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 >

A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayishlah By Cantor Sandy Horowitz (AJR 2014) Our patriarch Jacob is a troubled soul who experiences three profound encounters with the Divine, each of which takes place at a significant moment in his life. This week’s Torah reading, Vayishlah, tells of the second of the encounters, bookended by those in Parshiot Vayetzei and Vayigash. At the beginning of the Jacob narrative we read about how he takes sibling rivalry to the nth level. First, he tricks his ever-so-slightly older twin brother Esau into selling his birthright for a pot of stew. Dayenu that would have been enough for Jacob to earn the label “not a nice guy.” Yet he goes even further by convincing their aging and blind father Read More >

Separating Joys A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayeitzei By Rabbi Wendy Love Anderson When Jacob finally marries his uncle Laban’s daughter in Parashat Vayeitzei, he discovers that he and Laban disagree about which daughter he is supposed to marry. But Jacob and Laban do agree that every wedding is a week-long affair; Jacob makes no objection to Laban’s suggestion that he wait to marry Rachel until “the week of this one” – Leah – is over. Apparently, the entire bridal week is spent feasting, judging by the later wedding precedents of Samson (Judg. 14:11) and Tobit (Tob. 11:18). An anonymous baraita in the Babylonian Talmud (Ketubot 7b) updates the practice for rabbinic norms: not only are there seven days of feasting, but also seven days Read More >

A D’var Torah for Parashat Toledot By Rabbi Inna Serebro-Litvak Aa -pchee (I sneeze)  “Bless you” - you say. Oh, thank you! Thank you for your blessings! I feel very blessed! To say “Bless you” after someone sneezes has become an integral part of our everyday speech and when we say it, we don’t even realize that we are “bestowing” a blessing over someone. One of the reasons Americans say “bless you” is because people used to believe a sneeze caused someone to expel their soul out of their body, and so “God bless you” or “Bless you” was used as a protection against the devil snatching your soul. One thing is certain - the word “blessing” holds a great power! According to Merriam-Webster.com, “blessing Read More >