7 07, 2026

Parshiyot Mattot-Mase 5786

Marisa Amith2026-07-07T07:53:36-04:00

Looking Back on the Journey

A D’var Torah for Parshiyot Mattot-Masei

By Cantor Sandy Horowitz

Parashat Masei, the final reading in the book of Numbers, begins with these words:

אֵלֶּה מַסְעֵי בְנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל אֲשֶׁר יָצְאוּ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם…

“These are the journeys of the people of Israel who set out from the land of Egypt… (Numbers 33:1)

The text then goes on to name each of the forty-two places where the Israelites stopped during their forty-year journey, up until they arrived at the river Jordan across from Jericho. There is a pattern in the way the journey is described: each stopping place has its own verse, and each journey from one place to the next is described using the same verbs, vayis’u (“and they set out [from]”) and vayahanu (“and they encamped… [at]”). The cantillation of this part of the text enhances the experience of repetition: while there are exceptions, most of the occurrences of vayis’u and its place Read More >

Parshiyot Mattot-Mase 5786Marisa Amith2026-07-07T07:53:36-04:00

29 06, 2026

Parashat Pinhas – 5786

Marisa Amith2026-06-29T13:46:58-04:00

Pinhas in Process

A D’var Torah for Parashat Pinhas

By Rabba Kaya Stern-Kaufman (2011)

This week we are reading a section of Torah named for Pinhas, the grandson of Aaron, who was a zealot for God. His story begins in the previous week’s Torah portion when many of the Israelite men become caught up in sexual relationships with the local Moabite women who enjoined them to worship Baal Peor, a local deity. In response, God sends a plague and thousands of Israelites die. Once again, things are not going well for either God or the Israelites. The Israelites’ fidelity to God is consistently weak and wavering and God responds with consistent wrath and destruction.

In the midst of this chaos, an Israelite man and a Midianite woman begin to have sexual relations in front of the Tent of Meeting. This is the place where Moshe communicates with God; a Read More >

Parashat Pinhas – 5786Marisa Amith2026-06-29T13:46:58-04:00

25 06, 2026

Parshiyot Hukkat-Balak – 5786

Marisa Amith2026-06-25T13:12:14-04:00

A D’var Torah for Parshiyot Hukkat-Balak

By Rabbi Wendy Love Anderson (2023)

The Strangest Mitzvah

What do you think is the strangest commandment in the entire Torah? There’s some pretty stiff competition. Is it the prohibition on combining wool and linen? The insistence that it’s fine to eat cows and goats but not pigs? The sandal and spitting ritual that accompanies a brother’s refusal to marry his widowed sister-in-law? The prohibition against rounding the corners of one’s beard? While some commandments are morally challenging, others are intellectually puzzling, making them difficult to explain, much less defend against criticism.

Parashat Hukkat opens with a novel Israelite ritual: in order to prepare a special liquid that will be used to ritually purify individuals contaminated by contact with a human corpse, an unblemished red heifer must be slaughtered outside the camp and (after some priestly blood-sprinkling) completely burnt, together with cedar, hyssop, and crimson dye. Although this ritual was unique, many of its component parts Read More >

Parshiyot Hukkat-Balak – 5786Marisa Amith2026-06-25T13:12:14-04:00

25 06, 2026

Parashat Hukkat – 5786

Linda Ripps2026-06-25T11:47:59-04:00

In this week’s D’var Torah, Rabbi Wendy Love Anderson offers a rationale, not for the puzzling ritual of the red heifer, but for why we should keep asking about it

Parashat Hukkat – 5786Linda Ripps2026-06-25T11:47:59-04:00

16 06, 2026

Parashat Korah – 5786

Marisa Amith2026-06-16T11:18:51-04:00

A D’var Torah for Parashat Korah

By Rabbi Dorit Edut (AJR 2006)

“Jewish tradition cherishes free speech. ‘When a person refrains from speech, the ideas die, the soul stops, and the senses deteriorate,’ said Moses ibn Ezra, insisting on respect for honest differences of opinion. (Shirat Yisrael, 12c). If one reads the classic texts of the rabbinic era, the Mishnah and the Gemara, every page brims with the arguments both of the majority and of those who dissented from them, recognizing that each reflected aspects of God’s truth. ‘These and these are the words of God,’ the Talmud observes about these disputes (Eruvin 13b).”[1]

Yet while Jewish law encourages robust debate and respectful dialogue, it strictly prohibits malicious speech, such as gossip, public shaming, and slander. The strongest moral disapproval is expressed in Jewish teachings of slander in all its forms. The prohibition against going around as a talebearer is stated in Read More >

Parashat Korah – 5786Marisa Amith2026-06-16T11:18:51-04:00

9 06, 2026

Parashat Shelah – 5786

Marisa Amith2026-06-09T07:15:50-04:00

Remembering as an Act of Imagination

A D’var Torah for Parashat Shelah

By Rabbi Dr. Rachel Posner

This week I met with my psychotherapy client, Melanie (not her real name), who is preparing to give birth for the first time. At her recent baby shower, friends and relatives could not resist sharing their own birth stories. Each woman hoped to help prepare Melanie for what lay ahead. Instead, their stories multiplied her anxiety. “I’m scared,” she told me, “because I’m not really in control. I don’t know what will happen, or what it will really feel like.”

This is, of course, a completely natural response to a completely natural situation. Women give birth every day – but for Melanie, it is not every day. It is the most consequential day of her life so far. I asked her to remember that she has everything she needs to navigate what’s coming, and then to imagine herself coping Read More >

Parashat Shelah – 5786Marisa Amith2026-06-09T07:15:50-04:00

2 06, 2026

Parashat Beha’alotekha – 5786

Marisa Amith2026-06-02T11:09:50-04:00

A Reflection on Symbols, Service, and the Future of Am Yisrael

A D’var Torah for Parashat Beha’alotekha

By Rabbi Anat Katzir

Parashat Beha’alotekha opens with the image of one of the most enduring symbols of the Jewish people:

דַּבֵּר֙ אֶֽל־אַהֲרֹ֔ן וְאָמַרְתָּ֖ אֵלָ֑יו בְּהַעֲלֹֽתְךָ֙ אֶת־הַנֵּרֹ֔ת אֶל־מוּל֙ פְּנֵ֣י הַמְּנוֹרָ֔ה יָאִ֖ירוּ שִׁבְעַ֥ת הַנֵּרֽוֹת׃

“Speak to Aaron and say to him: When you raise up the lamps, let the seven lamps give light at the front of the menorah.” (Numbers 8:2)

The menorah becomes more than a ritual object. It is a symbol of continuity, responsibility, and resilience of Am Yisrael. Throughout Jewish history, the menorah has represented the spiritual light of the Jewish people. Today, it is also the emblem of the modern State of Israel, reminding us that Jewish sovereignty must be rooted not only in power, but in moral purpose.

The menorah symbolizes a Judaism that radiates outward. The light was never meant to remain hidden within Read More >

Parashat Beha’alotekha – 5786Marisa Amith2026-06-02T11:09:50-04:00

19 05, 2026

Parashat Naso – 5786

Marisa Amith2026-05-19T20:37:38-04:00

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

11 05, 2026

Parashat Bemidbar – 5786

Marisa Amith2026-05-11T18:33:55-04:00

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

23 07, 2025

Parshiyot Mattot-Masei – 5785

Marisa Amith2025-07-23T07:07:29-04:00

Reuben, Gad, and the Tension Between Place and Purpose

A D’var Torah for Parshiyot Mattot-Masei

By Hazzan Rabbi Luis Cattan (AJR ’20)

When Natan Sharansky was Chairman of the Jewish Agency, I had the privilege of sitting with him and a small group of global Jewish leaders to discuss Jewish identity. In that conversation, he shared a metaphor that has stayed with me ever since.

He spoke of the pain of living under Soviet rule—of the repression, the fear, and the impossibility of making aliyah. But then he added, “More than the Iron Curtain once prevented Soviet Jews from making aliyah, today it is the Golden Curtain that prevents American Jews.”

In other words, it’s not external oppression that distances many Jews from Israel—it’s comfort. Affluence, freedom, and assimilation create a different kind of barrier. A quieter one. But perhaps no less potent.

Something similar is reflected in this week’s parashah. As the Israelites stand on the threshold of entering the Land Read More >

Parshiyot Mattot-Masei – 5785Marisa Amith2025-07-23T07:07:29-04:00

All shall unite to do God's will with an open heart.

All shall unite to do God's will with an open heart.

Programs of Study

Learn more about…

Programs of Study

Learn more about…

Sefer Bemidbar

ABOUT

LIBRARY

JOIN US

PROGRAMS OF STUDY