Regina Sandler-Phillips, at The Blogs

Aug 30, 2024, 6:26 AM

The second-century Jewish sage Shimon Ben-Azzai once offered a teaching which so enthralled his listeners that they saw fire blazing around him. When asked later if he had been engaging in dangerous esoteric practices, Ben-Azzai said no: he was...

May 31, 2024, 12:13 AM

Let’s Save Lives — Not Semantics

Gaza aid rescued by the Humanitarian Guard of Standing Together. The signs in Hebrew and Arabic read: “Do Not Starve Others.” Photo Credit: Standing Together

Hostages and civilians are dying while we argue over terminology. “I am heartbroken by the humanitarian situation in Gaza,” wrote Israeli Justice Aharon Barak at the end of March for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) hearings on charges of Israeli...

Mar 8, 2024, 6:48 AM

Support (Don’t Weaponize) Survivors of Sexual Violence

Fibonacci Blue from Minnesota, USA, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

We need to listen to the diverse voices as well as the silences— neither denying nor exploiting any survivor’s experience. Horrific sexual violence has returned to media headlines and volatile debates over 22 weeks of war in Gaza. How can we...

Feb 25, 2024, 11:14 PM

Amalek, Part 3: After the Mirror Shatters

Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, September 2007. Photo: بلال الدويك Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0

In “Wiping the Mirror Clean” I explored how the commandment in Deuteronomy to “Remember what Amalek did to you” was transformed by early and later rabbis to shine light on our own moral responsibilities in the face of violence. In “Questioning...

Feb 19, 2024, 7:07 AM

Amalek, Part 2: Questioning Genocide

King Saul rejected by the prophet Samuel for sparing the Amalekite king, flocks and herds | Bible Card, Providence Lithograph Company, 1902 (Detail) | Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

In “Amalek: Wiping the Mirror Clean” I noted that this archetypal enemy originally appears as a rejected family member in the book of Genesis. I also explored longstanding moral questions about the later Deuteronomy commandment to remember him: Remember what...

Feb 11, 2024, 6:17 PM

Amalek: Wiping the Mirror Clean

Moses supported by Aaron and Hur, at war with Amalek | Detail of the Knesset Menorah in Jerusalem by Benno Elkan (1956) | Photo by Tamar HaYardeni via Wikimedia Commons

Amalek has returned to media headlines. Through the agonies of the October 7th attacks and nearly 130 days of subsequent war, the archetypal enemy of the Jewish people has been invoked, parsed, and expounded by international human rights advocates...

Feb 6, 2024, 12:17 AM

Singing in a Strange Land of Trauma

By the Rivers of Babylon | Detail of the Knesset Menorah in Jerusalem by Benno Elkan (1956) | Photo by Tamar HaYardeni via Wikimedia Commons

An ancient song renews the possibilities of singing in this world on fire: how we can, how we will. According to rabbinic legend, the Second Temple in Jerusalem was not built with any tools that could be used to wage...

About Me

Rabbi Regina Sandler-Phillips offers "How to Mourn AND Organize" programs through Ways of Peace Community Resources in Brooklyn, NY. She lived in Israel from 1989-1994, served in NYC leadership roles in the post-9/11 disaster relief, and coordinates an ongoing remote vigil for those lost to pandemics and wars. She sings in several languages.