Parashat Beshalah 5781
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Parashat Bo 5781
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Parashat Va’eira 5781
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Parashat Shemot – 5781
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Parashat Vayehi 5781
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Parashat Vayigash 5781
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Parashat Mikeitz 5781
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Parashat VaYeishev 5781
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Parashat Vayishlah 5781
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What Goes Around
A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayishlah
By Rabbi Michael Rothbaum (’06)
The aphorism “what goes around comes around” is so ingrained in the English language as to seem timeless. I’d always assumed it was from a Shakespearean sonnet, or maybe one of Aesop’s fables.
But a little Googling reveals it to be of a much more recent vintage. The earliest citation I found was from an African American newspaper, The Pittsburgh Courier, in 1952. Today it refers to getting one’s comeuppance — and not in a good way. But in what appears to be the first time the phrase appeared in print, columnist Nat D. Williams uses it to express a positive sentiment. Williams writes with pride of African American athletes finally getting their chance to prove their ability in the Olympics and in Major League Baseball, offering Black spectators “a surge of pride in seeing the keen minds Read More >
Parashat Vayeitzei 5781
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Parashat Toledot 5781
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Parashat Hayei Sarah 5781
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Parashat Lekh Lekha 5781
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Parashat Noah 5781
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Parashat Bereishit 5781
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Parashat Ha’azinu and Yom Kippur 5781
Yom Kippur, Shofar, and Freedom
A D’var Torah for Parashat Ha’azinu and Yom Kippur
By Rabbi Irwin Huberman (’10)
Why is it that a holy day which is supposed to be “awesome” has a reputation for many as being “awful?”
The 10 day period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is known as the Days of Awe – a time to reflect upon our lives, let go of the old, and chart an improved life path.
Yet, as we initially reflect upon Yom Kippur, so many of us tend to focus upon the discomfort of fasting. In many ways, fasting is counterintuitive to the way we currently live. We can watch television or access the Internet 24 hours a day. Shopping options are constantly available.
Yet, on Yom Kippur, while every instinct prompts us to open the fridge or cupboard to alleviate our hunger or thirst, we are told to push against that impulse – and to refrain from these, and Read More >
Parashat Nitzavim – Vayeilekh 5780
| 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 future generations (Rashi, Read More > |
Parashat Ki Tavo 5780
| A D’var Torah for Parashat Ki Tavo By Rabbi Heidi Hoover (’11) In the megahit musical Hamilton, there is a song with the repeated line, “Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrMkdZtqiVI). The way that we know who we are and where we come from is through stories. Sometimes we call them myths; sometimes we call them history. There’s more overlap between those two than we’d like to admit. It is impossible to include every detail of something that’s happened in a story, so every single time we tell a story, we make choices about what to put in and what to leave out. And indeed, who tells your story can determine whether you are hero or villain, victim or victor—in fact, whether you are remembered at all. Sometimes stories are codified in an attempt to shape identity, to tie everyone into a community through agreement on a shared story. Politicians Read More > |
Parashat Ki Teitzei 5780
A D’var Torah for Parashat Ki Teitzei
By Rabbi Matthew Goldstone
The topics of racism and racial justice have been on many of our minds over the past several months. One particular issue that I have been thinking about is that while many of us might decry racism, we may nevertheless unwittingly be participants in perpetuating policies and practices that reinforce racial inequality. We are not alone in this, nor is it a purely modern phenomenon. Already in the Torah we find judgmental assumptions based upon ancestry rather than individuality.
Our parasha this week delineates several categories of people who are not permitted to enter into the congregation of the Israelites, including the Ammonites and the Moabites. Anyone belonging to these groups is automatically labelled as unacceptable because their ancestors “did not meet you with food and water on your journey after you left Egypt and because they hired Balaam son of Beor, from Pethor Read More >
Parashat Shofetim 5780
The Political Philosophy of Deuteronomy
A D’var Torah for Parashat Shofetim
By Rabbi Len Levin
Rabbi Simeon ben Gamaliel used to say: On three things does the world stand: On justice, on truth and on peace, as it is said: “execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates” (Avot 1:18).
These three principles—truth, justice, and peace—are like three legs of a stool. A three-legged stool is stable, but if any one of the three legs is removed, the stool cannot stand.
There are five laws in the portion Shofetim in which these principles of Rabbi Simeon ben Gamaliel are implied:
- “Justice, justice you shall pursue”—a justice based on truth, without favoritism or bribery (Deuteronomy 16:18–20).
- In matters of legal controversy, there shall be a supreme court to decide the law (Ibid. 17:8–13).
- You may have a king, but he must have his own copy of the Read More >
Parashat Re’eh 5780
A D’var Torah for Parashat Re’eh
By Rabbi Bruce Alpert (’11)
“And you will rejoice before the Lord, your God, you and your son and your daughter and your man-servant and your maid-servant and Levite who is within your gates, and the stranger and the orphan and the widow that is among you.” (Deuteronomy 16:11)
I recently asked my teacher, Dr. Victoria Hoffer, why, when she published the first edition of her textbook Biblical Hebrew, she chose the above verse for the cover. She told me that, too often, students come to the study of Hebrew with a kind of grim seriousness. She wanted a verse that expressed the joy of learning and of studying the Bible in its original language.
Knowing that book cover as well as I do, the verse jumped out at me from this week’s parashah, Re’eh. It did so for reasons beyond familiarity; reasons similar to Dr. Hoffer’s. Our parashah too has a Read More >
Parashat Eikev 5780
A D’var Torah for Parashat Eikev
By Cantor Sandy Horowitz (’14)
In an episode of the Peanuts comic strip by Charles Schultz, Linus tells his sister Lucy that he wants to be a doctor. She replies in her big-sister way, “You could never be a doctor, you know why? Because you don’t love mankind, that’s why!” To which Linus replies:
This seems to illustrate Moses’ feeling towards the Israelites in Parashat Eikev.
One can’t argue with his commitment to the Israelites as a people (“mankind”), while at the same time we experience his deep frustration with their behavior. As they prepare to enter the Promised Land, Moses’ words include a series of rebukes as he tells them, “You have been rebelling against the Lord since the day I have known you” (Deut. 9:24). He recounts their transgressions in detail – how they built a golden calf idol, and Read More >
Parashat Va’ethanan 5780
The Torah and Quarantine 15
A D’var Torah for Parashat Va’ethanan
By Rabbi Irwin Huberman (’10)
There is a term associated with the deadly Covid 19, which has been making its way within medical and nutritional circles.
It’s known as Quarantine 15 – referring to the fact that so many Americans have gained weight during the pandemic.
In May, the website WebMD conducted a poll of 900 readers, reporting that 47 percent of Americans had gained between seven and 20 pounds during the first two months of the Covid crisis.
Of those polled, about 72 percent reported they had been exercising less. About 70 per cent stated that they had been “stress eating,” often feeding their anxiety through “comfort foods.”
And this week, the British government launched a program encouraging its citizens to address obesity caused in part by isolation during the pandemic. Laws limiting the advertising of “junk food” are being considered.
What does this have to do with Read More >
Parashat Devarim 5780
Into and Through Tisha b’Av: Our Fragile Alchemy of “Why”
A D’var Torah for Parashat Devarim
By Rabbi David Markus
There’s gotta be a reason. What’s happening now must be a reaction to something that came before. Someone must be responsible: maybe me, maybe you, maybe all of us. Any God that is good and fair must have some purpose in all this – right?
We sense this yearning for “why” just under the surface. After all, there’s lots to explain, and mere natural explanations don’t always suffice. That’s why so many people, of all faiths, might seek and see divine purpose in most everything from covid to tornadoes.
The human psyche – that sacred alchemy of supernal light and stardust – naturally seeks explanation for life’s twists and turns. For every fairness or unfairness, victory or defeat, comfort or suffering, we’re wired to connect the dots of causation with some coherence. If we’re deeply honest, Read More >
Parashat Mattot & Ma’sey 5780
| A D’var Torah for Parashat Mattot By Rabbi Matthew Goldstone Our Torah portion this week teaches us not to promise what we cannot deliver: “If a person makes a vow to the Lord or takes an oath imposing an obligation upon themself, they shall not break the pledge; they must carry out all that crossed their lips” (Num. 30:3). Despite the warning, many people make commitments that they do not end up fulfilling or give assurances for things they never intend to uphold. No wonder there is a strong tradition against taking oaths. We find this attitude in the rabbinic legal tradition when the major 16th century code of law, the Shulhan Arukh, states “Do not be accustomed to making vows and whoever vows – even if they fulfill it – is called a wicked person and is called a sinner” (Yoreh Deah 203:1). And fulfilling an oath might be even Read More > |
Parashat Pinhas 5780
A D’var Torah for Parashat Pinhas
By Rabbi Jill Hammer
In Parashat Pinhas, five daughters, the daughters of one man, Tzelofhad, appear before Moshe, bringing a case. Their father has died. Each Israelite family is to be allotted land in Canaan when the people enter the land. However, because Tzelofhad has no son, he has not been allotted land. The women present the case that their father deserves a portion in the land: “Let not our father’s name be lost to his clan because he had no son! Give us a holding among our father’s kinsmen!” (Num. 27:4) Moshe brings this case before YHWH, and YHWH declares that “the plea of Tzelofhad’s daughters is just” and rules that if a man has no sons, his daughters may inherit, provided they marry men from within their own tribe (Num. 27:7-11). This caveat about the daughters’ marriage is put in place so that, when the women have Read More >
Parashat Hukkat – Balak 5780
A D’var Torah for Parashat Hukkat – Balak
By Rabbi Len Levin
We are reading two parshiyot this week, each rich in lessons. We can only present a few hors d’oeuvres here; enjoy the rest at your leisure!
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The ritual of the red heifer raised many puzzles for the rabbis, to the point that they said that the wise king Solomon, frustrated in trying to solve them, gave up in despair and said: “All this I tested with wisdom, I thought I could fathom it, but it eludes me.” (Ecclesiastes 7:23; Pesikta Rabbati 14:1) The central mystery arises from the fact that it is a ritual for purification from contact with death. We are still struggling to understand the causes of death, which even now are evolving and mutating as we try to cope with them. A favorite question was: How is it that the ashes of the heifer are the Read More >
Parashat Korah 5780
A D’var Torah for Parashat Korah
By Rabbi Bruce Alpert (’11)
“The Torah of Adonai is perfect, reviving the soul,” reads the psalm (19:8). The word used here for perfection, temimah, implies completeness, but also simplicity, like a platonic ideal – something that exists in our minds but which can only be rendered in flawed representation here on earth. To change something that is perfect is to diminish it. Thus, the idea of perfection in revelation can lead one to a kind of fundamentalism that summarily rejects changes as thwarting, or at least diminishing, God’s will.
Yet, the Torah that is the Book of Numbers challenges this conception of perfection. In last week’s parashah, we learned that the Israelites did not know what to do with one who violated the Sabbath and needed Moses’s intervention to find out (Numbers 15:32-36). In the previous parashah, the Israelites challenged Moses over who was disqualified from offering the Pesach Read More >
Parashat Shelah 5780
A D’var Torah for Parashat Shelah
By Cantor Sandy Horowitz (’14)
Leaders tend to behave in one of two ways. Some promote fear, often spreading lies which may be based on fears of their own; other leaders promote trust, offering hope for a future envisioned but not yet realized. Parashat Shelah tells the story of what can happen when leadership is fear-based.
It begins as twelve men are selected by Moses to scout out the promised land. These twelve are all machers in the community, one from each of the twelve tribes, whose names and lineage are listed in the text. Their mission is to gather information about the land and its inhabitants. The Torah reading describes how they find huge clusters of grapes, as well as pomegranates and figs – indications of fertile land and good produce. Then we read, “And they returned from searching the land after forty days” (Num. 13:25). There are Read More >
Parashat Beha’alotekha
God Expands the Torah
A D’var Torah for Rarashat Beha’alotekha
By Rabbi Irwin Huberman (’11)
Can we incorporate within our personal theology a divine and all-knowing God, who agrees to change the laws of Torah upon human request?
It’s an interesting question that emerges both in this week’s Torah portion – Beha’alotekha – (when you light the lamps) and later in the Book of Numbers, where the Daughters of Zelofhad ask God to amend the Torah’s laws surrounding land ownership.
In this week’s parashah, an interesting interaction occurs between Moses and a group of men, who come in contact with a dead body.
According to the Torah, those who become ritually impure (tameh) through contact with a corpse are not permitted to participate in the Passover sacrifice. But, the men want to complete the commandment.
They take their case to Moses: “Impure though we are by reason of a corpse, why must we be debarred from presenting the Lord’s Read More >
Parashat Naso 5780
When It Really Is About The Patriarchy
A D’var Torah for Parshat Naso
By Rabbi David Markus
Dedicated to the family of George Floyd, and peaceful change makers everywhere.
I open this week’s Torah portion (Naso), and I cringe. I read of ancient ways to serve in the Mishkan – all tribal men of a certain age. I read of Sotah trials, humiliating women to placate jealous husbands. Even the Threefold Blessing, phrased free of gender, was harnessed to aim first at Kohanim – only men (B.T. Hullin 49a, Rashi Num. 6:27).
Thankfully we’ve become adept at redeeming Torah from patriarchy. Some see Torah as socially developmental, meeting our ancestors only just a bit ahead of their Bronze Age context so that Torah would be practical. We might note that Torah itself responded to the Sotah trial by restoring an innocent Sotah woman’s power: a false-accuser husband never could divorce her (Deut. 22:19). We Read More >
Shavuot 5780
A D’var Torah for Shavuot
By Rabbi Heidi Hoover (’11)
Most of us experience moments of transcendence in our lives. A moment of transcendence could be the first moment you realized you were in love with your partner. Or the way you felt at the birth of a child, or the first time you brought home a child you adopted. Perhaps it is a moment of communing with nature—realizing the power and beauty of the ocean, or climbing a mountain, or realizing the vastness of the universe while looking at the moon and the stars. Perhaps it is a religious moment—finding a new truth in the Torah, or suddenly realizing that a prayer speaks directly to you. It could be a big life moment or a small one, but you remember it because it impacted your soul, your spiritual self. It was a connection to something. I would call it a connection to God; Read More >
Parashat Bemidbar 5780
Twelve Tribes Meditation for Parashat Bemidbar
A D’var Torah for Parashat Bemidbar
By Rabbi Jill Hammer
Parashat Bemidbar describes how the twelve tribes encamp around the Tabernacle and the priests: three tribes on each side, with the Levites at the center. This sacred geometry is reminiscent of the months of the year and also of the four directions and seasons—twelve is three times four, a combination of two powerful numbers. One way to take in the Torah of Parashat Bemidbar is to explore the encampment of the twelve tribes through meditation.
Sefer Yetzirah, the Book of Creation, is a Jewish mystical work written between the 6th and 9th century CE. Sefer Yetzirah describes how God uses the Hebrew letters to create the world. Twelve of the letters are associated with twelve human faculties, and also with the twelve months. Later Jewish sources associate each month and faculty with a tribe as well. In one version of the correspondences, offered by translator Aryeh Read More >
Parashat Behar / Behukkotai 5780
Lessons of the Sabbatical for a Time of Pandemic
A D’var Torah for Parashat Bahar / Behukkotai
By Rabbi Len Levin
“Six years you may sow your field…and gather in the yield. But in the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath of complete rest, a sabbath of the Lord…You may eat whatever the land will produce during its sabbath.” (Leviticus 25:3–6)
What is the proper balance of work and rest in the Bible? Can the institutions of the Sabbath and the sabbatical year inspire us with ideas for dealing with the disruption of that balance in the current health crisis?
In the biblical creation story, man and woman were originally put in a garden where they could live off the fruit of the trees that grew naturally. By their sin, they were expelled from this paradise into the real world where people must earn bread by the sweat of their brows ( Read More >
Parashiyot Behar-Behukotai 5780
Lessons of the Sabbatical for a Time of Pandemic
A D’var Torah for Parashat Bahar / Behukkotai
By Rabbi Len Levin
“Six years you may sow your field…and gather in the yield. But in the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath of complete rest, a sabbath of the Lord…You may eat whatever the land will produce during its sabbath.” (Leviticus 25:3–6)
What is the proper balance of work and rest in the Bible? Can the institutions of the Sabbath and the sabbatical year inspire us with ideas for dealing with the disruption of that balance in the current health crisis?
In the biblical creation story, man and woman were originally put in a garden where they could live off the fruit of the trees that grew naturally. By their sin, they were expelled from this paradise into the real world where people must earn bread by the sweat of their brows ( Read More >
Parashat Emor 5780
A D’var Torah for Parashat Emor
By Rabbi Bruce Alpert (AJR ’11)
A well-known midrash tells of Rabbi Yehoshua bemoaning the destruction of the Temple – “the place that atoned for Israel’s sins” – to his master, Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai. Rabbi Yohanan comforts his disciple with the observation that “we have another means of gaining atonement: through deeds of loving kindness, as it is written (Hosea 6:6) ‘I desire deeds of loving kindness, not sacrifice.’” (Avot d’Rabbi Natan 4:5)
Comforting as this midrash might be, it reduces the Temple to a single function: atoning for sin. Yet were this really its primary purpose, why are prayers for the Temple’s restoration so ubiquitous in our liturgy? As one who has ever uttered those prayers with discomfort, I think we need to look more deeply for the answer.
For many of us, our discomfort with the idea of the restoration of the Temple goes beyond our reticence about Read More >
Parashat Aharei Mot Kedoshim
A D’var Torah for Parashat Aharei Mot Kedoshim
By Cantor Sandy Horowitz (’14)
Parashat Kedoshim consists of a series of commandments which God wants Moses to convey to the Israelite people. As is God’s wont, God has a lot to say as the verses in this parashah jump from one topic to another– keep My sabbaths; when you reap your harvest, leave the corners of your field for the poor and stranger; do not curse the deaf; do not cross-breed your cattle; and so on. These are a few of the laws which appear just in the first two aliyot of the Torah reading. Imagine how the Israelites might have listened to this series of commandments while trying to remember it all; it must have felt overwhelming, and perhaps a bit confusing. What harvest? What stranger?
Then we arrive at the beginning of the third aliyah: “When you come into the land and plant Read More >
Parashat Tazria Metzora 5780
The Torah and Social Distancing
A D’var Torah for Parashat Tazria Metzora
By Rabbi Irwin Huberman (’10)
Perhaps there has never been a better time to embrace — with open arms — a section of the Torah, which most years we tend to turn away from.
The double portion of Tazria-Metzora speaks about those bodily conditions that often make us socially and physically uncomfortable: Rashes, skin diseases, bodily purification and leprosy, to name a few.
But isn’t it remarkable, how, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, this week’s Parashah comes to life probably in a way it never has in our lifetime?
During this unprecedented time, we can’t help but marvel at how our tradition appeared concerned with public health, long before the field of medicine became a sophisticated practice.
Indeed, our tradition recognizes the importance of testing, treatment, quarantine, evaluation and re-integration as part of a communal approach to healing.
During this time of quarantine and social distancing, the Read More >
Parashat Shemini 5780
“Silent” Tribute to the Dead of Covid-19
A D’var Torah for Parashat Shemini
By Rabbi David Markus
Spiritually speaking, what should we say amidst 120,000 covid-19 deaths? Surely there must be something we should say, some right response – right?
If these questions land a gut punch, if they rouse gnawing emptiness, if they jumble emotions and singe the soul, then we might just barely begin to imagine Aaron in this week’s paresha (Shemini). How could the High Priest of Israel lose his sons Nadav and Avihu to divine fire, and then respond with silence – vayidom Aharon (Leviticus 10:3)?
This timely question, about one of Torah’s most difficult texts, touches our core both as individuals and as spiritual leaders – especially now.
But let’s be clear: our question’s covid-19 context isn’t so unusual in a global sense. According to the United Nations, over 165,000 people die every day from all causes (e.g. age, illnesses both acute and Read More >
Pesah 5780
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Parashat Tzav 5780
An Offering of the heart
A D’var Torah for Parashat Tzav
By Rabbi Jill Hammer
Parashat Tzav deals with the offerings that the priests and the people made in the Tabernacle for the purposes of gratitude, atonement, and daily celebration. These offerings included the olah (an offering entirely burnt), the minhah or meal-offering, the zevah shelamim—a celebratory offering where part was given to God and people ate the rest—and the hatat and asham, two kinds of sin offerings. This week, my attention was particularly drawn to the olah, the offering that is completely burned. I want to explore three ways the olah might be relevant to us at this moment.
First, to me, the olah offering, an offering that is entirely given over, speaks to the powerful offerings that doctors, nurses, midwives, EMTs, and other medical workers are making right now as they serve those who are ill even at risk to themselves. This offering speaks, to me, of the Read More >
Parashat Vayikra 5780
The Teachings of Leviticus for This Present Moment
A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayikra
By Rabbi Len Levin
This week we begin reading the book of Leviticus. The interpretation I offer here has benefited from the perspectives of the contemporary scholars Mary Douglas (Purity and Danger) and Jacob Milgrom (The Anchor Bible: Leviticus), both of whom have enriched my understanding of the author’s complex outlook.
The underlying unity of the book’s diverse themes can be seen in the theme of purification—purification through ritual (especially sacrifices—chapters 1–10 and dietary laws—chapter 11), purification through medical diagnosis and quarantine (the laws of leprosy and family purity—chapters 12–15), and purification through ethical living and social justice (the teaching of “love your neighbor” (Lev. 19:18) and the Sabbatical / Jubilee years—chapter 25). In the book’s coda (chapter 26), the author promises peace and prosperity if these teachings are taken to heart in the life of Read More >
Parashat Vayak’hel / P’kudei 5780
| A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayak’hel P’kudei By Rabbi Bruce Alpert (’11)What does it mean to have a “willing heart?” The phrase is used three times in the opening verses of this week’s parashah, Vayak’hel/P’kudei (Exodus 35:5, 22, and 29). It likewise appears in Parashat Terumah, Exodus 25:2. In each instance the circumstances are the same; it describes the voluntary donations of precious materials (gold, silver, jewels, rare fabrics) used for the construction of the Mishkan – God’s dwelling place among the Israelite tribes. These donations are all made by those whose heart moves them to do so, and they are made in such profusion that Moses ultimately must command the Israelites to stop (Exodus 36:6). But we only realize how evocative is the phrase “willing heart” when we consider the source of these gifts. These materials were acquired by the Israelites as they left Egypt, stripping it of its precious objects as Read More > |
Parashat Ki Tisa 5780
A D’var Torah for Parashat Ki Tisa
By Cantor Sandy Horowitz (’14)
In Parashat Ki Tisa Aaron has been left in charge of the Israelites while Moses is meeting with God atop Mount Sinai. As the brother of Moses, Aaron is a likely choice to be given the responsibility of interim-leader. Given what happens however, one might wonder if he was the right person for the job.
Time passes, Moses doesn’t return, God is silent, the Israelites become anxious. In Exodus 32:1 we read, “The people gathered against Aaron and said to him, come, make us a god who shall go before us, for that man Moses… we do not know what has happened to him.” Aaron immediately complies. He doesn’t try to convince the people that Moses will be back soon, or encourage them to keep faith with God. Rather, he asks for the gold from the jewelry of their wives and daughters, and uses it Read More >
Parashat Tetzaveh 5780
Purim: When Israel truly accepted Torah
A D’var Torah for Parashat Tetzaveh
By Rabbi Irwin Huberman (’10)
One of the visual highlights of the regular Shabbat service occurs after we complete our weekly Torah reading.
Within the Asheknazi (European) tradition, the magbiah (the lifter) opens the Torah at least three columns wide, and raises it towards the heavens. The congregation responds by chanting, “And this is the Torah that Moses set before the people of Israel — upon the command of God, through Moses’ hand” (Deut. 4:44)
It is a beautiful tradition which acknowledges the Jewish people receiving Torah at Mount Sinai, more than three thousand years ago.
But as our Talmudic tradition teaches, receipt of Torah is one thing, accepting it is another.
The Talmud implies, that in the desert, barely three months after their liberation, the Israelites really had no choice. They were totally dependent on God.
Supplies of food and water were limited. They were at Read More >
Parashat Terumah 5780
A D’var Torah for Parashat Terumah
By Rabbi David Markus
By Rabbi David Markus
Sometimes it’s what Torah doesn’t say. Listen to Torah’s silence and she might reveal whole new worlds just waiting for you to hear them into being.
With this week’s Parashat Terumah, Torah begins describing how Moses, Betzalel and their team will build the Mishkan. Chapter after detailed chapter, Torah specifies the metals, fabrics, dimensions, shapes, colors and vessels of the Indwelling Place in which our wandering ancestors would channel and receive the sacred. Torah’s architectural design and building instructions were explicit, nuanced and exacting…
… except for the two kruvim adorning the Holy of Holies. It’s easy, God says: just pop ’em on top.
“Make two kruvim of gold, make them of hammered work, at the two ends of the cover. Make one kruv on one end, and one kruv on the other end…. The kruvim will stretch their wings above, covering the [Ark’s] cover with their wings, and each face will front the other…. Read More >
Parashat Mishpatim 5780
Knowing What We Don’t Know
A D’var Torah for Parashat Mishpatim
By Rabbi Jill Hammer
A D’var Torah for Parashat Mishpatim
By Rabbi Jill Hammer
Parashat Mishpatim deals, among many other matters, with the laws of robbery. Exodus 22:1-2, which is part of the larger discussion of robbery, reads: “If one finds someone who comes through a tunnel [into one’s house], and one strikes them and they are killed, one is not liable for bloodguilt [murder]. But if the sun shone upon them, there is bloodguilt [it is murder if one kills them]…” When I was in rabbinical school, in one of my Talmud classes, we studied a section (sugya) of the Talmud known as “haba b’mahteret” or “one who comes through a tunnel.” (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 72a)—which comments on these verses. The sugya offers three possible interpretations of this verse, which invite us to contemplate how we judge others we fear.
The text considers the possibility that, as safe as we Read More >
Parashat Yitro 5780
A D’var Torah for Parashat Yitro
By Rabbi Heidi Hoover (’11)
By Rabbi Heidi Hoover (’11)
This week’s Torah portion includes the single most intense episode in the whole Torah—the revelation of Torah at Mount Sinai. The Israelites, having left Egypt, stand together at the foot of the mountain. There’s thunder and lightning, and the blaring of a horn. The mountain is shaking and smoking, because God has come down on it in fire. This is when the Israelites really become a people, God’s people—when God gives them the Torah.
We don’t call this Torah portion “revelation,” though. And we don’t call it “the 10 Commandments.” The name we use for this Torah portion is Yitro, because the portion begins with something else, something that is also very important, though more mundane.
At the beginning of parashat Yitro, Moses and the Israelites are encamped at Mount Sinai. Moses’s father-in-law, Jethro—Yitro in Hebrew—comes to visit. Jethro and Moses have a nice visit and catch up on Read More >
Parashat Beshalah 5780
A D’var Torah for Parashat Beshalah
By Rabbi Len Levin
This week’s joyful song at the crossing of the Sea is ensconced in the daily liturgy, morning and evening: “Who is like You, O Lord, among the celestials; who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in splendor, working wonders!” (Exod. 15:11) Thus the liturgy utters three ringing declarations about God: God creates, God reveals Torah in love, God redeems.
A naïve understanding would have it that God is active and we are passive in these three actions. But a more sophisticated approach asks: Does God act unilaterally? Can anything happen in human history without human participation and cooperation?
Two weeks ago, God promised: Ve-hotzeiti etkhem—“I will bring you out” (Exod. 6:6). In his liturgical poem Kehosha’ta Elim accompanying the Sukkot lulav processional, the 7th-century poet Eleazar Kalir read this verse ve-hutzeiti itkhem—“I will be brought out with you.” Abraham Read More >
Parashat Bo 5780
A D’var Torah for Parashat Bo
By Rabbi Bruce Alpert (’11)
“This month shall mark for you the beginning of the months.” (Exodus 12:2) This has to be one of the most jarring verses in all of Torah. After eleven uninterrupted chapters of perhaps the most dramatic story ever told – the conflict between Moses and Pharaoh – we find ourselves in what quickly becomes a detailed discussion of the observance of the festival of Pesah. Gone is the ratcheting tension of human obstinacy in the face of divine wrath and in its place, twenty-eight verses of calendars, cooking instructions and details for future observances.
And yet, in this mass of interrupting detail, I find the answer to what I consider a particularly troubling verse in this week’s parashah, Bo. It too concerns the celebration of a festival. Faced with yet another plague, Pharaoh asks Moses who among the Israelites will depart with him should he be allowed Read More >
Parashat Va’era 5780
A D’var Torah for Parashat Va’era
By Cantor Sandy Horowitz (’14)
Parashat Va’era begins with a continuation of the interaction between God and Moses from last week’s parasha. This week’s conversation seems to be a “do-over”, perhaps the result of God’s recognition that the relationship with Moses is going to be quite different from the earlier relationships between God and the Genesis patriarchs.
When God first appeared to Abraham (then called Avram) in the book of Genesis, God commanded him, “Go forth from your land and from your birthplace…to the land that I will show you. And I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you…” The response was direct and immediate: “So Avram departed” (Gen 12:1-4).
Moses is no Abraham. Last week when Moses first encountered God at the burning bush, he was far more reluctant to follow God’s instructions. After the introductory “I am the God of your father, the Read More >
Parashat Shemot 5780
Antisemitism Then and Now
A D’var Torah for Parashat Shemot
By Rabbi Irwin Huberman (’10)
There is a gnawing question that has plagued many commentators, as we witness in this week’s Torah portion, what could be referred to as the first recorded case of antisemitism:
How did the Jewish people fall from grace to disgrace in such a relatively short period of time?
More specifically, what exactly happened during the two hundred years since the Israelites were welcomed into Egypt with open arms – to the point when a new Pharaoh arose and enacted policies that targeted the descendants of Joseph?
As last week’s Parashah ended, all appeared to be well between the Israelites and the Egyptians. The Torah tells us that officials from the highest levels of the Egyptian government accompanied Joseph as he travelled to Canaan to bury his father, Jacob.
This included, “…all the officials of Pharaoh, the senior members of the court, and all of Egypt’s Read More >
Parashat Vayehi 5780
A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayehi
By Rabbi David Markus
This last Torah portion of the Book of Genesis (Vayeḥi) concludes the drama of Jacob, Joseph and his brothers. The dramatic saga – their troubled family dynamics, power and power inversions, regret, guilt, fear, their very lives – it all finally reaches a settled tableau. Jacob is buried, hatchets are buried (maybe), and Joseph’s body is embalmed. With them, Torah’s first era of Jewish ancestry ends.
Of course, their deaths are Torah’s fertilizer for the future. Reflecting God’s promise to Abraham long before (Gen. 15:13), by design all of this week’s endings are mere prelude. The next chapter soon will open by recounting those generations (Ex. 1:1-6), and a new king of Egypt will rise to life who knows not Joseph (Ex. 1:8). Centuries of bondage will commingle death and life until only supernatural deaths – the Tenth Plague and the drowning Read More >
Parashat Vayigash 5780
A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayigash
By Rabbi Heidi Hoover
In this week’s Torah portion, Vayigash, Joseph reveals who he is to his brothers, in an awkward and fraught family reunion. It could hardly be otherwise. His brothers, when they were more powerful than Joseph due to age and numbers, sold him into slavery years ago and let their father believe his favorite son was dead. Now, he is the powerful one—the Egyptian official second only to Pharaoh—and they have come begging to buy food in the famine.
They never had much in common with each other, Joseph and his brothers, and they never got along. Joseph insulted his brothers and reported on their behavior to their father. They, of course, rejected him in the most extreme way, just short of murdering him.
Still, the bond of family remains. Times are hard now, during this great famine. Joseph forgives his brothers and helps them, because they Read More >
Parashat Miketz 5780
The Dreams of Pharaoh
A D’var Torah for Parashat Miketz
By Rabbi Jill Hammer
Often when we come to this parashah, we think of the drama of Yosef: his rediscovery of his brothers and his decision to trick them in order to see if their character has changed. But this year, I am finding myself curious about a different drama: the story of Pharaoh. Not the one with a hard heart, but the first Pharaoh, the one who dreams. It is this Pharaoh who elevates Joseph to high estate. It is also this Pharaoh who teaches us something about the qualities of leadership.
At the beginning of Genesis 41, the Pharaoh of Egypt has two dreams in a single night, dreams that disturb him. In the first dream, seven healthy cows come out of the Nile, and then seven emaciated cows come out and devour the seven healthy cows. In the second, Pharaoh sees a grain stalk with seven healthy Read More >
Parashat Vayeshev 5780
Thomas Mann’s Portrayal of Tamar—A Self-Reflection?
A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayeshev
By Rabbi Len Levin
I first encountered Thomas Mann’s portrayal of the biblical heroine Tamar (from Joseph and His Brothers, pp. 1016–42) as a high school student; it was assigned reading in our Jewish day school. I have never been able to see her otherwise since.
Thomas Mann was arguably the greatest German writer of his age. He worked on his massive fictional rendition of the Joseph saga from 1924 to 1942, years of turbulence and tragedy for Germany and Jewry. He modeled his portrayal of Rachel on his wife Katia, who came from an assimilated German Jewish family. Seeking a leading female character for the fourth part of his tetralogy, he chose Tamar, daughter-in-law of Judah who became the progenitress of the two leading clans of the Judah tribe, Peretz and Zerah, and ancestress of the Davidic dynasty.
Mann masterfully reworks the bare bones Read More >
Parashat Vayeishev 5780
Thomas Mann’s Portrayal of Tamar—A Self-Reflection?
A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayeshev
By Rabbi Len Levin
I first encountered Thomas Mann’s portrayal of the biblical heroine Tamar (from Joseph and His Brothers, pp. 1016–42) as a high school student; it was assigned reading in our Jewish day school. I have never been able to see her otherwise since.
Thomas Mann was arguably the greatest German writer of his age. He worked on his massive fictional rendition of the Joseph saga from 1924 to 1942, years of turbulence and tragedy for Germany and Jewry. He modeled his portrayal of Rachel on his wife Katia, who came from an assimilated German Jewish family. Seeking a leading female character for the fourth part of his tetralogy, he chose Tamar, daughter-in-law of Judah who became the progenitress of the two leading clans of the Judah tribe, Peretz and Zerah, and ancestress of the Davidic dynasty.
Mann masterfully reworks the bare bones Read More >
Parashat Vayishlah 5780
A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayishlah
By Rabbi Bruce Alpert (’11)
Two recent experiences color my reading of this week’s parashah, Vayishlah. The first involved my family watching When Harry Met Sally for the umpteenth time. After the movie, we turned to the DVD’s special features which included an interview with the screenwriter, the wonderful Nora Ephron. In it she said that there were two kinds of romantic comedies. In the Christian kind, the protagonists are kept apart by a real, physical barrier. In the Jewish kind, they are separated by the man’s neuroses.
I thought about that as I read of Jacob’s preparations to meet his brother Esau at the beginning of this week’s parashah. First he sends an obsequious message to Esau hoping for a favorable reply (Gen. 32:4-6). When that fails, he divides his camp in two, seeking to secure the safety of at least part of his clan (Gen. 32:8-9). Then he sends gifts to his brother, Read More >
Parashat Vayetze 5780
A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayetze
By Cantor Sandy Horowitz (’14)
Our liturgy contains frequent reminders that our God is also the God of the three patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But from what we know about Jacob when we encounter him at the beginning of Parashat Vayetze, he seems like a poor choice for a patriarch. He had behaved terribly towards his brother and father, having manipulated Esau into giving him the older brother’s birthright and then deceiving his father Isaac into giving him the blessing meant for Esau. Jacob is forced to leave home in order to escape Esau’s death threats.
Granted, Jacob’s role had been preordained when they were in the womb, as it was declared that the elder of the twins, Esau, would serve the younger, Jacob (Genesis 25:23). Nonetheless, Jacob’s behavior thus far does not seem consistent with the actions of one worthy of God’s blessing.
Parashat Vayetze begins pursuant to these Read More >
Parashat Vayeitzei 5780
A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayetze
By Cantor Sandy Horowitz (’14)
Our liturgy contains frequent reminders that our God is also the God of the three patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But from what we know about Jacob when we encounter him at the beginning of Parashat Vayetze, he seems like a poor choice for a patriarch. He had behaved terribly towards his brother and father, having manipulated Esau into giving him the older brother’s birthright and then deceiving his father Isaac into giving him the blessing meant for Esau. Jacob is forced to leave home in order to escape Esau’s death threats.
Granted, Jacob’s role had been preordained when they were in the womb, as it was declared that the elder of the twins, Esau, would serve the younger, Jacob (Genesis 25:23). Nonetheless, Jacob’s behavior thus far does not seem consistent with the actions of one worthy of God’s blessing.
Parashat Vayetze begins pursuant to these Read More >
Parashat Toledot 5780
| Our “Imperfect” Biblical Characters A D’var Torah for Parashat Toledot By Rabbi Irwin Huberman (’10) Rabbi Joseph Ehrenkranz, one of my most influential teachers, once shared a profound insight with me regarding why he believed the Torah is based on truth. “The characters we read about are so flawed,” he said. “While the heroes of many other religions are depicted as perfect, ours are not. There is no reason to describe them this way, unless it is to touch on the truth within each of us.” This week’s Torah portion, Toledot (“This is the story of Isaac”), is a case in point. It recounts the story of a dysfunctional family worthy of a reality television series. After twenty childless years, Rebecca conceives twins. The Torah describes Rebecca’s difficult pregnancy, as her two future sons “struggle inside her.” God describes “two nations in your womb,” and—as often is the case in the Torah— “the elder will serve the younger.” ( Read More > |
Parashat Hayei Sarah
| A D’var Torah for Parashat Hayei Sarah By Rabbi David Markus I stopped counting how often I hear, “God loves me: I got a great parking spot.” Even some clergy, spiritual directors and theologians have a soft spot for the Angel of Miraculous Parking. I too admit to invoking Hanayat-El (from hanayah / ”parking”) under my breath. Perhaps it’s a cute half-joke – seemingly easy and low stakes, gently cutting down to size the vast uncontrollability of modern life. And as spiritual thinkers of integrity and rigor, let’s be candid about the many theological dilemmas of Hanayat-El: Why do bad parking spots happen to good people? Isn’t God close to the broken-hearted driver on a hurried errand? Does God do parking but not highway traffic or airport delays? Vanity of vanities: all parking is vanity! But Hanayat-El is no joke. Angel of Miraculous Parking or not, intercessory prayer – asking God for specifics – is a core Jewish Read More > |
Parashat Vayeira 5780
A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayeira
By Rabbi Heidi Hoover (’11)
At the beginning of this week’s Torah portion, Vayeira, Abraham is sitting outside his tent at the hottest part of the day. God visits him. Our rabbis tell us that this is an act of compassion on God’s part. The reason Abraham is sitting isn’t just that it’s the hottest part of the day—too hot to work or do anything, really—but also because he’s recovering from having circumcised himself, as God had commanded him to do at the end of last week’s Torah portion.
This is where we derive the duty to visit the sick—we are emulating God, who visits Abraham when he is recovering from surgery. God, who is so much more important than Abraham, takes the time to come see him when he isn’t feeling well.
And look at the effect it has on Abraham, who must be toward the end of his Read More >
Parashat Lekh Lekha 5780
Is Not the Whole Land Before You?
A D’var Torah for Parashat Lekh Lekha
By Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD
Every year on Simhat Torah, in my home community of Romemu, we unroll the entire Torah and the whole community holds it in a circle. Everyone present receives a biblical verse for the year. Most people draw a verse from a basket with many biblical verses on slips of paper. Some of us like to do it the “old-fashioned way”: by closing our eyes and pointing to the scroll. That’s what I did this year, and my finger landed on this passage:
“Avram said to Lot, “Let there not be a quarrel between me and you, between my shepherds and yours, for we are relatives (anashim ahim). Is not the whole land (kol ha’aretz) before you? Please separate from me. If you go left, I will go right, and if you go right, I will go left.” (Gen 13:8-9)
It seemed an ominous passage Read More >
Parashat Noah 5780
Deluge, Ancient and Modern
A D’var Torah for Parashat Noah
By Rabbi Len Levin
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and all their host. God saw everything that God made, that it was good. All the beings and creatures followed the innate laws of their being, as implanted in them by their creator. Everything was perfectly orderly and predictable.
Then God created human beings and granted them free will. All hell broke loose, and all bets were off.
Corruption spread from humans to all God’s creation. The world was reverting to chaos faster than God could catch the divine breath that was hovering over the waters. God resolved to wipe out the entirety of earthly creation, except for a few specimens from each species that God’s chosen human representative Noah would salvage in order to start over.
After the deluge, God considered what changes to institute to give things a better chance the next Read More >
Parashat Bereishit 5780
A D’var Torah for Parashat Bereishit
By Rabbi Bruce Alpert (’11)
For many years now, I have been intrigued by one particular reading in my synagogue’s High Holiday mahzor (Mahzor Hadash, The Prayer Book Press). Entitled “Continuing Creation,” it says that “our Sages taught, the human being is ‘God’s partner in the work of Creation.’ God and we create together.” It goes on to say: “There is still much to be done: disease to be conquered, injustice and poverty to overcome, hatred and war to be eliminated. There is truth to be discovered, beauty to be fashioned, freedom to be achieved, peace and righteousness to be established.”
This reading’s appeal rests on its nobility: lofty, even holy goals that become the mission toward which we work. In positing us as God’s partners in the work of Creation, this passage invests our lives with a transcendent purpose and significance.
But what exactly does it mean to say that we are God’s Read More >
Parashat Ha’azinu 5780
A D’var Torah for Parashat Ha’azinu
By Rabbi Isaac Mann
Moses’ final message to the assembled Israelite people came in the form of a poetic song (shirah) that described in brief the spiritual history of their relationship with the Almighty. As with all poetry, what appears to be a simple, readily understood expression can upon careful examination actually contain layers of deeper meaning. One such verse is the following (Deut. 32:6):
“Do you thus requite the Lord, O vile people and unwise (am naval ve’lo hakham)? Is He not your father who has created you, who fashioned you and made you endure?”
The word naval, which is found only twice in the Pentateuch (in this verse and again a few verses later, in v. 21), denotes a person or a nation that repays its benefactor with evil. It is used most famously to refer to the husband of Avigail in the Book of Samuel Read More >
Parashat Vayeilekh 5780
A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayeilekh
By Rabbi David Markus
Rosh Hashanah brings a spiritual lag between the year’s reboot and Torah’s reboot, like our northern latitude’s seasonal lag between sun angle and temperature. This spiritual lag raises two questions. First, shouldn’t Rosh Hashanah, which recalls the Yom Harat Olam (Creation’s birthday) of Genesis 1, therefore also be Simhat Torah to reboot the Torah cycle at the same time? Second, precisely because Simhat Torah lags behind by over three weeks, what spiritual meaning to make of this lag and this week’s Torah portion (Vayeilekh) that begins to fill it?
Talmud’s explanation for the lag is that Rosh Hashanah should follow only after we read Torah’s “curses” of consequence for disobedience (Megillah 31b). That’s Deuteronomic theology in a nutshell: spiritually speaking, we get what we deserve and we deserve what we get.
To me, Talmud’s premise doesn’t hold. Even if we accept Deuteronomic theology Read More >
Parashat Nitzavim 5779
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 covenant of the Eternal your Read More >
Parashat Ki Tavo 5779
Coming of the Messiah: Sooner or Later?
A D’var Torah for Parashat Ki Tavo
By Rabbi Irwin Huberman (’10)
Perhaps no Jewish themed text has been more quoted in recent times than the 1971 theater production, Fiddler on the Roof.
In one of Fiddler’s closing scenes, as residents of the fictional town of Anatevka continue packing their belongings, one of the local characters, Mottel the Tailor, turns to the community’s rabbi and asks:
“Rabbi, we’ve been waiting for the Messiah all our lives. Wouldn’t now be a good time for him to come?”
To which the Rabbi replies: “I guess we’ll have to wait someplace else.”
The idea of a great national savior to either facilitate or preside over a perfected world has captured the imagination of Jews, among others, for centuries.
Allusions to this character appear in many prophetic books, most notably Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Micah, Hosea, Zachariah and Daniel.
As hardships continued to besiege the Jewish people over the Read More >
Parashat Ki Tetzei 5779
A D’var Torah for Parashat Ki Tetzei
By Rabbi Bruce Alpert (’11)
As a rabbinical student, I attended a lecture taught by a sofer – a scribe – who demonstrated for us some of the tools he used in creating a Torah scroll. Among them was a sheet of parchment covered with ink blotches. The scribe showed us how, before beginning to work on the scroll, he would inscribe the name Amalek on this sheet and then blot it out. Thus did he honor (if not exactly fulfill) the commandments in this week’s Torah portion to both remember Amalek and erase the memory of him (Deuteronomy 25:17-19).
This exercise strikes me as a clever if incomplete way of dealing with apparently contradictory commandments. There are other places in Deuteronomy where we are asked to reconcile commandments or statements that are at odds with each other. Notably, two weeks ago, in Parashat Re’eh, we read first that “there shall be Read More >
Parashat Shoftim 5779
A D’var Torah for Parashat Shoftim
By Cantor Sandy Horowitz (’14)
“Return to Me”. As I was folding my food-delivery bag I saw those printed words on the bottom. The actual words were “Return Me” (a message for the sake of sustainability) but that’s not what I saw; the mind is a funny thing sometimes. We are in the month of Elul, countdown to the High Holidays. Return to Me! Return to the One in Whose Guidance we trust; return to me, my most sacred authentic self. There are many ways to approach this period of preparation and personal reflection prior to the Days of Awe; a theme from Parashat Shoftim suggests one framework: that theme is justice.
This week’s Torah reading begins with God’s establishment of a legal structure, for the time when the Israelites will dwell in their new home across the Jordan. Judges and law enforcement officials are to be established in all the tribes, and Read More >
Parashat Re’eh 5779
There Never Was an Idolatrous City
A D’var Torah for Parashat Re’eh
By Rabbi Len Levin
“See, this day I set before you blessing and curse.” (Deut. 11:26)
“I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life!” (Deut. 30:19)
It should be so simple. But life is rarely that simple.
The extreme of evil, which the Torah bids us shun, is idolatry (Deut. 13:2–19). What is idolatry? In rabbinic literature, idolatry is often equated with kafar ba-ikar —forsaking the fundamental principle of Judaism. In modern parlance, we have other ways of expressing supreme condemnation. “Disloyalty,” “treason,” and “self-hating Jew” come to mind. They carry the same valence of scorn, ostracism, and exclusion as “idolatry” in ancient discourse. Each is used implicitly to condemn an opponent as violating the fundamental principle of Judaism.
But there is more than one fundamental principle of Judaism.
In the Pesah Haggadah, we are told Read More >
Parashat Eikev 5779
A D’var Torah for Parashat Eikev
By Rabbi Isaac Mann
In the beginning of this week’s Torah reading we have two references to the manna (man in Hebrew) that sustained the Israelites in the desert for forty years as a test (nisayon) by God. In this essay I wish to explore what was the nature of this test and how it relates to us in practical terms.
In his long exhortation to B’nei Yisrael, Moses reminds them that God had them travel in the wilderness for the past forty years that “He might test you by hardships to learn what was in your hearts: whether you would keep His commandments or not. He subjected you to the hardship of hunger and then gave you manna to eat … in order to teach you that man does not live by bread alone, but that man may live on anything that the Lord decrees” (Deut. 8:2-3). Read More >
Parashat Va’ethanan 5779
| A D’var Torah for Parashat Va’ethanan By Rabbi David Markus It’s fitting that the “Jewish greatest hits” of Parashat Va’ethanan come immediately after Tisha b’Av. After our spiritual calendar’s lowest day, Torah promises that anyone who seeks God with whole heart and soul will find God exactly where we are – even in exile (Deut. 4:27-29). We stand again to hear the sacred utterances we call the Ten Commandments, recalling that together we stood at Sinai (Deut. 5:6-18). We receive the Shema of unity and the V’ahavta of a love that far transcends place – both “dwelling in [our] home and walking on [our] way” (Deut. 6:4-9). Notice how the three Va’ethanan dimensions of content, place and time commingle spiritually. The content is core Jewish theology. It’s our full-hearted search for God amidst a promise of real sacred encounter. (Heschel’s God in Search of Man, anyone?) It’s God pouring Self into Word becoming Read More > |
Parashat Devarim 5779
A D’var Torah for Parashat Devarim
By Rabbi Heidi Hoover (’11)
Devarim is the first significant word of this week’s Torah portion, and therefore it gives the Torah portion its name. Because this week is the first portion in the fifth book of the Torah, Devarim is also the name of the whole book, which is called Deuteronomy in English, from the Greek. Devarim means “words,” and it’s an appropriate name for the book, because Moses spends the whole book of Deuteronomy making his last speech to the Israelites. At the end of it he dies and they prepare to go forward into the Promised Land.
In Judaism, words are very important. We are called the “People of the Book”—a book (books, really) full of words that give us the best information we have about what God wants from us. Words can create and destroy reputations. According to our tradition, God used words to create Read More >
Parashat Matot-Masei 5779
A D’var Torah for Parashat Matot-Masei
By Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD
This week we have a double parashah: Matot-Masei. The name of Parashat Matot means staffs (as in big sticks). A staff is a sign of authority, and this parashah is full of reflections on tribal and patriarchal authority. As it moves through its various narratives, the parashah demonstrates how small acts of violence can lead to larger ones.
The parashah opens with an explanation of the practice of nedarim or vows. This was an important Israelite practice that was open to laypeople, not only clergy. The making and keeping of a vow—such as a vow to become a nazirite and not cut your hair, or Hannah’s vow to give Samuel to the Temple—was a kind of offering practice. It was a way of showing devotion to God and often of showing gratitude for some personal abundance or miraculous intervention one had received.
However, this vowing practice was not equally open to Read More >
Parashat Pinhas 5779
Pinhas: Hero or vigilante?
A D’var Torah for Parashat Pinhas
By Rabbi Irwin Huberman (’10)
It may be strongly argued that within Judaism, there is no room or tolerance for committing murder in God’s name.
We view with distain fanatical groups such as ISIS or Boko Haran killing others for failing to adhere to a specific type of religious practice. Teenage girls have been kidnapped or enslaved for the perceived crime of receiving an education.
Within Judaism, we have witnessed in recent years numerous examples of religious zealotry – including the murder of Muslims in Hebron in 1995, or the stabbings at the 2005 Jerusalem gay pride parade, or the assassination in 1995 of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
All of this has been universally condemned by the modern Jewish world.
So then, how can we embrace the text to be read this Saturday in synagogues throughout the world – named after Pinhas, grandson of Aaron the priest, Read More >
Parashat Balak 5779
A D’var Torah for Parashat Balak
By Rabbi Bruce Alpert (’11)
My family has a habit of frequenting struggling restaurants, which means we often wind up befriending their owners. And, given my limited menu choices, those owners usually soon discover that we are Jewish. One night, many years ago, my wife was talking to one of these owners about the difficulties she was facing in her own business. To which the struggling restaurateur replied “Oh, you don’t have to worry. You’re Jewish and God doesn’t let Jewish businesses fail.”
This week’s Torah portion and its story of Balaam, the heathen prophet hired by Moabite king Balak to curse Israel, brought that evening at that long since shuttered restaurant to mind. Having twice failed in his mission, we are told that Balaam turns his gaze to the wilderness where he lifts his eyes and sees Israel “encamped tribe by tribe.” (Numbers, 24:2) The vision evokes from Read More >
Parashat Hukkat 5779
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Parashat Korah 5779
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Parashat Shelah Lekha 5779
Grasshoppers and Giants
A D’var Torah for Parashat Shelah Lekha
By Rabbi Matthew Goldstone
Parashat Shelah Lekha recounts the episode of the twelve spies who travel ahead to scout out the Promised Land. Ten of the spies return to the people with a report of the wonderful fruit of the land coupled with the overwhelming danger of its inhabitants. Not only do these ten spies describe the people of this place as gigantic (אַנְשֵׁי מִדּוֹת), but these scouts convey their own depiction of how these people perceived the intruders – “And we looked like grasshoppers (חֲגָבִים) to ourselves, and so we must have looked to them” (Num. 13:33). Their report strikes fear into the hearts of the Israelites who regret leaving Egypt and God gets angry.
Readers often assume that the sin of the ten spies, and the reason for God’s anger, is that they suggest that the people of the land are too Read More >
Parashat Beha’alotekha 5779
Lighting Us Up: Theology, Pluralism and Becoming the Menorah
A D’var Torah for Parashat Beha’alotekha
By Rabbi David Markus
What does God need of our spirituality, what do we need of it, and how do we know? These questions cast long theological shadows across sacred tradition, and efforts at clarity often generate more heat than light.
It’s with those questions in mind that I read of Parashat Beha’alotekha’s seven-branch gold menorah, symbol of Jewish peoplehood and the modern State of Israel.
Why seven branches? The parashah doesn’t say. God just tells Moses to instruct Aaron: “In your lifting the lamps (beha’alotekha et ha-neirot) to light, let seven lamps shine at the front of the menorah” (Numbers 8:2). The fact of the menorah’s “seven” is assumed.
Torah continues that the menorah should look as previously described – alluding to the design God showed Moses at Sinai (Exodus 25:40). There too, however, Torah doesn’t say why seven branches.
Do the Read More >
Parashat Naso 5779
A D’var Torah for Parashat Naso
By Rabbi Heidi Hoover (’11)
Last week’s Torah portion, Bemidbar, started with a lot of counting of Israelites. This week’s Torah portion, Naso, also begins with counting. The word “Naso” means “take up,” as in “Take up a census of the Gershonites also” (Numbers 4:22). The counting in this Torah portion is of different clans of the Levites who have responsibilities to pack up and transport different parts of the Tabernacle when the Israelites decamp and move on through the wilderness.
We are told the final counts: There are 2,750 Kohathites between the ages of 30 and 50—which are the years when the Levites are responsible for the work of the Tabernacle; there are 2,630 Gershonites; and there are 3,200 Merarites, for a total of 8,580 Levites. This seems like rather a lot of people for the task of packing and moving the Tabernacle around, but the Torah Read More >
Parashat Bemidbar 5779
The “New” Tribes of Israel
A D’var Torah for Parashat Bemidbar
By Rabbi Irwin Huberman (’10)
Over the centuries, there has been much debate and speculation regarding the fate of the twelve tribes of Israel.
In recent years, with the advent of such genealogy programs as Ancestry.com and 23andMe, there has been considerable interest within the Jewish world and beyond in tracing our roots and countries of origin.
Yet, in spite of this new technology, few of us, with the exception of the Kohanim and Levi’im, know which tribe we descend from.
But, can we truly say, in 2019, that the idea of tribalism within Judaism is passé? Perhaps not.
In Biblical times, each Israelite knew where they came from. Each tribe has its own banner. Each tribe had its own personality. In the closing portion of the Book of Genesis, in his last days, Jacob gathers his twelve sons, and gives each tribe its own blessing according to that personality. Read More >
Parashat Behukkotai 5779
A D’var Torah for Parashat Behukkotai
By Rabbi Bruce Alpert (’11)
Reading this week’s Torah portion, I found myself as influenced by what is not in it as what is. What is not in it are the opening words “And God spoke to Moses, saying …” Those words, ubiquitous throughout the middle books of the Torah (they do appear half-way through this week’s parashah), do more than testify to the provenance of the revelation that follows them. They also create a distance between ourselves and those words by letting us know that we are hearing them, not directly, but as transmitted through an intermediary.
The “And God spoke to Moses” to which the opening words of this week’s parashah do not attach, appear all the way at the beginning of last week’s parashah. Even when these two parashiyot are read together, 56 verses separate us from the last mention of Moses’s mediating role. As a result, for me Read More >
Parashat Behar – 5779
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Parashat Emor – 5779
Kedushah: From Hierarchy to Complementarity
A D’var Torah for Parashat Emor
By Rabbi Len Levin
“[The priests] shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God; for they offer the Lord’s offerings by fire…and so must be holy” (Leviticus 21:6).
“These are My fixed times, the fixed times of the LORD, which you shall proclaim as sacred occasions” (Leviticus 23:2).
“The world stands on three things: on Torah, on the [Temple] service, and on deeds of lovingkindness” (Avot 1:2).
“A bastard who is a scholar takes precedence over a High Priest who is an ignoramus” (Mishnah Horayot 3:8).
“Holiness determines and actualizes the spirit as moral spirit. And in the same way the spirit determines and actualizes holiness as the action of moral reason” (Hermann Cohen, Religion of Reason out of the Sources of Judaism, end of Chapter 7).
Can sanctity be reconciled with equality?
Kedushah—holiness or sanctity—is one of Read More >
Parashat Kedoshim – 5779
A D’var Torah for Parashat Kedoshim
By Rabbi Isaac Mann
This week’s sidra begins with the Divine command directed to the Children of Israel to be holy (kedoshim tih’yu) “for I the Lord your God am holy” (Lev. 19:2). In Hebrew, the root meaning of kadosh is separate. This prompts us to ask what is the nature of this holiness or separation that God requires of us and how do we achieve it?
At first glance one might respond to these questions by saying: “Look further in the text.” Indeed the very first commandment that follows is the obligation to fear one’s father and mother. This is followed in the same verse by the instruction to observe the Sabbath. The next verse warns us against idolatrous practices. This is followed by some specific instructions regarding the offering of sacrifices. And many more specific halakhot follow in the ensuing verses and chapters without an appearance Read More >
Parashat Acharei Mot – 5779
| Yom Kippur Asks “Answers” – Not Just “Afflictions” A D’var Torah for Parashat Acharei Mot By Rabbi David Markus This week’s parashah (Acharei Mot) brings Torah’s first mention of Yom Kippur (#sorry), so each year this parashah starts me thinking about the High Holy Days (#notsorry). Each year, I recall how three words in this parashah once drove me from Judaism. So each year, I renew my commitment to wrestle these words that challenge me. This parashah’s three challenging words are: “afflict your souls.” Torah “sets a law for all time that [on Yom Kippur] you will afflict your souls (t’anu et nafshoteikhem) and do no work” (Lev. 16:29). That day is to be a “complete shabbat (shabbat shabbaton) [on which] you will afflict your souls (v’initem et nafshoteikhem)” (Lev. 16:31). For Yom Kippur, one mention of “afflict” didn’t suffice: Torah had to say it twice. From “afflict your souls” evolved Yom Kippur’s fasting, abstinence, and Read More > |
Last Days of Pesah – 5779
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First Days of Pesah – 5779
Hametz of the Soul: The Yeast Within
A D’var Torah for the first days of Pesah
By Rabbi Irwin Huberman (’10)
“And what prevents us from performing Your will? It is the yeast in the dough.” Rabbi Alexandri
The Vilna Gaon (1720-1797), one of our greatest rabbis, provided an important answer to a question which each of us may ask from time to time.
“Why are we here?”
Indeed, we navigate our lives, apply our God-given talents, interact with others, but ultimately what is the purpose of it all?
The Vilna Gaon considered this question, and suggested that, simply stated, the purpose of life is to turn ourselves into something better.
In his commentary on the Book of Proverbs – the Vilna Gaon expanded on verse 4:13 which reads “hold fast to discipline; do not let it go; Keep it. It is your life.”
And how did he interpret the phrase “it is your life?” The Vilna Gaon noted: Read More >
Parashat Metzorah 5779
A D’var Torah for Parashat Metzorah
By Rabbi Bruce Alpert (’11)
A few years ago I passed the age at which my mother died. Doing so changed my perspective on my own life. I still want to think of my continuing good health as an entitlement, but it’s hard to do so when you have lived longer than the one who gave you life. Indeed, if there is one prayer that I utter more than any other, it is the one about the nikavim nikavim, halulim halulim – the complex of passageways and orifices that make up the human body, the proper functioning of each one being necessary for our existence.
I thought about that passage while reading of the purification ritual for one who has been cured of tzara-at. Often mistranslated as leprosy, I long ago gave up trying to understand what disease or collection of diseases tzara-at might be. Instead, it has become for me a stand-in for Read More >
Parashat Tazria
A D’var Torah for Parashat Tazria
By Cantor Sandy Horowitz (’14)
Much of the text of Parashat Tazria is about skin disease. These verses, from Leviticus 13:1-46, lay out in remarkable detail numerous variations of skin-related afflictions and how these are to be treated. On the surface one might think that the intention is to demonstrate concern for the physical health and welfare of the community. On the other hand, perhaps the underlying concern is less literal, and is, rather, a statement on the importance of distinguishing between that which is impure from that which is pure. A third take, and what I believe may be a significant function of this text, is that this is about power, specifically the power of the kohanim, the priests. Let us examine each of these viewpoints.
The detailed descriptions of the many variations of skin lesions, and how they are to be managed, seem to read like a medical manual for its Read More >
Parashat Shemini
The Center of the Torah
A D’var Torah for Parashat Shemini
By Rabbi Len Levin
“The Masoret (textual tradition) is a safeguarding fence around the Torah.” (Avot 3:13)
What is the core of the Torah? At several places in this week’s Torah reading and in adjacent readings, the astute reader will see notes indicating that this or that verse is the center of the Torah counting by verses, by words, or by letters. What is this about?
The Talmud relates: “The earlier authorities were called soferim [scribes] because they counted [soferim] all the letters of the Torah” (Kiddushin 30a).
From this they concluded that the center of the Torah, counting by letters, is the vav in the word gahon (belly) in the verse, “You shall not eat anything that crawls on its belly” (Lev. 11:42). Counting by verses, it is the verse “[The leper] shall shave himself” (Lev. 13.33). And counting by words, it Read More >
Parashat Shemini
The Center of the Torah
A D’var Torah for Parashat Shemini
By Rabbi Len Levin
“The Masoret (textual tradition) is a safeguarding fence around the Torah.” (Avot 3:13)
What is the core of the Torah? At several places in this week’s Torah reading and in adjacent readings, the astute reader will see notes indicating that this or that verse is the center of the Torah counting by verses, by words, or by letters. What is this about?
The Talmud relates: “The earlier authorities were called soferim [scribes] because they counted [soferim] all the letters of the Torah” (Kiddushin 30a).
From this they concluded that the center of the Torah, counting by letters, is the vav in the word gahon (belly) in the verse, “You shall not eat anything that crawls on its belly” (Lev. 11:42). Counting by verses, it is the verse “[The leper] shall shave himself” (Lev. 13.33). And counting by words, it Read More >
Parashat Tzav
A D’var Torah for Parashat Tzav
By Rabbi Isaac Mann
The prohibition in the Torah against the consumption of blood, which is expressed in this week’s parashah (see Lev. 7:26-27), is generally seen in the context of the laws of kashrut. Just as the Torah prohibits the eating of meat from unclean animals or from animals that were improperly slaughtered or were unfit due to organic disease, so too certain parts of a kosher animal, like the fat (heilev) or the blood (dam) are off-limits. In connection with the latter, the Shulhan Arukh describes various salting and draining methods to rid the meat of any blood that may have flowed into it in order to render it kosher. The pertinent rules and techniques are juxtaposed to the laws that deal with shehitah (ritual slaughtering) and tereifot (diseased animals).
Interestingly, the Torah does not mention the prohibitions against eating the fat or the blood of Read More >
Parashat Vayikra 5779
Controlling the High Price of Judaism (and Guilt)
A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayikra
By Rabbi David Markus
The Jewish value of tzedakah underscores that to “be Jewish” is partly to “do Jewish,” and to “do Jewish” means to support others. That’s one reason that Judaism calls for tzedakah as charitable acts of support for others that double as communal acts of identity.
Important as tzedakah is, however, tzedakah isn’t a sufficient solution when it becomes too pricy to “do Jewish” in the first place – as increasingly is happening across vast swaths of Jewish life.
The economics of traditional Jewish ways have trended toward narrowcasting Judaism toward affluence. This income effect, in turn, lifts costs higher. Especially for Millennials, high cost can become a practical barrier and/or psychological barrier to doing Jewish.
These dynamics amplify vexing questions about inclusivity and continuity in Jewish life. Cost concerns raise lamentations about Judaism’s socioeconomic privilege, inspiring some to call for cost controls. Even sharp-penciled Read More >
Parashat Pekudei 5779
A Bell and a Pomegranate
A D’var Torah for Parashat Pekudei
By Rabbi Jill Hammer
A few months ago, I had the pleasure of visiting the Rubin Museum of Art in southern Manhattan, which displays items from the cultures of the Himalayas, India, and neighboring regions, with a particular emphasis on Tibetan art. Much of this art is spiritual, and related to Buddhist or Hindu practices. One ritual item I saw in multiple forms was the bell, one of the most important tools of Tibetan Buddhism. The bell, in that tradition, represents emptiness, wisdom, and truth. Another item, the vajra or scepter, represents bliss, action, and compassion, and is considered the complement to the bell—together they represent the union of all dualities, including the feminine and masculine. This got me thinking about bells and their companions a little closer to home: the bells and pomegranates on the bottom of the robe of the high priest in Parashat Pekudei.
The text Read More >
Parashat Vayakhel 5779
A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayakhel
By Rabbi Heidi Hoover (’11)
In this week’s Torah portion, Vayakhel, the Israelites finally get to do something. Something sanctioned, something that is approved—in fact, instructed—by God through Moses. Moses has received the detailed instructions from God to build a dwelling-place for God among the Israelites, the Tabernacle. The Israelites became restless and anxious while waiting for Moses: In last week’s Torah portion they made the Golden Calf, and were punished for it.
Now Moses stands before them again, and this time they are not in trouble. Moses begins by instructing them to work six days of the week, but to rest on the seventh. Then they are instructed to bring as gifts the materials needed to build the Tabernacle, and they bring, and bring, and bring, until there is more than is needed and they have to be told to stop.
Why do they bring so much? Rebbe Yehudah Read More >
Parashat Ki Tissa 5779
What is a Half Shekel Worth?
A D’var Torah for Parashat Ki Tissa
By Rabbi Irwin Huberman (’10)
About three years ago, a mysterious envelope with no return address arrived on my desk.
I opened it cautiously, slowly pulling out a blank white folded card which contained half of a twenty dollar bill.
Was this some kind of slur? Was it a practical joke? I paused for a moment, shook my head, and slipped the half bill in my desk drawer and continued with whatever I was doing.
About a month later, I rediscovered the torn bill under a cluster of papers, and later, while making a bank deposit, presented it to the teller.
“What do I do with this?” I asked. “Is there some way I can give it to charity? What is half of a twenty dollar bill worth anyway?
And she coldly replied, “It is worth nothing without the other half.” She then pulled a laminated card Read More >
Parashat Tetzavah 5779
| A D’var Torah for Parashat Tetzavah By Rabbi Bruce Alpert (’11) I imagine that I am like many people who read Terumah and Tetzavah – last week’s and this week’s Torah portions – with a mixture of frustration and intrigue; frustration at being unable to fully follow the details of the design of the Mishkan and its many furnishings, and intrigue because of the materials used: glowing jewels, gleaming metals and rich fabrics. Yet in reading through this week’s details of the priestly robes, particularly those of the high priest, one detail stuck out to me. The two most unusual garments, the Ephod and the Hoshen Mishpat (essentially a vest and a breastplate) both were adorned with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. The reason given for this adornment is the same for both garments: as a remembrance before the Lord (Exodus 28:12 & 29) But we might ask, remembrance of what? I think Read More > |
Parashat Terumah 5779
A D’var Torah for Parashat Terumah
By Cantor Sandy Horowitz (’14)
V’asu li mikdash v’shakhanti b’tokham
“And they shall make for Me a sanctuary and I will dwell in their midst”
Some people require periods of solitude in order to best function in the world. In fact, self-chosen solitude is generally considered to be beneficial, particularly in today’s increasingly social-media-run, group-conscious culture. And although our biblical ancestors obviously didn’t have cellphones or Twitter accounts as they wandered in the wilderness, the conditions of their lifestyle – being constantly surrounded by hundreds of thousands of people — similarly was not conducive to seeking solitude. Two weeks ago in the Torah portion Yitro, we read about how the Israelite people stood together in fear and awe as God’s laws were revealed to them; had I been there, I imagine I would not be the only one in need of some alone-time so as to reflect on what had Read More >
Parashat Mishpatim 5779
We the People, in Covenant with God
A D’var Torah for Parashat Mishpatim
By Rabbi Len Levin
“And these are the rules that you shall set before them.” (Exodus 21:1)
Who are the them before whom God instructs Moses to set the rules in this week’s portion?
Rashi, following the Talmud (Gittin 88b), interprets this verse as teaching that the judicial rules are to be entrusted to the ordained Israelite judges, not to gentile courts or to Israelite lay persons. On this reading, them refers to the judges (playing on lifneihem to suggest lifnim [within]—a subset of the people).
But the context of this passage suggests a broader audience. This verse is a continuation of the speech beginning in Exodus 20:19: “The Lord said to Moses: Thus shall you say to the Israelites: You yourselves saw that I spoke to you from the very heavens.” On this contextual reading, the rules of Parashat Mishpatim are Read More >
Parashat Yitro 5779
A D’var Torah for Parashat Yitro
By Rabbi Matthew Goldstone
At the beginning of this week’s parasha Moses’ father-in-law, Yitro, hears of “all that God had done for Moses and the Israelites” (Exod. 18:1) and he brings Moses’ wife and children to join the Israelites in the desert. Moses goes out to greet Yitro and warmly welcomes him into his tent. Moses then recounts to his father-in-law all of the miraculous deeds that God performed to bring the Israelites out of Egypt and Yitro rejoices (Exod. 18:8-9). But wait. If Yitro already heard about “all that God had done for Moses and the Israelites,” then why does he only rejoice after hearing all of this again from Moses? By this point the exodus is old news! Perhaps the answer lies not in the message but in the messenger. Hearing secondhand, even about miracles such as the splitting of the sea, is simply Read More >
Parashat Beshallah 5779
A D’car Torah for Parashat Beshallah
By Rabbi David Evan Markus
It’s an occupational hazard. We clergy so delight in bringing Torah to life and liturgy to life that we might unashamedly “geek out” – especially when we do both at the same time. When I link Torah with liturgy in ways that enliven both, my joy can be irrepressible. (Thankfully my New York congregation seems to like it, and my closest friends at least grudgingly tolerate it.)
This week’s portion (Beshallah) and its Song of the Sea seem ready-made for this Torah-liturgy two-fer of joy.
Morning and evening, traditional liturgy after the Shema brings us to the Sea of Reeds (Ex. 14). We reach the shore of entrapping finitude and then, with holy help, we’re invited to see the impossible into being. By suspending disbelief and experiencing the miracle, we can go free again and again. This journey from bondage to freedom is the journey of Jewish Read More >
Parashat Bo 5779
A D’var Torah for Parashat Bo
By Rabbi Heidi Hoover (’11)
In this week’s Torah portion, Bo, we are in the midst of the dramatic story of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt, when they go from slavery to freedom. Because it is the story we retell at Passover, it is one of the most familiar in the Torah. God frees the Israelites “with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm” (Psalm 136:12).
In parashat Bo, the last three of the ten plagues befall the Egyptians: locusts, darkness, and the death of the first-born. The penultimate plague, darkness, seems like it might be less destructive than the other two. After all, it gets dark every night, and we all get through it. But this wasn’t like that regular, natural darkness. This was three solid days of “darkness that can be touched” (Exodus 10:21). “A person could not see his brother or sister, and for Read More >
Parashat Va’era 5779
Hearing more voices in the Passover story
A D’var Totah for Parashat Va’era
By Rabbi Irwin Huberman (’10)
The story of the enslavement of Jewish people in Egypt is perhaps one of the most powerful stories within the entire Torah. It is the stuff of heroes and villains, slavery and liberation.
It has captured the imagination of those across many faiths and cultural backgrounds, and continues to inspire Passover – perhaps the most observed holiday across all of Judaism.
Yet, there are so many gaps and unanswered questions.
Indeed, while this week’s Parashah, Va’era (And God appeared) engages us in a thrilling narrative of miracles and plagues, there is perhaps one central perspective which is sorely lacking: “Where are the voices of the Israelites and Egyptians – those who were the most affected by this dramatic story of slavery and human suffering?”
Isn’t it interesting that the entire Passover story is told almost exclusively through three main characters: Moses, Read More >
Parashat Shemot 5779
A D’var Torah for Parashat Shemot
By Rabbi Bruce Alpert (’11)
Living up to its own name, our Torah portion, Shemot – Names – has a lot of them. Some of them are known to us. Some are new. And some aren’t given at all.
Among the new names are those of Shiphrah and Puah – the two midwives whom Pharaoh orders to kill all the male Israelite newborns. And therein lies a curiosity. We know the names of the servants. We don’t know the name of the king they serve. Indeed, his only identifying characteristic seems to be that he “did not know Joseph.” (Exodus 1:8).
The Rashi on this verse directs us to a dispute in the Talmud between Rav and Shmuel as to this Pharaoh’s identity (Sotah 11a). One insists that he really is a new leader, while the other claims it was the same Pharaoh as in Joseph’s time who issued new decrees following the latter’s death. To me, Read More >
Parashat Vayehi 5779
A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayehi
by Cantor Sandy Horowitz (’14)
With Parashat Vayehi we come to the end of the book of Genesis, the completion of a series of individual narratives including those of our matriarchs and patriarchs.
Let us imagine for a moment that Genesis and the following book of Exodus are two parts of a movie, each with its own musical soundtrack. Genesis ends on a happy note as Jacob is buried in the family plot at Makhpela in Canaan, surrounded by his family — grand-finale-type music, or perhaps a mellow, sweet melody. Camera pans out. Suddenly, the tone of the movie score alters dramatically as the Exodus narrative begins — a sinister motif suggesting the portent of things to come, the slavery of our people at the hands of a paranoid and cruel pharaoh. There’s trouble ahead!
Pause. We’re not ready to move forward yet. High-speed rewind. Let’s take another look at that Genesis happy ending, Read More >
Parashat Vayiggash 5779
Reconciliation is Difficult
A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayiggash
by Rabbi Len Levin
“Then Judah went up to him and said, Please, my lord…” (Gen. 44:18)
“And Joseph could no longer refrain before all those standing before him…” (Gen. 45:1)
Reconciliation is difficult.
This week’s Torah reading provides the climax to a narrative that has been unfolding for the past several weeks. This narrative begs to be read on two levels—on the level of a specific family, and on the level of social groups.
On the specific level, there is a clash of personalities, such as we experience in many families. The personalities are sharply different, and the sharp personal differences generate conflicts that escalate to critical proportions. In a family of strong personalities, Joseph is extraordinary, and he demands to be treated as special. The brothers resent his superiority attitude and find dubious ways to be rid of him, at great cost to their integrity and Read More >
Parashat Vayigash 5779
Reconciliation is Difficult
A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayiggash
by Rabbi Len Levin
“Then Judah went up to him and said, Please, my lord…” (Gen. 44:18)
“And Joseph could no longer refrain before all those standing before him…” (Gen. 45:1)
Reconciliation is difficult.
This week’s Torah reading provides the climax to a narrative that has been unfolding for the past several weeks. This narrative begs to be read on two levels—on the level of a specific family, and on the level of social groups.
On the specific level, there is a clash of personalities, such as we experience in many families. The personalities are sharply different, and the sharp personal differences generate conflicts that escalate to critical proportions. In a family of strong personalities, Joseph is extraordinary, and he demands to be treated as special. The brothers resent his superiority attitude and find dubious ways to be rid of him, at great cost to their integrity and Read More >
Parashat Miketz 5779
Joseph: Is He Greater than the Patriarchs?
A D’var Torah for Parashat Miketz
by Rabbi Isaac Mann
As the lights of the Hanukah menorah grow from day to day, so does our fascination with the story of Joseph in the Bible (which we read about in the synagogue on Hanukah) increase from year to year. What is it about this story, the longest in the Torah, that we never tire from discussing and thinking about?
While there are many answers to this question, most of which relate to Joseph’s character, a new thought came to me that I would like to express in this D’var Torah, and it starts with a question. Why is it that Joseph, who the Rabbis referred to as Yosef ha-Zaddik (see, e.g. Yoma 35b) – Joseph the Righteous – never received any communication from God, not even from an angel, as did his forebears, the Patriarchs, all of whom merited Read More >
Parashat Vayeishev 5779
Keeping the Mind in Mind: The Essence of Pluralism
A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayeishev
By Rabbi David Evan Markus
Exciting news: studying theology can teach us how to think and even build secular careers! Whatever one’s beliefs, immersion in the complexities of sacred text can expand perspective and cultivate character. Studying theology can make the mind nimbler, the heart more tender and the spirit wiser.
But for all of theology’s great promise, theology doesn’t promise certitude. The call to cultivate mind, heart and spirit isn’t about fixity or certainty, but rather something far more important.
Exhibit A: Jacob’s response to Joseph’s dreams in Parshat Vayeishev.
Joseph recounts his dream of 11 stars, sun, and moon bowing to him. Jacob responds with pique (“are parents to worship their child?”) and Joseph’s 11 brothers seethe with jealousy (Gen. 37:10-11a). The encounter ends with Torah narrating that Jacob shamar et ha-davar: he “kept the matter [in mind]” ( Read More >
Parashat Vayishlah 5779
The Oak of Weeping
A D’var Torah for Vayishlah
By Rabbi Jill Hammer
Devorah the wetnurse of Rivkah died and was buried under Beth El, under the oak. And he called it the Oak of Weeping (Alon Bahut). (Genesis 35:8)
Devorah, Rivkah’s nurse, died, and they buried her beneath the city under the oak of the river, and he called the name of the place “the river of Devorah” and he called the name of the oak “the oak of the mourning of Devorah.” (Jubilees 32:30)
Rabbi Shmuel bar Nahman said: The word alon (oak) is Greek and means “another,” for as Yaakov was mourning for Devorah, the news came to him that his mother (Rivkah) had died. This is why it says: “God appeared to him and blessed him.” What was the blessing? The blessing to comfort mourners. (Genesis Rabbah 81:5)
Wedged among the many peaks of the literary landscape of Parashat Vayishlah is a small funeral Read More >
Parashat Vayeitze 5779
A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayeitze
by Rabbi Heidi Hoover (AJR ’11)
At the beginning of this week’s Torah portion, Jacob leaves home. He doesn’t leave by choice, though. He has to leave because his life is in danger–his brother wants to kill him. He runs away, ending up in the wilderness, alone, with nothing, it seems, except the clothes he is wearing. He sleeps with his head on a rock. He’s headed in the direction of Haran, where his mother’s family lives, but he has never met them. Jacob is not an immigrant. He is a refugee.
In that desolate night when he is so alone, Jacob has a dream of a ladder to heaven, with angels going up and down the ladder. God assures him that he will be protected and have countless descendants. It is an amazing experience for Jacob, who says after he awakens, “God was in this place, and I Read More >
Parashat Toledot – 5779
“Mom Always Liked You Best!”
A D’var Torah for Parashat Toledot
By Rabbi Irwin Huberman (’10)
During the late 1960s, one of the most popular comedy programs on television was the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.
The team of Tom and Dick Smothers was a mainstay of CBS’s Sunday night programming, for two distinct reasons.
As public discourse over the Vietnam War heated, the brothers’ comedy would bring the anti-war protest directly into American homes, eventually leading to their cancellation by the network.
However, fifty years later, what endures most about the Smothers Brothers’ comedy was its ability to capture the subtleties of human relationships—in particular between two brothers.
Invariably, as the dialogue between these two siblings would deteriorate, it was Tommy Smothers—always portrayed as the dimmer of the two—who would attempt to trump his brother’s well-reasoned arguments with the accusation, “Well, Mom always liked you best!”
This week, as our Torah portion turns to the relationships within the family of Read More >
Parashat Hayyei Sarah – 5779
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Parashat Vayera – 5779
| A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayera by Cantor Sandy Horowitz (’14) Our matriarch Sarah is held in high esteem. Her kindness in welcoming strangers is a trait she shares with Abraham, and it is said that on the day she gave birth to Isaac many other barren women similarly “were remembered” and also gave birth (Bereishit Rabbah 53:8). Yet the Torah places her in the background rather than at her husband’s side, even with events that directly affect her.Parashat Vayera begins as Abraham welcomes three strangers (messengers of God) who are passing by in the heat of mid-day. Abraham enlists Sarah’s help in preparing food for them, then she remains behind while he goes out to sit with the visitors. They ask him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” and Abraham replies that she is in the tent (Gen. 18:9). Then they tell him that at this time next year they will return and Read More > |
Parashat Lekh Lekha – 5779
| The Encounter of Abraham and Melchizedek A D’var Torah for Parashat Lekh Lekha by Rabbi Lenny Levin “And King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was a priest of God Most High (El Elyon). He blessed him, saying, “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth…” (Gen. 14:18–19) “Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I swear to the Lord (YH-VH), God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth…” (Gen. 14:22) Whenever Jews pray the Amidah, the Prayer par excellence, they invoke the name El Elyon, “God Most High” (and the Friday night liturgy adds: “Creator of heaven and earth”). But it is one of the rarer names for God in the Hebrew Bible. The more common names for God in the Bible are the Tetragrammaton (the four-letter personal name of God, represented in Hebrew by yod, hei, vav, hei, usually pronounced Adonai or Hashem Read More > |
