Academy for Jewish Religion

D’var Torah for Parashat Lekh Lekha 5787

The Journey to Be a Blessing
A D’var Torah for Parashat Lekh Lekha 2026

By Rabbi Davey Rosen (2022)

This week we read Parashat Lekh Lekha, the Torah portion in which Avram (later renamed Avraham) begins the spiritual journey of the Jewish people. I emphasize spiritual because the physical or geographic trek had already begun. The parashah opens in Genesis 12:1 with God’s call to Avraham:

לֶךְ־לְךָ֛ מֵאַרְצְךָ֥ וּמִמּֽוֹלַדְתְּךָ֖ וּמִבֵּ֣ית אָבִ֑יךָ אֶל־הָאָ֖רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אַרְאֶֽךָּ

“Go forth from your native land, from your birthplace, and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”

This start to Avraham’s journey is often read as a sudden break with the past, an individual picking themself up, a solitary leap of faith into an unknown future. Yet just two pesukim earlier, at the end of the previous parashah, in Genesis 11:31, Terah, Avraham’s father, actually initiated the trek:

וַיִּקַּ֨ח תֶּ֜רַח אֶת־אַבְרָ֣ם בְּנ֗וֹ וְאֶת־ל֤וֹט בֶּן־הָרָן֙ Read More >

D’var Torah for Parashat Lekh Lekha 5787Marisa Amith2026-10-20T13:06:57-04:00

Parashat Noah – 5787

A D’var Torah for Parashat Noah

By Rabbi Inna Serebro-Litvak

A few years ago, when my daughter Emily graduated from high school, we went on a mother-daughter trip to Spain.

That was the first time I learned, with Emily’s help, how to easily use Google Translate from text or words, adding it to my toolbar.

This was quite a revelation for me! I couldn’t believe the convenience of this technological feature (remember this was four years before AI took over our lives). But at the same time, I felt cheated. I really wanted to be able to speak Spanish, as well as Italian, French, Mandarin – and perhaps other languages fluently.

I did eventually add French to my repertoire, along with Russian, English and Hebrew – the three languages I already speak. I confess that my success in learning French can be partially attributed to the Duolingo App. I practice with it daily and am fluent enough Read More >

Parashat Noah – 5787Marisa Amith2026-10-13T13:22:44-04:00

Parashat Bereisheet – 5786

A D’var Torah for Parashat Bereisheet

By Rabbi Michael Kohn (AJR 2009)

There are numerous cycles embedded within a Jewish year – the daily cycle of prayer, the weekly cycle of ordinary days and Shabbat, the monthly cycle of new moons, and the annual cycle of holidays and festivals. This week we experience another yearly cycle, as we start to read the Torah once more from the beginning.

Making our way through the first six days of Creation, we learn that the word “tov”, usually translated as “good”, appears seven times. The light on the first day was tov (Gen 1:4). The land and the seas were tov (Gen 1:10), as were the seed-bearing plants and trees of every kind bearing fruit (Gen 1:12).

The two great lights, separating light from darkness were tov (Gen 1:16-18). The great sea monsters, and all the living creatures of every kind that creep… and all Read More >

Parashat Bereisheet – 5786Marisa Amith2026-10-06T13:14:37-04:00

Parashat Ha’azinum – 5787

A D’var Torah for Parashat Ha’azinu

By Rabbi Dr. Matthew Goldstone

Prayer fills the season of repentance and it is at this point in the calendar when we read Moses’ final prayer, the last song before his demise: Ha’azinu.

It is fitting that Ha’azinu aligns with this season as it includes praise for God, but also recognition of people’s mistakes – some of the main themes of the high holidays. One verse in particular calls out to us at this moment (Deut. 32:20): וַיֹּאמֶר אַסְתִּירָה פָנַי מֵהֶם אֶרְאֶה מָה אַחֲרִיתָם (I will hide My countenance from them, And see how they fare in the end…). Ibn Ezra points out two dramatically opposed ways of reading this verse. One way to understand this verse is that God hides God’s presence because God knows what the people will ultimately do. That is, our actions and fate are predetermined. And, because we will ultimately end up Read More >

Parashat Ha’azinum – 5787Marisa Amith2026-09-14T15:34:12-04:00

Parshiyot Nitzavim-Vayeilekh 5786

Caring and Compassion

A D’var Torah for Parshiyot Nitzavim-Vayeilekh

By Cantor Sandy Horowitz

For verse after verse Moses has been speaking to the Israelites in the form of commandments and exhortations, the threat of curse and the promise of blessing.

Parashat Vayeilekh brings a different tone, somewhat softer, as we near the end of our annual Torah reading cycle. (Spoiler alert – there will be more exhortations after this! But for now, let’s take a pause.)

For forty years Moses has led the Israelites on their journey towards the promised land. He has reached the age of 120, and his life, like our Torah cycle, is coming to an end. As the people prepare to cross the river Jordan, Moses has been told by God that he cannot go with them. Surely, he is feeling deep disappointment about being kept from the promised land and about having to give up his role as leader of the Read More >

Parshiyot Nitzavim-Vayeilekh 5786Marisa Amith2026-09-02T13:28:50-04:00

Parashat Ki Tavo – 5786

The Ground of Choice

A D’var Torah for Parashat Ki Tavo

By Rabba Kaya Stern-Kaufman

In this week’s Torah portion, Ki Tavo, we are witness to a grand ritual; a dramatization depicting the landscape of choices within which we all reside at all times. One half of the Israelite tribes are told to stand on Mt. Gerizim while the other half of the tribes are to stand on Mt. Ebal. Between the two mountains lies a valley, a middle ground within which the tribe of Levi is to stand. From this middle ground of choice, the Levites call up to those on Mt. Ebal with a series of curses that will result from choices rooted in idolatry, dishonesty, greed and lust. The Levites then call up to those on Mt. Gerizim with a series of blessings that will result from choices to live a life of mitzvot, ethical behavior, honesty and support for the disenfranchised Read More >

Parashat Ki Tavo – 5786Marisa Amith2026-08-24T17:07:46-04:00

Parashat Ki Teitzei – 5786

Just One Thing After Another

A D’var Torah for Parashat Ki Teitzei
By Rabbi Wendy Love Anderson

Like much of Deuteronomy, Parashat Ki Teitzei has no overarching narrative framework: it presents as a seemingly unconnected string of commandments, with medieval list-makers identifying as many as 74 separate mitzvot in the parashah. Some of these mitzvot seem to stand alone (e.g., the single-verse prohibition in Deut. 22:8 against building a house without a railing around its roof), while others fall into thematic groups (e.g., the subsequent three verses in Deut. 22:9-11, which prohibit sowing vineyards with two kinds of seeds, plowing with two kinds of animals, and wearing garments made of two kinds of threads), but each verse or group of verses ends with an abrupt shift to a new topic – unless we read it through rabbinic eyes. Since rabbinic midrash finds significance in every detail of the Torah, including every transition between Read More >

Parashat Ki Teitzei – 5786Marisa Amith2026-08-14T14:10:23-04:00

Parashat Shoftim 5786

Unsolved Murders

A D’var Torah for Parashat Shoftim

By Rabbi Dorit Edut (AJR ’06)

Many of us have seen the TV show “Unsolved Mysteries” and the Netflix series “FBI:Most Wanted” before they went off the air. We were probably attracted to the solving of these crimes because of our curiosity, but I also hope we may have been motivated by the desire to see justice done – something which our Torah tradition has ingrained in us for centuries. In my own community we have an organization called CrimeStoppers of Southeast Michigan which works closely with law enforcement and encourages people to anonymously report tips that might solve a murder crime with the promise of a nice financial reward. Yet with daily reports of new murders, resolved or not, we as a society are left with much unease.

Our Torah portion this week, Shoftim, with its emphasis on “pursuing justice” offers us a perspective on our social Read More >

Parashat Shoftim 5786Marisa Amith2026-08-10T10:29:13-04:00

Parashat Re’eh – 5786

Monotheism and the Pitfalls of Certainty

A D’var Torah for Parashat Re’eh

By Rabbi Dr. Rachel Posner

Earlier this year, two Israeli soldiers desecrated a statue of Jesus in southern Lebanon. The IDF responded quickly and decisively, punishing the soldiers with jail time. It was a painful example of how our need to assert and defend ourselves can slide into triumphalism — the wish to squelch and destroy the sacred practices of others. Monotheism can be co-opted into the dangerous notion that there is only one way to serve our singular Creator. But our central tenet — Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Ehad — does not mean that there is only one way to serve God, or that we alone have the right answers about religious practice. The Second Commandment cautions us against making our own certainty into an idol.

Parashat Re’eh contains passages that are painful to read if understood literally:

אַבֵּד Read More >

Parashat Re’eh – 5786Marisa Amith2026-08-03T13:12:00-04:00

Parashat Eikev – 5786

The Nation’s Heel

A D’var Torah for Parashat Eikev

By Rabbi Anat Katzir

Parashat Eikev begins with a curious word:

וְהָיָה עֵקֶב תִּשְׁמְעוּן “And it shall come to pass because (eikev) you heed these laws…” (Deuteronomy 7:12)

The Torah could simply have said im tishme’un– “if you listen.” Instead, it chooses the unusual word eikev.

Literally, eikev means “because.” But it also means heel.

The rabbis noticed this double meaning immediately. Rashi, quoting the Midrash (Midrash Tanhuma, Eikev 1), explains that eikev hints to those commandments that people trample with their heels—the mitzvot that seem too small to matter.

The Torah’s message is startling. Judaism is not built only on dramatic acts of faith or heroic moments of sacrifice. It is built on the countless ordinary choices we barely notice.

God is found in the details.

Our tradition repeatedly teaches this lesson.

The prophet Zechariah instructs us:

…” דַּבְּר֤וּ אֱמֶת֙ אִ֣ישׁ אֶת־רֵעֵ֔הוּ אֱמֶת֙ וּמִשְׁפַּ֣ט שָׁל֔וֹם שִׁפְט֖וּ בְּשַׁעֲרֵיכֶֽם׃ וְאִ֣ישׁ ׀ אֶת־רָעַ֣ת רֵעֵ֗הוּ אַֽל־תַּחְשְׁבוּ֙ בִּלְבַבְכֶ֔ם Read More >

Parashat Eikev – 5786Marisa Amith2026-07-28T16:05:01-04:00

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All shall unite to do God's will with an open heart.

All shall unite to do God's will with an open heart.

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