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6 01, 2026

Parashat Shemot – 5786

By Marisa Amith|2026-01-06T12:01:09-05:00January 6, 2026|

The Burning Bush – The Thorny Entrance to Leadership’s Path

A D’var Torah for Parashat Shemot

By Rabbi Dorit Edut (AJR 2006)

As you enter my living room, a print of Chagall’s Moses and The Burning Bush greets you. It is a simply constructed painting, with a very bright colorful burning bush (oranges, reds, yellows) next to a kneeling figure of Moses, in a metallic blue robe, hand on his heart, and looking out at you with an amazed expression. Above the bush are the letters of the Tetragrammaton encircled, while a small green angelic figure waves downwards, and some random small sheep float off to one side. While Chagall grew up in a religious home in Vitebsk, Russia (now Belarus), he certainly adds his own interpretation to the Biblical narrative of this week’s portion, Shemot. Not only is Moses not hiding his face, but we see the karnei or, the rays or horns of Read More >

30 12, 2025

Parashat Vayehi – 5786

By Marisa Amith|2025-12-30T09:47:57-05:00December 30, 2025|

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 where we come from.

Traditionally, gerim assume the parental names of our first ancestors, Abraham and Sarah. I offered Tom the possibility that he might forgo that tradition in favor of honoring someone in Read More >

22 12, 2025

Parashat Vayigash 5786

By Marisa Amith|2025-12-22T10:35:16-05:00December 22, 2025|

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 blunt way throughout his story. I have always been inspired by the overarching sense that the truth has such great power that is comes out of you even when you try Read More >

15 12, 2025

Parashat Mikeitz – 5786

By Marisa Amith|2025-12-15T16:30:50-05:00December 15, 2025|

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 course).

Or what about “The Ugly Duckling?” He was abandoned by the swan flock and was so ugly that no one wanted him. But as he grew, he turned into a beautiful Read More >

10 12, 2025

Parashat Vayeishev – 5786

By Marisa Amith|2025-12-11T08:45:23-05:00December 10, 2025|

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 Joseph.” (Genesis 39:2, 39:21).

The first instance comes after Joseph is sold and finds himself in the house of Potiphar:

“The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; Read More >

1 12, 2025

Parashat Vayishlah 5786

By Marisa Amith|2025-12-01T14:40:05-05:00December 1, 2025|

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 Isaac to give him, Jacob, the blessing intended for the elder Esau. This enrages Esau to the point of threatening to kill his deceitful brother, so Jacob Read More >

26 11, 2025

Parashat Vayeitzei – 5786

By Marisa Amith|2025-11-26T08:11:16-05:00November 26, 2025|

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 of reciting the birkat hatanim – the grooms’ blessing. This blessing is the ancestor of our Sheva Berakhot, which can still be recited at a festive meal Read More >

17 11, 2025

Parashat Toledot – 5786

By Marisa Amith|2025-11-17T10:16:37-05:00November 17, 2025|

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 is defined as a) the act or words of one that blesses and b) approval or encouragement.”

When we offer a blessing, we are essentially boosting up the person to whom we are speaking. When Read More >

13 11, 2025

Parashat Hayyei Sarah – 5786

By Marisa Amith|2025-11-13T15:12:46-05:00November 13, 2025|

A D’var Torah for Parashat Hayyei Sarah

By Rabbi Dorit Edut

For the last two years our Jewish people have been in a state of trauma and mourning – yes, I would say it is PTSD on a national scale. We’ve been worried constantly about what was happening in Israel, especially with the hostages, and worried about our physical safety and emotional security in the Diaspora. Now with the return of the living Israeli hostages from Gaza, and some of the bodies of the murdered hostages, we are able to have a modicum of relief, a chance to begin mourning rituals, and a ‘moment to breathe again’, as Rabbi Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Ha-Levi said in their recent “For Heaven’s Sake” podcast. As regards those of us in the Diaspora, there is a momentary lull, though we still live with much anxiety and keep both eyes and ears open for any potential Read More >

3 11, 2025

Parashat Vayeira 5786

By Marisa Amith|2025-11-03T11:12:18-05:00November 3, 2025|

Abraham’s Vision: Welcoming the Stranger

A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayeira

by Rabbi Rachel Posner, Ph.D. (AJR 25)

In the middle of the day, under the full weight of the desert sun, God appears to Abraham as he sits at the entrance of his tent. So opens the scene in which we witness our patriarch’s radical hospitality.

The theme of vision preoccupies the opening of our (appropriately titled) Parashat Vayeira (“and He appeared”):

Genesis 18:1–2

וַיֵּרָ֤א אֵלָיו֙ הֹ’ בְּאֵלֹנֵ֖י מַמְרֵ֑א וְה֛וּא יֹשֵׁ֥ב פֶּֽתַח־הָאֹ֖הֶל כְּחֹ֥ם הַיּֽוֹם׃

HaShem appeared to him by the terebinths of Mamre; he was sitting at the entrance of the tent as the day grew hot.

וַיִּשָּׂ֤א עֵינָיו֙ וַיַּ֔רְא וְהִנֵּה֙ שְׁלֹשָׁ֣ה אֲנָשִׁ֔ים נִצָּבִ֖ים עָלָ֑יו וַיַּ֗רְא וַיָּ֤רׇץ לִקְרָאתָם֙ מִפֶּ֣תַח הָאֹ֔הֶל וַיִּשְׁתַּ֖חוּ אָֽרְצָה׃

Looking up, he saw three figures standing near him. Perceiving this, he ran from the entrance of the tent to greet them, bowing to the ground.

God “appears” to Abraham; Abraham “looks up,” “sees” the 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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