Parashat Shoftim 5779

A D’var Torah for Parashat Shoftim
By Cantor Sandy Horowitz (’14)

“Return to Me”. As I was folding my food-delivery bag I saw those printed words on the bottom. The actual words were “Return Me” (a message for the sake of sustainability) but that’s not what I saw; the mind is a funny thing sometimes. We are in the month of Elul, countdown to the High Holidays. Return to Me! Return to the One in Whose Guidance we trust; return to me, my most sacred authentic self. There are many ways to approach this period of preparation and personal reflection prior to the Days of Awe; a theme from Parashat Shoftim suggests one framework: that theme is justice.

This week’s Torah reading begins with God’s establishment of a legal structure, for the time when the Israelites will dwell in their new home across the Jordan. Judges and law enforcement officials are to be established in all the tribes, and Read More >

By Cantor Sandy Horowitz|2022-07-29T11:24:33-04:00September 6, 2019|

Parashat Re’eh 5779

There Never Was an Idolatrous City
A D’var Torah for Parashat Re’eh
By Rabbi Len Levin

“See, this day I set before you blessing and curse.” (Deut. 11:26)

“I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life!” (Deut. 30:19)

It should be so simple. But life is rarely that simple.

The extreme of evil, which the Torah bids us shun, is idolatry (Deut. 13:2–19). What is idolatry? In rabbinic literature, idolatry is often equated with kafar ba-ikar —forsaking the fundamental principle of Judaism. In modern parlance, we have other ways of expressing supreme condemnation. “Disloyalty,” “treason,” and “self-hating Jew” come to mind. They carry the same valence of scorn, ostracism, and exclusion as “idolatry” in ancient discourse. Each is used implicitly to condemn an opponent as violating the fundamental principle of Judaism.

But there is more than one fundamental principle of Judaism.

In the Pesah Haggadah, we are told Read More >

By Rabbi Len Levin|2022-07-29T11:24:33-04:00August 29, 2019|

Parashat Eikev 5779

A D’var Torah for Parashat Eikev
By Rabbi Isaac Mann

In the beginning of this week’s Torah reading we have two references to the manna (man in Hebrew) that sustained the Israelites in the desert for forty years as a test (nisayon) by God. In this essay I wish to explore what was the nature of this test and how it relates to us in practical terms.

In his long exhortation to B’nei Yisrael, Moses reminds them that God had them travel in the wilderness for the past forty years that “He might test you by hardships to learn what was in your hearts: whether you would keep His commandments or not. He subjected you to the hardship of hunger and then gave you manna to eat … in order to teach you that man does not live by bread alone, but that man may live on anything that the Lord decrees” (Deut. 8:2-3). Read More >

By Rabbi Isaac Mann|2022-07-29T11:24:33-04:00August 23, 2019|

Parashat Va’ethanan 5779

A D’var Torah for Parashat Va’ethanan
By Rabbi David Markus

It’s fitting that the “Jewish greatest hits” of Parashat Va’ethanan come immediately after Tisha b’Av.

After our spiritual calendar’s lowest day, Torah promises that anyone who seeks God with whole heart and soul will find God exactly where we are – even in exile (Deut. 4:27-29). We stand again to hear the sacred utterances we call the Ten Commandments, recalling that together we stood at Sinai (Deut. 5:6-18). We receive the Shema of unity and the V’ahavta of a love that far transcends place – both “dwelling in [our] home and walking on [our] way” (Deut. 6:4-9).

Notice how the three Va’ethanan dimensions of content, place and time commingle spiritually.

The content is core Jewish theology. It’s our full-hearted search for God amidst a promise of real sacred encounter. (Heschel’s God in Search of Man, anyone?) It’s God pouring Self into Word becoming Read More >

By Rabbi David Evan Markus|2022-07-29T11:24:33-04:00August 16, 2019|

Parashat Devarim 5779

A D’var Torah for Parashat Devarim
By Rabbi Heidi Hoover (’11)

Devarim is the first significant word of this week’s Torah portion, and therefore it gives the Torah portion its name. Because this week is the first portion in the fifth book of the Torah, Devarim is also the name of the whole book, which is called Deuteronomy in English, from the Greek. Devarim means “words,” and it’s an appropriate name for the book, because Moses spends the whole book of Deuteronomy making his last speech to the Israelites. At the end of it he dies and they prepare to go forward into the Promised Land.

In Judaism, words are very important. We are called the “People of the Book”—a book (books, really) full of words that give us the best information we have about what God wants from us. Words can create and destroy reputations. According to our tradition, God used words to create Read More >

By Rabbi Heidi Hoover|2022-07-29T11:24:33-04:00August 9, 2019|

Parashat Matot-Masei 5779

A D’var Torah for Parashat Matot-Masei
By Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD

This week we have a double parashah: Matot-Masei. The name of Parashat Matot means staffs (as in big sticks). A staff is a sign of authority, and this parashah is full of reflections on tribal and patriarchal authority. As it moves through its various narratives, the parashah demonstrates how small acts of violence can lead to larger ones.

The parashah opens with an explanation of the practice of nedarim or vows. This was an important Israelite practice that was open to laypeople, not only clergy. The making and keeping of a vow—such as a vow to become a nazirite and not cut your hair, or Hannah’s vow to give Samuel to the Temple—was a kind of offering practice. It was a way of showing devotion to God and often of showing gratitude for some personal abundance or miraculous intervention one had received.

However, this vowing practice was not equally open to Read More >

By Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD|2022-07-29T11:24:33-04:00August 2, 2019|

Parashat Pinhas 5779

Pinhas: Hero or vigilante?
A D’var Torah for Parashat Pinhas
By Rabbi Irwin Huberman (’10)

It may be strongly argued that within Judaism, there is no room or tolerance for committing murder in God’s name.

We view with distain fanatical groups such as ISIS or Boko Haran killing others for failing to adhere to a specific type of religious practice. Teenage girls have been kidnapped or enslaved for the perceived crime of receiving an education.

Within Judaism, we have witnessed in recent years numerous examples of religious zealotry – including the murder of Muslims in Hebron in 1995, or the stabbings at the 2005 Jerusalem gay pride parade, or the assassination in 1995 of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

All of this has been universally condemned by the modern Jewish world.

So then, how can we embrace the text to be read this Saturday in synagogues throughout the world – named after Pinhas, grandson of Aaron the priest, Read More >

By Rabbi Irwin Huberman|2022-07-29T11:24:34-04:00July 25, 2019|

Parashat Balak 5779

A D’var Torah for Parashat Balak
By Rabbi Bruce Alpert (’11)

My family has a habit of frequenting struggling restaurants, which means we often wind up befriending their owners. And, given my limited menu choices, those owners usually soon discover that we are Jewish. One night, many years ago, my wife was talking to one of these owners about the difficulties she was facing in her own business. To which the struggling restaurateur replied “Oh, you don’t have to worry. You’re Jewish and God doesn’t let Jewish businesses fail.”

This week’s Torah portion and its story of Balaam, the heathen prophet hired by Moabite king Balak to curse Israel, brought that evening at that long since shuttered restaurant to mind. Having twice failed in his mission, we are told that Balaam turns his gaze to the wilderness where he lifts his eyes and sees Israel “encamped tribe by tribe.” (Numbers, 24:2) The vision evokes from Read More >

By Bruce Alpert|2022-07-29T11:24:34-04:00July 17, 2019|

Parashat Hukkat 5779

The Life of Miriam
A D’var Torah for Parashat Hukkat
By Cantor Sandy Horowitz (’14)

In parashat Hukkat we encounter Moses’ sister Miriam for the last time: “Then came the people of Israel, the whole congregation into the desert of Zin in the first month, and the people abode in Kadesh, and Miriam died there, and was buried there” (Numbers 20:1). The description of her death is remarkably brief, comprising just five words (va-tamat sham Miriam, vatikaver sham). Miriam does not even merit her own verse of Torah, as her death-announcement is tacked on to the end of the narrative describing the people’s arrival in Kadesh. And indeed, for a figure who looms so large in our Torah-consciousness, the total amount of biblical text that pertains to Miriam is quite sparse.

In her initial biblical appearance, Miriam is identified not by name but simply as the sister of the baby Moses. She Read More >

By Cantor Sandy Horowitz|2022-07-29T11:24:34-04:00July 10, 2019|

Parashat Korah 5779

Korah: Idealist or Demagogue?
A D’var Torah for Parashat Korah
By Rabbi Len Levin

Korah’s words resonate with modern egalitarian sympathies: “For the congregation are all holy, and Adonai is among them; and why do you exalt yourselves over the congregation of Adonai?” (Numbers 16:3). In a previous Dvar Torah (AJR archive 2014 ) I explored the challenge that this presents for Jews faithful to the Torah narrative. If we are sincere in our commitment to egalitarian principles, we must at least examine if Korah’s arguments have merit.

The biblical narrative does not look on Korah’s protest kindly. In that narrative, Korah’s rebellion against Moses’s authority is punished by his being swallowed up by the earth, together with all his followers and their property. If such punishment was deserved, then Korah’s arguments must have been insincere, crafted with the sole purpose of serving his personal ambition—a classic ploy of Read More >

By Rabbi Len Levin|2022-07-29T11:24:34-04:00July 3, 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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