The AJR Center for Judaism and Science has an annual competition for the best student D’var Torah infused with science. Click here to view the entries that have won our לדעת חכמה (Lada’at Hokhmah) Award.
Parashat Hukkat – 5785
June 30, 2025
Rabbi Marge Wise (AJR '21)
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 hitting...
Parashat Hukkat 5784
July 10, 2024
Rabbi Enid C. Lader ('10)
Our Torah portion this week begins with describing “zot hukkat haTorah – the ritual law” concerning the red heifer.
Parshiyot Hukkat-Balak 5783
June 26, 2023
Rabbi Katy Allen ('05)
I delight in the robins, cardinals, and other common birds that I regularly see and hear in my yard, and their presence brings me joy. But recently, thanks to the wonders of technology in the form of the Merlin app produced by Cornell University, my ears, mind, and heart have been opened to the knowledge that there are many other, less common and well-known birds, right here in my own backyard. Through the ability of this app to inform me of the birds around me by recording their songs, I have discovered that rose-breasted grosbeaks, warbling vireos, chimney swifts, and cedar waxwings are prone to visiting my neighborhood. Who knew! What a wonder! The joy, uplift, delight, and hope that awareness of these mostly unseen birds bring me is deep and unbounded. They make my day. Balak, King of Moab, sends Bilam to curse the Israelites. Along the way, Bilam has a...
Parashat Hukkat
July 8, 2022
In this week’s D’var Torah, Rabbi Ariann Weitzman shows how Parashat Hukkat provides a recipe for communal care that is not a burden to individuals but is a shared obligation across the community.
Parashat Hukkat 5782
July 8, 2022
Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah A D’var Torah for Parashat Hukkat By Rabbi Ariann Weitzman (’11) The most frustrating thing about cleaning is that things don’t stay clean and you’re going to have to do it all over again. The second most frustrating thing about cleaning is that it’s hard to do without winding up filthy yourself. This is exactly the paradox of the ritual of the red heifer. As we read at the beginning of parashat Hukkat, the only way to cleanse the ritual impurity attached to caring for or touching the dead is to bring impurity to a wide circle of others. In order to produce the “waters of lustration,” which are used to ritually purify those who have been in contact with the dead, a perfectly unblemished red heifer, who has never had the experience of being yoked, must be slaughtered and burned to ashes. Those...
