Parashat Vayigash 5779

Reconciliation is Difficult
A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayiggash
by Rabbi Len Levin

“Then Judah went up to him and said, Please, my lord…” (Gen. 44:18)

“And Joseph could no longer refrain before all those standing before him…” (Gen. 45:1)

Reconciliation is difficult.

This week’s Torah reading provides the climax to a narrative that has been unfolding for the past several weeks. This narrative begs to be read on two levels—on the level of a specific family, and on the level of social groups.

On the specific level, there is a clash of personalities, such as we experience in many families. The personalities are sharply different, and the sharp personal differences generate conflicts that escalate to critical proportions. In a family of strong personalities, Joseph is extraordinary, and he demands to be treated as special. The brothers resent his superiority attitude and find dubious ways to be rid of him, at great cost to their integrity and Read More >

By Rabbi Len Levin|2018-12-13T18:10:13-05:00December 13, 2018|

Parashat Miketz 5779

Joseph: Is He Greater than the Patriarchs?
A D’var Torah for Parashat Miketz
by Rabbi Isaac Mann

As the lights of the Hanukah menorah grow from day to day, so does our fascination with the story of Joseph in the Bible (which we read about in the synagogue on Hanukah) increase from year to year. What is it about this story, the longest in the Torah, that we never tire from discussing and thinking about?

While there are many answers to this question, most of which relate to Joseph’s character, a new thought came to me that I would like to express in this D’var Torah, and it starts with a question. Why is it that Joseph, who the Rabbis referred to as Yosef ha-Zaddik (see, e.g. Yoma 35b) – Joseph the Righteous – never received any communication from God, not even from an angel, as did his forebears, the Patriarchs, all of whom merited Read More >

By Rabbi Isaac Mann|2018-12-06T13:16:38-05:00December 6, 2018|

Parashat Vayeishev 5779

Keeping the Mind in Mind: The Essence of Pluralism
A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayeishev
By Rabbi David Evan Markus

Exciting news: studying theology can teach us how to think and even build secular careers! Whatever one’s beliefs, immersion in the complexities of sacred text can expand perspective and cultivate character. Studying theology can make the mind nimbler, the heart more tender and the spirit wiser.

But for all of theology’s great promise, theology doesn’t promise certitude. The call to cultivate mind, heart and spirit isn’t about fixity or certainty, but rather something far more important.

Exhibit A: Jacob’s response to Joseph’s dreams in Parshat Vayeishev.

Joseph recounts his dream of 11 stars, sun, and moon bowing to him. Jacob responds with pique (“are parents to worship their child?”) and Joseph’s 11 brothers seethe with jealousy (Gen. 37:10-11a). The encounter ends with Torah narrating that Jacob shamar et ha-davar: he “kept the matter [in mind]” ( Read More >

By Rabbi David Evan Markus|2018-11-29T09:55:22-05:00November 29, 2018|

Parashat Vayishlah 5779

The Oak of Weeping
A D’var Torah for Vayishlah
By Rabbi Jill Hammer

Devorah the wetnurse of Rivkah died and was buried under Beth El, under the oak. And he called it the Oak of Weeping (Alon Bahut). (Genesis 35:8)

Devorah, Rivkah’s nurse, died, and they buried her beneath the city under the oak of the river, and he called the name of the place “the river of Devorah” and he called the name of the oak “the oak of the mourning of Devorah.” (Jubilees 32:30)

Rabbi Shmuel bar Nahman said: The word alon (oak) is Greek and means “another,” for as Yaakov was mourning for Devorah, the news came to him that his mother (Rivkah) had died. This is why it says: “God appeared to him and blessed him.” What was the blessing? The blessing to comfort mourners. (Genesis Rabbah 81:5)

Wedged among the many peaks of the literary landscape of Parashat Vayishlah is a small funeral Read More >

By Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD|2018-11-21T23:31:19-05:00November 21, 2018|

Parashat Vayeitze 5779

A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayeitze
by Rabbi Heidi Hoover (AJR ’11)

At the beginning of this week’s Torah portion, Jacob leaves home. He doesn’t leave by choice, though. He has to leave because his life is in danger–his brother wants to kill him. He runs away, ending up in the wilderness, alone, with nothing, it seems, except the clothes he is wearing. He sleeps with his head on a rock. He’s headed in the direction of Haran, where his mother’s family lives, but he has never met them. Jacob is not an immigrant. He is a refugee.

In that desolate night when he is so alone, Jacob has a dream of a ladder to heaven, with angels going up and down the ladder. God assures him that he will be protected and have countless descendants. It is an amazing experience for Jacob, who says after he awakens, “God was in this place, and I Read More >

By Rabbi Heidi Hoover|2018-11-15T23:07:47-05:00November 15, 2018|

Parashat Toledot – 5779

“Mom Always Liked You Best!”
A D’var Torah for Parashat Toledot
By Rabbi Irwin Huberman (’10)

During the late 1960s, one of the most popular comedy programs on television was the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

The team of Tom and Dick Smothers was a mainstay of CBS’s Sunday night programming, for two distinct reasons.

As public discourse over the Vietnam War heated, the brothers’ comedy would bring the anti-war protest directly into American homes, eventually leading to their cancellation by the network.

However, fifty years later, what endures most about the Smothers Brothers’ comedy was its ability to capture the subtleties of human relationships—in particular between two brothers.

Invariably, as the dialogue between these two siblings would deteriorate, it was Tommy Smothers—always portrayed as the dimmer of the two—who would attempt to trump his brother’s well-reasoned arguments with the accusation, “Well, Mom always liked you best!”

This week, as our Torah portion turns to the relationships within the family of Read More >

By Rabbi Irwin Huberman|2018-11-08T09:59:23-05:00November 8, 2018|

Parashat Hayyei Sarah – 5779

A D’var Torah for Parashat Hayyei Sarah
by Rabbi Bruce Alpert (’11)My Jewish upbringing was entirely cultural, not religious. Yiddish aphorisms did more to shape my identity than any biblical story. For a long time I missed the irony that, though raised an atheist, I was taught to believe that certain things were basheyrt – meant to be.

Certainly the Torah wants us to understand the marriage of Rebecca and Isaac as basheyrt. That seems to be the import of Rebecca’s birth providing the coda to the Akeida. That seems to be the sense we are to take from her anticipated appearance to Abraham’s servant. And that seems to be the feeling conveyed by the story of Rebecca’s and Isaac’s first meeting.

That story has a luminescent quality to me. It glows with the fading sunlight of a field at the end of day. The scene seems to be filled with humor – Rebecca falling from her Read More >

By Bruce Alpert|2018-11-01T09:25:20-04:00November 1, 2018|

Parashat Vayera – 5779

A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayera
by Cantor Sandy Horowitz (’14)

Our matriarch Sarah is held in high esteem. Her kindness in welcoming strangers is a trait she shares with Abraham, and it is said that on the day she gave birth to Isaac many other barren women similarly “were remembered” and also gave birth (Bereishit Rabbah 53:8). Yet the Torah places her in the background rather than at her husband’s side, even with events that directly affect her.Parashat Vayera begins as Abraham welcomes three strangers (messengers of God) who are passing by in the heat of mid-day. Abraham enlists Sarah’s help in preparing food for them, then she remains behind while he goes out to sit with the visitors. They ask him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” and Abraham replies that she is in the tent (Gen. 18:9). Then they tell him that at this time next year they will return and Read More >

By Cantor Sandy Horowitz|2018-10-27T19:45:05-04:00October 27, 2018|

Parashat Lekh Lekha – 5779

The Encounter of Abraham and Melchizedek
A D’var Torah for Parashat Lekh Lekha
by Rabbi Lenny Levin

“And King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was a priest of God Most High (El Elyon). He blessed him, saying, “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth…” (Gen. 14:18–19)

“Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I swear to the Lord (YH-VH), God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth…” (Gen. 14:22)

Whenever Jews pray the Amidah, the Prayer par excellence, they invoke the name El Elyon, “God Most High” (and the Friday night liturgy adds: “Creator of heaven and earth”). But it is one of the rarer names for God in the Hebrew Bible. The more common names for God in the Bible are the Tetragrammaton (the four-letter personal name of God, represented in Hebrew by yod, hei, vav, hei, usually pronounced Adonai or Hashem Read More >

By Rabbi Len Levin|2018-10-18T14:24:05-04:00October 18, 2018|

Parashat Noah – 5779

A D’var Torah for Noah
By Rabbi Isaac Mann

Much has been written by the Bible commentators on the sins that caused God to bring on the Great Flood in the time of Noah. But little ink has been spilled (or keys pressed) in regard to what motivated the Supreme Being to ensure that there will never be a flood again to destroy the world (see Gen. 8:21, 9:8-17).

Surely if the corruption of humankind, and possibly the animal kingdom as well, brought on God’s anger (see Gen. 6:5-7, 11-13) and justified the destruction of all beings (except for Noah and those with him in the Ark), then what would happen if there would be a replay of this selfsame corruption? God’s hands, so to speak, would be tied by the oath He took not to put an end to all life. But then does that imply that He was wrong Read More >

By Rabbi Isaac Mann|2018-10-12T09:02:41-04:00October 12, 2018|

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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