Sefer Devarim Archives | Page 5 of 12 | Academy for Jewish Religion

28 08, 2020

Parashat Ki Teitzei 5780

By Rabbi Matthew Goldstone, PhD|2022-07-29T11:24:25-04:00August 28, 2020|

A D’var Torah for Parashat Ki Teitzei
By Rabbi Matthew Goldstone

The topics of racism and racial justice have been on many of our minds over the past several months. One particular issue that I have been thinking about is that while many of us might decry racism, we may nevertheless unwittingly be participants in perpetuating policies and practices that reinforce racial inequality. We are not alone in this, nor is it a purely modern phenomenon. Already in the Torah we find judgmental assumptions based upon ancestry rather than individuality.

Our parasha this week delineates several categories of people who are not permitted to enter into the congregation of the Israelites, including the Ammonites and the Moabites. Anyone belonging to these groups is automatically labelled as unacceptable because their ancestors “did not meet you with food and water on your journey after you left Egypt and because they hired Balaam son of Beor, from Pethor Read More >

21 08, 2020

Parashat Shofetim 5780

By Rabbi Len Levin|2022-07-29T11:24:25-04:00August 21, 2020|

The Political Philosophy of Deuteronomy
A D’var Torah for Parashat Shofetim
By Rabbi Len Levin

Rabbi Simeon ben Gamaliel used to say: On three things does the world stand: On justice, on truth and on peace, as it is said: “execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates” (Avot 1:18 ).

These three principles—truth, justice, and peace—are like three legs of a stool. A three-legged stool is stable, but if any one of the three legs is removed, the stool cannot stand.

There are five laws in the portion Shofetim in which these principles of Rabbi Simeon ben Gamaliel are implied:

“Justice, justice you shall pursue”—a justice based on truth, without favoritism or bribery (Deuteronomy 16:18–20).

In matters of legal controversy, there shall be a supreme court to decide the law (Ibid. 17:8–13 ).

You may have a king, but he must have his own copy of the Read More >

13 08, 2020

Parashat Re’eh 5780

By Bruce Alpert|2022-07-29T11:24:25-04:00August 13, 2020|

A D’var Torah for Parashat Re’eh
By Rabbi Bruce Alpert (’11)

“And you will rejoice before the Lord, your God, you and your son and your daughter and your man-servant and your maid-servant and Levite who is within your gates, and the stranger and the orphan and the widow that is among you.” (Deuteronomy 16:11)

I recently asked my teacher, Dr. Victoria Hoffer, why, when she published the first edition of her textbook Biblical Hebrew, she chose the above verse for the cover. She told me that, too often, students come to the study of Hebrew with a kind of grim seriousness. She wanted a verse that expressed the joy of learning and of studying the Bible in its original language.

Knowing that book cover as well as I do, the verse jumped out at me from this week’s parashah, Re’eh. It did so for reasons beyond familiarity; reasons similar to Dr. Hoffer’s. Our parashah too has a Read More >

6 08, 2020

Parashat Eikev 5780

By Cantor Sandy Horowitz|2022-07-29T11:24:25-04:00August 6, 2020|

A D’var Torah for Parashat Eikev
By Cantor Sandy Horowitz (’14)

In an episode of the Peanuts comic strip by Charles Schultz, Linus tells his sister Lucy that he wants to be a doctor. She replies in her big-sister way, “You could never be a doctor, you know why? Because you don’t love mankind, that’s why!” To which Linus replies:

This seems to illustrate Moses’ feeling towards the Israelites in Parashat Eikev.

One can’t argue with his commitment to the Israelites as a people (“mankind”), while at the same time we experience his deep frustration with their behavior. As they prepare to enter the Promised Land, Moses’ words include a series of rebukes as he tells them, “You have been rebelling against the Lord since the day I have known you” (Deut. 9:24). He recounts their transgressions in detail – how they built a golden calf idol, and Read More >

31 07, 2020

Parashat Va’ethanan 5780

By Rabbi Irwin Huberman|2022-07-29T11:24:25-04:00July 31, 2020|

The Torah and Quarantine 15
A D’var Torah for Parashat Va’ethanan
By Rabbi Irwin Huberman (’10)

There is a term associated with the deadly Covid 19, which has been making its way within medical and nutritional circles.

It’s known as Quarantine 15 – referring to the fact that so many Americans have gained weight during the pandemic.

In May, the website WebMD conducted a poll of 900 readers, reporting that 47 percent of Americans had gained between seven and 20 pounds during the first two months of the Covid crisis.

Of those polled, about 72 percent reported they had been exercising less. About 70 per cent stated that they had been “stress eating,” often feeding their anxiety through “comfort foods.”

And this week, the British government launched a program encouraging its citizens to address obesity caused in part by isolation during the pandemic. Laws limiting the advertising of “junk food” are being considered.

What does this have to do with Read More >

24 07, 2020

Parashat Devarim 5780

By Rabbi David Evan Markus|2022-07-29T11:24:25-04:00July 24, 2020|

Into and Through Tisha b’Av: Our Fragile Alchemy of “Why”
A D’var Torah for Parashat Devarim
By Rabbi David Markus

There’s gotta be a reason. What’s happening now must be a reaction to something that came before. Someone must be responsible: maybe me, maybe you, maybe all of us. Any God that is good and fair must have some purpose in all this – right?

We sense this yearning for “why” just under the surface. After all, there’s lots to explain, and mere natural explanations don’t always suffice. That’s why so many people, of all faiths, might seek and see divine purpose in most everything from covid to tornadoes.

The human psyche – that sacred alchemy of supernal light and stardust – naturally seeks explanation for life’s twists and turns. For every fairness or unfairness, victory or defeat, comfort or suffering, we’re wired to connect the dots of causation with some coherence. If we’re deeply honest, Read More >

11 10, 2019

Parashat Ha’azinu 5780

By Rabbi Isaac Mann|2022-07-29T11:24:32-04:00October 11, 2019|

A D’var Torah for Parashat Ha’azinu
By Rabbi Isaac Mann

Moses’ final message to the assembled Israelite people came in the form of a poetic song (shirah) that described in brief the spiritual history of their relationship with the Almighty. As with all poetry, what appears to be a simple, readily understood expression can upon careful examination actually contain layers of deeper meaning. One such verse is the following (Deut. 32:6):

“Do you thus requite the Lord, O vile people and unwise (am naval ve’lo hakham)? Is He not your father who has created you, who fashioned you and made you endure?”

The word naval, which is found only twice in the Pentateuch (in this verse and again a few verses later, in v. 21), denotes a person or a nation that repays its benefactor with evil. It is used most famously to refer to the husband of Avigail in the Book of Samuel Read More >

3 10, 2019

Parashat Vayeilekh 5780

By Rabbi David Evan Markus|2022-07-29T11:24:32-04:00October 3, 2019|

A D’var Torah for Parashat Vayeilekh
By Rabbi David Markus

Rosh Hashanah brings a spiritual lag between the year’s reboot and Torah’s reboot, like our northern latitude’s seasonal lag between sun angle and temperature. This spiritual lag raises two questions. First, shouldn’t Rosh Hashanah, which recalls the Yom Harat Olam (Creation’s birthday) of Genesis 1, therefore also be Simhat Torah to reboot the Torah cycle at the same time? Second, precisely because Simhat Torah lags behind by over three weeks, what spiritual meaning to make of this lag and this week’s Torah portion (Vayeilekh) that begins to fill it?

Talmud’s explanation for the lag is that Rosh Hashanah should follow only after we read Torah’s “curses” of consequence for disobedience (Megillah 31b). That’s Deuteronomic theology in a nutshell: spiritually speaking, we get what we deserve and we deserve what we get.

To me, Talmud’s premise doesn’t hold. Even if we accept Deuteronomic theology Read More >

26 09, 2019

Parashat Nitzavim 5779

By Rabbi Heidi Hoover|2022-07-29T11:24:32-04:00September 26, 2019|

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

In this week’s Torah portion, Nitzavim, Moses speaks to the Israelites of the covenant between them and God. He emphasizes that every person in their society is a party to the covenant. Interestingly and perhaps incredibly, the non-Israelites who live among the Israelites are included as part of the covenant. We read repeatedly in the Torah that there is to be one law for the Israelite and the foreigner who lives among the Israelites, but usually it is not as clear that those foreigners are actually party to the covenant with God. But they are.

Moses says, “You stand this day, all of you, before the Eternal your God—your tribal heads, your elders, and your officials, all the men of Israel, your children, your women, even the stranger within your camp, from woodchopper to water drawer—to enter into the covenant of the Eternal your Read More >

20 09, 2019

Parashat Ki Tavo 5779

By Rabbi Irwin Huberman|2022-07-29T11:24:32-04:00September 20, 2019|

Coming of the Messiah: Sooner or Later?
A D’var Torah for Parashat Ki Tavo
By Rabbi Irwin Huberman (’10)

Perhaps no Jewish themed text has been more quoted in recent times than the 1971 theater production, Fiddler on the Roof.

In one of Fiddler’s closing scenes, as residents of the fictional town of Anatevka continue packing their belongings, one of the local characters, Mottel the Tailor, turns to the community’s rabbi and asks:

“Rabbi, we’ve been waiting for the Messiah all our lives. Wouldn’t now be a good time for him to come?”

To which the Rabbi replies: “I guess we’ll have to wait someplace else.”

The idea of a great national savior to either facilitate or preside over a perfected world has captured the imagination of Jews, among others, for centuries.

Allusions to this character appear in many prophetic books, most notably Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Micah, Hosea, Zachariah and Daniel.

As hardships continued to besiege the Jewish people over the 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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