Blessing Our Children A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayehi By Rabbi Dr. Rachel Posner In my new role as a congregational rabbi, I have the incredible honor of working with conversion students—people choosing Judaism. Yesterday I met with one of my students, Tom, who is nearing the culmination of the process and preparing to meet with the Beit Din. We met to talk about his choice of a Hebrew name. Tom decided to take the name Yaakov, because Jacob’s God-wrestling resonated deeply with him. Wonderful. Once that question was resolved, I asked Tom to consider the names of his Jewish parents. In our tradition, after all, our name is never merely Jacob or Rachel. Every Jewish name includes the name of one’s parents—an acknowledgment of Read More >

A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayigash By Rabbi Anat Katzir (AJR '22) “The connection of shared grief and the inspiration of shared destiny.” I sat down to begin writing my D’var Torah with an idea of exactly what I wanted to write about. Thinking ahead about the parashah there was a moment in the story that always stuck out in my memory. The moment that Joseph asks his brothers not to tell Pharaoh that they are shepherds and you could almost imagine him face-palming when Pharaoh asks: “what is your profession?” And they respond “we are shepherds…” This moment has been a favorite of mine in the simple irony, with Joseph being a character that can’t seem to filter himself, sharing truths in the most Read More >

A D’var Torah for Parashat Mikeitz By Rabbi Inna Serebro-Litvak Who doesn’t like fairy tales? Even as adults, although we don’t always admit it, we enjoy going back to the stories that were once read to us by our parents. The magic of fairy tales, the happy endings, the prevalence of good versus evil—these concepts stay with us forever, instilling hope that, even when life is hard, it will get better. My favorites were always the ones that had narratives involving themes of destiny, overcoming challenges, true love, and reclaiming what's lost. Take “Cinderella.” She worked so hard, lived in poverty, and was abused. Yet she was the one—not her rich sisters—whom the prince fell in love with and married (not without some magic, of Read More >

From the Pit to the Promise: Finding God's Presence in Parashat Vayeishev A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayeishev By Rabbi Scott “Shalom” Klein (AJR 2024) Parashat Vayeishev, which we read just before we kindle the lights of Chanukah, plunges us into one of the darkest family sagas in the Torah: the story of Joseph and his brothers. It is a portion filled with sibling rivalry, betrayal, favoritism, and descent—Joseph is thrown into a pit, sold into slavery, and eventually imprisoned. Jacob, in his grief, refuses all comfort. Darkness seems to prevail. Yet, amidst this unrelenting bleakness, the Torah offers a crucial counterpoint, a phrase repeated twice in the Parashah, like a quiet, enduring whisper of hope: “וַיְהִי ה' אֶת יוֹסֵף”— "And the Lord was with Read More >