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26 08, 2021

Parashat Ki Tavo 5781

By Rabbi Ariann Weitzman|2022-07-29T11:24:17-04:00August 26, 2021|

Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah

A D’var Torah for Parashat Ki Tavo
By Rabbi Ariann Weitzman (’11)Many of us spend an incredible amount of time figuring out how to make someone else listen, whether it’s to our instructions, our needs, our anxieties, or just our day-to-day thoughts and feelings. Listening seems like it’s in short supply. Wanting to be heard, however, is abundant. Moses was no stranger to this phenomenon. His speeches make up the bulk of the book of Deuteronomy. And his repeated command, “Listen!” peppers these speeches.

In this week’s parashah, Ki Tavo, Moses elevates the pitch of his final speech, detailing a dramatic series of blessings and curses that will be spoken to the people by the priests once they enter the land of Canaan, as the people stand up on two opposing hilltops. If his words aren’t enough to make them hear, Read More >

20 08, 2021

Parashat Ki Teitzei 5781

By Doug Alpert|2022-07-29T11:24:17-04:00August 20, 2021|

Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah

A D’var Torah for Parashat Ki Teitzei
By Rabbi Doug Alpert (’12)

Entering the month of Elul – a time for great introspection and personal reflection leading up to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, I, and at the risk of being presumptuous, we, are experiencing a time of unprecedented turmoil. In my own congregation the resurgence of the COVID 19 pandemic via the Delta variant has been an emotional setback as we have been so looking forward to being back in physical space together. Wearing masks and putting hugging on the back burner leaves us detached from our need for connecting in community.

Polarization and animosity are pervasive surrounding the proper response to the pandemic. This notwithstanding that in our Jewish world Pikuah Nefesh – sanctity of human life – should dictate the seemingly obvious response that we take every measure possible to save human Read More >

13 08, 2021

Parashat Shoftim 5781

By Rabbi Jill Hackell M.D.|2022-07-29T11:24:18-04:00August 13, 2021|

Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah

A D’var Torah for Parashat Shoftim
By Rabbi Jill Hackell (’13)

I’ve been studying a lot lately about trees. Dr. Suzanne Simard has spearheaded research showing that the trees of the forest communicate with each other through an elaborate system of fungi attached to their roots, which has been dubbed the “Wood-Wide Web”. Through it, trees of the same and different species can warn each other of danger, share resources back and forth according to need and circumstance, and bequeath carbon to their neighbors when they are dying. This understanding could change the way we harvest and replant forests for lumber, to maximize preservation of these networks.[1]

Our parashah this week also shows concern for trees:

“When in your war against a city you have to besiege it a long time in order to capture it, you must not destroy its trees, wielding the ax Read More >

6 08, 2021

Parashat Re’eh 5781

By Rabbi Marc Rudolph|2022-07-29T11:24:18-04:00August 6, 2021|

Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah

A D’var Torah for Parashat Re’eh
By Rabbi Marc Rudolph (’04)

Did you know that when we are awake, our brain generates 23 watts of energy, enough energy to light up a room? And that by simply opening our eyes, 75 percent of our brains’ energy is activated?

Perhaps that is why this week’s parasha opens with the Hebrew word “Re’eh,” which means “see”. The Torah wants us to really use our brains! Yet those of us who pride ourselves on our ability to see ahead might have a particularly difficult time with the approach the Torah takes this week with respect to worship in the Land of Israel.

We read numerous descriptions of the sacrifices and offerings that will be made when the Israelites reach the Promised Land, but strangely, we are not told where the holy place to offer those sacrifices will Read More >

29 07, 2021

Parashat Eikev 5781

By Rabbi Enid C. Lader|2022-07-29T11:24:18-04:00July 29, 2021|

Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah

The Ties That Bind
A D’var Torah for Parashat Eikev
By Rabbi Enid Lader (’10)

In his book Be, Become, Bless: Jewish Spirituality between East and West (Maggid, 2019), Rabbi Dr. Yakov Nagen points out that the internet age is characterized by the unprecedented access to limitless information. However, all this information alone is not sufficient to generate change in our lives; true change comes about through deeply internalizing the knowledge. This requires a shift in consciousness; helping us to do and to be. (p. 286)

Eikev, our Torah portion this week, contains the fourth of as many passages from the Torah that mentions tefillin. These passages, written on parchment and placed in the boxes of the tefillin serve as a reminder of four basic principles in Judaism:

1. Exodus 13:1-10 – Our obligation to remember the Exodus from Egypt

2. Exodus 13:11-16 – Our obligation Read More >

22 07, 2021

Parashat Va’ethanan 5781

By Rabbi Jeffrey Segelman|2022-07-29T11:24:18-04:00July 22, 2021|

Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah

For the Love of God
A D’var Torah for Parashat Va’ethanan
By Rabbi Jeffrey Segelman

It is in Parashat Va’ethanan that the Torah begins speaking about the love of God. Certainly the most famous of these verses follow immediately after the six words of the Shema.

Let’s quote them in full:

Deut. 6: (5)And you shall love Hashem, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all you might. (6)These words which I command you today shall be on your heart. (7)You shall impress them upon your children – speaking of them when you are staying at home or when you are moving along your way – when you lie down and when you rise up. (8)Bind them as a sign on your hand as a symbol between your eyes. (9)And write them on the doorposts of your homes and Read More >

16 07, 2021

Parashat Devarim 5781

By Rabbi Michael Rothbaum|2022-07-29T11:24:19-04:00July 16, 2021|

Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah

A D’var Torah for Parashat Devarim
By Rabbi Michael Rothbaum (’06)

There’s a profound meaning in the practice of Yiddishkayt, a beauty and depth that’s hard to describe if you haven’t lived it. That beauty explains why rabbis and cantors do what we do. In the words of the old saying, nothing worth doing is easy.

Or, as we say in Yiddish, Shver tsu zayn a Yid. It’s hard to be a Jew.

In a 1973 review of the Sholom Aleichem play that took its title from that Yiddish saying, Richard P. Shepard wrote that “ ‘It’s Hard to Be a Jew’ is a phrase that may not quite go back to Moses’ scaling of Mount Sinai, but it is venerable and often verifiable.”[1]

Recent events have only served to help that verification process. We’re still Jews, and it’s still hard.

The challenge of Jewish life starts, of course, Read More >

25 09, 2020

Parashat Ha’azinu and Yom Kippur 5781

By Rabbi Irwin Huberman|2022-07-29T11:24:24-04:00September 25, 2020|

Yom Kippur, Shofar, and Freedom
A D’var Torah for Parashat Ha’azinu and Yom Kippur
By Rabbi Irwin Huberman (’10)

Why is it that a holy day which is supposed to be “awesome” has a reputation for many as being “awful?”

The 10 day period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is known as the Days of Awe – a time to reflect upon our lives, let go of the old, and chart an improved life path.

Yet, as we initially reflect upon Yom Kippur, so many of us tend to focus upon the discomfort of fasting. In many ways, fasting is counterintuitive to the way we currently live. We can watch television or access the Internet 24 hours a day. Shopping options are constantly available.

Yet, on Yom Kippur, while every instinct prompts us to open the fridge or cupboard to alleviate our hunger or thirst, we are told to push against that impulse – and to refrain from these, and Read More >

11 09, 2020

Parashat Nitzavim – Vayeilekh 5780

By Rabbi David Evan Markus|2022-07-29T11:24:24-04:00September 11, 2020|

Tomorrow’s Giants On Our Shoulders
A D’var Torah for Parashat Nitzavim-Vayeilekh
By Rabbi David Markus

We stand on the shoulders of giants. Much that we have, much that we are becoming, are harvests of trees our ancestors planted. We inherit their shalshelet – their spiritual and practical causation both wise and unwise, healthy and not – along with what they received from their ancestry. Legacy courses through us as history’s heartbeat. We and how we live our lives are the next beat, the eternal river’s next bend on its endless flow.

So of course, we stand on yesterday’s shoulders. But how about tomorrow’s giants on our shoulders? If we really felt the future on our shoulders, would we live differently?

Torah’s Nitzavim-Vayeilekh asks that question directly. The Covenant is made with “everyone standing here today,” and also “everyone not standing here today” (Deut. 29:13-14). “Everyone not standing here today” are future generations (Rashi, Read More >

4 09, 2020

Parashat Ki Tavo 5780

By Rabbi Heidi Hoover|2022-07-29T11:24:24-04:00September 4, 2020|

A D’var Torah for Parashat Ki Tavo
By Rabbi Heidi Hoover (’11)

In the megahit musical Hamilton, there is a song with the repeated line, “Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrMkdZtqiVI). The way that we know who we are and where we come from is through stories. Sometimes we call them myths; sometimes we call them history. There’s more overlap between those two than we’d like to admit. It is impossible to include every detail of something that’s happened in a story, so every single time we tell a story, we make choices about what to put in and what to leave out. And indeed, who tells your story can determine whether you are hero or villain, victim or victor—in fact, whether you are remembered at all.

Sometimes stories are codified in an attempt to shape identity, to tie everyone into a community through agreement on a shared story. Politicians Read More >

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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