19:17)

"You shall not take revenge," (Leviticus 19:18)

"You shall not bear a grudge," (Leviticus 19:18) and, in the end,

"and your sibling shall live with you" (Leviticus 25:36)

until they arrive at the spilling of blood.

(Midrash Sifrei Deuteronomy 186:2)

Implicit in this, the Rabbis suggest, is the importance in beginning at the beginning.

We cannot ever violate "love your neighbor as yourself."

That's already a hard line that we must never cross.

That's the beginning of everything, and the starting point of all we must do.

get the sustenance you crave

support independent Torah

keep these posts accessible to everyone

whaddaya waiting for?????

*as always, email support @ life is a sacred text for a hookup if paying isn't on tap right now for you

MORE:

Loving the Im/migrant as a Citizen

our obligations go wayyy beyond “not oppressing”

Life is a Sacred TextRabbi Danya Ruttenberg

When ICE Comes Calling, Rapid Community Responses Can Make a Difference

Is your community ready to fight deportations? Here’s how people in New York, New Jersey and Arizona are organizing.

TruthoutSamantha Borek

A Guide for Employers: What to Do if Immigration Comes to Your Workplace

This guide offers practical guidance on responding to immigration actions in the workplace. It is also available in Chinese, Korean, Spanish, and Thai.

NILCHolly Straut-Eppsteiner

How to Keep Tabs on ICE Agents Who May Be Surveilling Your Neighborhood

Here’s a step-by-step guide.

Teen VogueNikki Marín Baena

Find your local California Rapid Response hotline | CCIJ

Find your local California Rapid Response Network and hotline to report immigration enforcement activity and keep our communities safe!

CCIJ

Red Cards / Tarjetas Rojas | Immigrant Legal Resource Center | ILRC

All people in the United States, regardless of immigration status, have certain rights and protections under the U.S. Constitution. The ILRC’s Red Cards help people assert their rights and defend themselves in many situations, such as when ICE agents go to a home. Special thanks to our many partners who contributed translations in the various languages now available, making these red cards accessible to more individuals.

ILRC

39 Languages Available!

Think There’s Nothing You Can Do to Stop ICE? Think Again.

Chicago’s years of organizing against immigration raids are a blueprint for real resistance to Trump’s attacks—as even his top goons acknowledge.

The NationRaeghn Draper

🌱❤️

Like this? Get more of it every week.

For free every Monday—sign up at the ‘Subscribe now’ button just below.

And if you become a paid subscriber, you get tools for deeper transformation, a community, and support the labor that makes these Monday essays happen.

Especially without Substack's built-in network, word-of-mouth– forwarding emails, sharing on social media, etc– matters more than ever.

Please spread the word about this post and Life is a Sacred Text in general.

Thank you. 🙏 ❤️

A note on the subscription model:

I want my work to be as accessible to as many people as possible, in as many ways as possible. That's why the Monday essays are free, and why we donate subscriptions to anyone for whom paying is a barrier to the House of Study posts.

I also believe people should be paid fairly for their work. Needless to say, these two values sometimes seem to be in conflict, but I do what I can to find a fair balance. I offer many resources for free, and charge for others. When you donate generously or pay at the top of our scale, that helps support the work I do, provides access for those who have fewer resources, pays for the infrastructure and the technical and practical support that it takes to do this, and helps us keep the work sustainable.

And as always, if you want in to the Thursday space but paying isn't for you now, just email support@lifeisasacredtext.com and we'll hook you up.

And if you’d like to underwrite one of these donated subscriptions, you can do so by signing up at one of the higher subscription points.

And if it resonated with you, please share this post.

Sending a big pile of blessings and goodness your way. 💕

Know Your Rights:

You have constitutional rights!

- DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR if an immigration agent is knocking on the door.

- DO NOT ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS from an immigration agent if they try to talk to you. You have the right to remain silent.

- DO NOT SIGN ANYTHING without speaking to a lawyer first. You have the right to speak with a lawyer.

- If you are outside of your home, ask the agent if you are free to leave. If they say yes, leave.

- GIVE THIS TEXT TO THE AGENT. If you are inside of your home, show the text through the window or slide a card with this text under the door:

I do not wish to speak with you, answer your questions, or sign or hand you any documents based on my 5th Amendment rights under the United States Constitution. I do not give you permission to enter my home based on my 4th Amendment rights under the United States Constitution unless you have a warrant to enter, signed by a judge or magistrate with my name on it that you slide under the door. I do not give you permission to search any of my belongings based on my 4th Amendment rights. I choose to exercise my constitutional rights.

Many thanks to the wonderful Parker Weinstein for the research layup, here.

This article was downloaded from https://www.lifeisasacredtext.com/refugecities/ on Jul 15, 2025 at 8:51 AM EDT.

RABBI DANYA RUTTENBERG | JUL 10, 2025, 5:00 AM EDT

This, Instead (subscriber only)

some stuff for heart and soul

View this paid post here: This, Instead (subscriber only).

This article was downloaded from https://www.lifeisasacredtext.com/this-instead/ on Jul 15, 2025 at 8:51 AM EDT.

RABBI DANYA RUTTENBERG | JUL 4, 2025, 10:00 AM EDT

under the constellations

and what they can teach us about interpreting jewish law

Happy almost-sesquicentennial 4th of July, if you're in the US! Isn't a country not under the thumb of a tyrannical king worth fighting for? Anyway, Not the topic:

And when you look up to the sky and behold the sun and the moon and the stars, the whole heavenly host, you must not be lured into bowing down to them or serving them. These your God allotted to other peoples everywhere under heaven (Deuteronomy 4:19)

As we talk about the prohibitions against divination this week, I thought it might be fun to look at how the tradition dealt with an interlocking issue– that of looking to the stars for guidance. Especially on a day that's traditional for looking up (at fireworks, OK, but still).

And, as it happens, it gives us a great little case study on differing philosophies of Jewish law– as you'll see.

This article was downloaded from https://www.lifeisasacredtext.com/astrology/ on Jul 15, 2025 at 8:51 AM EDT.

RABBI DANYA RUTTENBERG | JUN 30, 2025, 10:00 AM EDT

do you believe in magic?

more women, more witchcraft

This is Life as a Sacred Text 🌱, an everybody-celebrating, justice-centered voyage into ancient stories that can illuminate our own lives. It‘s run on a nonprofit, so it’s 100% NAZI FREE. More about the project here, and to subscribe, go here:

Today, our textual wanderings take us to Deuteronomy 18, and to talk of the supernatural. ✨

There's a lot to say on the topic!

So much, in fact, that this will be a two-part series.

Today, we'll look at magic, divination and ghost-seeking in the Bible and Talmud– how these lines between "forbidden magic" and "acceptable magic" were navigated by the men creating and defining canon.

Next time, we'll look at less official ritual lives of Jewish women from a few different Jewish cultures, and we'll ask some more questions about where those lines are between "magic" and "religion"– and when, whether, it really matters.

Lotta binary gender language in this one. Reminder that there have always been people of many genders in Jewish history, and Jewish textual history.

First, though, you should know that the House of Study is getting ready for its next ZOOM SALON! Level up your subscription to get in on it!!

Why Is My Spiritual Community So Filled With... People

Holy Community, Beloved Community-- It sounds wonderful, and it absolutely can be. But sometimes the fact that these communities are filled with, well, people -- who their own opinions and foibles--make things feel very challenging indeed, for any one (or more) of a myriad of reasons. So how does one exist in the complexity of sacred community? Let's find out how some of the greats navigated this question over the eras. We'll be together for lively, accessible conversation for an hour and a half, in small group (hevruta) conversation as well as larger group.

(As always, if you want in to the House of Study and paying isn't on the menu right now-- Torah should always be accessible. Email support @ lifeisasacredtext.com for the hookup. And if you CAN support access to independent Torah, consider subscribing at a higher tier to make this policy possible.)

It's impressive, really, how much Deuteronomy manages to cover in just two hot verses:

There is not to be found among you one... an augurer of augury, a hidden-sorcerer, a diviner, or an enchanter, one who [חובר חבר-- translation unclear], or a seeker of ghosts or all-knowing ones, or an inquirer of the dead. (Deuteronomy 18:10-11)

According to biblical scholar Jeffrey Tigay, augury is a general term for divination that includes things like interpreting how arrows fall from a quiver and reading the liver of a sacrificed animal; divining is also a general term that probably included reading the patterns of liquid in a goblet; in clouds; or the flight patterns of birds. An enchanter evidently did malevolent magic. I couldn't find anything but speculation as to the meaning of sorcerer, here– there seem to be a lot of guesses without clarity. As for the חובר חבר, which I have left untranslated– Tigay translates that word as charmer or whisperer, referring to either defensive magic or "murmuring" spells.

Rabbi Everett Fox, holding by a different line of scholarship, goes with "a tier of [magical] tying-knots," alluding to ancient practices that may be less known to us. If if we go with Fox, I'll throw out some wild speculation on my part: Hebrew Bible professor Nancy Bowen observed, on a somewhat unrelated matter, that in ancient Mesopotamia, pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum– an obviously perilous time– was regarded as a time where one might be vulnerable to sorcery. As such, incantations were developed to fight the bad magic, and

Many of the incantations to stop profuse vaginal bleeding during pregnancy involved the tying of knots....This is a fairly obvious sign that a suture was desired to stop the flow of blood...

Is Deuteronomy going after a midwifery practice? Might it be possible?? Again, I'm speculating wildly, and in any case: We may never know. But the connection between women, reproductive care and witchcraft is longstanding across cultures– and we'll see more of it today.

Next! No seeking ghosts, no inquiring of the dead. Despite the prohibition, the Bible shows us what this looks like, which is fun.

I'm referring, of course, to the story of the Witch of Ein Dor, (Endor, yes). We learn that the king Saul had

removed [those inquiring of] ghosts and all-knowing ones from the land (I Samuel 28:3)

because witch persecution is as old as the history of patriarchal religion.

And yet, when Saul realized he was in over his head militarily, what did he want? To consult his dead prophet Samuel. So his people track down a witch in hiding, and she reluctantly brings Samuel back so that he can yell at Saul. (She gets to yell at him, a bit, too.) (I Samuel 28:3-25). Careful what you ask for.

Witch of Endor, by Nikolai Ge, 1857, Russia. (A Classical-style painting with dramatic lighting in which the Witch of Endor is an old woman in grey cloaks with her arms raised, Samuel stands on the left side, in white robes, face covered, looking down to the right, where Saul is on the floor, with a red robe and his hands on his head, appearing to have fallen from shock, and two people stand behind Saul, in the background, looking stunned as well.)

And then we come to the Rabbinic era:

"Hillel used to say...the more women,

the more witchcraft."

(Sayings of the Sages/Mishnah Pirke Avot 2:7)

The fact that witchcraft is forbidden by Torah does not seem to mean– as the Rabbis saw it– that Jewish women were any less engaged in the practice.

We hear things like this again and again:

(As always, bold is the original text of the Aramaic/Hebrew, and the Roman/regular is the additional explanation by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, periodically tweaked by me.)

The Sages taught One who was walking outside a city and smelled a scent; if the majority of the town’s residents are non-Jews one may not recite a blessing over the scent [since one assumes it may be lit as part of idolatry], but if the majority are Jews, one may recite a blessing. Rabbi Yosei says: Even if the majority are Jews, one may not recite a blessing, as the daughters of Israel burn incense to witchcraft and the spices were certainly made for witchcraft, not for their fragrance. (Talmud Brachot 53a)

Here, witchcraft is connected to women perfuming their clothing – we see the interface of witchcraft and sexuality, seduction. And through this, Rabbi Jericho Vincent observes,

Jewish women are removed from the class of Jews/trustworthy insiders and put into the class of Gentiles/problematic outsiders.

The Talmud in Eruvin (64b) similarly reports that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai said that by his era, "Jewish women are [so] accustomed to using witchcraft," that even a random loaf of bread sitting by the side of the road could be riddled with dangerous spells.

Witchcraft and food prep: More on that in a moment.

The Sages taught, The verse: “You shall not allow a witch to live” (Exodus 22:17), refers to both a man and a woman. If so, why does verse state “a witch” (in the feminine singular form of Hebrew?) This is because most women are familiar with witchcraft. (Talmud Sanhedrin 67a)

Most women! This includes their wives, sisters, mothers. They were talking about what they witnessed, dwelled with–"you shall not allow a witch to live” notwithstanding.

In fact, there's really only one story, connected to the very early Rabbinic era, of a sage killing witches – and that was, I kid you not– to fulfill a campaign promise.* Because of course.)

*Yes, the women in the death pentalty story are described as "hurting the world," but forgive me if I don't happen to find the narrator of this text to be super reliable. We do see them conjuring up lunch, but as we'll see below, the Rabbis also did that. Beyond that, they're portrayed as having sexual mores that defy Rabbinic conventions, but that, alone, does not seem to be a prooftext for "hurting the world," even if their willingness to shtup casually likely was proof to the Rabbis of great evil.

So what was the witchcraft that these "most women" performed?

As is so often the case across eras, places and cultures, the lives and the wisdom of women in Rabbinic Judaism is largely lost. What little we do know about women's lives here– as so many other places– is because men have forbidden something. [[1]]

To wit, the Tosefta– a compilation of Oral Law from the time of the Mishnah (150-200 CE), includes (in Tractate Shabbat) a list of practices regarded as witchcraft. Some are described using masculine verb conjugations, some with feminine conjugations. As historian Tal Ilan observes, almost all the forbidden witchcraft actions using feminine language fall into "areas in which women were normally occupied." As scholar of Jewish folk magic Rebecca Lesses observes, [[2]] none of what they implicitly define as women's magic are maliciously aimed at others, but rather practices to ensure the success of healing, cooking, tending and so forth.

Things like

"She who shouts at an oven not to let the bread fall, she who puts charms into the handle of a pot that it should not boil over" (6.14)

"She who imposes silence for lentils and who smacks her lips at rice" (6.15)

"She who sets hens to brood and said: I set them out only in pairs, I set them out only naked, I set them out only with the left hand, I set them out only with both hands" (6.17)

"She who sets out a brood of chicks in a sieve, or puts pieces of iron among a brood of chicks" (6.19) (Translations Tal Ilan)

Imagine the ancient rabbinic gaze. Imagine watching women labor– observing their traditions and ways of engaging with the world – and trying to make sense of them without understanding them. Or observing women's spiritual traditions (more on that next week), and ways of connecting with the divine that don't center Rabbinic interests. They denigrate it as witchcraft, imply that women are – akin to those idolatrous non-Jews.

Yet the Rabbis mostly seem to approach these occult matters with irritation and eyerolling. Here's a text from Babylonia (now Iraq):

These two women, who are sitting at a crossroads, one on this side of the road and the other on the other side, and they are facing each other, they are certainly engaging in witchcraft. What is the remedy for one who walks by? If there is another route, they should go by it. And if there is no other route, if there is another person with him, they should hold hands and switch places. And if there is no other person with him, one should say as follows: "Iggeret, Azlat, Asiya, Belusiya are killed by arrows." (These are names of demons invoked by witches.) (Pesachim 111a)

These rabbis deal with witchcraft by... using magic formulas and incantations. 🤔

The same chunk of Talmud gives us this blessing for ICE agents:

Ameimar said: The chief of witches said to me: One who encounters witches should say this incantation: Hot feces in torn date baskets in your mouth, witches; may your hairs fall out because you use them for witchcraft; your crumbs, which you use for witchcraft, should scatter in the wind; your spices, which you use for your witchcraft, should scatter; the wind should carry away the fresh saffron that you witches hold to perform your witchcraft.... (Pesachim 110a-110b)

Ameimar was on such great terms with the Head Witch that he was given this helpful spell to use!

Rebecca Lesses points out that fragments of this same curse appear on a couple of Aramaic incantation bowls, most notably the hard-to-forget, "dung in broken baskets in your mouth, women who do sorcery." It wasn't a throwaway line– it was part of the material culture of the time. Theoretical and practical magic. Rabbis are named as owners of some of the excavated bowls, which may have been written by scribes.

A Jewish Babylonian incantation bowl. Not the one necessarily about the dung witch stuff, but with a delightful illustration of demons with their little chicken feet, bound by chains. Lesses also draws some interesting connections between the Lilith archetype, seen in many bowls, and the Rabbinic treatment of witches in her work.

This certainly wasn't the only time they were willing to engage with magic, though:

Abaye says: The laws of sorcery are like the laws of Shabbat, in that there are three categories: There are of those for which the Torah decrees execution by stoning, and there are those for which one is exempt from punishment by Torah law but they are prohibited by rabbinic law, and there are those that are permitted from the outset.,..What is permitted from the outset is to act like Rav Ḥanina and Rav Oshaya: Every Shabbat eve they would engage in the study of the laws of creation, and a third-born calf would be created for them, and they would eat it. (Sanhedrin 67b)

Never mind the differences between Shabbat (commanded) and sorcery (forbidden). When Rav Hanina and Rav Oshaya order via GrimoireDash? That's... fine.

And here's a doozy:

Rabbi Eliezer said: Once [my student Rabbi Akiva] and I were walking along the way, and he said to me: My teacher, teach me about the planting of cucumbers. I said one statement of sorcery, and the entire field became filled with cucumbers. He said to me: My teacher, you have taught me about planting them; teach me about uprooting them. I said one statement and they all were gathered to one place... Rabbi Akiva learned the laws of gathering cucumbers through sorcery from Rabbi Eliezer.. but he did not understand it. Later he learned it from Rabbi Yehoshua, and Rabbi Yehoshua explained it to him. [The Talmud says this is OK because doing sorcery in order] to teach oneself is different... and you [are permitted to] learn in order to understand the matter yourself and teach it to others. (Sanhedrin 68a)

When we do cool gardening tricks with magic, it's fine, because we're, uh... only doing it as an academic exercise! (We see the Sages backing up the "hey, it's OK to learn magic in order to teach it," position on Shabbat 75a.)

Needless to say, if we wanted to play with later positions we could be here all day– – here's Rebbeinu Bachya, writing from mid-13th-mid 14th c. Spain, on why the prohibition against magic is really just a prohibition on doing certain kinds of magic, certain ways, for example.

So, that's a lot of rabbis conjuring calves and cursing witches and flying cucumbers, given how much they talk about women being witches.

Historian Meir Bar-Ilan writes,

An examination of biblical and talmudic sources does not reveal that women in particular practiced witchcraft. On the contrary: sorcerers outnumber sorceresses in the sources. The books of witchcraft from talmudic times, Harba de-Moshe (The Sword of Moses), and Sefer haRazim (The Book of Secrets), are attributed to men, and many of the talmudic examples deal with men practicing sorcery...

....The association of women with sorcery illuminates the dynamics of the oppression of the weak and the way in which the ruling class constantly strengthens its political position.

If he does it, he's just channeling Holy Blessed One's will. If she does it, though...

With this in mind, let's look at two more sources:

There's a bit of Talmud where an earlier oral tradition (baraita) discusses several categories of people who "erode the world," and with one of them, the later strata of the Talmud says,

for example, to Yoḥani bat Retivi (Talmud Sotah 22a)

They just... name her, without any more information or context. More backstory is offered in a later commentary, though, from Rav Nissim Gaon, who lived in Tunisia in the early 11th c. (His version is earlier than the better-known Rashi one.) Rav Nissim is about to tell us why she "eroded the world."

What follows, here, might be from an oral tradition passed on from the Talmudic era–that was allegedly a thing– or it could "simply" reflect the thinking of Rav Nissim's time and place. Either way, it's notable in light of these conversations about gender and power and who's telling what story. Here we see a woman engaged in midwifery-type duties– likely, here, helping other women access contraception of some kind–rolled into the description of witchcraft:

"Yohani bat Ratibi was a witch and gave all the women a potion to prevent them from giving birth. She would put the potion in two vessels, and while the two vessels were closed, no women's womb would open. She would pretend to be praying for the woman in labor, and when she would stretch out on the ground to plead, she would open the two vessels, so that the spell was broken, and the woman's womb would be opened. Once, two sages went to ask her to beg for mercy for a woman who was suffering in labor, and found the two vessels containing the spells. They mistakenly opened them; straightforth, the woman's womb was opened and she gave birth easily. Then they knew that she had cast spells."

I have so many questions. Would that the women in the community or Yohani herself could give us their accounting of these events.

We also see sources in which the power to make men sterile via witchcraft (Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 7:13) are implied. (Literally or metaphorically?)

Sociologist Soma Chaudhuri and Feminist Studies scholar Jane Ward write in the Witch Studies Reader,

We can understand the witch as a spectacularly powerful and generative symbol of what men, owning classes, and colonizing nations fear most about women’s collective knowledge—of nature, childbirth, healing, sex, and death—a symbol with enduring power to mobilize feminist action and to imagine the future otherwise....

What changes when women take charge of their own reproductive autonomy?

What changes when women's spiritual or home practices are either not understood or not valued by the guys writing the books?

What changes when women have collective knowledge that is set-apart from that of male authority?

The Witch 1, Issachar Ber Ryback, 1922 (Ukrainian, 1897–1935) (A black ink drawing or painting of a scary old crone with hair in the air and her eyes wide look at children who look cross-eyed and appear to be running away, while a small sweet cottage stands in the background looking pastoral.)

And then there's this last story– which I think sums up a number of the themes in today's conversation. We start with the unusual power of some unnamed Talmudic women. Are they gifted due to righteousness?

Rav Naḥman’s daughters would stir a boiling pot with their bare hands. Rav Ilish had a difficulty with a verse, [won't bog us down with the citation. He said: doesn't this refer to... ] Rav Naḥman’s daughters, who were exceptionally righteous? These words caused them to be taken captive, due to the evil eye, and Rav Ilish was also taken captive with them....

Never mess with the Evil Eye, puh puh puh keinehora 🧿 🪬 (Not kidding.)

Jewish law understands that kidnapping involves the possibility of sexual assault; it's not considered adultery if there was no consent. Here, however, consent* is implied, and they state a clear preference to escape the men to whom they'd previously been shackled:

[Rav Ilish] heard [Rav Nahman's daughters] saying: These captors are now our husbands, and the men of Neharde’a to whom we are married are our husbands. We should tell our captors to distance us from here so that our husbands should not come to this area and hear that we are here, and redeem us, and take us home. They preferred to remain with their captors.

It's not hard to guess some of the reasons that early 4th c. women living near the Euphrates might not be thrilled with their original marriage. But it's still notable that things were so bad that they preferred to with their captors. And yet, their wishes were foiled:

When Rav Naḥman’s daughters were returned and they came back from their captivity, Rav Ilish said: They would stir the pot with witchcraft. (Gittin 45a)

*Can one consent to one's captor? I mean.

We can read this a few ways: If they were ever considered to be operating the kitchen like good girls, they're not anymore. Their shocking (to Rav Ilish) sexual experiences– and perhaps even more shocking wishes to separate from their original husbands– have changed them forever in his eyes, and now he can only see them as forces threatening the entire enterprise in which he believes.

Or: Maybe their capture changed them. Maybe through getting out, they began to conceive of a life that is not the life to which they were subsequently returned. Maybe they were literally boiling a cauldron of anger under their hands. Regardless, perhaps they have, through the course of the story, become

"symbol(s) with enduring power to ...imagine the future otherwise..."

Than that which they had always been taught to expect.

And maybe they brought that power back to the other women in the community, and that's where the real threat lies.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

🌱

Especially without Substack's built-in network, word-of-mouth– forwarding emails, sharing on social media, etc– matters more than ever.

Please spread the word about this post and Life is a Sacred Text in general.

Thank you. 🙏 ❤️

A note on the subscription model:

I want my work to be as accessible to as many people as possible, in as many ways as possible. That's why the Monday essays are free, and why we donate subscriptions to anyone for whom paying is a barrier to the House of Study posts.

I also believe people should be paid fairly for their work. Needless to say, these two values sometimes seem to be in conflict, but I do what I can to find a fair balance. I offer many resources for free, and charge for others. When you donate generously or pay at the top of our scale, that helps support the work I do, provides access for those who have fewer resources, pays for the infrastructure and the technical and practical support that it takes to do this, and helps us keep the work sustainable.

And as always, if you want in to the Thursday space but paying isn't for you now, just email support@lifeisasacredtext.com and we'll hook you up.

And if you’d like to underwrite one of these donated subscriptions, you can do so by signing up at one of the higher subscription points.

And if it resonated with you, please share this post.

Sending a big pile of blessings and goodness your way. 💕

Remember that when you become a paid subscriber, you get tools for deeper transformation, a community, and support the labor that makes these Monday essays happen.

And as always, if you want in to the Thursday space but paying isn't for you now, just email support@lifeisasacredtext.com and we'll hook you up.

BONUS MATERIAL

I try to remember to put the stuff I cut when posts get overly long towards the bottom, so those of you who want to go hard can have the option to!

Not all women who taught healing and incantations were regarded as witches. For example, Abaye often cites his adoptive mother's teachings on matters related to medicine, health, raising children, and gossip– and even defense against sorcery.

Abaye said, Em said to me: All incantations that are repeated are intoned using the name of the mother of the one requiring the incantation, and all knots tied for the purpose of healing are tied on the left. ... What are these knots? Adda Mari said that Rav Naḥman bar Barukh said that Rav Ashi bar Avin said that Rav Yehuda said: They are garlands of the madder plant that are tied for their medicinal qualities. Abaye said: Em, said to me about the healing properties of madder: Three garlands maintain the illness at its present state and prevent it from worsening, five garlands heal the illness, and seven are effective even against sorcery. (Talmud Shabbat 66b)

AND notably, much of this until the last line is a paraphrase of a 2nd c. BCE text, but choosing which verses to lift up, and how to paraphrase them, is always a choice, isn't it?

A daughter is for her father false treasure; due to fear for her he will not sleep at night: During her minority, lest she be seduced; during her young womanhood lest she engage in licentiousness; once she has reached her majority, lest she not marry; once she marries, lest she have no children; once she grows old, lest she engage in witchcraft (Ben Sira 42:11–14) (Sanhedrin 100b)

And that last line, from when she's "no longer useful to men...." ? (To quote a cut line from the Witch Studies Reader about why hags are terrifying), that's all the Rabbis.

[[1]]: Many thanks to Arielle Solomon for sharing her research and framing on this and pointing me at the Tal Ilan chapter.

[[2]]: Thanks again to Arielle Solomon for sharing this Lesses analysis in her own research.

This article was downloaded from https://www.lifeisasacredtext.com/witchcraft/ on Jul 15, 2025 at 8:51 AM EDT.

RABBI DANYA RUTTENBERG | JUN 26, 2025, 5:00 AM EDT

dispositional (subscriber only)

(how) [much] can people change ?

View this paid post here: dispositional (subscriber only).

This article was downloaded from https://www.lifeisasacredtext.com/dispositional/ on Jul 15, 2025 at 8:51 AM EDT.

RABBI DANYA RUTTENBERG | JUN 19, 2025, 5:00 AM EDT

Juneteenth Voices

grant peace

This is Life as a Sacred Text 🌱, an everybody-celebrating, justice-centered voyage into ancient stories that can illuminate our own lives. It‘s run on a nonprofit, so it’s 100% NAZI FREE. More about the project here, and to subscribe, go here:

Juneteenth is today– marking 160 years since that June 19th in 1865 when General Gordon Granger and his men marched into Galveston, Texas, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation, which had been issued two and a half years prior.

It is the day of rejoicing in the end of American chattel slavery, of honoring what has come to pass, and what has yet to come to pass.

There are so many things to say– but nobody needs to hear my voice in all this– so today is comprised of Black voices and of traditional sources that my Black Jewish colleagues lifted up over the years in other Juneteenth-related resources.

In 2020, the Womanist theologian Rev. Dr. Eboni Marshall Turman penned a "A Theological Statement From the Black Church on Juneteenth," signed by over 1,000 Black pastors, clergy, and theologians representing over 400 Black churches in the U.S. In it, she wrote,

The Black community has been regularly assaulted by the phalanx of white terrorism since our forced disembarkation on the shores of Jamestown in 1619.  From the bombing of our churches—like the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama—to the torching of our homes; from the lynching of our children—may God bless the memory of Emmett Till—to the massacring of our communities; from the assassination of our leaders to the pillaging of our economic prowess... we have been criminalized by the neoliberal logics of a new Jim Crow that builds prison cells based on third-grade reading levels in Black communities and that has exchanged a white hood for a gold badge, a burning cross for a taser, a horse for a cruiser and a noose for a gun.

The incessant onslaught of anti-Black violence that is the progeny of white racist structural evil constitutes the very fabric of U.S. society... We are not confused...

And this year comes in the context of the white supremacist regime's attacks on affirmative action and DEI initiatives (often: basic Civil Rights era laws and policies) and so much more.

We, therefore, affirm that Black freedom is always communal...We reject notions of white freedom that are compelled by the value of American individualism and the pursuit of one’s own destiny without interference and without concern for the well-being of others.

Rex (left to right), Dana Singleton, Marvin Bailey, Bobby Miles and Chuckie Banks rollerskate during the 1983 Denver Juneteenth celebration.

God said to Abram, “Know that your offspring shall be strangers in a land not theirs, and they shall be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years; but I will execute judgment on the nation they shall serve, and in the end they shall go free with great wealth. (Genesis 15:13-14)

BW image of Martha Yates Jones (left) and Pinkie Yates (right), daughters of Rev. Jack Yates, in a decorated carriage (with the wheels of the carriage filled with white flowers; they are all in white, with elegant white hats, and pulled by a white horse) parked in front of the Antioch Baptist Church located in Houston's Fourth Ward, 1908

In 2020, Sasha King wrote in TribeHerald with an ancestral perspective:

I am a direct descendant of two formerly enslaved Texans, John and Mary Lee and their infant son J.R.E. Lee. My ancestors received word of their freedom on the June 19, 1865, with their year-old child in their arms... I receive the gift of their love and hope for my future every year that I celebrate Juneteenth rich red drinks, desserts, barbecues, and connecting with Black American history. Yet, the holiday is also a bittersweet realization that liberty has not come to fruition for my family despite the progress we have allegedly made in our society.... The racism and exclusion in Texas post emancipation was one of the most brutal state systems of terror. The Lone Star State had one of the largest Ku Klux Klan strongholds in the South, with Black men and women hunted for sport, lynched for asserting themselves, maimed for attempting to change employers or secure payment for their work. Even children were not spared....

Juneteenth became a holiday of joy despite the brutality of Texas. Freedmen, freedwomen, and families gathered to celebrate the anniversary of their freedom. This was dangerous, as gatherings with several Black people would attract desperados who would kill men, women, and children with impunity.

Men and women would express their freedom with the finest clothing they owned, eating foods such as tea cakes and barbecued meats that were usually reserved for masters and mistresses....When parks refused to allow Black Texans to host Juneteenth celebrations, a group of four men and the AME Church bought 10 acres of land for to form the Emancipation Park in Houston... They never let racism interfere with their humanity.

Set of seven old-fashioned black and white photos. Clockwise from top left: Group on Emancipation Day, circa 1880s, in Houston's Emancipation Park. Reverend Jack Yates, who led the community purchase of the Park in 1872, is pictured on the far left, and his daughter Sallie Yates dressed in black in the center. Group of children on Juneteenth, celebrations in Eastwoods Park, Austin, 1900. Group of elderly people on Juneteenth, celebrations in Eastwoods Park, Austin, 1900. Group of men in Civil War uniforms, likely for a re-enactment of the Union’s entry into Galveston; Juneteenth celebrations in Eastwoods Park, Austin, 1900. Juneteenth band, Eastwoods Park, Austin, 1900. Detail from a photograph of celebrations in Richmond, Virginia, ca. 1905. Main stage Juneteenth decorations, Eastwoods Park, Austin, 1900. All Austin photos by Grace Murray Stephenson.

There are necessary, urgent calls from within and beyond Jewish community. For example, a couple of years ago, the wonderful folks at the Black Jewish Liberation Collective wrote,

Unfortunately, Juneteenth has been subsumed by capitalist opportunism, corporate greed, and spiritual bypassing. In the legacy/white Jewish institutional community, Black Jews have been offered thoughts and prayers or asked to labor for white consciousness to be at ease that there was a “commemoration”.

We, the Black Jews who brought Juneteenth to the forefront within the Jewish community, expect more than emails sharing optional prayers, or invitations to events. We expect our Black voices and stories to be centered, our Black bodies to rest from the grind of racialized capitalism, and our Black lives to be valued. We expect white people across the United States to do their work to look critically at the role their communities played in the transatlantic slave trade, still play in the benefitting of racialized capitalism, and commit to a praxis of reparations...

How can you join us in continuing to value collective liberation of Black bodies in this country? We call on our Jewish community to be woke (conscious) about the past and present harm caused and to engage in the process of teshuva. From public accountability, to taking actions to eradicate antiBlack racism, to reparations, we demand justice, belonging, equity, and liberation.

Participants and spectators during the Galveston, Texas Juneteenth parade, 1991. A row of kids sits on the edge of the long bed of a truck, and another row stands behind them, while little kids and a couple of adults look on as the truck passes.

Kofi Robinson wrote for JFREJ (Jews for Racial and Economic Justice),

Juneteenth serves as an urgent invitation — a call to action — to collectively imagine and cultivate Black liberatory spaces in Jewish community. I imagine these spaces as ones where Black Jews like me, and my Blackness, are always already seen as facets of Jewish life and Jewish priority.

A Black man with an afro and a goatee and a slight smile holds a Black baby in a pink dress eating a lollypop; the man is also holding on to two balloons, one of which says Happy Juneteenth 1984, from Juneteenth events in Fort Worth, Texas.

In that same JFREJ piece, Kofi Robinson wrote,

Liberation is not a one-time event but rather a continuous process that includes everything from crafting just legislation, to how we interpersonally and politically structure our communities and friendships. It’s something that must be constantly revisited and reprioritized.

From the very wonderful rabbi dr. koach baruch frazier. The Hebrew of this prayer translates to, "Grant peace, goodness, blessing, grace, loving-kindness, and compassion..."

A smiling Black woman with a straw hat with flowers, a green and red dress, and three boys-- one of whom carries a drum, one of whom appears to operate a wheelchair, in the 1993 Juneteenth parade in Denver's Five Points neighborhood.

In 2022, the JFREJ Juneteenth Haggadah included the words,

To celebrate and settle into our joy and our freedom is an act of profound bravery given the incredible vulnerability of Black life in this country.... Black freedom is a tenuous thing — beautiful and powerful, strong and vulnerable. It can be snatched away in a moment. It is sustained by continual acts of resilience, resistance, and care. Liberation is not something that once happened to us, in the past. It is something that must be recreated again and again, through action and imagination. Freedom is something we make, together.

rabbi dr. koach baruch frazier, with Marques Hollie. "Sim Shalom" means "Grant peace," and the lines of "Oseh Shalom" translate to "May the one who creates peace on high bring peace to us and to all the people of Israel, and to all the inhabitants of the world. And we say: Amen."

This is the day that God has made—let us exult and rejoice in it.

Please God, deliver us! Please God, let us succeed! (Psalms 118:24-25)

Philadelphia's Juneteenth Parade in 2019. Marchers of various ages wear yellow NAACP shirts, and one young person waves a black, green, and red version of the American flag. The flag combines the colors of Marcus Garvey's pan-African flag with the traditional structure of the American flag and was designed by artist David Hammons.

JUNETEENTH 2025 (Jewish) EVENTS

Atlanta: Congregation Beit Haverim, Juneteenth Seder: June 19 7PM

Bay Area: Gathering for Jews of Color Professionals June 20 5pm (for self-ID'd JOCISM only)

DC: Juneteenth Shabbat at Washington Hebrew, Jun 20, 6pm

MORE RESOURCES

Koach Frazier | Ferguson Voices

Ferguson Voices

As long as we're getting some good r'kbf today, hear this story and its lessons: Show up. Figure out what you have to offer this moment. Bring it. Don't wait to be asked. Pay attention to what's happening around you, how you fit into the larger picture. It's all here.

Guest Post: Reading the Torah Towards Liberation

Kendra Watkins Saperstein on what matters most

Life is a Sacred TextRabbi Danya Ruttenberg

Opinion | Juneteenth Offers Us A Day For Celebration, Reflection, And Healing

“Juneteenth is an important reminder to all of us of why we fight for freedom.”

The ForwardSandra Lawson

The amazing Rabbi Sandra Lawson.

Education | Be’chol Lashon

Be'chol Lashon

Opinion | Why Juneteenth - Which Marks The End Of Slavery - Should Be A Jewish Holiday

For American Jewry, celebrating civic holidays “has symbolized our commitment to the American project,” writes Tema Smith.

The ForwardTema Smith

OPINION: Not just a second Passover — Juneteenth’s unfinished journey

Juneteenth, which celebrates the end of slavery in the U.S., is more akin to the liberation of Nazi death camps than to Passover, writes Robin Washington.

J.Robin Washington

Ariel Samson: Freelance Rabbi

Freelance Rabbi

Shais RishonShais Rishon

This isn't about Juneteenth per se, but as long as I'm lifting up the words of some of my Black Jewish peeps today, cannot sleep on this searing, biting, over the top, hilarious but also hits its targets with 10000% accuracy novel about a Black rabbi, written by a Black rabbi.

🌱

Like this? Get more of it every week.

For free every Monday—sign up at the ‘Subscribe now’ button just below.

And if you become a paid subscriber, you get tools for deeper transformation, a community, and support the labor that makes these Monday essays happen.

Especially without Substack's built-in network, word-of-mouth– forwarding emails, sharing on social media, etc– matters more than ever.

Please spread the word about this post and Life is a Sacred Text in general.

Thank you. 🙏 ❤️

A note on the subscription model:

I want my work to be as accessible to as many people as possible, in as many ways as possible. That's why the Monday essays are free, and why we donate subscriptions to anyone for whom paying is a barrier to the House of Study posts.

I also believe people should be paid fairly for their work. Needless to say, these two values sometimes seem to be in conflict, but I do what I can to find a fair balance. I offer many resources for free, and charge for others. When you donate generously or pay at the top of our scale, that helps support the work I do, provides access for those who have fewer resources, pays for the infrastructure and the technical and practical support that it takes to do this, and helps us keep the work sustainable.

And as always, if you want in to the Thursday space but paying isn't for you now, just email support@lifeisasacredtext.com and we'll hook you up.

And if you’d like to underwrite one of these donated subscriptions, you can do so by signing up at one of the higher subscription points.

And if it resonated with you, please share this post.

Sending a big pile of blessings and goodness your way. 💕

This article was downloaded from https://www.lifeisasacredtext.com/juneteenth/ on Jul 15, 2025 at 8:51 AM EDT.

Table of Contents

Life is a Sacred Text: 2025 Jul 14

All articles

cities of refuge

This, Instead (subscriber only)

under the constellations

do you believe in magic?

dispositional (subscriber only)

Juneteenth Voices