Parashat Beshalah, 5778
Rabbi Heidi Hoover2018-01-25T12:16:32-05:00
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25
01, 2018
17
01, 2018
Parashat Bo, 5778
Bruce Alpert2018-01-17T12:15:12-05:00A D’var Torah for Parashat Bo
By Rabbi Bruce Alpert
The exodus from Egypt is understood in different ways: as a miraculous deliverance, as an escape from slavery, as a journey to freedom. Reading again this week’s parashah, Bo, I came away with a different understanding: as a divorce.
I took this understanding from the opening verse of Chapter 11: “The Lord said to Moses, “One more plague shall I bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt; after that he shall send you forth from here,” k’shalkho kalah gareish y’gareish etkhem mi-zeh. What struck me about that final phrase was the juxtaposition of the words kalah and gareish. The former can mean bride and the latter, the verb meaning “cast out,” is the root for “divorce.” I initially read that last phrase to mean “like his sending out a bride, he shall certainly cast you out from here.” Rashi, citing Onkelos, tells us that kalah actually Read More >
20
12, 2017
Parashat Vayigash, 5778
Cantor Sandy Horowitz2017-12-20T12:52:37-05:00
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13
12, 2017
Parashat Miketz, 5778
Rabbi Len Levin2017-12-13T10:10:59-05:00
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5
12, 2017
Parashat Vayeshev, 5778
Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD2017-12-05T12:08:08-05:00The Dreams of Joseph and Solomon
A D’var Torah for Vayeshev
Rabbi Jill Hammer
Many have suggested that events in the Book of Genesis are intertextual with events in the Book of Samuel. For example, the ketonet pasim, the colorful striped coat that Joseph wears as his brothers betray him and sell him into slavery, has a direct relationship with the ketonet pasim, the colorful striped coat that Tamar daughter of David wears as her brother Amnon betrays and rapes her. In fact, in Tanakh there are the only two “striped coats” (the Hebrew word pas may mean “to divide into parts”).
Both coats are torn. Joseph’s brothers tear his in an effort to fake his death, and Tamar tears hers in mourning for what has happened to her. Joseph and Tamar, both betrayed by siblings, must be read in light of one another. It is not even clear which text we should read first. As Read More >
28
11, 2017
Parashat Vayishlah, 5778
Rabbi Heidi Hoover2017-11-28T15:43:44-05:00
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21
11, 2017
Parashat Vayetzei, 5778
Bruce Alpert2017-11-21T15:40:05-05:00
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14
11, 2017
Parashat Toldot, 5778
Rabbi Rena Kieval2017-11-14T09:43:24-05:00We’ll Always Have Parents: 2017
A D’var Torah for Toldot
by Rabbi Rena H. Kieval
In the classic movie Casablanca, the ill-fated lovers played by Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman share these words of comfort: “We’ll always have Paris.” A playful poem by Mary Jo Salter uses that line to make a point. The poem, titled, “We’ll Always Have Parents,” notes that, “We’ll always have them…they’re in our baggage.” The poem calls to mind what a wise and learned person once told me: that no matter how old we are, most of us shape our lives in response to our parents. We may define ourselves in a positive way by who our parents were, and what they taught us, and we may also define ourselves against who our parents were, and what they taught us. Most of us are driven and shaped by mixed legacies. Whatever those legacies are, “we’ll always have parents.”
Parashat Toldot reflects this Read More >
9
11, 2017
Parshat Hayei Sara, 5778
Rabbi Irwin Huberman2017-11-09T10:45:40-05:00| Hospitality: Judaism’s Family Business by Rabbi Irwin Huberman |
| It was twenty years ago that my wife and I learned from two young children one of the most important values within all of Judaism.
It’s a lesson embodied in this week’s Parashah, Hayei Sarah-and it may well be a central pillar of what has allowed Jewish tradition to endure and evolve over thousands of years. I remember that chilly winter night, long before I entered the rabbinate, when the local Chabad rabbi invited my wife and me for Shabbat dinner. We were obviously nervous. Would we say something wrong? Would we stumble when asked to recite the Sabbath blessings? These questions and a dozen more like them seemed to fill the air as we made our way up our hosts’ driveway. As we approached the front steps, the door swung open, and out flew two boys, aged nine and eleven, who grabbed our gloves and coats and hats before we’d Read More > |
1
11, 2017
Parshat VaYera, 5778
Rabbi Isaac Mann2017-11-01T11:18:24-04:00| by Rabbi Isaac Mann |
| I would like to share with you a very insightful ethical interpretation of a midrashic comment that I heard in the name of Rabbi Avraham Yaakov Pam, who was the Rosh ha-Yeshiva of Mesivta Torah Vodaath in the latter part of the 20th century.
Commenting on the verse in Genesis 21:6, which describes Sarah’s reaction to her giving birth to Isaac at the age of 90 (“G-d has brought me laughter; whoever hears about this will laugh with me”), the Midrash adds that many barren women became pregnant (literally “were remembered by G-d”) along with her, many sick were healed along with her, many prayers were answered along with her, for there was much laughter (i.e. joy) in the world (quoted by Rashi ad loc.). The Midrash is apparently responding to the question of why would everyone who heard about Sarah’s birth erupt into joyful laughter. Surely Read More > |
