Reuben, Gad, and the Tension Between Place and Purpose A D’var Torah for Parshiyot Mattot-Masei By Hazzan Rabbi Luis Cattan (AJR '20) When Natan Sharansky was Chairman of the Jewish Agency, I had the privilege of sitting with him and a small group of global Jewish leaders to discuss Jewish identity. In that conversation, he shared a metaphor that has stayed with me ever since. He spoke of the pain of living under Soviet rule—of the repression, the fear, and the impossibility of making aliyah. But then he added, “More than the Iron Curtain once prevented Soviet Jews from making aliyah, today it is the Golden Curtain that prevents American Jews.” In other words, it’s not external oppression that distances many Jews from Israel—it’s comfort. Affluence, freedom, and Read More >

As the Children of Israel prepare to come to the final stages of their journey to the Promised Land, God instructs Moses to “Take a census of the whole Israelite community from the age of twenty years up, by their ancestral houses, all Israelites able to bear arms.” [Numbers 26:2]

“Listening to the Whole Story” A D’var Torah for Parashat Balak By Rabbi Rob Scheinberg “A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.” When Simon and Garfunkel sang these words more than 50 years ago, it was not in a political context, but this concept seems so relevant to contemporary politics. Whether with regard to American issues, Israeli issues, internal Jewish communal issues, or any other topic, many of us are so wedded to our preexisting assumptions that we pay deep attention to anything that supports what we already believe, and dismiss even reputable information if it challenges what we already believe. I often see this tendency in myself; I try to resist it, and I sometimes succeed. Balak, the king of the Moabites and the namesake Read More >

A D’var Torah for Parashat Hukkat By Rabbi Marge Wise (AJR ‘21) As someone who has struggled with understanding the concept of s’khar v'onesh, reward and punishment in Judaism, I find in parashat Hukkat perhaps a partial answer. Volumes have been written about what Moshe may have done wrong in this parashah, why God reacted as He did, whether it was Divine punishment and if it was, what can we learn from it. Although I'm tempted to discuss some other themes in this parashah – the parah ha-adumah, the red heifer, the effect on Moses of Miriam and Aaron’s death, the plague which killed 15,000 individuals and the copper serpent cure, I’m determined to remain faithful to the theme of Moses' striking the rock - twice - and what follows, in the hope of gaining additional insights into Read More >