In this week's episode, Rabbi Pam Silk begins with a 1984 classroom and a silent Wile E. Coyote cartoon to show how music brings stories — and our spirits — to life. From the Shema on the lips of our youngest learners to Shirat Hayam, the Song of the Sea, at the Sea of Reeds, she explores how song builds bridges between individuals, unites communities, and connects us across generations. This Shabbat Shirah teaching lifts up Miriam’s tambourine, the call-and-response of our tradition, and the hope of a future Shir Chadash, a new song that will usher in a world redeemed from suffering and hate.

In this week's episode of The Voices of Emanu El, Rabbi Josh Fixler explores the ninth plague’s “thick darkness” and asks a haunting question: Will you be paralyzed by the darkness, or will you be the light? Through Rashi, Midrash Tanchuma, and the teachings of Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Alter and the Kotzker Rebbe, we explore how spiritual blindness to our neighbor’s pain can leave us stuck, and how truly seeing one another becomes the first step toward growth.

We then turn to the mystical notion of Or HaGanuz, the primordial light of creation, reframing it as the hidden light planted in everyday acts of courage, kindness, and shared humanity. In a moment when the world’s darkness feels inescapable, Rabbi Fixler invites us to become cultivators of light and to ask: Where will we choose to shine it, and for whom is it most needed now?

At a recent professional retreat, Rabbi Pam Silk chose a simple pin that read “Be kind” and found it echoing through this week’s Torah portion, Va-eira. Drawing on the story of Moses, Aaron, Pharaoh, and the plagues, she explores how Jewish tradition insists that true freedom demands empathy, restraint, and responsibility toward those over whom we hold power. Citing Rabbi Ben Hollander, Rashi, and the Jerusalem Talmud, Rabbi Silk reflects on God’s charge to confront hardship with patience, respect, and a commitment to act differently than Pharaoh. ​

This week, Rabbi Silk invites us to choose kindness — in struggle and in triumph — and to use that kindness to add goodness and blessing to the world.