A Spoken Word Reflection for Black-Jewish Justice Partnership

By Rabbi Paul Kipnes

I want to teach you a word
In Yiddish
Which is a Jewish language,
A soulful blend of Hebrew and German,
Spoken by my grandparents
And their grandparents before them.

Repeat after me
Schlep
Again
Schlep

Now we use it in a sentence
Oy, what a schlep…

To schlep means
To travel a distance,
To drag yourself
Across a distance.

Like all the way across town
Across generations
Across heartache and hope
Just to show up
To step up
To speak up.

So many of us
Schlepped here today
To this high school
Of high hopes and holy ground

Not because it’s easy
But because it’s essential

Because when Blacks and Jews and Black Jews
When Zioness (and Amanda Berman) and the Greater Zion Church Family (Bishop Michael JT Fisher),
When Wise Temple (Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback) and the Exodus Project (Van Jones)
When Repair the World and
my Congregation Or Ami from Calabasas
And our other Rabbi Elana Rabishaw,
President Susie Gruber,
And Jews of Color Outreach Coordinator Shonda Walkovitz
When other churches, synagogues, and great organizations –
All come together
Something sacred stirs in the soil.

We bring paint and purpose
Mulch and meaning
Tikkun olam
Repairing of the world
With Repair the World –
One brushstroke
One brick
One bold act of love at a time

We schlep because our shared Scriptures whisper:
What does God require of you?
To DO justice
To LOVE mercy
To WALK humbly with one another
(Micah, chapter 6, verse 8)
Yea, It’s in there

We schlep because in our sacred scroll
There were 5 daughters of Zelophechad,
Hear their names:
   Machlah
   Noa
   Hoglah
   Milcah
   And Tirzah –
5 women who stood up
And spoke truth
To power
To Moses
Saying
Our father had no sons
So why not us?
They demanded the community give them
what was rightfully theirs.

And guess what?
God agreed and Moses listened.

So this week’s Torah portion Pinchas (Numbers chapter 27),
Tells their story
And it tells ours too –
A story of sacred defiance
Of rewriting the rules
To give to everyone
What they deserve.

Our shared biblical ancestors
didn’t just schlep across the desert,
They schlepped across systems –
Pushing past “no”
Paving a path:
Toward justice
Toward belonging
Toward love…

And isn’t that what we’re doing today?
It’s not just paint on the walls
Or mulch in the garden…

It’s about mending the breach
Rebuilding the bridge
It’s about reclaiming
The coalition of conscience,
That once marched in Selma
That once stood at Sinai.

It’s about saying
(Say it after me)
   We will not be divided
   We will not be diluted
   We will not be deterred

Yes, we schlep because we believe
That justice is joyful
That service is sacred
That the work of repair,
though hard,
Is holy.

We schlep to say:
We see each other
We stand together
We are family
Though the world sometimes forgets –
Though the world wants us to forget –
But we remember –
We are family.

So to the teachers who so teach
To the preachers who so preach
To the builders who so build
To the schleppers who schlep
May our hands be blessed
May our backs be strong
May our hearts stay open
To the song …
Of solidarity

Because when we schlep together
Then we step together
We rise together
We rebuild together

And when we rebuild together
Oh, beloved
We will change the world

So let’s go out,
and change the world!

Amen.