Parashat Re’eh – 5785
|
19
08, 2025
11
08, 2025
Parashat Eikev – 5785
|
5
08, 2025
Parashat Vaethanan – 5785
A D’var Torah for Parashat Vaethanan
by Rabbi Marge Wise (AJR ‘21)
Shalom Hevre,
The haftarah following the Torah reading of Parashat Vaethanan opens with the words Nahamu nahamu ami, the quintessential recipe for comfort for b’nei yisrael following the saddest day of the year for our people, Tisha B’Av. I would like to discuss three themes which I believe are woven into the fabric of parashat Vaethanan: Our love for God, gratitude and the concept of comfort, itself.
Tisha B’Av, for me, always brings to mind a significant memory. Curiously, this year for the first time I was able to reach some closure regarding that memory…. It was early in the afternoon of Tisha B’Av when, decades ago, my husband and I and our two children – both under two years old at the time! – headed out on the next leg of the cross-country trip which we took that summer.
Long story very short, we were Read More >
30
07, 2025
Parashat Devarim – 5785
Words of Questioning and Lamenting
A D’var Torah for Parashat Devarim
By Rabbi Susan Elkodsi (AJR ’15)
HaZaL, our Sages of Blessed Memory, knew exactly what they were doing when they manipulated the weekly Torah reading schedule to make sure that Parashat Devarim would be read on the Shabbat immediately preceding Tisha B’Av, the saddest day on the Jewish calendar.
Tisha B’Av is a day of collective national mourning for a time, place, and way of life that no longer exist. Devarim, Moses’ final address to the Israelites during the last month of his life is similar; by looking back on what has transpired over 40 years, he is lamenting missed opportunities on an often frustrating journey and mourning the loss of a future he won’t be physically part of.
The connection between this reading and Eikha, the Book of Lamentations, is more than the fact that the two share the word, eikha, translated simply as “how?” or “Alas!”.
In Devarim 1:12
Read More >
23
07, 2025
Parshiyot Mattot-Masei – 5785
Reuben, Gad, and the Tension Between Place and Purpose
A D’var Torah for Parshiyot Mattot-Masei
By Hazzan Rabbi Luis Cattan (AJR ’20)
When Natan Sharansky was Chairman of the Jewish Agency, I had the privilege of sitting with him and a small group of global Jewish leaders to discuss Jewish identity. In that conversation, he shared a metaphor that has stayed with me ever since.
He spoke of the pain of living under Soviet rule—of the repression, the fear, and the impossibility of making aliyah. But then he added, “More than the Iron Curtain once prevented Soviet Jews from making aliyah, today it is the Golden Curtain that prevents American Jews.”
In other words, it’s not external oppression that distances many Jews from Israel—it’s comfort. Affluence, freedom, and assimilation create a different kind of barrier. A quieter one. But perhaps no less potent.
Something similar is reflected in this week’s parashah. As the Israelites stand on the threshold of entering the Land Read More >
14
07, 2025
D’var Torah – Pinhas 5785
As the Children of Israel prepare to come to the final stages of their journey to the Promised Land, God instructs Moses to “Take a census of the whole Israelite community from the age of twenty years up, by their ancestral houses, all Israelites able to bear arms.” [Numbers 26:2]
8
07, 2025
Parashat Balak – 5785
“Listening to the Whole Story”
A D’var Torah for Parashat Balak
By Rabbi Rob Scheinberg
“A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.”
When Simon and Garfunkel sang these words more than 50 years ago, it was not in a political context, but this concept seems so relevant to contemporary politics. Whether with regard to American issues, Israeli issues, internal Jewish communal issues, or any other topic, many of us are so wedded to our preexisting assumptions that we pay deep attention to anything that supports what we already believe, and dismiss even reputable information if it challenges what we already believe. I often see this tendency in myself; I try to resist it, and I sometimes succeed.
Balak, the king of the Moabites and the namesake of this week’s Torah portion, may be the Torah’s most outstanding exemplar of this tendency towards selective attention and confirmation bias.
The Torah portion of Balak is the only narrative Read More >
30
06, 2025
Parashat Hukkat – 5785
A D’var Torah for Parashat Hukkat
By Rabbi Marge Wise (AJR ‘21)
As someone who has struggled with understanding the concept of s’khar v’onesh, reward and punishment in Judaism, I find in parashat Hukkat perhaps a partial answer. Volumes have been written about what Moshe may have done wrong in this parashah, why God reacted as He did, whether it was Divine punishment and if it was, what can we learn from it.
Although I’m tempted to discuss some other themes in this parashah – the parah ha-adumah, the red heifer, the effect on Moses of Miriam and Aaron’s death, the plague which killed 15,000 individuals and the copper serpent cure, I’m determined to remain faithful to the theme of Moses’ striking the rock – twice – and what follows, in the hope of gaining additional insights into the subject of reward and punishment.
I searched through many commentaries because I was unhappy with the focus on punishment for Moses’ act of Read More >
24
06, 2025
Parashat Korah – 5785
Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and The 250 Men
A D’var Torah for Parashat Korah
By Rabbi Greg Schindler (AJR ’09)
Tom Stoppard’s 1966 play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, brings to the forefront two minor players from Hamlet – the couriers, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. While they prepare for, and perform, their small parts in the play, unknown scenes occur “offstage” (in Shakespeare’s Hamlet) that have major impacts on their lives.
This week’s Torah portion, Parashat Korah , is named for the insurrection led by Korah and his accomplices, Dathan and Aviram, against Moses. And – like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern – there are another 250 characters who play minor roles and whose lives are affected by “offstage” events beyond their knowing.
וַיִּקַּ֣ח קֹ֔רַח בֶּן־יִצְהָ֥ר בֶּן־קְהָ֖ת בֶּן־לֵוִ֑י וְדָתָ֨ן וַאֲבִירָ֜ם בְּנֵ֧י אֱלִיאָ֛ב וְא֥וֹן בֶּן־פֶּ֖לֶת בְּנֵ֥י רְאוּבֵֽן׃
וַיָּקֻ֙מוּ֙ לִפְנֵ֣י מֹשֶׁ֔ה וַאֲנָשִׁ֥ים מִבְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל חֲמִשִּׁ֣ים וּמָאתָ֑יִם נְשִׂיאֵ֥י עֵדָ֛ה קְרִאֵ֥י מוֹעֵ֖ד אַנְשֵׁי־שֵֽׁם׃
Took Korah, son of Izhar son of Kohath son of Levi, along with Read More >
16
06, 2025
Parashat Shelah – 5785
A D’var Torah for Parashat Shelah
By Hazzan Rabbi Luis Cattan
Nahbi and Geuel had grown up in the brickyards of Egypt, where children learned to whisper dreams only in the dark. They shared the same clay dust, the same lash, the same bitter herbs—but never friendship. Nahbi, son of Vophsi of the tribe of Naphtali, was careful and calculating, known for his smooth tongue and cautious mind. Geuel, son of Makhi from the tribe of Gad, was shrewd and ambitious, always watching from the shadows. They admired each other’s strengths in the way adversaries do—always measuring, never trusting.
Now, with the miraculous Exodus behind them and the covenant of Sinai fresh in their memories, they were suddenly leaders—appointed chieftains of their respective tribes. And rivals once more.
As the twelve chieftains stood before Moses, the air was thick with anticipation and uncertainty. His instructions were precise, devoid of sentiment:
“When Moses Read More >
