Sefer Bereisheet Archives | Academy for Jewish Religion

2 11, 2026

Parashat Hayei Sarah – 5787

Marisa Amith2026-11-02T16:42:41-05:00

Telling Our Stories

A D’var Torah for Parashat Hayei Sarah

By Rabbi Rachel Posner

In this week’s parashah, both Abraham and Sarah breathe their last and reach the end of their long and significant lives. Yet most of this week’s parashah is taken up by the story of the mission of Abraham’s servant—traditionally known as Eliezer, although he is unnamed in our parashah—to find a wife for Isaac. Remarkably, the episode is narrated and then retold from Eliezer’s perspective. It’s remarkable because Eliezer’s voice takes up an unheard-of amount of biblical real estate. The Bible tells multiple creation stories, and biblical motifs get repeated (e.g., the sister-wife narratives). But I can’t think of another instance in which we hear a detailed retelling of a story from a character’s perspective—let alone the perspective of an unnamed servant!

Since the Bible tends to be incredibly terse, why do we hear a telling, and then a retelling? I want Read More >

Parashat Hayei Sarah – 5787Marisa Amith2026-11-02T16:42:41-05:00

27 10, 2026

Parashat Vayeira – 5787

Marisa Amith2026-10-27T11:20:17-04:00

Leaving the Bunker: The Courage of Abraham’s Tent

A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayeira

By Rabbi Scott “Shalom” Klein

Parashat Vayeira opens with an encounter that redefines what it means to live a life of faith and purpose. Abraham sits at the entrance of his tent in the scorching heat of the day, physically healing from his circumcision. Yet his eyes are scanning the road. When three travelers appear in the distance, he does not weigh his comfort or ask for an easier assignment. He gets up and runs to greet them, putting his direct encounter with God on pause so he can offer shade, cool water, and fresh bread.

Our sages in the Talmud (Shabbat 127a) draw a striking conclusion from this scene: welcoming guests and lifting up another human being carries even greater spiritual weight than receiving the Divine Presence. The medieval commentator Rashi points out that Abraham deliberately sat at Read More >

Parashat Vayeira – 5787Marisa Amith2026-10-27T11:20:17-04:00

20 10, 2026

D’var Torah for Parashat Lekh Lekha 5787

Marisa Amith2026-10-20T13:06:57-04:00

The Journey to Be a Blessing
A D’var Torah for Parashat Lekh Lekha 2026

By Rabbi Davey Rosen (2022)

This week we read Parashat Lekh Lekha, the Torah portion in which Avram (later renamed Avraham) begins the spiritual journey of the Jewish people. I emphasize spiritual because the physical or geographic trek had already begun. The parashah opens in Genesis 12:1 with God’s call to Avraham:

לֶךְ־לְךָ֛ מֵאַרְצְךָ֥ וּמִמּֽוֹלַדְתְּךָ֖ וּמִבֵּ֣ית אָבִ֑יךָ אֶל־הָאָ֖רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אַרְאֶֽךָּ

“Go forth from your native land, from your birthplace, and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”

This start to Avraham’s journey is often read as a sudden break with the past, an individual picking themself up, a solitary leap of faith into an unknown future. Yet just two pesukim earlier, at the end of the previous parashah, in Genesis 11:31, Terah, Avraham’s father, actually initiated the trek:

וַיִּקַּ֨ח תֶּ֜רַח אֶת־אַבְרָ֣ם בְּנ֗וֹ וְאֶת־ל֤וֹט בֶּן־הָרָן֙ Read More >

D’var Torah for Parashat Lekh Lekha 5787Marisa Amith2026-10-20T13:06:57-04:00

13 10, 2026

Parashat Noah – 5787

Marisa Amith2026-10-13T13:22:44-04:00

A D’var Torah for Parashat Noah

By Rabbi Inna Serebro-Litvak

A few years ago, when my daughter Emily graduated from high school, we went on a mother-daughter trip to Spain.

That was the first time I learned, with Emily’s help, how to easily use Google Translate from text or words, adding it to my toolbar.

This was quite a revelation for me! I couldn’t believe the convenience of this technological feature (remember this was four years before AI took over our lives). But at the same time, I felt cheated. I really wanted to be able to speak Spanish, as well as Italian, French, Mandarin – and perhaps other languages fluently.

I did eventually add French to my repertoire, along with Russian, English and Hebrew – the three languages I already speak. I confess that my success in learning French can be partially attributed to the Duolingo App. I practice with it daily and am fluent enough Read More >

Parashat Noah – 5787Marisa Amith2026-10-13T13:22:44-04:00

6 10, 2026

Parashat Bereisheet – 5786

Marisa Amith2026-10-06T13:14:37-04:00

A D’var Torah for Parashat Bereisheet

By Rabbi Michael Kohn (AJR 2009)

There are numerous cycles embedded within a Jewish year – the daily cycle of prayer, the weekly cycle of ordinary days and Shabbat, the monthly cycle of new moons, and the annual cycle of holidays and festivals. This week we experience another yearly cycle, as we start to read the Torah once more from the beginning.

Making our way through the first six days of Creation, we learn that the word “tov”, usually translated as “good”, appears seven times. The light on the first day was tov (Gen 1:4). The land and the seas were tov (Gen 1:10), as were the seed-bearing plants and trees of every kind bearing fruit (Gen 1:12).

The two great lights, separating light from darkness were tov (Gen 1:16-18). The great sea monsters, and all the living creatures of every kind that creep… and all Read More >

Parashat Bereisheet – 5786Marisa Amith2026-10-06T13:14:37-04:00

13 01, 2026

Parashat Vaeira – 5786

Marisa Amith2026-01-13T19:13:20-05:00

A D’var Torah for Parashat Vaeira
Rabbi Wendy Love Anderson

Just A Number

At the beginning of Parashat Vaeira, the Torah detours from its ongoing Exodus narrative to provide genealogies for Moses and Aaron and recapitulate their divine appointment to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. At the very end of this digression, though, there’s an unexpected piece of information: “Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three, when they made their demand on Pharaoh” (Exod. 7:7).

What do Moses and Aaron’s ages have to do with the Exodus? A plausible academic theory is that this information was inserted in an effort to harmonize the details of Moses’ biography: while he has a wife and young children when God commissions him in Exodus 3-4, in the later books of the Torah it’s established that the Israelites have been wandering for forty years before Moses dies at age 120. But more traditional Jewish commentators assume that Read More >

Parashat Vaeira – 5786Marisa Amith2026-01-13T19:13:20-05:00

22 12, 2025

Parashat Vayigash 5786

Marisa Amith2025-12-22T10:35:16-05:00

A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayigash

By Rabbi Anat Katzir (AJR ’22)

“The connection of shared grief and the inspiration of shared destiny.”

I sat down to begin writing my D’var Torah with an idea of exactly what I wanted to write about. Thinking ahead about the parashah there was a moment in the story that always stuck out in my memory. The moment that Joseph asks his brothers not to tell Pharaoh that they are shepherds and you could almost imagine him face-palming when Pharaoh asks: “what is your profession?” And they respond “we are shepherds…”

This moment has been a favorite of mine in the simple irony, with Joseph being a character that can’t seem to filter himself, sharing truths in the most blunt way throughout his story. I have always been inspired by the overarching sense that the truth has such great power that is comes out of you even when you try Read More >

Parashat Vayigash 5786Marisa Amith2025-12-22T10:35:16-05:00

15 12, 2025

Parashat Mikeitz – 5786

Marisa Amith2025-12-15T16:30:50-05:00

A D’var Torah for Parashat Mikeitz
By Rabbi Inna Serebro-Litvak

Who doesn’t like fairy tales? Even as adults, although we don’t always admit it, we enjoy going back to the stories that were once read to us by our parents. The magic of fairy tales, the happy endings, the prevalence of good versus evil—these concepts stay with us forever, instilling hope that, even when life is hard, it will get better.

My favorites were always the ones that had narratives involving themes of destiny, overcoming challenges, true love, and reclaiming what’s lost.

Take “Cinderella.” She worked so hard, lived in poverty, and was abused. Yet she was the one—not her rich sisters—whom the prince fell in love with and married (not without some magic, of course).

Or what about “The Ugly Duckling?” He was abandoned by the swan flock and was so ugly that no one wanted him. But as he grew, he turned into a beautiful Read More >

Parashat Mikeitz – 5786Marisa Amith2025-12-15T16:30:50-05:00

1 12, 2025

Parashat Vayishlah 5786

Marisa Amith2025-12-01T14:40:05-05:00

A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayishlah

By Cantor Sandy Horowitz (AJR 2014)

Our patriarch Jacob is a troubled soul who experiences three profound encounters with the Divine, each of which takes place at a significant moment in his life. This week’s Torah reading, Vayishlah, tells of the second of the encounters, bookended by those in Parshiot Vayetzei and Vayigash.

At the beginning of the Jacob narrative we read about how he takes sibling rivalry to the nth level. First, he tricks his ever-so-slightly older twin brother Esau into selling his birthright for a pot of stew. Dayenu that would have been enough for Jacob to earn the label “not a nice guy.” Yet he goes even further by convincing their aging and blind father Isaac to give him, Jacob, the blessing intended for the elder Esau. This enrages Esau to the point of threatening to kill his deceitful brother, so Jacob Read More >

Parashat Vayishlah 5786Marisa Amith2025-12-01T14:40:05-05:00

26 11, 2025

Parashat Vayeitzei – 5786

Marisa Amith2025-11-26T08:11:16-05:00

Separating Joys

A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayeitzei
By Rabbi Wendy Love Anderson

When Jacob finally marries his uncle Laban’s daughter in Parashat Vayeitzei, he discovers that he and Laban disagree about which daughter he is supposed to marry. But Jacob and Laban do agree that every wedding is a week-long affair; Jacob makes no objection to Laban’s suggestion that he wait to marry Rachel until “the week of this one” – Leah – is over. Apparently, the entire bridal week is spent feasting, judging by the later wedding precedents of Samson (Judg. 14:11) and Tobit (Tob. 11:18). An anonymous baraita in the Babylonian Talmud (Ketubot 7b) updates the practice for rabbinic norms: not only are there seven days of feasting, but also seven days of reciting the birkat hatanim – the grooms’ blessing. This blessing is the ancestor of our Sheva Berakhot, which can still be recited at a festive meal Read More >

Parashat Vayeitzei – 5786Marisa Amith2025-11-26T08:11:16-05:00

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

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

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