Divrei Torah Archives | Page 3 of 78 | Academy for Jewish Religion

12 12, 2022

Parashat Vayeishev 5783

By Linda Ripps|2023-05-03T12:10:54-04:00December 12, 2022|

Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah

A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayeishev
By Rabbi Greg Schindler (’09)

Dedicated to the memory of my dear wife Barucha Esther bat Daniel v’Rachel (z”l)

Dream On

Dream on/ Dream on / Dream on
Dream until your dreams come true
– Steven Tyler (Aerosmith)

Did you ever have a dream that came true?

The Talmud tells us that a dream is one-sixtieth of prophecy. (Berakhot 57b) But the trouble with dreams is, they require interpretation.

Rav Hisda said, “A dream not interpreted is like a letter not read.” (Berakhot 55a) Dream interpretation is made especially difficult by the “red herrings” in dreams: “Just as it is impossible for the grain to grow without straw, so it is impossible to dream without idle matters.” (ibid.)

Moreover, the Sages claim that the actualization of a dream depends on its interpretation: “Rabbi Bena’a Read More >

5 12, 2022

Parashat Vayishlah 5783

By Linda Ripps|2023-05-03T12:11:04-04:00December 5, 2022|

Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah

My Parasha
A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayishlah
By Rabbi Andrew Hechtman (’03)

On most any Shabbat the world over, b’nei mitzvah children rise before their community and state an affirmative obligation to maintain Jewish identity and live a Jewish future. Most often, they deliver a D’var Torah (teaching) beginning with the words… “My Parasha is ____”. We encourage our children to take ownership of their Torah. As Jews, only knowing the “facts” about Judaism is “livatala”, meaningless, unless accompanied by an evolving Jewish identity.

The concept of differentiation of self is at the core of Bowen Family Systems Theory. Differentiation addresses how individuals differ from each other in terms of their sensitivity to one another and their varying abilities to maintain and preserve a degree of autonomy in the face of other social pressures. The struggle for balance and harmony in our lives is at the Read More >

28 11, 2022

Parashat Vayeitzei 5783

By Linda Ripps|2023-05-03T12:11:12-04:00November 28, 2022|

Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah

A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayeitzei
By Rabbi Steven Altarescu (’14)

We are often running from place to place, from errand to errand, doing our best, tripping up, falling down and getting up and running some more. We face challenges and sometimes we face them with wisdom and sometimes we fail at them. Life can feel like moving on a line, horizontally.

In the last number of years, through the last few election cycles and through the pandemic, we can feel we are running for our lives. Motivated by saving democracy and freedom, and to keep ourselves and our loved ones healthy, while still trying to function in the world. We do not know what is next, both from a political perspective and from a medical perspective, and yet we keep moving. I believe it is very easy to get entangled in our daily lives and lose hope and a Read More >

21 11, 2022

Parashat Toledot 5783

By Linda Ripps|2023-05-03T12:07:00-04:00November 21, 2022|

Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah

A D’var Torah for Parashat Toledot
By Cantor Robin Anne Joseph (’96)

“Still waters run deep.”

Coined several centuries before Shakespeare’s take-off in Henry VI, Part 2—Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep—this idiom seems to date back to the Latin: Altissima quaeque flumina minimo sono labi—The deepest rivers flow with the smallest sound.

That’s our Isaac—our ancestor with the least to say, but perhaps with the most bubbling underneath the surface. Maybe that’s why, in this week’s Torah portion, Toledot, Isaac is busy digging wells. Let’s unearth this situation together…

What’s bothering Isaac?

A question usually reserved for dissecting a Rashi teaching, I think we could ask the same of Isaac. What is bothering this poor soul to lead him to this seemingly compulsive action of digging not one, not two, but five wells in fairly quick succession? What is going on with all this digging? From my Read More >

14 11, 2022

Parashat Hayei Sarah 5783

By Linda Ripps|2023-05-03T12:06:51-04:00November 14, 2022|

Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah

A D’var Torah for Parashat Hayei Sarah
By Rabbi Katy Allen (’05)

Hayei Sarah –
the life of Sarah
tells of her death.
Abraham is old,
nearing his death as well,
and he says to his servant,
I will make you swear—
I, Abraham, will make you,
another human being,
swear an oath unto G!d.
On my deathbed,
I will make you promise.

What right have we
to force someone else
to promise something
in the name of G!d?
Can it really be valid?
Can it really be sound to its core?

And, it’s about finding a wife
for his son, Isaac.
Swear, Abraham says to his servant,
swear in the name of all that is sacred and holy,
that you won’t take a wife for my son
from among these Canaanites,
but that you will go back
to the land of my birth
and find him a wife there.
AND DON’T ON ANY ACCOUNT
TAKE ISAAC WITH YOU!

Why is this command,
with such vehemence,
needed at all?
After all, we are taught Read More >

7 11, 2022

Parashat Vayeira 5783

By Linda Ripps|2022-11-09T15:04:46-05:00November 7, 2022|

How Do you Make a Well or a Ram Disappear? By Rabbi Rob Scheinberg Twenty years ago, two experimental psychologists at Harvard, named Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons, created what has become one of the most famous experiments in the behavioral sciences. The participants in this study were given a simple task. They just had to watch a brief video that included several people passing basketballs back and forth to each other. Three of these players were wearing white shirts, and three were wearing black shirts. The task was simple: watch the ball that was being passed among the players with the white shirts, and count how many times the basketball was passed. This is not difficult – most people came up with the right number.

31 10, 2022

Parashat Lekh Lekh 5783

By Linda Ripps|2022-11-09T15:06:07-05:00October 31, 2022|

A D'var Torah for Parashat Lekh Lekha By Rabbi Rena Kieval ('06) Be a blessing! Vehe-yei berakha! I am always struck by the profound, surprising and somewhat mysterious words spoken by God to begin a new relationship with Abraham. God might have opened with something more like, “Follow this important set of rules I will give you,” “You shall believe in Me,” or, “Let us enter into a covenant.” In time, the Torah will present all of those frameworks for a life with God, but God’s momentous first call to Abraham sets the stage with a series of statements about blessing: “I will bless you, those who bless you will be blessed, those who curse you will be cursed, you will be a source of blessing to others, and vehe-yei berakha: you will be, or should be, a blessing.” (Genesis 12:2,3) God’s words about blessing suggest not only the birth of a relationship with Abraham, but a new vision of humanity’s role in God’s world.

24 10, 2022

Parashat Noah 5783

By Linda Ripps|2022-11-09T15:08:32-05:00October 24, 2022|

Seasonal Changes: "Remembering" to be Merciful to Ourselves By Rabbi Mitchell Blank ('21) Living in southern New York, I love this time of year, especially the changing of the leaves. Our home backs upon acres of undeveloped woods. About 20 years ago, I built a 1.5 mile loop trail through the forest. The path took six months to complete; it was an embodied labor of love. Seasonal maintenance proved to be labor intensive as well. After more than a decade of clearing fallen branches, the trail was now also defined by at least 20 lbs. of wood stacked high for its entire length. The ongoing maintenance and care were daily sources of enjoyment and satisfaction. The boundaries of the path, tangible reminders of years of hard work, only heightened the love derived from walking it.

19 10, 2022

Parashat Bereisheet – 5783

By Linda Ripps|2022-11-23T12:31:32-05:00October 19, 2022|

Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah

What Cain Learned
A D’var Torah for Parashat Beresheet
By Dr. Yakir Englander

In the Genesis story, we find Cain and Abel in a field. There the elder brother, Cain, kills Abel, the younger. Midrash Rabbah (22) on this passage remarks that Cain does not know how to take the life of another human person. So, he decides to imitate his brother, slaughtering him in the same way he had seen Abel himself slaughter animals as sacrificial offerings to God. When that same God questions Cain, after the murder, it is with either an utter innocence or with a calculated intent to cross-examine the killer: “Where is your brother Abel?” And Cain responds, without batting an eyelid: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9)

It is a disturbing passage. As a Jewish theologian, I have always felt that Read More >

6 10, 2022

Parashat Ha’azinu – 5783

By Linda Ripps|2022-11-09T14:51:29-05:00October 6, 2022|

Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah

A D’var Torah for Parashat Ha’azinu
By Rabbi Matthew Goldstone

Our parasha this week begins with calling heaven and earth as witnesses (see Deut. 31:28) as Moses sings his final song to the people. The natural imagery continues as Moses compares his words to rain and dew, and refers to God as the Rock (צור). This past week many of us have had rains on our mind as Hurricane Ian ravaged portions of Florida. Within the biblical theology of our parasha, such natural disasters are understood as an expression of divine displeasure at our sinful actions (e.g., Deut. 32:18-24). For many modern inheritors of the Hebrew Bible, however, such a theology no longer resonates and can even be offensive – particularly when employed as a weapon by religious extremists. So what meaning can we draw from our parasha’s conception 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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