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 Nitzavim – 5785
September 16, 2025
Rabbi Susan Elkodsi (AJR '15)
A D’var Torah for Parashat Nitzavim By Rabbi Susan Elkodsi (AJR ’15) Parashat Nitzavim is usually read a week or two before Rosh Hashanah, and begins with Moses reminding us that following Torah, God’s commandments, isn’t so difficult, or at least it shouldn’t be. The parashah begins with Moses acknowledging the entire community standing before him; the elders, the tribal leaders, the children, men and women, resident aliens, everyone from the woodchopper to the water drawers. (Dev. 29:9-10) I’ve always wondered why the professions of wood chopping and water drawing would not only be singled out, but presented in a way that suggests that they’re two ends of spectrum, or that perhaps these are unskilled laborers who might not be as learned as the elders of the community. And I also wonder, when we say “from alef to tav,” for example, there are usually steps in between. Here, we’re not...
Parashat Nitzavim – 5782
September 22, 2022
Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah A D’var Torah for Parashat Nitzavim By Rabbi Doug Alpert Growing up I always looked forward to an excerpt in the Siddur on Shabbos morning immediately following Ein Keiloheinu toward the end of Musaf. It is taken from Talmud Bavli, Berakhot 64a, “Rabbi Eleazar said in the name of Rabbi Hanina: Students of Torah increase peace in the world…” (emphasis added). I am not sure what it was about this sugya of Talmud that I found so alluring; possibly that in conjunction with Ein Keiloheinu I found it to be a particularly affirming moment toward the end of a long morning of praying, or perhaps it was the mere fact that we were in the homestretch of our service, and Kiddush lunch was around the corner. Whatever feelings elicited from the passage resonated for me in my youth, it has taken on even greater meaning over the years. Rav Kook-Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook...
Parashat Nitzavim 5781
September 3, 2021
Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah The Covenant is for Everyone A D’var Torah for Parashat Nitzavim By Rabbi Lizz Goldstein (’16) This weekend, I was blessed to officiate over a Baby Naming. Like the other two baby namings I have done this year, this is a baby born at the beginning of the pandemic when parents were very reluctant to plan any kind of celebration. As much as March through May 2020 were a particularly terrifying and isolating time for all of us, I can only imagine how much more so that was true for parents of a newborn. And so, it is with so much joy and relief that we gather this weekend, even among rising concerns of the Delta variant and the possibility of returning to online High Holy Day services, to finally officially welcome this now-toddler into the Jewish community with a...
Parashat Nitzavim – Vayeilekh 5780
September 11, 2020
Tomorrow’s Giants On Our Shoulders A D’var Torah for Parashat Nitzavim-Vayeilekh By Rabbi David Markus We stand on the shoulders of giants. Much that we have, much that we are becoming, are harvests of trees our ancestors planted. We inherit their shalshelet – their spiritual and practical causation both wise and unwise, healthy and not – along with what they received from their ancestry. Legacy courses through us as history’s heartbeat. We and how we live our lives are the next beat, the eternal river’s next bend on its endless flow. So of course, we stand on yesterday’s shoulders. But how about tomorrow’s giants on our shoulders? If we really felt the future on our shoulders, would we live differently? Torah’s Nitzavim-Vayeilekh asks that question directly. The Covenant is made with “everyone standing here today,” and also “everyone not standing here today” (Deut. 29:13-14). “Everyone not standing here today” are...
Parashat Nitzavim 5779
September 26, 2019
A D’var Torah for Parashat Nitzavim By Rabbi Heidi Hoover (’11) In this week’s Torah portion, Nitzavim, Moses speaks to the Israelites of the covenant between them and God. He emphasizes that every person in their society is a party to the covenant. Interestingly and perhaps incredibly, the non-Israelites who live among the Israelites are included as part of the covenant. We read repeatedly in the Torah that there is to be one law for the Israelite and the foreigner who lives among the Israelites, but usually it is not as clear that those foreigners are actually party to the covenant with God. But they are. Moses says, “You stand this day, all of you, before the Eternal your God—your tribal heads, your elders, and your officials, all the men of Israel, your children, your women, even the stranger within your camp, from woodchopper to water drawer—to enter into the...
