Parashat Vayeirah

by Cantor Sandy Horowitz

“`Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run”
Bruce Springsteen

Parashat Vayera begins, “Vayisa einav vayar v’hinei shlosha anashim — And he [Abraham] lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold three men stood by him”; it continues, “And he saw them, and he ran (vayaratz) to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself to the ground” (Genesis 18:2).

These opening verses are often cited as a central example of the virtue of hospitality. The active verbs provide a reminder that being welcoming is not a passive, receptive experience but rather a course of action, as we read how Abraham then spoke to the strangers, offered them food and water and a place to rest, and then rushed to prepare the food, enlisting his wife Sarah in the endeavor.

In addition to the act itself of being welcoming, is Abraham’s willingness to run towards something unknown in order to perform an Read More >

By Cantor Sandy Horowitz|2016-11-16T22:25:00-05:00November 16, 2016|

Parashat Lekh-Lekha

by Rabbi David Almog

People Following God and God Following People

For generations, readers of the Bible have admired Avram’s emigration to Canaan at the start of Parashat Lekh Lekha as a quintessential act of faith. One can only imagine a divine voice giving a command to uproot one’s life and one’s family to travel to an unspecified location. As Midrash Lekah Tov explains, the reason for the vague instruction was to grant Avram “merit for each and every step” he took while following God with such pure devotion. He could not have been sure if he was going to a good land, where he and his family could prosper. On the other hand, looking back to the previous parashah, one can easily interpret that the impetus for choosing the land of Canaan was entirely one of human making, which God “ratifies”, so to speak. This would neither be the first nor the Read More >

By Rabbi Isaac Mann|2016-11-09T22:30:16-05:00November 9, 2016|

Parashat Noah

by Rabbi Michael Pitkowsky

The Pluralism of Language

According to the end of this week’s parashah, at one time in history there was a uniformity of human language.

“Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.” (Gen. 11:1-3, NRSV trans.)

A few verses later we read about the destructive nature of this uniformity of language.

“The LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. And the LORD said, “Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us Read More >

By ahsilver|2016-11-09T14:59:37-05:00November 9, 2016|

Parashat Bereishit

by Rabbi Jill Hammer

Parashat Bereishit: The Ever-Turning Sword

“YHWH Elohim sent out the human from the garden of Eden, to work the earth from which he was taken. So YHWH Elohim expelled the human and caused to dwell east of Eden the cherubim and the flame of the ever-turning sword to guard the way to the Tree of Life.” (Gen. 3:23-24)

I often have found myself fascinated by the ever-turning sword, the herev mithapekhet, that keeps humans from returning to Eden. Does one of the cherubim hold it, or does it turn on its own? Is there already an ever-turning sword in the divine treasury, or does God need to forge one for the occasion? Why is it described as lahat, a burning flame? What would happen if a human confronted the ever-turning sword? Is it possible to get past it and enter Eden, as some of the Hasidic rabbis claimed?

The parallel between Eden Read More >

By Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD|2016-10-27T15:30:27-04:00October 27, 2016|

Parashat Korah

by Cantor Sandy Horowitz

[The AJR Devar Torah email will be taking some time off during the summer, but don’t worry, we’ll be back before you know it.]

“Everyone has a choice when to and not to raise their voices, it’s you that decides”
Run of the Mill by George Harrison

In this week’s Torah portion Korah, along with Datan, Aviram and 250 chieftains from among the Israelites, attempts a full scale rebellion, challenging the leadership of Moses and Aaron.

When Moses hears about it, “Vayipol al panav,” “He fell on his face” (Numbers 16:4). According to Rashi, after having endured the incident of the golden calf, and the complaining about food, and the spies who had so little faith in God, Moses feels utterly discouraged.

As he lay on the ground following this challenge from Korah and his followers, imagine how Moses might have reflected on the three prior incidents that Rashi mentions.

While on the mountain at Sinai Read More >

By Cantor Sandy Horowitz|2016-07-06T18:06:31-04:00July 6, 2016|

Parashat Shelah

The Generations of the Wilderness

by Rabbi Len Levin

Should the Israelites of the wilderness generation be condemned for their unruliness and lack of faith? Or admired for their heroic survival in the face of adversity?

Closer to our time: Should Jews of Diaspora be condemned for their effeteness, rootlessness, and apathy? Or should they be admired for their cultivation of intellectual and ethical values, their balancing of universalistic and particularistic concerns, and their sheer survival over 2000 years, keeping the Jewish legacy alive amid adverse circumstances?

“Negation of the Diaspora” was a topic of fierce debate in early Zionist polemics. The exilic mind-set of Diaspora Jewry was compared to the slave mentality of the ancient Israelites. Jews who were too timid to defend themselves against the pogrom perpetrators would have to undergo a change of character in order to reclaim their place in history and build the Jewish homeland.

In a famous exchange of the early Read More >

By Rabbi Len Levin|2016-06-29T15:30:57-04:00June 29, 2016|

Parashat Beha’alotkha

by Rabbi Michael Pitkowsky

Near the end of this week’s parashah, in the midst of Aharon and Miriam’s attempt to undermine Moshe’s authority, the Torah tells us that “Now the man Moses was very humble, more so than anyone else on the face of the earth.” (Numbers 12:3) In the eyes of the Rabbis humility was a trait that all people should try and acquire. Rabbi Yohanan, a third century sage from the Land of Israel, included humble people as one of the few upon whom the Shekhinah, God’s presence, would rest. (Nedarim 38a)

The Talmud relates the following story about Moshe.

R. Joshua b. Levi said, “When Moses came down from before the Holy One, blessed be He, the Satan came and said before him, ‘Lord of the world, where is the Torah?’ “He said to him, ‘I gave it to the earth.’ “He went to the earth and said to Read More >

By ahsilver|2016-06-24T09:31:27-04:00June 24, 2016|

Parashat Naso

by Hazzan Marcia Lane

[We would like to bring to people’s attention the difference between the traditional Diaspora and Israeli Torah reading cycles for the next few months. Since this year the eighth day of Passover, which was observed by many in the Diaspora, fell on Shabbat and had a special Torah reading, the Israeli Torah reading cycle moved one parashah ahead of the traditional Diaspora cycle. The AJR divrei Torah will follow the traditional Diaspora cycle and will catch up to the Israeli cycle at the beginning of August.]

The Text is Context

Parashat Naso begins with a census of the Levitical priests and ends with a series of repetitive paragraphs outlining the gifts that the chiefs of each tribe bring to outfit the Tabernacle. But in the middle of the parashah (Numbers 5:11-5:31) there is a curious description of a ritual that shall be carried out in the case of a man who Read More >

By ahsilver|2016-06-16T21:37:37-04:00June 16, 2016|

Shavuot

by Rabbi Isaac Mann

The Rabbis of the Mishnah and Talmud refer to the holiday of Shavuot not by its usual Biblical name — Hag ha-Shavuot — but by the term Atzeret (see e.g. Rosh Hashanah 16a and Pesahim 68b), which is used in the Torah to refer to Shemini Atzeret and to the seventh day of Pesah (Num. 29:35 and Deut. 16:8, resp.). While there are several interpretations among Jewish commentators as to why the Rabbis eschewed the Biblical and more common name and instead used a new designation for the Holiday of Weeks, my favorite is one that I heard from my revered teacher Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik z”l, affectionately called “the Rav” by his students and followers.

On several occasions the Rav suggested that the Rabbis were eager to show a strong nexus between the holidays of Pesah and Shavuot in order to emphasize the notion that the physical freedom achieved by Read More >

By Rabbi Isaac Mann|2016-06-09T21:41:50-04:00June 9, 2016|

Parashat Behukotai

by Rabbi Jill Hammer

Parashat Behukotai is a manifestation of an ancient theology that seems distant and yet becomes more relevant to us by the day. In this parashah we learn that the covenant between the Divine and human beings is deeply intertwined with the covenant between the Divine and the earth. In fact, the two covenants cannot be separated. The earth is alive with relationship to God just as we are. This understanding of covenant affects our relationship to the earth and also can affect our way of thinking about sacred space.

In the parashah, the Israelites are promised an abundant earth: Ve-natnah ha’aretz yevulah, ve’etz hasadeh yiten piryo: The earth will give its produce and the tree of the field its fruit. Nature will be abundant and fecund. Your threshing will overtake your vintage and your vintage will overtake the sowing. In other words, each harvest will be so full it will Read More >

By Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD|2016-06-03T08:52:05-04:00June 3, 2016|

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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