Parashat Ki Tissa – 5785
March 10, 2025
Rabbi Rob Scheinberg
Yishar Koah! A D’var Torah for Parashat Ki Tissa By Rabbi Rob Scheinberg Among the various words and phrases you’re likely to hear in a synagogue is the phrase “Yishar koah,” sometimes pronounced as “Yashar koah” or “Yeshar koah” or even abbreviated to “Sh’koyah!” Since Talmudic times, this phrase has been a way to express praise for an achievement, even an extremely minor achievement. “Yishar” comes from the root “y.sh.r.”, meaning “upright” or “aligned,” and “koah” means “strength” or “force.” The phrase itself can be translated in a few different ways; it could be a prayer or good wish for the future, “may your strength be upright,” or it could be a complimentary statement of fact, “your strength is upright” or “your force is aligned.” Functionally, “Yishar koah” means “you did a good job,” especially in performing a synagogue ritual-related task — whether or not it is one of the...
Parashat Ki Tissa 5784
February 27, 2024
Hazzan Rabbi Luis Cattan ('20)
We are living in a time when good leadership is hard to find.
Parashat Ki Tissa 5783
March 7, 2023
Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah The Golden Calf: Not a Tantrum, but a Meltdown A D’var Torah for Parashat Ki Tissa and Shabbat Parah By Rabbi Katy Allen (’05) Perhaps the golden calf was inevitable, and perhaps even necessary. Egel ha’masekhah, the molten calf (Ex. 32:4), the meltdown– the internal or external loss of control stemming from demands stress over-stimulation disruption or overwhelming emotions. Not a tantrum. Not a tantrum but the breaking down that leads to breaking open. G!d demanded so much, and all at once and in no uncertain terms. Moses seemingly disappeared just when everyone’s lives were being overwhelmingly disrupted stimulated changed irrevocably. Has it ever happened to you? Hamasekhah hanesukhah the veil that is spread over all the nations (Is. 25:7) the veil of mourning that covers us all (BDB) G!d will remove it, and will “wipe away the tears” (Is. 25:8) from all...
Parashat Ki Tissa 5782
February 17, 2022
Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah Do You Resolve Conflicts Aaron’s Way or Moses’ Way? A D’var Torah for Parashat Ki Tissa By Rabbi Rob Scheinberg What’s the best way to get two people in a conflict to be reconciled with each other? Avot De-Rabbi Natan – an early commentary to the Ethics of the Fathers (Pirkei Avot) – imagines the conflict resolution strategy employed by Moses’ brother Aaron. When Aaron would see two people in conflict, he would go to one of them and say, “Your friend has just come crying to me, saying ‘Woe is me, that I have offended my friend! Aaron, please go and request forgiveness on my behalf!’” Aaron would sit with him until his anger subsided, and then Aaron would go to the other friend and say exactly the same thing. When the two friends would see each other, they would hug each other, and their...
Parashat Ki Tissa 5781
March 4, 2021
Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah A D’var Torah for Parashat Ki Tissa By Rabbi Doug Alpert (’12) Whether it be in a D’var Torah or in a Derash, two obvious sources of material I have assiduously avoided have been politics and what I have viewed as the thematically obvious. I have avoided the former not because I ignore or do not possess opinions about issues most would see as political. I am on the boards of many organizations who work in highly political spaces. My work has involved civil disobedience; including a night in jail and I have asserted my views in very public spaces. My congregants all know of my activism and progressive leanings without me having to say anything to them. However, what I discovered pretty early on is that I am rarely in a position to change anyone’s mind based on what I say from the...
