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 >

By Bruce Alpert|2022-07-29T11:24:30-04:00January 29, 2020|

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 >

By Cantor Sandy Horowitz|2022-07-29T11:24:30-04:00January 22, 2020|

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 >

By Rabbi Irwin Huberman|2022-07-29T11:24:30-04:00January 16, 2020|

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 >

By Rabbi David Evan Markus|2022-07-29T11:24:30-04:00January 10, 2020|

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 >

By Rabbi Heidi Hoover|2022-07-29T11:24:30-04:00January 3, 2020|

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 >

By Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD|2022-07-29T11:24:30-04:00December 27, 2019|

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 >

By Rabbi Isaac Mann|2022-07-29T11:24:30-04:00December 19, 2019|

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 >

By Rabbi Isaac Mann|2022-07-29T11:24:31-04:00December 19, 2019|

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 >

By Bruce Alpert|2022-07-29T11:24:31-04:00December 12, 2019|

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 >

By Cantor Sandy Horowitz|2022-07-29T11:24:31-04:00December 5, 2019|

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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