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9 08, 2019

Parashat Devarim 5779

By Rabbi Heidi Hoover|2022-07-29T11:24:33-04:00August 9, 2019|

A D’var Torah for Parashat Devarim
By Rabbi Heidi Hoover (’11)

Devarim is the first significant word of this week’s Torah portion, and therefore it gives the Torah portion its name. Because this week is the first portion in the fifth book of the Torah, Devarim is also the name of the whole book, which is called Deuteronomy in English, from the Greek. Devarim means “words,” and it’s an appropriate name for the book, because Moses spends the whole book of Deuteronomy making his last speech to the Israelites. At the end of it he dies and they prepare to go forward into the Promised Land.

In Judaism, words are very important. We are called the “People of the Book”—a book (books, really) full of words that give us the best information we have about what God wants from us. Words can create and destroy reputations. According to our tradition, God used words to create Read More >

6 09, 2018

Parashat Nitzavim 5778

By Rabbi Heidi Hoover|2018-09-06T12:04:29-04:00September 6, 2018|

A D’var Torah for Parashat Nitzavim
by Rabbi Heidi Hoover (AJR ’11)

Week after week we wrestle with the Torah, often trying to figure out where the women are, how to deal with this God who seems often punishing and violent, and how to think about a hierarchical system of worship involving sacrifice of animals that is really alien to the way we worship now. For me, this week’s Torah portion, Nitzavim, is easier to approach than many others. It is both inclusive and equitable. There is still talk of punishment by God, but there is also reassurance of reconciliation with God.

The inclusivity of this Torah portion is right at the beginning, when Moses, who is now nearing the end of his final instructions to the Israelites, lists the various groups who are present, who are receiving the instruction. Those with authority are there: tribal heads, elders, and officials; and the men Read More >

30 08, 2018

Parashat Ki Tavo 5778

By Bruce Alpert|2018-08-30T16:42:30-04:00August 30, 2018|

A D’var Torah for Parashat Ki Tavo
by Rabbi Bruce Alpert (’11)

One of the sublime joys of studying at AJR is experiencing tefillah in its community – especially at Retreat. Being in a room with 70 or 80 people, each of whom is, in some way, expert at Jewish prayer, is wondrous. And with a leader who is seeking – through her choice of prayers, songs, and niggunim – to impress upon her congregants a particular insight or perspective on our liturgy, you have an experience that can meet the high expectations for kavanah, for the intentionality that our rabbis have set for us as our goal in communicating with the Holy One.

I came to AJR with a very limited and narrow perspective on prayer. AJR broadened that perspective to my horizons, and then beyond them. It did so by fulfilling the words of Psalm 100: “Serve the Lord in gladness; come into His presence with Read More >

23 08, 2018

Parashat Ki Teitzei 5778

By Rabbi Rena Kieval|2018-08-23T13:34:44-04:00August 23, 2018|

Restoring What Has Been Lost
A D’var Torah for Parashat Ki Teitzei
by Rabbi Rena Kieval (’06)

When life gets busy, with many distractions, I have a tendency to misplace objects: my keys, my cell phone, or a piece of mail with important information. Most of us have had the experience of losing an item whose absence disrupts the tasks of daily life. When that happens, a possession can take on an importance out of proportion to its true value. Even when we lose an object that is not especially essential, something feels awry, out of kilter. Lost objects can have a strange power, an ability to make everything feel disrupted. Conversely, when a lost object is located or returned, the relief can be huge: order seems to be restored.

The mitzvah of hashavat aveidah, the obligation to return lost objects to their owner, is stressed in the Torah and later rabbinic tradition. Parashat Ki Teitzei includes this mitzvah among its treasure trove Read More >

15 08, 2018

Parashat Shoftim

By Rabbi Irwin Huberman|2018-08-15T13:26:04-04:00August 15, 2018|

Our Lips as Gates of Justice
A D’var Torah for Parashat Shoftim
by Rabbi Irwin Huberman ’10

I’ve often wondered why the Torah devotes so much effort towards commanding the Jewish people to establish judges and officers within its communal structure.

Agreed, it is vital that within any just and free society, a legal system be established under which issues and conflicts are adjudicated in a fair and unbiased manner.

The foundation of justice is so important, that twice within the Torah, including this week’s Parashah, we are instructed – Tzedek, Tzedek, Tirdof – “Justice, Justice shall you pursue” (Deuteronomy 16:20).

Furthermore, the Torah insists that this precious commodity – “justice, justice” – mentioned twice — be administered fairly — regardless of the class, financial status and social standing of its subjects.

It is why perhaps why this week’s Torah portion, Shoftim (Judges) has assumed such a high priority within both Jewish Read More >

8 08, 2018

Parashat Re’eh 5778

By Rabbi Isaac Mann|2018-08-08T18:19:28-04:00August 8, 2018|

A D’var Torah for Parashat Re’eh
By Rabbi Isaac Mann

For this week’s d’var Torah on parashat Re’eh, I would like to share with you some homiletic interpretations that pertain to the mitzvah of tzedakah (roughly translated as “charity”) and that express some deep insights into this mitzvah.

The Torah devotes several verses to encouraging and demanding that the Jewish people give charity (through tithes) or lend money to the poor. In this week’s Torah sidra, the obligation to give to the needy is first expressed in the form of two negative commandments – “You shall not harden your heart and you shall not close your hand from your needy brother” (Deut. 15:7). This is followed by a positive instruction – “Rather you shall surely open your hand to him, and you shall lend him sufficient for his needs which he is lacking” (15:8).

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch in his commentary on the Pentateuch observes that Read More >

3 08, 2018

Eikev 5778

By Cantor Sandy Horowitz|2018-08-03T08:17:31-04:00August 3, 2018|

A D’Var Torah for Parashat Eikev
By Cantor Sandy Horowitz (’14)

“Dear when you smiled at me, I heard a melody
It haunted me from the start
Something inside of me started a symphony
Zing! Went the strings of my heart”

These lyrics come from a song made famous by Judy Garland in 1938 and recorded by others many times since. “Zing went the strings of my heart…” What does this mean, exactly? According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, the term “heartstrings” refers to one’s “deepest emotions or affections”. According to our singer, “Zing!” is the sound of heartstrings tugged by love.

Imagine our awareness of Divine Love being so strong, so immediate that it would make our heart go “Zing!” Perhaps that is what God is asking of the Israelites in Parashat Eikev this week when they are commanded, “U’maltem et orlat l’vavkhem v’arp’khem lo takshu od”, “You shall circumcise the foreskin of your heart, therefore, and be Read More >

26 07, 2018

Va’ethanan 5778

By Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD|2018-07-26T16:40:29-04:00July 26, 2018|

The Paradox of Faces
A D’var Torah for Va’ethanan
By Rabbi Jill Hammer

This parashah is a second telling of the wilderness revelation: a remix of Sinai, if you will. Our parashah is a part of the long speech Moses makes to his people as they are about to enter the land of Canaan. It is also the center of a crucial Jewish paradox.

Moses describes the revelation at Sinai by saying: “The Eternal spoke to you out of the fire, you heard the voice of words (kol devarim) but you saw no image, nothing but a voice.”

This description of revelation is so complex as to resemble a Zen koan. First of all, in spite of the way I just translated it, it’s in the present tense: ‘You hear the voice of words, but you see no image, nothing but a voice.” It’s a description of God focused on sound, voice, story, and yet we see Read More >

19 07, 2018

Devarim 5778

By Rabbi Len Levin|2018-07-19T13:37:42-04:00July 19, 2018|

Call for Spiritual Rebirth
A Dvar Torah for Devarim
By Len Levin

“How [eikhah] can I bear alone your trouble, your burden, your quarrel?” (Deut. 1:12)

A paradox. Deuteronomy is the sunniest, most radiant and optimistic book of the Torah. “And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God demand of you? Only this: to revere the Lord your God, to walk only in His paths, to love him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and soul” (10:12). “The Lord your God is bringing you into a good land…where you will lack nothing” (8:7-8). “The Lord your God will bless you in all you do” (15:18). “For you will do what is good and right in the eyes of the Lord your God (12:28).

But it also contains dark passages. There is the historical recollection of the Golden Calf (9:8-21). There are the Read More >

6 09, 2012

Parashat Ki Tavo

By ahsilver|2012-09-06T17:42:49-04:00September 6, 2012|

In this week’s Torah portion we are witness to a grand ritual – a dramatization depicting the landscape of choices within which we all reside, at all times. One half of the Israelite tribes are told to stand on Mt. Gerizim while the other half of the tribes are to stand on Mt. Ebal. Between the two mountains lies a valley – middle ground within which the tribe of Levi is to stand. From this middle ground of choice, the Levites call up to those on Mt. Ebal with a series of curses that will result from choices rooted in idolatry, dishonesty, greed and lust. The Levites then call up to those on Mt. Gerizim with a series of blessings that will result from choices to live a life of mitzvot, ethical behavior, honesty and support for the disenfranchised within the community. This is followed by a much more detailed set of Read More >

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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