Parashat Eikev 5781

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The Ties That Bind
A D’var Torah for Parashat Eikev
By Rabbi Enid Lader (’10)

In his book Be, Become, Bless: Jewish Spirituality between East and West (Maggid, 2019), Rabbi Dr. Yakov Nagen points out that the internet age is characterized by the unprecedented access to limitless information. However, all this information alone is not sufficient to generate change in our lives; true change comes about through deeply internalizing the knowledge. This requires a shift in consciousness; helping us to do and to be. (p. 286)

Eikev, our Torah portion this week, contains the fourth of as many passages from the Torah that mentions tefillin. These passages, written on parchment and placed in the boxes of the tefillin serve as a reminder of four basic principles in Judaism:

1. Exodus 13:1-10 – Our obligation to remember the Exodus from Egypt

2. Exodus 13:11-16 – Our obligation Read More >

By Rabbi Enid C. Lader|2022-07-29T11:24:18-04:00July 29, 2021|

Parashat Va’ethanan 5781

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For the Love of God
A D’var Torah for Parashat Va’ethanan
By Rabbi Jeffrey Segelman

It is in Parashat Va’ethanan that the Torah begins speaking about the love of God. Certainly the most famous of these verses follow immediately after the six words of the Shema.

Let’s quote them in full:

Deut. 6: (5)And you shall love Hashem, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all you might. (6)These words which I command you today shall be on your heart. (7)You shall impress them upon your children – speaking of them when you are staying at home or when you are moving along your way – when you lie down and when you rise up. (8)Bind them as a sign on your hand as a symbol between your eyes. (9)And write them on the doorposts of your homes and Read More >

By Rabbi Jeffrey Segelman|2022-07-29T11:24:18-04:00July 22, 2021|

Parashat Devarim 5781

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A D’var Torah for Parashat Devarim
By Rabbi Michael Rothbaum (’06)

There’s a profound meaning in the practice of Yiddishkayt, a beauty and depth that’s hard to describe if you haven’t lived it. That beauty explains why rabbis and cantors do what we do. In the words of the old saying, nothing worth doing is easy.

Or, as we say in Yiddish, Shver tsu zayn a Yid. It’s hard to be a Jew.

In a 1973 review of the Sholom Aleichem play that took its title from that Yiddish saying, Richard P. Shepard wrote that “ ‘It’s Hard to Be a Jew’ is a phrase that may not quite go back to Moses’ scaling of Mount Sinai, but it is venerable and often verifiable.”[1]

Recent events have only served to help that verification process. We’re still Jews, and it’s still hard.

The challenge of Jewish life starts, of course, Read More >

By Rabbi Michael Rothbaum|2022-07-29T11:24:19-04:00July 16, 2021|

Parashiyot Mattot-Masei 5781

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A D’var Torah for Parashiyot Mattot-Masei
By Rabbi Lizz Goldstein (’16)

Hodesh Tov. The height of summer is upon us, and with it three weeks of mourning bookended by fasting during a season we most need to be drinking plenty of fluids. I have written elsewhere before about my ambivalence over Tisha B’Av and the Three Weeks, and this year is no different. This Shabbat, we read the second of three Haftarot of Affliction, along with Parashiyot Mattot-Masei. These Haftarot admonish the Israelites for their constant idol-worship and warns of the conquering army on its way to punish them. This cycle of community dissolution and rejection of HaShem, followed by destruction and diaspora, continued in the days of the Second Temple, and so we read them in the oppressive heat of summer to remember the fall of both Temples and Read More >

By Rabbi Lizz Goldstein|2022-07-29T11:24:19-04:00July 9, 2021|

Parashat Pinhas 5781

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A D’var Torah for Parashat Pinhas
By Rabbi Ariann Weitzman (’11)

Parashat Pinhas’ eponymous lead character is an unusual one, with his very brief story spanning two parashiyot. Last week in parashat Balak, we read about Pinhas’ zealotry in killing two people, whose names are later revealed to be Cozbi and Zimri, who he believed to be part of a mass Israelite descent into Moabite idolatry and away from God, spurred on by sexually immoral behavior between Israelite men and Moabite and Midianite women. In response to his act, God abruptly ends a plague which had been terrorizing the Israelite encampment, purportedly as a punishment for this idolatry. Thus ends last week’s parasha. While perhaps we’re used to overzealous or even violent acts coming to good ends in Torah, the beginning of this week’s parasha might still surprise us.

Pinhas’ Read More >

By Rabbi Ariann Weitzman|2022-07-29T11:24:19-04:00July 2, 2021|

Parashat Balak 5781

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A D’var Torah for Parashat Balak
By Rabbi Doug Alpert (’12)

Responding to a request from a congregant at my Shul, for quite some time now we have been studying the role of angels in Judaism. I was grateful for the suggestion as I immediately knew the source for our studies, the book, A Gathering of Angels by Morris B. Margolies z”l. I grew up with Rabbi Margolies as my spiritual leader. As I am continually looking for opportunities to cite and honor all of my teachers to have the opportunity to do a deep dive into Rabbi Margolies’ most widely read work has been a source of great joy to me. Rabbi Margolies has had an enormous influence on my work as rabbi; particularly his passion and courage in confronting controversial issues of social injustice.

A Gathering of Angels has served as a valuable Read More >

By Doug Alpert|2022-07-29T11:24:19-04:00June 24, 2021|

Parashat Hukkat 5781

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A D’var Torah for Parashat Hukkat
By Rabbi Cantor Sam Levine (’19)

Of all the noteworthy events and passages in parashat Hukkat – the impenetrable red heifer; the death of Miriam; the incident at the waters of Merivah and God’s pronouncement that Moshe and Aharon will not enter the land; the death of Aharon and the succession of his son Elazar; the plague of venomous snakes and the miraculous healing copper serpent; and the prelude to the conquest of Canaan – there is one event that is startling in its omission. Parashat Hukkat sees the passage of 38 years in the desert, never noted, only inferred. Moshe, at the beginning of the parasha, is 82 years old. At its conclusion, he is 120, in his last year of life.

As the previous several parshiyot reveal, it has not been an Read More >

By Rabbi/Cantor Sam Levine|2022-07-29T11:24:19-04:00June 18, 2021|

Parashat Korah 5781

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A D’var Torah for Parashat Korah
By Rabbi Marc Rudolph (’04)

On the evening of Friday, April 6, 1962, Leonard Bernstein was to conduct the New York Philharmonic in a performance of Brahms D minor Concerto. The guest soloist was Glenn Gould, one of the most celebrated classical pianists of the 20^th century. Before the concert began, Mr. Bernstein did something that initially surprised, puzzled and frightened the audience. He spoke to them. Mr. Bernstein was in the habit of speaking to the audience only at Thursday night previews, so many in the audience thought that he was going to announce that the soloist had become ill. Instead, Leonard Bernstein told the audience that they were about to hear an “unorthodox performance” of Brahms D Minor Concerto, a performance unlike he had ever heard, or even dreamt of. Mr. Gould was going Read More >

By Rabbi Marc Rudolph|2022-07-29T11:24:19-04:00June 11, 2021|

Parashat Shelah 5781

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The Arc of the Covenant
A D’var Torah for Parashat Shelah
By Rabbi Enid Lader (’10)

What does it mean to be holy? What does it mean to be in a covenant with God? It seems to me that the Children of Israel – we – have been on a trajectory of learning about holiness and covenant ever since we were brought out of Egypt, stood at Sinai’s foot and heard these words of God from Moses:

וּמֹשֶׁ֥ה עָלָ֖ה אֶל־הָאֱלֹהִ֑ים וַיִּקְרָ֨א אֵלָ֤יו ה’ מִן־הָהָ֣ר לֵאמֹ֔ר כֹּ֤ה תֹאמַר֙ לְבֵ֣ית יַעֲקֹ֔ב וְתַגֵּ֖יד לִבְנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃

… and Moses went up to God. The LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob and declare to the children of Israel:

אַתֶּ֣ם רְאִיתֶ֔ם אֲשֶׁ֥ר עָשִׂ֖יתִי לְמִצְרָ֑יִם וָאֶשָּׂ֤א אֶתְכֶם֙ עַל־כַּנְפֵ֣י נְשָׁרִ֔ים וָאָבִ֥א אֶתְכֶ֖ם אֵלָֽי׃

‘You have Read More >

By Rabbi Enid C. Lader|2022-07-29T11:24:19-04:00June 4, 2021|

Parashat Beha’alotekha 5781

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A D’var Torah for Parashat Beha’alotekha
By Rabbi Jeffrey Segelman

Two stories appear at the end of the parasha this week, Beha’alotekha, which teach important lessons about life in general, but speak clearly to the ways in which our AJR pluralistic community survives and thrives.

The first story is that of Eldad and Meidad, two of the seventy leaders of the people on whom had been bestowed a level of prophecy so that they might assist Moses. When these two seemed to use their prophetic powers in excess, Joshua called upon Moses to punish them. Moses responded to Joshua saying, “Are you jealous for my sake? If only all the people could be prophets if Hashem would but place His spirit in them.” (Numbers 11:26-29)

We are witness here to a great quality of Moses and one for which we should all aspire: The “Ayin HaTovah” Read More >

By Rabbi Jeffrey Segelman|2022-07-29T11:24:19-04:00May 28, 2021|

All shall unite to do God's will with an open heart.

All shall unite to do God's will with an open heart.

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