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Parashat Naso – 5786

A D’var Torah for Parashat Naso

By Rabbi Scott “Shalom” Klein

Parashat Naso opens with the command “Naso et rosh“—to “lift the head” of the sons of Gershon (Numbers 4:22). While the text begins with a census of those carrying the physical burdens of the Sanctuary, it culminates in the Birkat Kohanim, the Priestly Blessing, which provides the spiritual “lifting” for the entire nation. This transition from the labor of the Levites to the grace of the Kohanim offers a masterclass in leadership: the sustainability of any mission depends on a leader’s ability to not only manage the logistics of the “heavy lift” but to actively invoke a culture of protection, clarity, and peace.

The Sfat Emet (Sfat Emet, Naso 1) explains that “lifting the head” is a prerequisite for service. He suggests that every individual possesses a unique spark that can only be activated when they recognize their specific role as a Read More >

Parashat Naso – 5786Marisa Amith2026-05-19T20:37:38-04:00

Parashat Bemidbar – 5786

A D’var Torah for Parashat Bemidbar

By Rabba Kaya Stern-Kaufman

Just two months ago I lost my soul mate, my beloved husband, to cancer. He was the love of my life. My world has turned upside down. I find myself in an unrecognizable terrain, a wilderness with no clear reference points. He was my compass and my North Star. Yet, despite my personal loss, I am fairly certain that this feeling of disorientation is not unique to me. We are all experiencing such rapid societal changes, both domestically and internationally, that many of us are falling into despair, grief, fear, and disorientation. Norms, structures and societal agreements that held us together, that championed the good of all, over individual greed and gain, seem to have dissolved overnight under the brute force of humanity’s most base instincts; the endless desire for personal gain and power through the proliferation of fear, hatred and divisiveness. However, in Read More >

Parashat Bemidbar – 5786Marisa Amith2026-05-11T18:33:55-04:00

Parshiyot Behar-Behukotai – 5786

A D’var Torah for Parshiyot Behar-Behukotai

By Rabbi Inna Serebro-Litvak

Last month I was trying to make plans to meet with friends for dinner. We kept going through our calendars in search of a convenient day. Twice we actually thought we had found a date that would work for us all but then someone would remember another event that was already scheduled for that date and we would have to start all over again.

Finally, we settled on getting together on June 13, which was two months away from the time we started figuring it out!

We all have such busy calendars that we almost never have a chance to experience the spontaneity of just calling someone and getting together that same day. These days we almost always have to make plans in advance!

But I have a much different experience when I travel to Israel. When I am visiting friends and family there, I can never Read More >

Parshiyot Behar-Behukotai – 5786Marisa Amith2026-05-04T17:07:32-04:00

Parashat Emor – 5786

The Meaning of a Mitzvah

A D’var Torah for Parashat Emor
By Rabbi Wendy Love Anderson

What’s the point of a mitzvah? For most people, a mitzvah is fundamentally something you do, whether you are visiting the sick or donating tzedakah, praying the Shema or eating matzah on Pesah. When you hear about a twelve-year-old’s “mitzvah project” or celebrate “Mitzvah Day” at a local synagogue or refer to Chabad’s “mitzvah tanks,” the presumption is that a mitzvah is a clearly defined action, which can be encouraged through donation drives, activity fairs, or vehicles equipped with ritual accessories. You can decide to “do” a mitzvah; you can finish it; you can make lists of mitzvot and check them off. In fact, a number of distinctively Jewish practices, such as wearing a tallit or conducting a Passover Seder, offer us opportunities to perform a mitzvah (in this case, putting fringes on our four-cornered garments or remembering the Read More >

Parashat Emor – 5786Marisa Amith2026-04-27T10:13:17-04:00

Parshiyot Aharei Mot—Kedoshim – 5786

A D’var Torah for Parshiyot Aharei Mot—Kedoshim

By Rabbi Dorit Edut (‘ 06)

With all the conflicts in our world today and the divisiveness in the Jewish community we might well be tempted to respond to Parashat Kedoshim’s formulation of The Golden Rule with the words from the famous Tina Turner song: “What’s love got to do with it?” And yet, I think there is a great deal that the Torah is trying to teach us in this portion about love.

It is not a simple matter – to love someone else. Just look at the verse that precedes (Leviticus 19:17) – where we see what Abraham Ibn Ezra calls the reverse of this expression: “You shall not hate your kinsfolk in your heart.” While indeed there is a difference in our relationships to our “kinsfolk,” i.e., our relatives or other Jewish people, to our “fellow,” i.e., our non-Jewish friends and the larger society in which we Read More >

Parshiyot Aharei Mot—Kedoshim – 5786Marisa Amith2026-04-21T12:28:17-04:00

Parshiyot Tazria-Metzorah – 5786

Protecting Our Garment of Light

A D’var Torah for Parshiyot Tazria-Metzorah

By Rabbi Dr. Rachel Posner

Our skin is the largest organ of our body – and a remarkable one. The average adult’s skin covers about two square meters, hosts roughly 1,000 species of bacteria, and contains millions of receptors that sense touch, pressure, temperature, and pain, constantly sending signals to the brain about our environment. Our skin regulates body temperature, protects us from pathogens, and repairs itself with quiet efficiency: within minutes of injury, platelets begin clotting; within days, new skin cells migrate to cover the wound.

We sometimes think of our skin as a boundary, a wall separating inside from outside. But like the walls of a home, it is both a border and an integral part of us.

As someone who suffered from chronic hives, I know that skin disease cannot be hidden. When our skin erupts, we feel exposed – aware of others’ Read More >

Parshiyot Tazria-Metzorah – 5786Marisa Amith2026-04-14T09:30:13-04:00

Parashat Shemini – 5786

Before God: The Risk of Sacred Nearness

A D’var Torah for Parashat Shemini

By Rabbi Anat Katzir

Parashat Shemini confronts us with one of the Torah’s most unsettling phrases. After Nadav and Avihu offer what the text calls אש זרה eish zarah, “strange/foreign fire,” we read:

״ ותצא אש מלפני ה׳ וימותו לפני ה׳״“Vateitzei eish milifnei Adonai… vayamutu lifnei Adonai.”
Fire came forth from before God, and they died before God. (Leviticus 10:2)

The phrase “lifnei Adonai” appears three times in two verses. Nadav and Avihu bring their offering “lifnei Adonai.” The fire emerges “milifnei Adonai”. They die “lifnei Adonai.”

The repetition is deliberate and disquieting. The same preposition: “lifnei”, describes both their location and the origin of the consuming fire. They stand in proximity to divine Presence, and that very proximity becomes lethal. The text offers no psychological exposition, no extended moral explanation or intention. It gives us instead a linguistic pattern: before God, from before God, before God.

On a peshat level, lifnei means “before” or Read More >

Parashat Shemini – 5786Marisa Amith2026-04-05T18:20:30-04:00

D’var Torah Pesah – 5786

From Spectators to Stakeholders: The Architecture of Spiritual Freedom

A D’var Torah for Pesah

By Rabbi Scott “Shalom” Klein

The festival of Pesah serves as the foundational narrative of our people, transitioning us from the degradation of “Avadim Hayinu” (we were slaves) to the existential responsibility of a free nation. While the Seder night focuses on the historical memory of the Exodus, the deeper theological challenge lies in the internal transformation required to sustain that freedom. By examining the Haggadah’s insistence on personal identification with the past and the Netivot Shalom’s (Rabbi Sholom Noah Berezovsky) insights on the nature of spiritual liberation, we find a timeless blueprint for leadership and communal resilience.

The central command of the evening is found in the Mishnah (Pesahim 10:5): “בְּכָל דּוֹר וָדוֹר חַיָּב אָדָם לִרְאוֹת אֶת עַצְמוֹ כְאִלּוּ הוּא יָצָא מִמִּצְרַיִם” ”—”In every generation, one is obligated to see oneself as if he personally went out from Egypt.” This is not merely a call to Read More >

D’var Torah Pesah – 5786Marisa Amith2026-03-30T15:06:53-04:00

Parashat Tzav – 5786

The Chain of Command

A D’var Torah for Parashat Tzav

By Cantor Sandy Horowitz

Sometimes we think about Torah on a macro level as the story of our people, our system of laws, the foundation of our heritage. Other times, we explore a particular theme or individual or delve into the weekly parashah. With this week’s Torah portion a single verse from Parashat Tzav stood out for me – in particular, a single word.

At this point in our narrative Moses is undergoing the rituals, as commanded by God, of formally consecrating his brother Aaron and Aaron’s sons as priests. We read of three sacrificial offerings:

First, Moses brings forth a bull for the sin offering and we read:

וַיִּשְׁחָ֗ט וַיִּקַּ֨ח מֹשֶׁ֤ה אֶת־הַדָּם֙

“And it was slaughtered. Moses took the blood…” (Lev. 8:15)

Moses then brings a ram for the burnt offering:

וַיִּשְׁחָ֑ט וַיִּזְרֹ֨ק מֹשֶׁ֧ה אֶת־הַדָּ֛ם

“And it was slaughtered. Moses dashed the blood [against the altar]” (Lev. 8:19)

Finally, in Read More >

Parashat Tzav – 5786Marisa Amith2026-03-25T13:20:09-04:00

Parshiyot Vayakhel-Pekudei 5786

A D’var Torah for Parshiyot Vayakhel-Pekudei

By Rabbi Dr. Matthew Goldstone

Parashat Vayakhel begins with a discussion of Shabbat that barely adds new information. Of the two verses that appear here about Shabbat, one of them (Exod. 35:2) reiterates information that we learned just a few chapters ago (i.e., Exod. 31:15) and the other seems to only provide a single example of what constitutes work – i.e., lighting fire. So why this emphasis on something that largely appears to repeat what we already know?

Starting with the verse that provides new information (Exod. 35:3), we can ask what is so special about kindling fire that the Torah singles this out as a key prohibition for Shabbat? In some ways fire is the quintessential catalyst for transformative work. Fire cooks food, tempers metal, and allows for a plethora of technologies. The modern equivalent is perhaps electricity (understood by some traditional posekim to be Read More >

Parshiyot Vayakhel-Pekudei 5786Marisa Amith2026-03-09T10:23:39-04:00

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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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Parashat Naso – 5786

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