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Dvar Torah
Click HERE for an audio recording of this D'var Torah Of Bread and Potential A D'var Toraj for Parashat Eikev By Rabbi Katy Allen ('05) The grass dries out in the heat– it’s brown now. Flowering plants, and even shrubs, are wilting, their leaves dull and stiff, the bright blue of the sky day after day broken Read More >
Dvar Torah
How Do you Make a Well or a Ram Disappear? By Rabbi Rob Scheinberg Twenty years ago, two experimental psychologists at Harvard, named Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons, created what has become one of the most famous experiments in the behavioral sciences. The participants in this study were given a simple task. They just had to watch a brief video that included several people passing basketballs back and forth to each other. Three of these players were wearing white shirts, and three were wearing black shirts. The task was simple: watch the ball that was being passed among the players with the white shirts, and count how many times the basketball was passed. This is not difficult – most people came up with the right number.
Dvar Torah
By Rabbi David Greenstein Our Torah reading begins with the death of our matriarch, Sarah. Abraham comes 'to eulogize Sarah and to cry over her.' (Gen. 23:2) The order of the verbs in this verse is noteworthy. One might have expected that Abraham's first reaction would be to cry, while only afterwards would he go Read More >
Dvar Torah
By Rabbi H. Raphael Goldtsein I did not have a clue as to what the Torah portion was about on the day of my Bar Mitzvah. I was shocked when Rabbi Joachim Prinz told me about a guy named Korah who rebelled against Moses. I had been a particularly troublesome Read More >
Dvar Torah
By Rabbi H. Rafael Goldstein In the middle of all the kvetching in the Book of the Wilderness, Bemidbar, we have a king who commissions a special curse for the people of Israel, and ends up paying to bless them. We have a talking donkey, working for a guy who is supposed to be a Read More >
Dvar Torah
By Rabbi Raphael Goldstein A few months ago, we studied the three distinct Creation stories in the Bible “ the story of the seven days of creation, the story of Adam and Eve, and the Noah story. Jewish tradition has always looked at these stories with the understanding that they are about theology, not science Read More >
Dvar Torah
Sinai and the Chariot: Two Guided Visualizations for Shavuot Rabbi Jill Hammer Both the revelation at Sinai and the revelation of Ezekiel represent profound moments in the history of connection between human being and the Divine. The two visualizations below are meditations on these two revelations. They are based on the Torah reading and haftarah for Read More >
Dvar Torah
The Art of Grounding by Rabbi Jill Hammer Recently, I've begun the practice of making sure I put my bare feet on the ground at least once a day. I find time to go into the park and touch the grass, soil, stones, tree roots with feet that are accustomed to wear socks and shoes. Read More >
Dvar Torah
by Cantor Sandy Horowitz Ancestors. We begin praying the Amidah by invoking them: as we acknowledge the presence of God, we do so by stating that this is also the God of our patriarchs. In recent times, more liberal streams of Judaism added the matriarchs; as a woman it is comforting to read the names of Read More >
Dvar Torah
Miriam the Healer Rabbi Jill Hammer As we approach the seventh day of Pesach, when we read the narrative of crossing of the Sea, I am thinking of the prophetess Miriam, who dances and sings to celebrate the crossing and the victory of YHWH. At my own seder, I have long had a cup of Read More >