Parashat Naso – 5785
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Parashat Bemidbar – 5785
A D’var Torah for Parashat Bemidbar
By Rabbi Susan Elkodsi (AJR ’15)
A few years ago, for Mother’s Day, my kids gave me a DNA-testing kit from Ancestry.com. Not surprisingly, the results came back as 99% Ashkenazi Jewish with 1% various other ethnicities, depending on some algorithm or something.
It was fascinating to start receiving DNA matches, including my daughter (whew!), connecting with some long-lost relatives, and learning about some distant ones whom I never knew existed. I get as far back as my great-grandparents, and then the history appears to end. My husband, whose father was part of the Egyptian Karaite community, has information going back 12 or 13 generations because excellent records have been kept and kept up.
Now imagine being an Israelite born into Egyptian slavery!
The book of Bemidbar/Numbers/In the Wilderness opens by telling us that the Israelites are in their second year following the Exodus from Egypt (1:1). While we don’t yet Read More >
Parshiyot Behar-Behukotai 5785
A Bible verse for the shelter’s door
A D’var Torah for Parshiyot Behar-Behukotai
By Rabbi Robert Scheinberg
Rookie rabbi mistakes, chapter 1: One week after my arrival to my first full-time congregation that I served as a rabbi, at age 27, I was invited to a meeting of our local clergy coalition, and I met the director of the local homeless shelter. My synagogue had been one of the organizations that founded the shelter several years before.
The shelter’s director, a wise, courageous, and gregarious nun named Sister Norberta who had led the effort to found the shelter despite local government opposition, warmly welcomed me and quickly told me that she had a special job for me. They were doing a renovation of the shelter and wanted to commission some artwork for the shelter door, including Biblical verses that would be sources of inspiration for those who would be walking through the door of the shelter. They wanted to use Read More >
Parashat Emor – 5785
A D’var Torah for Parashat Emor
By Rabbi Gerry L. Ginsburg
There is a paradox in the commandment to light the Menorah in the mishkan, the portable sanctuary in the wilderness which appears in Parashat Emor. The flames of the Menorah were not there to give off light.
The mishkan was fully constructed and operational, the first korbanot, sacrifices, were already completed favorably, when the commandment comes to tell the Levites, specifically Aaron, to light the Menorah daily. The light of the Menorah will emanate from pure, clear olive oil, unlike that used for any other function.
God talked to Moses about lighting the Menorah and specifically directed Aaron to supervise.
צַ֞ו אֶת־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל וְיִקְח֨וּ אֵלֶ֜יךָ שֶׁ֣מֶן זַ֥יִת זָ֛ךְ כָּתִ֖ית לַמָּא֑וֹר לְהַעֲלֹ֥ת נֵ֖ר תָּמִֽיד׃
Command the Israelite people to bring you clear oil of beaten olives for lighting, for kindling lamps regularly. (Lev. 24:2)
But this oil was not for any candelabrum, it was specifically for the Menorah crafted out of one piece of Read More >
Parshiyot Aharei Mot – Kedoshim – 5785
May the Force Be with You
A D’var Torah for Parshiyot Aharei Mot – Kedoshim
By Rabbi Enid C. Lader (AJR ’10)
“The Eternal One spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the whole Israelite community and say to them – You shall be holy, for I, the Eternal your God, am holy.” (Lev. 19:1-2)
How would you define “holy”?
What does it mean to “BE holy”?
These are questions I asked Gavriel as we prepared for his becoming a bar mitzvah last year. Upon hearing my questions, he looked at me with a blank expression, but I could tell that he was thinking… and thinking… and hesitantly answered, “Religious?”
Years ago, I had learned about and then taught other Jewish educators and teachers about Interactive Family Homework; this seemed like the perfect opportunity for Gavriel to include his grandparents in an important part of his bar mitzvah preparations. I asked Read More >
Parshiyot Tazria-Mezorah – 5785
See Me
A D’var Torah for Parshiyot Tazria-Mezorah
By Rabbi Greg Schindler (AJR ’09)
“See Me
Feel Me
Touch Me
Heal Me”
“See Me, Feel Me” (The Who)
There was once a fellow who was so forgetful that, when he got up in the morning, he could not remember where he had put his clothes. One evening he had a great idea: He took a pencil and paper and wrote down exactly where he placed each item of clothing. He placed the note on his nightstand and fell asleep.
The next morning, he saw the note and read off each item in turn. “Pants – on chair”. And there they were. “Shirt – on bed post.” There was his shirt. “Hat – on hook behind door.” And there it was.
Suddenly, a worried expression crossed his face.
“Yes,” he said, “Here are my pants and my shirt and my hat … but where am I?”
He looked and looked, but could not find himself anywhere.
Woe to the young person called upon to Read More >
The Many “Faces” of Silence
Parashat Shemini doesn’t lack for themes but the one which stood out for me as I began to prepare this D’var Torah is one that “speaks” to me every year when we read this parashah – namely, the theme of silence. Although Aaron’s silence is of course in an almost inconceivably tragic context all its own, I’ve been recalling and searching for other instances of silence in the Bible and in contemporary literature as well as in the area of mourning practices.
An example in the latter category is Chaim Potok’s well-known book, The Chosen, which powerfully and poignantly explores the theme of silence between fathers and sons. Rabbi Harold Kushner also explores the concept of silence in his widely-read book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. In it, he deals with the role of silence in understanding suffering and in searching for meaning in life. In response to grief and misery, Kushner believed that silence can find Read More >
Pesah 5785
Normally I look forward to my trips to Israel with much anticipation and excitement. Even following the horrific attack of October 7, and with an ongoing war, I was still looking forward to being with my people.
Parashat Tzav -5785
A D’var Torah for Parashat Tzav
By Rabbi Susan Elkodsi (AJR ’15)
One of the beautiful and amazing things about Torah study is that every time I encounter a parashah, I see something I hadn’t noticed before. This year is no different. As I began reading Parashat Tzav, where Moses is told to command–Tzav–Aaron to keep a perpetual fire–an aish tamid–burning on the altar all night until morning, I noticed that this requirement is mentioned three times in the first six verses.
I also noticed that not only does the Torah command us to eat matza brie, the “recipe” is included:
עַֽל־ מַחֲבַ֗ת בַּשֶּׁ֛מֶן תֵּעָשֶׂ֖ה מֻרְבֶּ֣כֶת תְּבִיאֶ֑נָּה תֻּפִינֵי֙ מִנְחַ֣ת פִּתִּ֔ים תַּקְרִ֥יב רֵֽיחַ־נִיחֹ֖חַ לה’׃
“On a griddle, with oil, it is to be made, well-stirred are you to bring it, as baked crumbled-bits of grain you are to bring-it-near, a soothing savor for YHWH.” (Lev. 6:14, Fox Translation).
Somewhere along the line I got the idea that verse Read More >
Parashat Vayikra – 5785
Receiving the Call
A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayikra
By Rabbi Rena Kieval (AJR ’06)
It begins with a call. We are at the center of the Torah, the Book of Leviticus, and Moshe has just overseen the elaborate construction of the mishkan. Now that the sanctuary is complete, God will relay to Moshe and to the kohanim, in painstaking detail, the rituals and rules to be practiced in that sacred space. But first, there is a call to Moshe, a call which gives this book of the Torah and this parashah their name, Vayikra. Why the call? What does it mean to us to be called? Many of us have felt called to serve, to carry out a specific role, or called more generally to be our best selves. Who, or what, calls us, and how do we receive that call? Two curious features in the opening verse of our parashah help us explore these questions.
The first verse of our parashah contains two verbs of speech – vayikra and vayedaber – he Read More >
