The Cadence of Comfort: Moving from Desolation to Consolation A D’var Torah for Parashat Vaethanan and Shabbat Nahamu By Rabbi Scott “Shalom” Klein July 20, 2026 This Shabbat, we transition from the depths of communal mourning into a period of profound renewal. We read Parashat Vaethanan, which always coincides with Shabbat Nahamu—the Shabbat of Comfort—named after the opening words of the Haftarah: "Nahamu, nahamu ami"—"Comfort, comfort My people." This deliberate shift from the brokenness of Tisha B'Av to the embrace of consolation offers a timeless lesson in leadership and resilience. It reminds us that recovery is not an automatic passage of time; it requires an intentional architecture of the spirit. In the opening of the parashah, Moshe pleads with God: "Vaethanan el Hashem"—"And I Read More >

A D’var Torah for Parashat Devarim By Rabbi Dr. Matthew Goldstone July 13, 2026 “These are the words that Moses addressed to all Israel” (Deut. 1:1). The final book of the Torah begins by emphasizing that what follows (“these”) are the words of Moses to the people of Israel. But Moses says many things to the Israelites, what makes these words different and worthy of note? The Midrash in Sifrei Devarim answers this question by suggesting that Moses’s words at the beginning of Deuteronomy are specifically words of rebuke. This theme is echoed in the haftarah for this week from the beginning of Isaiah in which the prophet channels God’s chastisement of the people for their wrongdoing. Rebuke can easily provoke anger and other negative Read More >

Looking Back on the Journey A D’var Torah for Parshiyot Mattot-Masei By Cantor Sandy Horowitz   Parashat Masei, the final reading in the book of Numbers, begins with these words: אֵלֶּה מַסְעֵי בְנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל אֲשֶׁר יָצְאוּ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם... “These are the journeys of the people of Israel who set out from the land of Egypt… (Numbers 33:1) The text then goes on to name each of the forty-two places where the Israelites stopped during their forty-year journey, up until they arrived at the river Jordan across from Jericho.  There is a pattern in the way the journey is described: each stopping place has its own verse, and each journey from one place to the next is described using the same verbs, vayis’u (“and they set out Read More >

Pinhas in Process A D’var Torah for Parashat Pinhas By Rabba Kaya Stern-Kaufman (2011) This week we are reading a section of Torah named for Pinhas, the grandson of Aaron, who was a zealot for God. His story begins in the previous week’s Torah portion when many of the Israelite men become caught up in sexual relationships with the local Moabite women who enjoined them to worship Baal Peor, a local deity. In response, God sends a plague and thousands of Israelites die. Once again, things are not going well for either God or the Israelites. The Israelites' fidelity to God is consistently weak and wavering and God responds with consistent wrath and destruction. In the midst of this chaos, an Israelite man and a Read More >