Kabbalat Shabbat Kavannah | Rabbi Roly Matalon | January 30, 2026

Shabbat shalom. Shabbat shalom.

>> Many of you know that Felicia and I were

in Israel last week with 45 BJ members.

Many of them are here tonight, have

returned. Others have remained for a few

more days. Felicia is still there for

another few days as well. It was a very

meaningful

trip. It was intense.

It was heartbreaking. It was hopeful.

and everything at the same time in this

very complicated

time. And while we were there,

we heard the extraordinary news

of the

location of the body of the last

hostage, Rangveilli, and of his return

home to be buried in Israel after 843

days of captivity. It was extraord

extraordinary news.

And then while we were there, we also

learned about what

was happening and continues to happen in

Minneapolis.

We saw the disturbing,

widely reported images and video of

masked federal agents deployed in

Minneapolis dressed and equipped

as if headed into combat.

rampaging through the streets,

intimidating, teargassing and assaulting

people,

detaining them arbitrarily, and sewing

fear and terror among ordinary

residents.

We saw them shoot at close range and

kill a wonderful man, Alex Prey, who had

come to someone else's aid only to have

our government label him as a domestic

terrorist

even after the killing of Renee Good.

The Torah tells us in this week's

paradak

that after the Israelites leave Egypt,

Pharaoh had a change of heart.

What is this we have done? He said,

releasing Israel from our service. He

ordered his chariot and took his force

with him. He took 600 of his picked

chariots and the rest of the chariots of

Egypt with officers in all of them. God

stiffened the heart of Pharaoh, king of

Egypt, and he gave chase to the

Israelites.

As the Israelites were departing

defiantly, the Egyptians gave chase to

them, and all the chariot horses of

Pharaoh, his riders, and his warriors

overtook them and camped by the sea near

Bhakiot

before Balifon.

Can you imagine the terror of these

refugees?

Ordinary people, unarmed,

having walked

after their departure from Egypt, men,

women, children, elderly people,

disabled people

facing Pharaoh's powerful army, the sea

in front of them, the army behind them.

Can you imagine the fear?

As Pharaoh drew near, the Israelites

caught sight of the Egyptians, the Torah

tells us, advancing upon them, greatly

frightened, the Israelites, the

Israelites cried out to God.

Yes, there was fear and terror,

but God rescued them and they crossed

the sea to safety. The Torah tells us

when Israel saw the wondrous power that

God had wielded against the Egyptians,

the people feared God. They had faith in

God and in Moshe, God's servant.

Then Moshe and the Israelites sang this

song to God. And then comes the

beautiful Shiratayam which we will hear

tomorrow morning. They saw, they feared,

they had faith

and then they sang.

We all see what is unfolding in the

streets of Minneapolis. People are

afraid and many of us are afraid too. At

the same time, a powerful and uplifting

faith

has emerged.

The people of Minnesota, armed with

whistles and cell phones, are showing

the entire country and the whole world

what humanity looks like in the face of

hatred, fear, and dehumanization.

Thousands upon thousands of people have

built extraordinary community

delivering meals to neighbors afraid to

leave their homes amidst amid ICE agents

accompanying people to doctor's

appointments.

I often heard of doulas

coming to

the home of women who are about to

deliver a child,

walking children to school, doing

everything they can to stand in

solidarity and protect one another in

the face of this violent attack.

This is faith in action. The Israelites

fe they saw, they feared, they had faith

and then they sang. This is faith in

action. I trust that when this is over,

we will have witnessed in this moment in

which America is being degraded, what

courage and humanity look like, what

America can look like. We will know who

we want to be as a nation and who we do

not want to be. And once we know, we

will sing.

Ariel Rosenberg was a fellow here at BJ

BJ Robbinic fellow from n from 2015 to

2017 she was ordained and then she made

her way to Minneapolis and now she's at

the forefront of the protest and she's

leading with her fellow clergy men and

women the resistance to this assault on

Minneapolis.

I and many of us who know Ariel are

extremely proud of her wisdom and her

courage which she is displaying now in

this moment. And I want to share a

prayer that she wrote just a couple of

days ago.

Holy one know by many names felt in

breath and courage heard in the cry for

justice be with us in this moment of

becoming. I lift up the names of three

neighbors. Victor Manuel Diaz abducted

from his workplace on January 6th who

died in ICE custody in Texas on January

14th.

Renee Mlin Good queer poet wife parent

murdered in South Minneapolis by ICE on

January 7th while observing an abduction

in her neighborhood. Alex Jeffrey Prey,

intensive care nurse, nature enthusiast,

murdered in South Minneapolis by ICE on

January 24th while attempting to protect

neighbors. May their memories be a

blessing. May their families be

comforted. Here's what I know. Beneath

this paramilitary invasion of our

community, something new is growing. A

civil society be beneath this dangerous

crust of ice. Underground health care

because ICE is in the hospitals. Hybrid

schooling because ICE abducts parents,

teachers, students. Food distribution

because ICE patrols our neighborhood

stores. Neighbors bringing breast milk

to babies whose mothers have been

abducted. The scale and stakes of what

we now create for one another are

immense, impossible, and urgent. And

then com they confirm what we've always

known. We need each other. And together

we are irrepressible.

Holy one. In this time of rapture and

change, we know we need more. More

creativity, more experimentation, new

courage, new alliances, new

possibilities. So let us imagine what

songs will we sing when our breath is no

longer being used to blow whistles on

our street corners. What joyfilled

celebrations will we throw the most epic

of block parties when we can all leave

our houses without fear? What healing

will our doctors offer? What wisdom will

our teachers teach? What clarity will

our children hold about the ways that we

all belong to one another? What we will

create together when we are no longer

fighting this cultural death. Let us

imagine using all these beautiful

skills, all this powerful mutual aid,

all this fearless organizing

in a world without ICE. To begin, we

know this much. As ICE must leave

Minnesota, ICE must leave our

communities in peace. Must do everything

in our power to make it so. Holy One,

make us a people who say say yes and yes

and yes to one another. Yes to widening

the circle. Yes to shared

responsibility. Yes to courage bigger

than fear. This moment will take all of

us. This is Ariel prayer. Ariel's

prayer. And I and we say amen.

>> Amen.