Parashat Va’eira 5781

Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah

A D’var Torah for Parashat Va’eira
By Rabbi Ariann Weitzman (’11)Parashat Va’eira describes the first public attempts to free the Israelites from Egyptian bondage. Moses and Aaron make the first pleas for freedom, Pharaoh pushes back, and most of the plagues are unleashed on the Egyptian people in a cycle of escalating consequences for Pharaoh’s hard-heartedness.

Although parashat Va’eira represents the first time the Israelites have had a public leader, a loud and impassioned voice in Pharaoh’s court, arguing for their freedom, it is not actually the beginning of the stirrings of liberation. It is not even the beginning of the fight for liberation. Instead, it represents a final stage of organized Israelite power, the culmination of years of private resistance.

We can see the beginnings of this private resistance in last week’s parasha, Shemot. The representatives of that resistance are the Read More >

By Rabbi Ariann Weitzman|2022-07-29T11:24:22-04:00January 15, 2021|

Parashat Shemot – 5781

Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah

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

“These are the names of the sons of Israel who came into Egypt with Jacob…. [t]he total number of persons that were of Jacob’s issue came to seventy, Joseph being already in Egypt.” (Exodus 1:1, 5) This beginning to the Book of Shemot – of Names – reflects strongly on how we see K’lal Yisrael, our sense of how we form community. Rashi and Ramban both say that by enumerating their names it illustrates how dear they each are to G-d as they are compared to the stars. G-d brings out and brings in by name and by number. “Lift high your eyes and see: Who created these? [W]ho sends out their host by count, who calls them each by name…” (Isaiah 40:26)

I have always found great resonance in the Read More >

By Doug Alpert|2022-07-29T11:24:22-04:00January 8, 2021|

Parashat Vayehi 5781

Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah

A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayehi
By Rabbi Jill Hackell (’13)The Smothers brothers had an ongoing routine in which Tommy (the older brother), complained to Dickie (the younger brother), “Mom always liked you best”. It was funny because their squabbles reflected the sibling rivalry that was present, to some degree, in every family.

I didn’t realize at the time that it also reflected almost the entire book of Bereshit (Genesis) in the Torah. Parental favoritism – especially of the younger child over the older – and sibling rivalry is a theme that runs throughout. Brothers vie for position, for approval, for birthright, for blessing, and time after time, it is the younger, rather than the elder who is favored. Here are some examples.

Jacob and Esau struggle with each other even in the womb. Esau, the firstborn, is favored by his father, Jacob by his Read More >

By Rabbi Jill Hackell M.D.|2022-07-29T11:24:23-04:00January 1, 2021|

Parashat Vayigash 5781

Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah

Encouraging ALL Our Children to Dream
A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayigash
By Rabbi Marc Rudolph (’04)

This week in our parasha we continue to read about that dreamer par excellence, Joseph. The second youngest child among 12 sons, he dreams of his older brothers one day bowing down to him. His brothers ridicule him for his dreaming, and his father, Jacob, rebukes him for sharing his dreams and causing trouble in the family. But Jacob also takes his son’s dream seriously.

Joseph’s dreams express his ambition to someday be great. In this week’s parasha he uses his extraordinary talents to rise to become second in command to the Pharaoh in Egypt. In that position he will save the country from famine and help Pharaoh to amass a considerable fortune in the process. His achievements will have surpassed his wildest dreams.

Have you noticed that in Read More >

By Rabbi Marc Rudolph|2022-07-29T11:24:23-04:00December 25, 2020|

Parashat Mikeitz 5781

Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah

A D’var Torah for Parashat Mekeitz
By Rabbi Enid Lader

Pharaoh has had a sleepless night; well, one of those nights when you have a bad dream, wake up, get a drink of water to calm yourself down, get back into bed and fall back to sleep, only to have another even more frightening dream. Pharaoh gathers his counselors and magicians around him, but no one is able to (or wants to) interpret his dreams. It is the chief cupbearer who suddenly remembers Joseph’s last words to him when they both were in prison after Joseph had correctly interpreted the cupbearer’s dream – “Remember me to Pharaoh so as to free me from this place…” (Gen. 40:14). The cupbearer promptly forgot as he gained his freedom… And now, two years later, when a dream interpreter is needed, the cupbearer Read More >

By Rabbi Enid C. Lader|2022-07-29T11:24:23-04:00December 18, 2020|

Parashat VaYeishev 5781

Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah

Which Hanukkah Story?
A D’var Torah for Parashat VaYeishev
By Rabbi Jeffrey Segelman

Most of us know that there are two Hanukkah stories. The first is the one that appears in the Talmud (Shabbat 21b). This is the one we learned as children. In short, the Greeks sought to force all the Jews to abandon Judaism and adopt Greek religious culture. A small band of Jews, led by Mattityahu HaCohein and his sons, rebelled and courageously fought back against the Greek armies.

Upon their success, they entered the Temple that the Greeks had defiled. They cleaned the building and rebuilt the altar and as they were preparing to rededicate the Temple, they found that they had but one day’s worth of pure olive oil to light the menorah. They lit what they had and behold, God brought a miracle and the oil lasted not Read More >

By Rabbi Jeffrey Segelman|2022-07-29T11:24:23-04:00December 11, 2020|

Parashat Vayishlah 5781

Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah

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 >

By Rabbi Michael Rothbaum|2022-07-29T11:24:23-04:00December 4, 2020|

Parashat Vayeitzei 5781

Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah

Noticing the Good (and the Bad)
A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayeitzei
By Rabbi Lizz Goldstein (’16)

I always feel a bit conflicted at this time of year, and in some ways this year’s necessary changes have alleviated some of my discomfort around celebrating Thanksgiving. I love this day for food and family, for gratitude and the opportunity to share all that we have, but sometimes it’s impossible to ignore that this holiday is based on a white-washed version of history that in reality led to genocide. It’s one thing to take the time out of our busy lives to just enjoy a pause for hakarat hatov – noticing the good. But is it necessary in a time of physical shut down and overwhelming flow of information of the good and bad in this country?

I recall some years ago, Read More >

By Rabbi Lizz Goldstein|2022-07-29T11:24:23-04:00November 27, 2020|

Parashat Toledot 5781

Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah

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

Parashat Toledot traces the arc of the patriarch Isaac’s life from the beginnings of his married life to his old age. Along the way, seemingly more energetic actors plot and scheme around him: his wife Rebecca, his sons Jacob and Esau, even his neighbors, the Philistines. Isaac’s primary virtue appears to be naivety.

Some readers find Isaac’s character to be one of extended adolescence, always traveling in his parents’ footsteps, repeating the steps of their lives, and never venturing forth on his own. One might say that he has a failure to launch. Instead of going out to find a wife, one is brought to him. Instead of leaving the land of Canaan in time of famine to improve his fate, he stays close to home. He moves Read More >

By Rabbi Ariann Weitzman|2022-07-29T11:24:23-04:00November 19, 2020|

Parashat Hayei Sarah 5781

Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah

A D’var Torah for Parashat Hayei Sarah
By Rabbi Doug Alpert (’12)For years I have worked with a number of organizations whose mission is centered around fighting racism. The Missouri branch of the NAACP, the Missouri coordinating committee for the Poor Peoples Campaign, the Metro Organization for Racial and Economic Equity in my hometown of Kansas City. So it is with much anticipation that I will participate in this year’s AJR Fall Retreat (albeit virtually) focusing on race and racism.

Much of the work in fighting racism is to wrestle with a sense of our own identity and community. Who is in and who is out, or, to coin a cultural moniker of Jewish identity that came up on day one of the retreat; who is a “member of the tribe.” (This reference had always struck me as a relic of Read More >

By Doug Alpert|2022-07-29T11:24:24-04:00November 13, 2020|

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

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

Programs of Study

Learn more about…

Programs of Study

Learn more about…

Parashat Va’eira 5781

ABOUT

LIBRARY

JOIN US

PROGRAMS OF STUDY