Sefer Vayikra Archives | Academy for Jewish Religion

4 05, 2026

Parshiyot Behar-Behukotai – 5786

Marisa Amith2026-05-04T17:07:32-04:00

A D’var Torah for Parshiyot Behar-Behukotai

By Rabbi Inna Serebro-Litvak

Last month I was trying to make plans to meet with friends for dinner. We kept going through our calendars in search of a convenient day. Twice we actually thought we had found a date that would work for us all but then someone would remember another event that was already scheduled for that date and we would have to start all over again.

Finally, we settled on getting together on June 13, which was two months away from the time we started figuring it out!

We all have such busy calendars that we almost never have a chance to experience the spontaneity of just calling someone and getting together that same day. These days we almost always have to make plans in advance!

But I have a much different experience when I travel to Israel. When I am visiting friends and family there, I can never Read More >

Parshiyot Behar-Behukotai – 5786Marisa Amith2026-05-04T17:07:32-04:00

27 04, 2026

Parashat Emor – 5786

Marisa Amith2026-04-27T10:13:17-04:00

The Meaning of a Mitzvah

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

What’s the point of a mitzvah? For most people, a mitzvah is fundamentally something you do, whether you are visiting the sick or donating tzedakah, praying the Shema or eating matzah on Pesah. When you hear about a twelve-year-old’s “mitzvah project” or celebrate “Mitzvah Day” at a local synagogue or refer to Chabad’s “mitzvah tanks,” the presumption is that a mitzvah is a clearly defined action, which can be encouraged through donation drives, activity fairs, or vehicles equipped with ritual accessories. You can decide to “do” a mitzvah; you can finish it; you can make lists of mitzvot and check them off. In fact, a number of distinctively Jewish practices, such as wearing a tallit or conducting a Passover Seder, offer us opportunities to perform a mitzvah (in this case, putting fringes on our four-cornered garments or remembering the Read More >

Parashat Emor – 5786Marisa Amith2026-04-27T10:13:17-04:00

21 04, 2026

Parshiyot Aharei Mot—Kedoshim – 5786

Marisa Amith2026-04-21T12:28:17-04:00

A D’var Torah for Parshiyot Aharei Mot—Kedoshim

By Rabbi Dorit Edut (‘ 06)

With all the conflicts in our world today and the divisiveness in the Jewish community we might well be tempted to respond to Parashat Kedoshim’s formulation of The Golden Rule with the words from the famous Tina Turner song: “What’s love got to do with it?” And yet, I think there is a great deal that the Torah is trying to teach us in this portion about love.

It is not a simple matter – to love someone else. Just look at the verse that precedes (Leviticus 19:17) – where we see what Abraham Ibn Ezra calls the reverse of this expression: “You shall not hate your kinsfolk in your heart.” While indeed there is a difference in our relationships to our “kinsfolk,” i.e., our relatives or other Jewish people, to our “fellow,” i.e., our non-Jewish friends and the larger society in which we Read More >

Parshiyot Aharei Mot—Kedoshim – 5786Marisa Amith2026-04-21T12:28:17-04:00

14 04, 2026

Parshiyot Tazria-Metzorah – 5786

Marisa Amith2026-04-14T09:30:13-04:00

Protecting Our Garment of Light

A D’var Torah for Parshiyot Tazria-Metzorah

By Rabbi Dr. Rachel Posner

Our skin is the largest organ of our body – and a remarkable one. The average adult’s skin covers about two square meters, hosts roughly 1,000 species of bacteria, and contains millions of receptors that sense touch, pressure, temperature, and pain, constantly sending signals to the brain about our environment. Our skin regulates body temperature, protects us from pathogens, and repairs itself with quiet efficiency: within minutes of injury, platelets begin clotting; within days, new skin cells migrate to cover the wound.

We sometimes think of our skin as a boundary, a wall separating inside from outside. But like the walls of a home, it is both a border and an integral part of us.

As someone who suffered from chronic hives, I know that skin disease cannot be hidden. When our skin erupts, we feel exposed – aware of others’ Read More >

Parshiyot Tazria-Metzorah – 5786Marisa Amith2026-04-14T09:30:13-04:00

5 04, 2026

Parashat Shemini – 5786

Marisa Amith2026-04-05T18:20:30-04:00

Before God: The Risk of Sacred Nearness

A D’var Torah for Parashat Shemini

By Rabbi Anat Katzir

Parashat Shemini confronts us with one of the Torah’s most unsettling phrases. After Nadav and Avihu offer what the text calls אש זרה eish zarah, “strange/foreign fire,” we read:

״ ותצא אש מלפני ה׳ וימותו לפני ה׳״“Vateitzei eish milifnei Adonai… vayamutu lifnei Adonai.”
Fire came forth from before God, and they died before God. (Leviticus 10:2)

The phrase “lifnei Adonai” appears three times in two verses. Nadav and Avihu bring their offering “lifnei Adonai.” The fire emerges “milifnei Adonai”. They die “lifnei Adonai.”

The repetition is deliberate and disquieting. The same preposition: “lifnei”, describes both their location and the origin of the consuming fire. They stand in proximity to divine Presence, and that very proximity becomes lethal. The text offers no psychological exposition, no extended moral explanation or intention. It gives us instead a linguistic pattern: before God, from before God, before God.

On a peshat level, lifnei means “before” or Read More >

Parashat Shemini – 5786Marisa Amith2026-04-05T18:20:30-04:00

25 03, 2026

Parashat Tzav – 5786

Marisa Amith2026-03-25T13:20:09-04:00

The Chain of Command

A D’var Torah for Parashat Tzav

By Cantor Sandy Horowitz

Sometimes we think about Torah on a macro level as the story of our people, our system of laws, the foundation of our heritage. Other times, we explore a particular theme or individual or delve into the weekly parashah. With this week’s Torah portion a single verse from Parashat Tzav stood out for me – in particular, a single word.

At this point in our narrative Moses is undergoing the rituals, as commanded by God, of formally consecrating his brother Aaron and Aaron’s sons as priests. We read of three sacrificial offerings:

First, Moses brings forth a bull for the sin offering and we read:

וַיִּשְׁחָ֗ט וַיִּקַּ֨ח מֹשֶׁ֤ה אֶת־הַדָּם֙

“And it was slaughtered. Moses took the blood…” (Lev. 8:15)

Moses then brings a ram for the burnt offering:

וַיִּשְׁחָ֑ט וַיִּזְרֹ֨ק מֹשֶׁ֧ה אֶת־הַדָּ֛ם

“And it was slaughtered. Moses dashed the blood [against the altar]” (Lev. 8:19)

Finally, in Read More >

Parashat Tzav – 5786Marisa Amith2026-03-25T13:20:09-04:00

19 05, 2025

Parshiyot Behar-Behukotai 5785

Marisa Amith2025-05-19T12:57:45-04:00

A Bible verse for the shelter’s door

A D’var Torah for Parshiyot Behar-Behukotai

By Rabbi Robert Scheinberg

Rookie rabbi mistakes, chapter 1: One week after my arrival to my first full-time congregation that I served as a rabbi, at age 27, I was invited to a meeting of our local clergy coalition, and I met the director of the local homeless shelter. My synagogue had been one of the organizations that founded the shelter several years before.

The shelter’s director, a wise, courageous, and gregarious nun named Sister Norberta who had led the effort to found the shelter despite local government opposition, warmly welcomed me and quickly told me that she had a special job for me. They were doing a renovation of the shelter and wanted to commission some artwork for the shelter door, including Biblical verses that would be sources of inspiration for those who would be walking through the door of the shelter. They wanted to use Read More >

Parshiyot Behar-Behukotai 5785Marisa Amith2025-05-19T12:57:45-04:00

14 05, 2025

Parashat Emor – 5785

Marisa Amith2025-05-14T15:39:06-04:00

A D’var Torah for Parashat Emor

By Rabbi Gerry L. Ginsburg

There is a paradox in the commandment to light the Menorah in the mishkan, the portable sanctuary in the wilderness which appears in Parashat Emor. The flames of the Menorah were not there to give off light.

The mishkan was fully constructed and operational, the first korbanot, sacrifices, were already completed favorably, when the commandment comes to tell the Levites, specifically Aaron, to light the Menorah daily. The light of the Menorah will emanate from pure, clear olive oil, unlike that used for any other function.

God talked to Moses about lighting the Menorah and specifically directed Aaron to supervise.

צַ֞ו אֶת־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל וְיִקְח֨וּ אֵלֶ֜יךָ שֶׁ֣מֶן זַ֥יִת זָ֛ךְ כָּתִ֖ית לַמָּא֑וֹר לְהַעֲלֹ֥ת נֵ֖ר תָּמִֽיד׃

Command the Israelite people to bring you clear oil of beaten olives for lighting, for kindling lamps regularly. (Lev. 24:2)

But this oil was not for any candelabrum, it was specifically for the Menorah crafted out of one piece of Read More >

Parashat Emor – 5785Marisa Amith2025-05-14T15:39:06-04:00

5 05, 2025

Parshiyot Aharei Mot – Kedoshim – 5785

Marisa Amith2025-05-05T13:24:24-04:00

May the Force Be with You

A D’var Torah for Parshiyot Aharei Mot – Kedoshim

By Rabbi Enid C. Lader (AJR ’10)

“The Eternal One spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the whole Israelite community and say to them – You shall be holy, for I, the Eternal your God, am holy.” (Lev. 19:1-2)

How would you define “holy”?

What does it mean to “BE holy”?

These are questions I asked Gavriel as we prepared for his becoming a bar mitzvah last year. Upon hearing my questions, he looked at me with a blank expression, but I could tell that he was thinking… and thinking… and hesitantly answered, “Religious?”

Years ago, I had learned about and then taught other Jewish educators and teachers about Interactive Family Homework; this seemed like the perfect opportunity for Gavriel to include his grandparents in an important part of his bar mitzvah preparations. I asked Read More >

Parshiyot Aharei Mot – Kedoshim – 5785Marisa Amith2025-05-05T13:24:24-04:00

29 04, 2025

Parshiyot Tazria-Mezorah – 5785

Marisa Amith2025-04-29T13:29:07-04:00

See Me

A D’var Torah for Parshiyot Tazria-Mezorah

By Rabbi Greg Schindler (AJR ’09)

“See Me

Feel Me

Touch Me

Heal Me”

“See Me, Feel Me” (The Who)

There was once a fellow who was so forgetful that, when he got up in the morning, he could not remember where he had put his clothes. One evening he had a great idea: He took a pencil and paper and wrote down exactly where he placed each item of clothing. He placed the note on his nightstand and fell asleep.

The next morning, he saw the note and read off each item in turn. “Pants – on chair”. And there they were. “Shirt – on bed post.” There was his shirt. “Hat – on hook behind door.” And there it was.

Suddenly, a worried expression crossed his face.

“Yes,” he said, “Here are my pants and my shirt and my hat … but where am I?”

He looked and looked, but could not find himself anywhere.

Woe to the young person called upon to Read More >

Parshiyot Tazria-Mezorah – 5785Marisa Amith2025-04-29T13:29:07-04:00

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

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

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