Parashat Vayeishev

by Rabbi David Almog

Once upon a ‘Vayehi‘: Listening to the Torah
Parashat Vayeishev

And then

I always thought the words, and then, were a prelude to something wonderful. Like seeing a ship come in or finding a note in your letterbox, when you weren’t expecting one. That swift, surprising transition from nothing to everything.

And then.

Two little words that hold a world of promise.

And then the light pierced though the dark, forbidding sky, and the rain stopped falling.
And then I met you.
– Lang Leav

For writers, the simple words “and then” are much maligned as redundant. The sequence in the sentence, “I sat down and I read the parashah,” is clear without the word “then”. “And then,” if used repeatedly, can sound unwieldy. “I went to the store, and then I bought groceries, and then I cooked dinner, and then I did the dishes.” Nevertheless, when used effectively, “and then” can be emphatic, clarifying the Read More >

By ahsilver|2016-12-22T23:04:59-05:00December 22, 2016|

Parashat Vayishlah

Jacob’s Behavior Towards Esau: Appeasement or Realpolitik?

by Rabbi Michael Pitkowsky

This week’s parashah continues the description of Jacob’s attempts at rapprochement with his estranged brother Esau. In his book on Genesis, Rabbi Yehudah Gilad draws our attention to a word that plays an important role in the Jacob-Esau narrative, minha — gift.

“Spending the night there that night, he took a gift from what was at hand, for Esav his brother.” (Gen. 32:14)

“Then say: — to your servant, to Yaakov, it is a gift sent to my lord, to Esav, and here, he himself is also behind us.” (Gen. 32:19)

“You shall say: Also — here, your servant Yaakov is behind us. For he said to himself: I will wipe (the anger from) his face with the gift that goes ahead of my face; afterward, when I see his face, perhaps he will lift up my face!” (Gen. 32:21)

“The gift crossed over ahead of his face, but Read More >

By ahsilver|2016-12-14T14:05:58-05:00December 14, 2016|

Parashat Vayetzei

Parashat Vayetzei: Standing Stones and Moving Stones

by Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD

I have been thinking about something my doctor said to me a few weeks ago. He advised me to study a page of Gemara a day. That’s usually what you hear from your rabbi, not your doctor, but my doctor wasn’t speaking theologically. He was advising me to get mental exercise. He reminded me that even when we have engaging and challenging work, it becomes easier for us to do it over time. It’s important for us to face ourselves with new challenges in order for our minds to remain sharp and flexible. To continue to grow, we must be willing to try the new, and not only stay with what is familiar, easy, and safe.

There is actually a hint of my doctor’s wisdom in this week’s parashah. When Jacob leaves his family in Haran, he has the vision of his life. Read More >

By Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD|2016-12-07T11:13:46-05:00December 7, 2016|

Parashat Toldot

“The Deeds of the Ancestors–A Sign for Their Descendants”
A Dvar Torah for Toledot

by Rabbi Len Levin

Imagine the story of Isaac and Rebekah, Esau and Jacob, updated to our time.

Updating the characters is the easier part. We can imagine Isaac as the child of a super-observant, conflicted family, who bears the scars of his father’s life-endangering ascetic practices and the near-permanent estrangement from a half-brother consequent on a family rift. (The character of Danny Saunders in Chaim Potok’s The Chosen has some of these traits.) He has resolved never to inflict on another the trials he has witnessed and experienced.

Rebekah is a cousin, of mixed Jewish and non-Jewish heritage, possibly from the former Soviet Union. While growing up, she heard fantastic family tales about Jews and Judaism, to which she pledged fierce loyalty, but had no direct Jewish education. She has resolved to be forever faithful to this family Read More >

By Rabbi Len Levin|2016-11-30T10:39:33-05:00November 30, 2016|

Parashat Hayyei Sarah

by Rabbi Isaac Mann

After Abraham buries his wife Sarah, he attends to the future of his offspring, in particular to the marriage of his son Isaac. In rather strong terms, he instructs his servant to go to his birthplace, to Haran, to find a wife for Isaac. Abraham has his servant take an oath that he will not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan “amongst whom I dwell” (Gen. 24:3).

Several commentators take note of the latter expression and question the need for that comment. Surely Abraham’s servant (traditionally assumed to be Eliezer, but never named as such in this narrative) knew that Abraham lived in Canaan. Why the need to emphasize it?

Among the solutions that I read, I found the most insightful to be that of the Keli Yekar, a popular commentary of R. Ephraim Luntschitz (17^th century). In explaining the above phrase, he asked why Abraham was so insistent that Isaac Read More >

By Rabbi Isaac Mann|2016-11-23T10:23:18-05:00November 23, 2016|

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|

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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