וְיֵעָשׂוּ כֻלָּם אֲגֻדָּה אֶחָת לַעֲשׂוֹת רְצוֹנְךָ בְּלֵבָב שָׁלֵם
וְיֵעָשׂוּ כֻלָּם אֲגֻדָּה אֶחָת לַעֲשׂוֹת רְצוֹנְךָ בְּלֵבָב שָׁלֵם
In this week's D'var Torah, Cantor Sandy Horowitz reflects on Shavuot as an opportunity to re-enact the moment of revelation at Sinai, and looks at how the chanting of the Ten Commandments supports us in this endeavor.
Softening the Heart
A D’var Torah for Parashat Bo
By Rabba Kaya Stern-Kaufman (AJR ’11)
This week’s Torah portion, Bo, begins in the midst of the plagues against Egypt but with a clear distinction from the previous seven plagues. In last week’s parashah (Torah portion) we learn that despite the experience of each plague upon the land, animals and people of Egypt, Pharoah responds by hardening his heart to the plight of the Israelites and to Moses’ demands for them to leave Egypt. This week’s parashah begins with God’s declaration: והכבדתי את לבו – and I will harden his (Pharoah’s) heart. It appears as if God is tampering with Pharoah’s free will. This poses theological difficulties for most readers. I would like to suggest a different interpretation of these events that suggests the unfolding of a natural process.
We discover much about Pharoah’s heart in the previous parashah – vaeira. Six times we read the refrain Read More >
A D’var Torah for Parashat Vaeira
Rabbi Wendy Love Anderson
Just A Number
At the beginning of Parashat Vaeira, the Torah detours from its ongoing Exodus narrative to provide genealogies for Moses and Aaron and recapitulate their divine appointment to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. At the very end of this digression, though, there’s an unexpected piece of information: “Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three, when they made their demand on Pharaoh” (Exod. 7:7).
What do Moses and Aaron’s ages have to do with the Exodus? A plausible academic theory is that this information was inserted in an effort to harmonize the details of Moses’ biography: while he has a wife and young children when God commissions him in Exodus 3-4, in the later books of the Torah it’s established that the Israelites have been wandering for forty years before Moses dies at age 120. But more traditional Jewish commentators assume that Read More >
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 >
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 >
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 >
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 >
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 >
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 >
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 >
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