Day 11: Lord, Who is My Enemy?

African Americans are intimately familiar with the directive from Jesus to love our enemies. Oftentimes, we ask: "Lord, who is my enemy?" This happens in both the best and worst of times. Right now we have an African American president, black and brown Supreme Court justices, and black and brown CEOs. But it is also an era of increased racial discrimination: unwarranted stop and frisks of young people of color by the police, and morally unjustified police killings of young men of color, women, and even innocent children. Furthermore, black and brown people are often incarcerated for offenses that actually warrant medical treatment, not imprisonment—in many cases leading to a lifetime of disenfranchisement—never being able to vote, apply for good government jobs, or secure affordable housing.

Day 10: Hope But Not Complacence

Today's reading reminds us that although our collective past has shaped us, it need not define us forever. The wickedness of slavery, the evil of racism, the anguish of dispossession of culture and lands, can be overcome. Past may be prologue, to borrow the words of the Scribe—but an intentional labor to rehabilitate our institutions, redefine our justice systems, and free ourselves from the yoke of systemic racism can lead to redemption.

Day 9: Praying and Singing in a Strange Land

Throughout human history the reviled, the vilified, the rejected, the weak, and the powerless have been able to depend on God alone for help. When religion and culture became an excuse for intolerance and hate, Jewish lives were lost in unprecedented numbers.