Academy for Jewish Religion

Parshiyot Mattot-Masei – 5785

Reuben, Gad, and the Tension Between Place and Purpose

A D’var Torah for Parshiyot Mattot-Masei

By Hazzan Rabbi Luis Cattan (AJR ’20)

When Natan Sharansky was Chairman of the Jewish Agency, I had the privilege of sitting with him and a small group of global Jewish leaders to discuss Jewish identity. In that conversation, he shared a metaphor that has stayed with me ever since.

He spoke of the pain of living under Soviet rule—of the repression, the fear, and the impossibility of making aliyah. But then he added, “More than the Iron Curtain once prevented Soviet Jews from making aliyah, today it is the Golden Curtain that prevents American Jews.”

In other words, it’s not external oppression that distances many Jews from Israel—it’s comfort. Affluence, freedom, and assimilation create a different kind of barrier. A quieter one. But perhaps no less potent.

Something similar is reflected in this week’s parashah. As the Israelites stand on the threshold of entering the Land Read More >

By Marisa Amith|2025-07-23T07:07:29-04:00July 23, 2025|

D’var Torah – Pinhas 5785

As the Children of Israel prepare to come to the final stages of their journey to the Promised Land, God instructs Moses to “Take a census of the whole Israelite community from the age of twenty years up, by their ancestral houses, all Israelites able to bear arms.” [Numbers 26:2]

By Linda Ripps|2025-07-14T13:51:40-04:00July 14, 2025|

Parashat Balak – 5785

“Listening to the Whole Story”

A D’var Torah for Parashat Balak

By Rabbi Rob Scheinberg

“A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.”

When Simon and Garfunkel sang these words more than 50 years ago, it was not in a political context, but this concept seems so relevant to contemporary politics. Whether with regard to American issues, Israeli issues, internal Jewish communal issues, or any other topic, many of us are so wedded to our preexisting assumptions that we pay deep attention to anything that supports what we already believe, and dismiss even reputable information if it challenges what we already believe. I often see this tendency in myself; I try to resist it, and I sometimes succeed.

Balak, the king of the Moabites and the namesake of this week’s Torah portion, may be the Torah’s most outstanding exemplar of this tendency towards selective attention and confirmation bias.

The Torah portion of Balak is the only narrative Read More >

By Marisa Amith|2025-07-08T10:06:13-04:00July 8, 2025|

Parashat Hukkat – 5785

A D’var Torah for Parashat Hukkat

By Rabbi Marge Wise (AJR ‘21)

As someone who has struggled with understanding the concept of s’khar v’onesh, reward and punishment in Judaism, I find in parashat Hukkat perhaps a partial answer. Volumes have been written about what Moshe may have done wrong in this parashah, why God reacted as He did, whether it was Divine punishment and if it was, what can we learn from it.

Although I’m tempted to discuss some other themes in this parashah – the parah ha-adumah, the red heifer, the effect on Moses of Miriam and Aaron’s death, the plague which killed 15,000 individuals and the copper serpent cure, I’m determined to remain faithful to the theme of Moses’ striking the rock – twice – and what follows, in the hope of gaining additional insights into the subject of reward and punishment.

I searched through many commentaries because I was unhappy with the focus on punishment for Moses’ act of Read More >

By Marisa Amith|2025-06-30T13:49:38-04:00June 30, 2025|

Parashat Korah – 5785

Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and The 250 Men

A D’var Torah for Parashat Korah

By Rabbi Greg Schindler (AJR ’09)

Tom Stoppard’s 1966 play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, brings to the forefront two minor players from Hamlet – the couriers, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. While they prepare for, and perform, their small parts in the play, unknown scenes occur “offstage” (in Shakespeare’s Hamlet) that have major impacts on their lives.

This week’s Torah portion, Parashat Korah , is named for the insurrection led by Korah and his accomplices, Dathan and Aviram, against Moses. And – like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern – there are another 250 characters who play minor roles and whose lives are affected by “offstage” events beyond their knowing.

וַיִּקַּ֣ח קֹ֔רַח בֶּן־יִצְהָ֥ר בֶּן־קְהָ֖ת בֶּן־לֵוִ֑י וְדָתָ֨ן וַאֲבִירָ֜ם בְּנֵ֧י אֱלִיאָ֛ב וְא֥וֹן בֶּן־פֶּ֖לֶת בְּנֵ֥י רְאוּבֵֽן׃

וַיָּקֻ֙מוּ֙ לִפְנֵ֣י מֹשֶׁ֔ה וַאֲנָשִׁ֥ים מִבְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל חֲמִשִּׁ֣ים וּמָאתָ֑יִם נְשִׂיאֵ֥י עֵדָ֛ה קְרִאֵ֥י מוֹעֵ֖ד אַנְשֵׁי־שֵֽׁם׃

Took Korah, son of Izhar son of Kohath son of Levi, along with Read More >

By Marisa Amith|2025-06-24T14:21:18-04:00June 24, 2025|

Parashat Shelah – 5785

A D’var Torah for Parashat Shelah

By Hazzan Rabbi Luis Cattan

Nahbi and Geuel had grown up in the brickyards of Egypt, where children learned to whisper dreams only in the dark. They shared the same clay dust, the same lash, the same bitter herbs—but never friendship. Nahbi, son of Vophsi of the tribe of Naphtali, was careful and calculating, known for his smooth tongue and cautious mind. Geuel, son of Makhi from the tribe of Gad, was shrewd and ambitious, always watching from the shadows. They admired each other’s strengths in the way adversaries do—always measuring, never trusting.

Now, with the miraculous Exodus behind them and the covenant of Sinai fresh in their memories, they were suddenly leaders—appointed chieftains of their respective tribes. And rivals once more.

As the twelve chieftains stood before Moses, the air was thick with anticipation and uncertainty. His instructions were precise, devoid of sentiment:

“When Moses Read More >

By Marisa Amith|2025-06-16T11:11:29-04:00June 16, 2025|

Parashat Beha’alotekha – 5785

A D’var Torah for Parashat Beha’alotekha

By Rabbi Inna Serebro-Litvak (AJR ’16)

When I was six years old, my father took me on a camping trip with his coworkers and their children. (In Russia this was considered to be a team building activity).

My favorite memories of that time include sitting around the campfire, listening to the singing (someone would always bring a guitar), baking potatoes in the coals and watching the flames shooting up in the dark. I was fascinated by the beauty and the variety of shades of orange, the sound of the burning wood, the smell, and the smoke that rose up to the heavens. I thought that the campfire was a beautiful thing!

A few years later I learned the hard way that a beautiful fire can also be very dangerous and bring horrific destruction.

Here is how I learned the lesson about the power of fire:

We used to live on the sixth Read More >

By Marisa Amith|2025-06-11T10:00:37-04:00June 9, 2025|

Parashat Naso – 5785

Down and Dirty

A D’var Torah for Parashat Naso

By Cantor Robin Anne Joseph (AJR ’96)

A priest’s work is never done.

After a long day directing the services of the Gershonites, recording the enrollment of the Kohathites, the Gershonites, the Merarites, and retaining sacred donations…must the priests also be marriage counselors?

In Paashat Naso, any man who thinks his wife has “gone astray,” whether she has actually had sexual relations with another man or not, should be brought by the jealous husband to the priest. (Num. 5:12-15)

Oh, really? Whatever happened to the death penalty? Not that I’m in favor of that, but isn’t the death penalty the prescription for adultery?

Remember back in Leviticus… “If a man commits adultery with a married woman—committing adultery with another man’s wife—the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death.” Read More >

By Marisa Amith|2025-06-04T12:39:13-04:00June 4, 2025|

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 >

By Marisa Amith|2025-05-28T10:25:23-04:00May 28, 2025|

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 >

By Marisa Amith|2025-05-19T12:57:45-04:00May 19, 2025|

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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Parshiyot Mattot-Masei – 5785

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