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.
D’var Torah – Pinhas 5785
July 14, 2025
Rabbi Enid C. Lader
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.”
Parashat Pinhas 5784
July 22, 2024
Hazzan Rabbi Luis Cattan ('20)
How can an Israeli soldier go back to sleep after battling in Gaza?
I have been struggling with this question. It comes from the feeling that on top of the pain, sorrow, astonishment, and anger, we are now dealing with the fact that our people are forced to do something we didn’t want. How do we achieve peace with the enemy? It is upon us and the enemy, hopefully soon; but how can our soldiers achieve peace with themselves?
Parashat Pinhas 5783
July 6, 2023
Rabbi Steven Altarescu ('14)
The way we respond to very difficult stories in the Torah can teach us a lot about the complexities of being human. Two common reactions to the stories that shock us, maybe even disgust us, might be to reject the whole Torah and its jealous and angry God or to simply not pay attention to the parts of the Torah we don’t like and only learn from its ethical teachings and uplifting stories. I would like to suggest a third approach, one that begins with seeing the Torah as the beginning of a conversation and not as the end of one. This means not only acknowledging the compassionate and loving side of being human but our more shadowy characteristics as well, such as the desire to murder, rid ourselves of people who we see as harmful to us, and obsessive sexual desires. Just as these are all in the Torah as well as inside each of us, I believe the way we choose to...
Parashat Pinhas 5782
July 22, 2022
Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah A D’var Torah for Parashat Pinhas by Rabbi Jeffrey Segelman In Parashat Pinhas, the formal ceremony of leadership succession takes place. Upon being reminded (as if he needed to be reminded) that he would not enter the land, Moses calls upon God to appoint a new leader. By appealing to God as the “Elohei HaRuhot” – the God of all spirits – the rabbis explain that Moses wants to make sure that God understands that the new leader must be able to tolerate the different opinions and personalities of the people. (See Rashi to Numbers 27:16) God informs Moses that Joshua will succeed him and that he should make a public display of this by standing before the people and placing his hand(s) on Joshua. (Sounds like our semikha, and it is indeed the source.) Through this ceremony, some of the glory of...
Parashat Pinhas 5781
July 2, 2021
Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah A D’var Torah for Parashat Pinhas By Rabbi Ariann Weitzman (’11) Parashat Pinhas’ eponymous lead character is an unusual one, with his very brief story spanning two parashiyot. Last week in parashat Balak, we read about Pinhas’ zealotry in killing two people, whose names are later revealed to be Cozbi and Zimri, who he believed to be part of a mass Israelite descent into Moabite idolatry and away from God, spurred on by sexually immoral behavior between Israelite men and Moabite and Midianite women. In response to his act, God abruptly ends a plague which had been terrorizing the Israelite encampment, purportedly as a punishment for this idolatry. Thus ends last week’s parasha. While perhaps we’re used to overzealous or even violent acts coming to good ends in Torah, the beginning of this week’s parasha might still surprise us. Pinhas’...
