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.
Parshiyot Mattot-Masei – 5785
July 23, 2025
Hazzan Rabbi Luis Cattan ('20)
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...
Parashiyot Mattot-Masei 5784
July 30, 2024
Rabbi Susan Elkodsi (AJR '15)
Transitions. Life is full of them. We leave behind the past and embrace the future, and all the while, try to continue to live in the present. We see transitions play out every day, and as I write this, the United States is reacting to the news that President Biden has decided to not seek reelection, fully and wholeheartedly (as far as I can tell) endorsing and lifting up Vice President Kamala Harris.
Parshyiot Mattot-Masei 5783
July 10, 2023
Rabbi Mitchell Blank ('21)
In this week’s parashah, Moses recounts the starting points of each of the places visited by the Israelites during their 40 year trek on the way to the Promised Land. “Moses recorded the starting points as directed by the Lord (al pi Adonai )”. (Num. 33:2) For what purpose is God’s command for Moses to catalogue each station encountered as the journey nears completion and why davka by their starting points? Moses has been intimately involved in the entire journey, especially from the moment the Israelites broke camp on the 20th day of the 2nd year. (Num. 10:11) It’s not as if he needs to record the stations to remember the journey. All the treks from that point on were conducted in an intimate partnership between Moses and the Divine: “On a sign from the Lord (al pi Adonai) they made camp and on a sign from the Lord they broke camp; they observed the...
Parashat Mattot-Masei 5782
July 29, 2022
Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah A D’var Torah for Parashat Mattot-Masei by Rabbi Doug Alpert For some reason a good deal of my time both within and outside of Torah has lately focused on land and borders. This week’s double portion, Mattot-Masei provides us with the most extensive, but certainly not the only delineation of the borders for HaAretz-the land of Israel in our Written Torah. This started for me back in Parashat Shelah-Lekha with the narrative regarding the twelve spies who scouted the land. Within my weekly clergy interfaith Torah study group the conversation shifted from the usual emphasis on the sin of the ten spies who sought to impose their pessimism on the people in contravention to the report of Caleb and Joshua, to a very different issue; why were the spies sent in the first place. What was the ultimate purpose and goal-i.e., why did we need to...
Parashiyot Mattot-Masei 5781
July 9, 2021
Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah A D’var Torah for Parashiyot Mattot-Masei By Rabbi Lizz Goldstein (’16) Hodesh Tov. The height of summer is upon us, and with it three weeks of mourning bookended by fasting during a season we most need to be drinking plenty of fluids. I have written elsewhere before about my ambivalence over Tisha B’Av and the Three Weeks, and this year is no different. This Shabbat, we read the second of three Haftarot of Affliction, along with Parashiyot Mattot-Masei. These Haftarot admonish the Israelites for their constant idol-worship and warns of the conquering army on its way to punish them. This cycle of community dissolution and rejection of HaShem, followed by destruction and diaspora, continued in the days of the Second Temple, and so we read them in the oppressive heat of summer to remember the fall of both Temples and...
