The Constraints and Abuses of Power: From the Book of Deuteronomy to the U.S. Constitution to Today
August 10, 2025
The narrative of biblical kings is a warning: Absolute power corrupts and is unsustainable.
Pianist/composer and writer, Rabbi Bob Gluck is a Professor Emeritus at the University at Albany. He is the author of three books published by University of Chicago Press, most recently “Pat Metheny, Stories Beyond Words” (2024). His twelve recordings include “Early Morning Star” (FMR Records, 2020). Gluck is a former executive director of the RRA and pulpit rabbi. He staffed the Joint Reconstructionist Commission on Homosexuality 1990-92 and edited the Commission’s report and study guide. He also chaired the 1993 Kehillah Mekabelet (Welcoming Communities) Task Force of the Federation of Reconstructionist Congregations and Havurot.
The narrative of biblical kings is a warning: Absolute power corrupts and is unsustainable.
It is important to find a sustainable sense of balance and long-term hope throughout a period of challenge, loss, disappointment and fear.
Maybe the search to understand sonic expression in other species cannot be learned through a human lens.
Bernstein’s pleas are timeless: that one can pray despite living in a disappointing world on the edge of self-extinction.
The sense of peoplehood is the awareness that an individual has of being a
member of a group that is known, both by its own members and by outsiders,
as a people. (Mordecai Kaplan, The Future of the American Jew)
The sonic world all around us reminds us of the agency of the creatures that are its creators.
God singles out the human species from among myriads of life forms. The environmental implications are unfortunate.
Might the knowledge gained within Reconstructionist communities and our experience of values-based decision-making prove useful to Yeshivat Chovevei Torah? I believe that it can.
In this study guide, Rabbi Bob Gluck outlines the book Racing to Justice by John A. Powell, including major themes, notable quotes and topics for discussion.
Serving as central organization of the Reconstructionist movement
Training the next generation of groundbreaking rabbis
Modeling respectful conversations on pressing Jewish issues
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